News

A remake of the 1956 science fiction feature “Forbidden Planet”, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” continues in development at Warners, with a fresh screenplay by writer Brian K. Vaughan:

‘…in the original ‘Forbidden Planet’ feature, directed by Fred M. Wilcox, starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen…

“… a spacecraft travels to the distant planet ‘Altair IV’ to discover the fate of a group of scientists sent there decades earlier.

“When ‘Commander John J. Adams’ (Nielsen) and his crew arrive, they discover only two people: ‘Dr. Morbius’ ( Pidgeon)…

‘…and his daughter, ‘Altaira’ (Francis), who was born on the remote planet.

“Soon, Adams begins to uncover the mystery of what happened on Altair IV, and why Morbius and Altaira are the sole survivors…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

A remake of the 1956 science fiction feature “Forbidden Planet”, an adaptation of Shakespear’s “The Tempest” is in development at Warner Bros., with a screenplay by writer Brian K. Vaughan:

‘…in the original ‘Forbidden Planet’ feature, directed by Fred M. Wilcox, starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen…

“… a spacecraft travels to the distant planet ‘Altair IV’ to discover the fate of a group of scientists sent there decades earlier.

“When ‘Commander John J. Adams’ (Nielsen) and his crew arrive, they discover only two people: ‘Dr. Morbius’ ( Pidgeon)…

‘…and his daughter, ‘Altaira’ (Francis), who was born on the remote planet.

“Soon, Adams begins to uncover the mystery of what happened on Altair IV, and why Morbius and Altaira are the sole survivors…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Mrs. Miniverwas a sensation when it was released in 1942, providing a patriotic tonic to a nation that had just entered the Second World War. The highest-grossing film of its year, it earned 12 Academy Award nominations and won six, including Best Picture, spawned a sequel, and turned its stars Greer Garson (who won Best Actress) and Walter Pidgeon into a bonafide box-office duo that rivaled Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Yet how many people talk about it today, aside from citing it (unfairly) as an example of Oscar bait? Those willing to rediscover it might be surprised to find that it's far from sentimental awards fodder, but rather a somber look at the human cost of war.

A Complete Unknown North America Box Office: 3rd Monday Update ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

The Timothee Chalamet, Edward Norton, and Elle Fanning starrer A Complete Unknown has not only been praised by the critics but is also performing well at the box office. As we write this article, it is beating the 1968 biographical musical film Funny Girl and 1984’s Amadeus. Keep scrolling for the deets.

The 1968 film by William Wyler was written by Isobel Lennart adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same name. It was loosely based on the life and career of comedienne Fanny Brice and her turbulent relationship with entrepreneur and gambler. The movie featured Barbra Streisand as Brice and Oman Sharif as Arnstein. The supporting cast included Kay Medford, Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Allen, and Mae Questel.

Based on Box Office Mojo’s data, Barbra Streisand’s Funny Girl collected $52.22 million in its...

His career spanned more than five decades, and his influence on movie-making remains unparalleled. Still, even the biggest movie lovers may not know his name, John Ford. Often associated with Westerns, Ford made movies across genres, pushing the envelope at every turn. His efforts garnered him four Academy Awards for Best Director, a record that remains in place more than 50 years after his death.

Ford started making movies during the era of silent films but moved to Westerns during the 1930s. Notoriously harsh with his actors, Ford collaborated with greats like John Wayne, Henry Ford, and Maureen O'Hara on several occasions. He made several movies with Wayne, including Stagecoach and The Searchers, often regarded as two of the most influential films in cinematic history.

John Ford's Career Started His Career In Hollywood As An Actor

John Ford wasn't the only member of his family who moved to Hollywood from their family home in Maine.

Western legends John Wayne and Roy Rogers only made one movie together with a 1940 Civil War classic called Dark Command. Wayne is one of the most famous Western stars of the 20th century and is largely responsible for shaping the genre in American film industry and beyond. Wayne starred in several groundbreaking Western movies including John Ford's breakthrough hits Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956).

While Wayne's legacy speaks for itself, Roy Rogers was also a pivotal figure in the Western genre as well. Often dubbed the "King of the Cowboys", Rogers became an icon of Western mysticism and entertainment as an actor, singer, television host, and rodeo performer. Although Wayne and Rogers represent different aspects of the Western genre, they were bound to both appear in the same Western film at some point. This ended up being Dark Command, which is more of a classic war romance drama but still has Western elements,...

