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Writer-Director Robert Eggers is known for his dark, broody films such as Nosferatu, The Lighthouse and The Witch. Eggers specializes in history-driven horror, thriller and drama, and his next project should fit right in with his prior works of art.

Warner Bros. and Eggers are currently working on a proposed re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, which Eggers would both write and direct. A Christmas Carol has been remade many, many times, and this version would likely lean into the ghost story and horror elements of the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge.

The original novella was written in 1843 by Charles Dickens, who was reportedly inspired to write it after visiting the Field Lane Ragged School, which was inhabited by street children. Seeing the treatment of poor people, he began to wonder what would happen if a selfish, rich person were to experience redemption after being confronted by his...

Ex-Marine, former boxer, consummate ruffian, beloved character actor, and Academy Award nominee Burt Young has passed away, confirmed The New York Times. He was 83 years old. With a career spanning over five decades, Young's acting resume included over 160 roles, with memorable performances in films like "Chinatown," "Once Upon a Time in America," and "Back to School." Trained by the legendary Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York City, Young made a career playing Hollywood tough guys, street-smart cops, relatable working men, and as an Italian-American — of course — a mob boss.

However, it's his role as Rocky Balboa's brother-in-law and best friend Paulie Pennino in the "Rocky" film series that made him a household name and earned him the coveted Oscar nomination. The role allowed Young to not only shine as a complex, gifted performer but also bring his real-life experience as a professional boxer to the screen.

Actor Kevin Spacey is set to make his first speaking gig in five years with a masterclass at Italy’s National Museum of Cinema in Turin, where he will also receive a lifetime achievement award.

The two-time Oscar winner, who has held a low profile outside of court appearances since being accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, is scheduled to hold an onstage conversation on January 16, 2023, in the auditorium of Turin’s iconic Mole Antonelliana domed tower, which houses the film museum, reports Variety.

The masterclass, conducted by museum president Domenico De Gaetano, will be followed by a screening at the museum’s Cinema Massimo of a film from Spacey’s career that the actor will select and introduce.

Earlier this month, Spacey scored a legal victory when a New York jury found him not liable in a civil sexual abuse trial brought by fellow actor Anthony Rapp.

However, he still...

Kevin Spacey is set to make his first speaking gig in five years with a masterclass at Italy’s National Museum of Cinema in Turin, where he will also receive a lifetime achievement award.

The two-time Oscar winner, who has held a low profile outside of court appearances since being accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, is scheduled to hold an onstage conversation on Jan. 16, 2023, in the auditorium of Turin’s iconic Mole Antonelliana domed tower, which houses the film museum.

The masterclass, conducted by museum president Domenico De Gaetano, will be followed by a screening at the museum’s Cinema Massimo of a film from Spacey’s career that the actor will select and introduce.

Earlier this month, Spacey scored a legal victory when a New York jury found him not liable in a civil sexual abuse trial brought by fellow actor Anthony Rapp. However, he still faces charges in the U.

Now up for grabs in Region A, it’s the Robert Aldrich movie that wins over all that see it. The epitome of Men In Peril adventures, the tale of 14 random oil men marooned in the Sahara is brutal yet optimistic about human cooperation — please, the world needs more of that right now. James Stewart is at his best, stretching his hard-bitten loner persona and tapping into his flying experience. Also with an English-language-best performance from Hardy Krüger. The male group dynamics are absorbing and the suspense powerful — especially when seen cold. No spoilers here!

The Flight of the Phoenix

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1116

1965 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 142 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 22, 2022 / 39.95

Starring: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Krüger, Ernest Borgnine, Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser, Christian Marquand, Dan Duryea, George Kennedy, Gabriele Tinti, Alex Montoya, Peter Bravos, William Aldrich, Barrie Chase.

Cinematography: Joseph Biroc...

Maverick director Robert Aldrich’s one foray into grand-scale epic filmmaking is returned to crystal clarity in this fine import disc, a restoration from original Italian film elements. Stewart Granger’s Lot allies his Hebrew tribe with the notorious cities of evil, and almost loses his soul to Anouk Aimée’s wicked Queen Bera. Pier Angeli is the slave who becomes Lot’s wife, and Rossana Podestà is the daughter taken by Stanley Baker’s rapacious prince. Second unit director Sergio Leone whips up a terrific battle scene (maybe), Ken Adam provides the spectacular sets and Miklós Rózsa the powerful music score. And yes, the explosive finish involves hellfire, brimstone and the Biblical Pillar of Salt.

Sodom and Gomorrah

Explosive Media

All-region Blu-ray

1962 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 154 and 117 min. / Street Date December 9, 2021 / Available from Amazon.de /

Starring: Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli (Anna Maria Pierangeli), Anouk Aimée, Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Rik Battaglia,...

For those of you who enjoy your genre offerings on the eccentric side, May 8th is shaping up to be a wild day of home media releases. Severin Films has put together a limited edition Blu-ray for Emmanuelle and the Last Cannibals and they have the uncut version of Violence in a Women’s Prison coming out this week as well. Both The Devil Incarnate and Enter the Devil have been gussied up for an HD release this Tuesday, and for all you Amicus fans out there, Scream Factory is bringing The House That Dripped Blood to Blu, too.