If there’s one thing that 1938's Too Hot to Handle expertly proves, it’s that Clark Gable was never one to phone things in. One year before his iconic performance as Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, Gable starred in the classic adventure-comedy that took viewers into the cutthroat world of sensational journalism, complete with high-stakes action, comedy, and a dash of romance. The film brought together Gable’s character, Chris Hunter, and Myrna Loy’s Alma Harding, a photojournalist and thrill-seeking pilot respectively. To amp up the drama Walter Pidgeon plays William. O “Bill” Dennis, Gable’s quick-witted rival whose tongue is as sharp as his wit.

Although not the revered classic that Citizen Kane is, How Green Was My Valley beat out the Orson Welles film to achieve the highest honor in the filmmaking business. Along with Casablanca, Citizen Kane is widely regarded as one of the two biggest contenders for the title of the greatest movie of all time. But of those two, only one - Casablanca - actually received the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Like Casablanca would a year later in 1943, Citizen Kane earned a multitude of nominations at the 14th Academy Awards. However, its only win was Best Original Screenplay, which went to Herman J. Mankiewicz. It lost on multiple fronts, with one movie in particular being the biggest reason for Citizen Kane coming up short. Legendary director John Ford, a filmmaker whose legacy is intertwined with John Wayne's, managed to top Citizen Kane with a film he made in-between Ford's collaborations with Wayne.

The Screen Actors Guild has been presenting its annual life achievement award for many decades. The most recent recipient for 2025 was double Oscar winner Jane Fonda.

For the 2023 event, Sally Field was the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro, Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple, Barbra Streisand, and more.

SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark on both the big screen and small in 1962. It wasn...

Eight years before Barbra Streisand appeared in the 1976 version of A Star Is Born, she dazzled audiences in William Wyler’s Funny Girl with an awe-inspiring performance of intense vulnerability and carefully modulated broad humor that announced to the world that she was, much like her character, Fanny Brice, born to be a star. Released in 1968, several years after the death knell of the classic musical had been rung, Funny Girl endures—unlike other bloated, big budget musicals of the era like Camelot, Hello Dolly!, and Oliver!—precisely because of the strength of Streisand’s magnetic performance.

Whether flailing around on roller skates across the stage or triumphantly belting out “Don’t Rain on My Parade” as she recklessly flees her starring gig at the Ziegfeld Follies to meet her lover, Nick (Omar Sharif), Streisand’s Fanny is a woman possessed with ungodly charisma and talent. It was Brice’s singularly sly,...

A new remake of 1956’s sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet is officially in the works at Warner Bros. Read more about those plans below.

A new version of Forbidden Planet, Fred M. Wilcox’s 1956 sci-fi film, is in the works at Warner Bros, Deadline has revealed.

The film is set to be written by Brian K. Vaughan, a TV and comic-book writer who has penned several episodes of Lost as well as comic-books such as Y: The Last Man, Ex_Machina and Marvel’s Runaways. Emma Watts is in the producer’s chair and has previously worked on sci-fi films such as Avatar, Alita: Battle Angel and I, Robot.

The original film, which starred Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen, followed the crew of a starship who set out to find out what happened to a previous expedition on the planet Altair IV. Once they get there, they discover only two survivors...

A remake of the 1956 science fiction feature “Forbidden Planet”, an adaptation of Shakespear’s “The Tempest” is in development at Warner Bros., with a screenplay by writer Brian K. Vaughan:

‘…in the original ‘Forbidden Planet’ feature, directed by Fred M. Wilcox, starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen…

“… a spacecraft travels to the distant planet ‘Altair IV’ to discover the fate of a group of scientists sent there decades earlier.

“When ‘Commander John J. Adams’ (Nielsen) and his crew arrive, they discover only two people: ‘Dr. Morbius’ ( Pidgeon)…

‘…and his daughter, ‘Altaira’ (Francis), who was born on the remote planet.

“Soon, Adams begins to uncover the mystery of what happened on Altair IV, and why Morbius and Altaira are the sole survivors…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Y: The Last Man creator Brian K. Vaughan is set to write a remake of the iconic sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. Released in 1956, Forbidden Planet is an unofficial, loose sci-fi reimagining of William Shakespeare's The Tempest. The story follows the crew of the starship C-57D as they arrive at the distant planet Altair IV to solve the mystery of what happened to a 20-year-old missing starship, which leads them to uncover a mystery involving a relic from a long-perished race.

Nearly 70 years later, a remake of Forbidden Planet is finally happening. Deadline reports that Brain K. Vaughan, best known as the creator of the critically acclaimed comic series Y: The Last Man, is writing a script for the Forbidden Planet remake at Warner Bros. Vaughan has contributed to many television shows, including Lost, Under the Dome, and The Runaways, which was based on his own Marvel comic. Emma Watts,...

One of all time classics of the science fiction genre, 1956’s Forbidden Planet is getting a modern day update from Warner Bros., Deadline has exclusively reported this week.

Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man) is writing the screenplay, with Emma Watts producing.

Deadline’s report details, “For its forward-thinking themes, the film is considered a north star for science fiction writing and cinema that came after it. It has never had a big-screen remake — though James Cameron reportedly once considered it — partly because the rights were complicated and difficult to untangle.

“The studio and Watts finally got that major obstacle out of the way,” Deadline continues. “The former studio chief Watts has leaned into producing the big ambitious tentpoles she shepherded from the executive suites, and this has the makings to be one of those.”

In the original movie from director Fred M. Wilcox, “A starship crew in the...

Forbidden Planet is now getting a reboot decades after its release. Forbidden Planet was a originally a 1956 space adventure film about a group of people in 23rd century who go to investigate a colony of people living on a distant planet. Loosely inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest, Forbidden Planet's script was written by Cyril Hume. The film was directed by Fred M. Wilcox and featured a leading cast including Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Jack Kelly, Richard Anderson, and Warren Stevens.

As per Deadline, a reboot of Forbidden Planet is now in the works. The film is being developed by Warner Bros. and it will be produced by Emma Watts. The screenwriter for the project will be Brian K. Vaughan. The cast and character details for the Forbidden Planet are yet to be revealed. Additionally, the extent to which the reboot will follow the original's plot is unknown.

Back in 1956, director Fred M. Wilcox and writers Cyril Hume, Irving Block, and Allen Adler brought the world one of the most popular science fiction films ever made, Forbidden Planet, which earned an Oscar nomination for its special effects and, in 2013, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, as the film is regarded as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Of course, there have been rumblings of a remake for a long time. Fifteen years ago, there was even some talk about James Cameron directing the remake, and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski was working on the screenplay. That take on the concept never made it into production, but now Deadline reports that Hugo and Eisner Award-winning comic book writer and screenwriter Brian K. Vaughan, who created the comics Y: The Last Man and Runaways and worked on the TV...

Exclusive: Warner Bros has made a deal to mount a new version of the 1956 science fiction classic Forbidden Planet. The film will be written by comic book and screenwriter Brian K. Vaughan, and it will be produced by Emma Watts.

For its forward-thinking themes, the film is considered a north star for science fiction writing and cinema that came after it. It has never had a big-screen remake — though James Cameron reportedly once considered it — partly because the rights were complicated and difficult to untangle. The studio and Watts finally got that major obstacle out of the way. The former studio chief Watts has leaned into producing the big ambitious tentpoles she shepherded from the executive suites, and this has the makings to be one of those.

Loosely based on Shakepeare’s The Tempest, Forbidden Planet is set in the 23rd century, where the starship C-57D arrives at the...

Screenwriter J Michael Straczynski says that the combination of Avatar and a “miffed” studio led to the shelving of a new, James Cameron-directed Forbidden Planet sci-fi movie.

Perhaps best known for his work on TV’s Babylon 5 and Clint Eastwood’s drama Changeling, screenwriter J Michael Straczynski was once assigned to write the script for a new take on the 1956 classic, Forbidden Planet.

In the works at Warner Bros in the late 2010s, the new Forbidden Planet was being overseen by Lethal Weapon and The Matrix producer Joel Silver – though little official word ever emerged, and discussion about the film appeared to cease entirely around the year 2009. In a revealing series of posts on Twitter/X, however, Straczynski has provided what might be a new insight into the production, and writes that James Cameron was once in line to direct – a detail that, to the best of this writer’s knowledge,...

The Toronto International Film Festival reserves its opening weekend for world premieres — as in, films that did not previously screen at Sundance, Cannes, Venice or Telluride. Unfortunately for the fest, it seems like most of this season’s movies with serious awards prospects opted not to wait. Cases-in-point: two films that debuted in prime slots on Friday night, Unstoppable (5:30 p.m. at Roy Thomson Hall) and We Live in Time (9:30 p.m. at the Princess of Wales Theatre). Both are very engaging and moving, but also have very narrow awards paths moving forward.

Unstoppable, the directorial debut of the Oscar-winning film editor William Goldenberg (2012’s Argo), recounts the real story of Anthony Robles, who was born with one leg and into a broken home but nevertheless manages to become a world-class college wrestler. Jharrel Jerome, a gifted Emmy winner for When They See Us, does a particularly fine job playing Robles,...

On July 23, 1937, MGM unveiled in theaters Saratoga, a star vehicle for Jean Harlow, who had died suddenly weeks earlier. Additional shooting was needed to complete the film, which featured the actress alongside Clark Gable. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review, headlined “‘Saratoga’ Warmly Greeted … Jean Harlow’s Last Earns High Praise,” is below:

Jean Harlow’s last picture, Saratoga, cannot be reviewed unemotionally. It can only be reported.

Audience reception at a preview last evening in Glendale was unmistakably enthusiastic. Possibly surprised, but never shocked by the fact that the story is a riotous comedy, each time Miss Harlow’s name appeared on the screen and upon the occasion of her first entrance the house rocked with applause. It was more than cursory hand-clapping. The final hand was in honest appreciation of an honestly entertaining offering, splendidly performed, written and directed.

The production by Bernard H. Hyman, with John Emerson as associate producer,...

Fred M. Wilcox's 1956 sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet" was a notably opulent affair, at least as sci-fi films go. Its budget at the time was only $1.96 million (which shakes out to about $22 million today) comparatively small to the historical epics Hollywood was overspending on at the time; "The Ten Commandments," for instance, cost a whopping $13 million, while 1956's Best Picture winner, "Around the World in 80 Days" cost about $6 million. "Forbidden Planet" was a production on par with 1953's "War of the Worlds," a colorful, large-scale production infused with fantastical spacecraft and weird robots. Robby (voiced by Marvin Miller), the robot featured in "Forbidden Planet," reportedly cost $125,000 to make — about a million in today's dollars.

The production designer on the film was Arthur Lonergan, the Oscar winner behind "The Oscar." Prior to "Forbidden Planet," Lonergan had an extensive career working on shows like "Mr. & Mrs. North," and on low-profile films like "Black Beauty,...

The studio once known as 20th Century Fox is a younger entity than the other major Hollywood Studios. It was founded in 1935 out of the ashes of Fox Film, compared to Warner Bros (1923), Universal Pictures (1912), Paramount Pictures (1912), Columbia Pictures (1923), and Disney (1923) — the latter being the new parent company of 20th Century Studios.

Still, Fox waited only seven years to take home the top prize at the Oscars. At the 14th Academy Awards, held in 1942, Fox's film "How Green Was My Valley" won Best Picture, presented to Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck. That wasn't the only prize "Valley" won that night: it also got Best Director (John Ford), Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Arthur Miller), and finally Best Art Direction -- Interior Decoration, Black-and-White.

One of the films that "Valley" beat that night was "Citizen Kane" (which got only Best Original Screenplay for director Orson Welles and his co-writer Herman J.

MGM celebrated its centennial on April 17th. Marcus Lowe established the studio by merging Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. Boasting it had “more stars than there are in heaven,” MGM may have been the biggest studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood, it has gone through many owners and regimes over the years but seems to on terra firma since Amazon acquired MGM in 2021. In fact, Amazon MGM Studios won best screenplay Oscar for “American Fiction.” And speaking of Academy Awards, MGM has earned numerous statuettes over the years. Here’s a look at five Best Picture winners produced between 1929-1958.

“The Broadway Melody”

The 1929 musical made Oscar history by being the first talkie to win the top prize. Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed wrote the songs which include “The Broadway Melody,” “You Were Meant for Me” and “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” but...

Hollywood has a long track record of remaking some of its greatest and most treasured films. From thrillers made in the 1940s to science fiction films of the '60s, many fans of classic movies have been lucky -- or unlucky -- enough to see their favorite stories get brought into the modern age. Throughout this time, however, many movies that could use a modern update continue to be overlooked.

When it comes to remaking a movie, there are several criteria that can be explored to see if a film should get adapted for a younger audience. From a lack of technology at the time the film was made to those types of stories being absent from modern Hollywood, many films have earned a second look. For some of these films, a remake could save a franchise from hitting a wall, while others could make forgotten stories relevant again.

Waterworld...

SAG-AFTRA has bought an office building in the San Fernando Valley for $46.6 million that will serve as its new national headquarters. Located at 12020 Chandler Blvd. in North Hollywood, the property features more than 118,000 square feet of commercial office space and includes the building on 1.22 acres and a nearby 0.71-acre vacant lot.

Up until now, SAG-AFTRA has been the only major Hollywood union that didn’t own its own headquarters. The old Screen Actors Guild – and now SAG-AFTRA – hadn’t owned their own national offices for 37 years and have been leasing at two different locations since 1986.

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said that “As National President, I began to investigate ways to diversify our investment portfolio and was surprised to learn we were the only entertainment industry union to not own our own headquarters versus paying large rents. After multiple sessions with my Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and CFO Arianna Ozzanto, it...

On 4 March 1943, Greer Garson stepped behind a lectern at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Garson, 38, was accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work inMrs Miniver, a romantic war drama directed by William Wyle. She was only the 15th actor in the history of Hollywood to take home the trophy. That was an achievement in itself, but Garson made history in another, more unexpected way that night.

Her acceptance speech remains, to this day, the longest in the history of the Academy Awards. While today’s winners are asked to keep to 45 seconds, Garson spoke for a comparatively generous seven minutes.

The speech, sadly, wasn’t preserved in full. Even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which organises the Oscars each year, says it has newsreel footage of “only portions” of Garson’s address – for a total of three minutes and 56 seconds.

On 4 March 1943, Greer Garson stepped behind a lectern at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Garson, 38, was accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work inMrs Miniver, a romantic war drama directed by William Wyle. She was only the 15th actor in the history of Hollywood to take home the trophy. That was an achievement in itself, but Garson made history in another, more unexpected way that night.

Her acceptance speech remains, to this day, the longest in the history of the Academy Awards. While today’s winners are asked to keep to 45 seconds, Garson spoke for a comparatively generous seven minutes.

The speech, sadly, wasn’t preserved in full. Even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which organises the Oscars each year, says it has newsreel footage of “only portions” of Garson’s address – for a total of three minutes and 56 seconds.

When it comes to classic movie stars from Hollywood's golden age in the '40s and '50s, few cast a shadow larger than John Wayne. In a five-decades-long career, Wayne became an iconic western hero -- landing close to 200 performances in film and television. Wayne is one of those rare movie cowboys whose work has lived on past the genre's peak popularity -- making Wayne himself one of the most enduringly rugged stars in history.

Though we've already covered the greatest films in Wayne's career, there are scores of films viewers haven't seen. From bringing the American war effort to the silver screen at the height of World War II to dramatic turns that expanded Wayne's range, Wayne has shown a surprising amount of acting skill. Here we'll explore the underrated movies across Wayne's filmography. Some titles were overshadowed by his more high-profile work whereas others have endured the...

This mid-60s detective story has the right ingredients — a good mystery and interesting characters. David Jannsen gets to play a ‘Bosch’- style lone wolf investigator given a public thrashing for a ‘mistake’ that he knows was no mistake at all. Can a ‘bad cop’ redeem himself? The parade of mid-level guest stars — Stefanie Powers, Joan Collins, Lillian Gish, Steve Allen — may resemble a TV movie, but the tense show has a good feel for Los Angeles and the new swingin’ singles lifestyle. It might be Buzz Kulik’s best job of direction, and it has a great music score by Jerry Goldsmith.

Warning Shot

Region Free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] #177

1967 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date October 26, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 39.95

Starring: David Janssen, Ed Begley, Stefanie Powers, George Grizzard, Keenan Wynn, Joan Collins, Lillian Gish, Eleanor Parker, Sam Wanamaker, George Sanders, Steve Allen, Carroll O’Connor, Walter Pidgeon.

Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc...

Click here to read the full article.

Burt Metcalfe, the onetime actor from Canada who served as a producer, director and writer on all 11 seasons of M*A*S*H, collecting 13 Emmy nominations along the way, has died. He was 87.

One of the show’s unsung heroes, Metcalfe died Wednesday in Los Angeles of natural causes, his wife of 43 years, actress Jan Jorden announced. (She had a recurring role as Nurse Baker on the series.)

Before he gave up full-time acting to work on the other side of the camera, Metcalfe played the surfer Lord Byron opposite Sandra Dee and James Darren in Gidget (1959), appeared on the first season of The Twilight Zone and starred on the 1961-62 CBS sitcom Father of the Bride.

Metcalfe was a producer on all but five of M*A*S*H‘s 256 episodes from 1972-83 and its showrunner for its last six seasons. He...

Friday marks 100 years since the former child star’s birth. And, while she was never allowed to properly grow up on screen, her performances show range – and some standout songs

A very silly and frankly odd musical, although perhaps not quite odd enough to qualify for cult status. Judy Garland plays a girl called Pinkie who is worried about her widowed mother, played by Mary Astor – and believes she needs to get remarried to a nice man. So with her pal Buzz, she in effect kidnaps her bemused but indulgent mother in a trailer and tours around the country looking for a likely stepdad candidate – and hits on Walter Pidgeon. As so often, Garland steals it with a standout song, this one being Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart.

There’s a limited series based on Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella in the works from Jennifer Lopez‘s Nuyorican Productions, Skydance Television, and Concord Originals. The project is an original take on the musical to be written by Rachel Shukert who will also executive produce and serve as showrunner.

This marks the first project under the previously announced deal between the companies to develop a slate of original projects based on Concord’s vast catalog of musicals.

Lopez, along with partners Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina, will executive produce for Nuyorican Productions. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Bill Bost will executive produce for Skydance, alongside Sophia Dilley, Senior Vice President of Development and Production at Concord Originals, and Concord CEO Scott Pascucci.

“The story of Cinderella is as timeless now as ever,” said Bill Bost, President of Skydance Television. “This aspirational story of romance, unconventional families,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

"Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood" is an acclaimed 2017 documentary by director Matt Tyrnauer, that centers on one Scotty Bowers, who passed away in 2019 but who lived to see the release of the film, which chronicles his rather eyebrow-raising adventures in Tinseltown. Who was Scotty Bowers? To the average person, his name won't ring any bells unless they read his autobiography, "Full Service" which was considered to be a "must" among movie fans who relish stories about the sex lives of legendary actors, actresses and directors. The film opens with Bowers, then in his 90s but seemingly as fit as a fiddle, enthusiastically promoting his book at signing sessions where he engages with appreciative admirers. Just what made Bowers unique enough to merit a feature-length documentary? He was always open about his experiences in old Hollywood in terms of providing sexual favors for both men and women,...

Exclusive: Producer Sam Okun and his Sam Okun Productions banner have optioned worldwide film and TV remake and sequel rights to a pair of classic films directed and produced by three-time Oscar nominee Otto Preminger: 1959’s Anatomy of a Murder and 1962’s Advise & Consent.

The former courtroom drama based on Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker’s novel watched as an upstate Michigan lawyer defended a soldier who claimed he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. The drama starring James Stewart, Lee Remick and Ben Gazzara landed seven Academy Award nominations upon its release, including Best Picture, Screenplay and Actor.

Advise & Consent was a political thriller based on Allen Drury’s 1959 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, in which the polarizing search for a new Secretary of State had far-reaching consequences. Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford,...

” His work is beginning to interfere with his drinking.”

Janet Gaynor and Frederick March in A Star Is Born (1937)-Restored Edition will be available on Blu-ray March 29th from Warner Archive. It can be ordered at the Warner Archive store Here

Producer David O. Selznick turned his attention to Hollywood with this 1937 original classic directed by William A. Wellman. Its Academy Award-winning screenplay co-written by Dorothy Parker tells the story of hopeful, young would-be actress Esther Blodgett (Academy Award winner Janet Gaynor) whose career is launched by movie star Norman Maine (Academy Award winner Fredric March), who also wins the young actress’ heart. Esther becomes leading lady Vicki Lester and Mrs. Norman Maine, but as Maine’s career flounders, he sinks into an abyss of alcoholism. Esther chooses to sacrifice her stardom to care for her husband, but he will not allow Esther to abandon her dreams for him. Remade three times in years ahead,...

After skipping the virtual ceremony in 2021, the Screen Actors Guild once again presents its annual life achievement award in 2022. Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner Dame Helen Mirren receives the honorary SAG trophy.

For the 2020 event, Robert De Niro was the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.

SEEHelen Mirren movies: 12 greatest films ranked from worst to best

SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark...

Actress Yvette Mimieux, who starred in movies including “Where the Boys Are,” “The Time Machine,” “Light in the Piazza,” “Toys in the Attic,” “Dark of the Sun” and “The Picasso Summer,” died Tuesday. She was 80.

The beautiful blonde Mimieux made most of her films in the 1960s, but she was also among the stars of Disney’s 1979 sci-fi film “The Black Hole.”

Among the films Mimieux made in 1960 were MGM’s glossy teen movie “Where the Boys Are,” in which four coeds including Mimieux’s Melanie head to Fort Lauderdale for spring break in search of fun and the “right” boy, and George Pal’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine,” starring Rod Taylor and with Mimieux third billed as Weena, Taylor’s romantic interest, who lives among the Eloi, a peaceful race living in the year 802,701.

In 1962 she appeared in four films, including the big-budget critical and...

SAG-AFTRA’s unclaimed residuals fund has grown to roughly $76 million – up 60% from $48 million six years ago. According to the union, the fund now contains 124,000 separate accounts for members and others, living and dead, that it can’t locate. That’s up from 96,000 accounts in 2016.

“The funds may be unclaimed for a variety of reasons including a bad address or as a result of mail returned for other reasons; unresolved estate issues, or the funds may be in trust for an inactive or dissolved loan out corporation,” a spokesperson for the union said. “Most often, residuals may be waiting for a recipient or their agent to formalize a change of address or submit the appropriate paperwork to claim the funds. The union uses a number of tools to locate and get money to those individuals due unclaimed residuals including mail, email and telephone outreach to last known address and telephone number,...

Jane Powell, who starred as an angelically visaged young actress in a number of MGM musicals including “Royal Wedding” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” during the 1940s and 1950s, has died of natural causes. She was 92 years old.

The blonde, blue-eyed Powell usually played characters with a gentle mischievous streak in her musical comedies, but she would shatter the light-hearted atmosphere of her films when she sang: A surprisingly powerful coloratura would emerge from the diminutive (5-feet-1) thesp.

Her producer and mentor was MGM’s Joe Pasternak, who had earlier developed the talents of Deanna Durbin at Universal.

Auditioning for Louis B. Mayer and for David O. Selznick, she quickly drew a seven-year contract with MGM in 1943. Her first film, on loan-out, was 1944 musical “Song of the Open Road,” in which the actress played a child film star who runs away. She took her character’s name, Jane Powell,...

If crises continue to mount and late-summer box office fails to catch a second wind, Hollywood might have to revisit one of its few remaining sure things: a good dog movie.

Sure, Netflix and Amazon always have vintage canine classics on the shelf to stream, from Benji to Lassie, but a new weepie is also needed in the plexes — one to ease public tensions.

Further, those of us who’ve adopted a best friend to cope with the pandemic now are going back to work or to school. Or simply facing the fact that a best friend is more than we can handle, and so are the vet bills.

Given all this, exhibitors might wonder whether the cast of The Suicide Squad shouldn’t have featured canine stars like Hachi, Marley or even Scooby-Doo rather than live actors cast as Bloodsport, Ratcatcher or Sylvester Stallone’s King Shark.

The pooches...

SAG-AFTRA is the only major Hollywood union that doesn’t own its own headquarters, and that’s become a topic of heated debate between its warring factions in the union’s ongoing election of national and local officers. SAG – and now SAG-AFTRA – hasn’t owned its own national offices for 35 years, leasing at two different locations since 1986.

Both sides think they should buy one sooner or later. The opposition MembershipFirst candidates, led by Matthew Modine and Joely Fisher, want to do it sooner, and blast the current leadership for recently signing a new long term lease for the union’s headquarters on the Miracle Mile.

“For years, a staggering $6 million per year has been spent on renting our SAG-AFTRA offices in Los Angeles,” MembershipFirst says in its campaign platform. “Many more millions of dollars are squandered annually on office rents around the country. In fact, money has even been wasted...

Exclusive: SAG-AFTRA won’t be handing out a SAG Life Achievement Award this year for the first time in 40 years. It’s not that no one was deserving – this year of all years – but because of the pandemic and a shortened TV timeslot for its awards show, the union decided that it would be better to skip a year and present the award live and in-person next year.

Going into this awards season, SAG-AFTRA had planned for its 27th annual SAG Awards to be a two-hour show, as it had been in years past. The home page for the Screen Actors Guild Awards noted initially that it would be a “fast moving two-hour show.” This year’s pre-taped, one-hour show, featuring 13 awards presentations, will air April 4 on TNT and TBS.

The SAG Life Achievement Award is the union’s most prestigious honor, presented for “outstanding achievement in fostering...

The Kiss Before the Mirror

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1933 / 1.33:1 / 69 min.

Starring Nancy Carroll, Frank Morgan, Gloria Stuart

Cinematography by Karl Freund

Directed by James Whale

James Whale’s The Kiss Before the Mirror opens on familiar terrain for the director of Frankenstein—a moon-lit backroad littered with crooked trees and clutching branches. A figure tip-toes out of the darkness toward her destination—not a mad scientist’s castle but a swanky post-modern bungalow where her lover waits. The woman catches the moonlight quite well, thank you—she’s played by an incandescent Gloria Stuart and she has just escaped her husband for a rendezvous with a self-impressed roué played by the blankly handsome Walter Pidgeon. The two engage in pre-sex small talk that is so coy, so ear-grating, that it’s clear Whale is preparing them (and the audience) for some awful comeuppance.

Produced in 1933, The Kiss Before the...

In his post-Call Me by Your Name career, Luca Guadagnino seems keen to do the unexpected. After remaking Dario Argento’s Suspiria, he became attached to a Coens-scripted Scarface reboot, co-wrote and directed an 8-hour HBO series, helmed a Venice-bound documentary about a famous shoemaker featuring Martin Scorsese, and now, he’s uniting with a famous comedic duo for a Hollywood biopic about a legendary hustler.

Deadline reports the Italian director has come aboard a narrative version of Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, scripted by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Set up at Searchlight Pictures, the biopic will follow Scotty Bowers, the bisexual Hollywood pimp who worked for numerous major stars from the 1940s through the 1980s, including Rock Hudson, Katherine Hepburn, and Bette Davis. He also claimed he slept with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who dressed in drag during their sexual escapades.

Banish the dull images of test tubes and musty lecture halls when considering Radioactive (available on Amazon Prime starting July 24th). The biopic traces the career trajectory of Madame Marie Curie (a magnificent Rosamund Pike), the Polish immigrant born Maria Salomea Skłodowska who became the first person — and the only woman — to win two Nobel prizes. She shared the first in 1903, for discovering radium and polonium (named after her native country), with her French husband and fellow physicist Pierre Curie (Sam Riley). And the historical drama would be a dutiful thing,...

Caution: This story contains mild spoilers for the first episode of “Hollywood.”

Ryan Murphy’s limited series “Hollywood” is a mixture of fiction and fact, with its fictional characters set against actual events and people in the movie industry during the years after World War II. And because of the way the Netflix limited series approaches its story, it can be tricky to tell the truth from the fantasy, particularly since the whole idea of “Hollywood” is to tell a story of what could have been, not what was.

But that alternative history uses real history as a jumping-off point, so viewers are bound to wonder about some of the events and settings depicted in the miniseries — particularly the first few episodes, before the story veers into obvious invention.

One of the prime settings for the series is a Hollywood gas station run by a suave operator named Ernie West...

Hollywood, Ryan Murphy’s jaunty fantasy of 1940s Tinseltown, is a reimagining of film history featuring both real-world and fictional silver-screen luminaries. And according to many of the critics who’ve reviewed it thus far, it leans more heavily toward fiction, arguably whitewashing history in a problematic fashion.

The gas station sex ring run by the debonair pimp Ernie (Dylan McDermott), however, is not a product of the Hollywood imagination. It’s fully based in fact — or at least, one longtime Hollywood man-about-town’s version of it. Ernie is partly based on Scotty Bowers,...

Two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro is the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award at this weekend’s 2020 ceremony. While not nominated individually, he is also competing for the top film ensemble prize as part of “The Irishman” cast alongside Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Anna Paquin, Ray Romano and more.

SEE2020 SAG Awards nominations: Full list of Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees

Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.

SEEAlan Alda Interview: ‘Marriage Story’

SAG began handing...

“Marriage Story” looks like the only Oscar contender this season with a plausible shot at earning nominations in all four acting races, in large part because it’s one of the few films in the conversation with male and female co-leads. Only 15 other movies have accomplished that feat, which would make “Marriage” the 16th. But it’s even more impressive when you consider that it has only happened twice in the last 37 years.

According to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users, “Marriage Story” is a reasonably safe bet for Best Actress (Scarlett Johansson as an actress filing for divorce), Best Actor (Adam Driver as her husband fighting to retain custody of their son) and Best Supporting Actress (Laura Dern as Johansson’s lawyer). That leaves Best Supporting Actor, where Alan Alda is a contender for playing Driver’s kindly but out-of-his-depth attorney, but he’s an underdog according to...

“Don’t worry. Some of the best movies are made by people working together who hate each other’s guts.”

Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas in The Bad And The Beautiful (1952) is available on Blu-ray from Warner Archives. It can be ordered Here

Appearances are everything in Hollywood. So when conniving moviemaker Jonathan Shields realizes few mourners will show up for the funeral of his equally conniving father, he knows what to do: hire extras. Kirk Douglas gives a magnetic, Oscar®-nominated performance as Shields, who turns talent, charisma and ruthlessness into film success, stomping on careers and creating enemies along the way. Vincente Minnelli directs this winner of five Academy Awards® that’s more than a compelling insider’s look at Tinseltown: It’s an opportunity for buffs to guess which real-life stars and moguls inspired the roles played by Douglas, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Best Supporting Actress Gloria Grahame and more.