Other notable releases for May 8th include Disembodied, Bizarre, Sick Sock Monsters From Outer Space, The Creeps, Gutboy: A Badtime Story, and The Violence Movie.

The Devil Incarnate

The action takes place in 16th century Spain. The Devil comes to earth to live as a mere mortal. Together with a human companion,...

Living abroad as a youth certainly had its advantages; the Odeon theatre in Mandeville, Jamaica showed everything from Hollywood blockbusters to Shaw Brothers’ Kung Fu epics to Italian exploitation and horror. Of course I took in as much as my ten year old mind could possibly take; I’m sure a film like Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977) played there, but alas, I missed it. Thanks to Severin Films, this Joe D’Amato sleaz-o-rama is finally available for my (still) ten year old sensibilities to behold.

And while my inner adolescent should be jumping up and down at what is accomplished here - it is essentially soft core adventuregrue porn – the sum does not quite equal the parts for my grumpy grown up persona. The sex and the slaughter don’t sit particularly well together, and I sure could have used a lot more of the latter. But what’s it all about,...

Hnn | Horrornews.net

Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals 1 Blu-ray disc Label: Severin Films Prebook: 4/10/18. Street: 5/8/18 Msrp: $29.95 Upc: 663390002247 Catalog #: SEV92247 Color, 94 minutes in English, Italian All regions. Widescreen 1.85:1 Dolby Digital Mono Production year: 1977 in Italy Director: Joe D’Amato Cast: Laura Gemser, Gabriele Tinti, Monica Zanchi, Donald O’Brien Emanuelle and the …

The post Severin Films Presents Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals releasing in May 2018 first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net...

By Fred Blosser

“Cannon for Cordoba,” a 1970 film produced by Vincent M. Fennelly for the Mirisch Corporation, written by Stephen Kandel, directed by Paul Wendkos, and distributed by United Artists, has been released by Kino Lorber Studio Classics in an attractive new Blu-ray edition. In the movie, U.S. Army Captain Rod Douglas (George Peppard) leads a three-man team across the Mexican Border in 1916. Douglas has been assigned to gather intelligence on a predatory rebel general, Cordoba (Raf Vallone), who has confiscated American-owned property in Mexico. Wealthy U.S. ranchers and politicians are demanding that the Army secure the border with troops (an outcry for a $70 billion wall would have to wait another hundred years). After Douglas’ team enters Mexico, one of the trio, Adam, is captured and tortured to death by Cordoba’s troops. Douglas and the third ranger, Jackson (Don Gordon), escape to warn Gen. Pershing (John Russell...

A middling entry in the genre of blow-it-up big action spectacles, Paul Wendkos’ Spain-filmed western gives us all the excitement promised by the poster, but with some cardboard characters and lumpy storytelling. George Peppard is on the job, however, and once again proves he can carry a big picture, flaws and all.

Cannon for Cordoba

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1970 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: George Peppard, Raf Vallone, Giovanna Ralli, Don Gordon, Pete Duel, Nico Minardos, John Russell, John Larch, Gabriele Tinti, Francine York, Lionel Murton, Hans Meyer, Aldo Sambrell, Luis Barboo.

Cinematography: Antonio Macasoli

Film Editor: Walter A. Hannemann

Special effects: Emilio Ruiz del Río

Original Music: Elmer Bernstein

Written by Stephen Kandel

Produced by Vincent M. Fennelly

Directed by Paul Wendkos

While providing backing for independent writer-producers like Billy Wilder, Walter Mirisch also shepherded various less ambitious war movies and westerns,...

Forgotten amid Robert Aldrich’s more critic-friendly movies is this superb suspense picture, an against-all-odds thriller that pits an old-school pilot against a push-button young engineer with his own kind of male arrogance. Can a dozen oil workers and random passengers ‘invent’ their way out of an almost certain death trap? It’s a late-career triumph for James Stewart, at the head of a sterling ensemble cast. I review a UK disc in the hope of encouraging a new restoration.

The Flight of the Phoenix

Region B Blu-ray

(will not play in domestic U.S. players)

Masters of Cinema / Eureka Entertainment

1965 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 142 min. / Street Date September 12, 2016 / £12.95

Starring: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Krüger, Ernest Borgnine, Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser, Christian Marquand, Dan Duryea, George Kennedy, Gabriele Tinti, Alex Montoya, Peter Bravos, William Aldrich, Barrie Chase.

Cinematography: Joseph Biroc

Stunt Pilot: Paul Mantz

Art Direction: William Glasgow...

Yvonne Monlaur: Cult horror movie actress & Bond Girl contender was featured in the 1960 British classics 'Circus of Horrors' & 'The Brides of Dracula.' Actress Yvonne Monlaur dead at 77: Best remembered for cult horror classics 'Circus of Horrors' & 'The Brides of Dracula' Actress Yvonne Monlaur, best known for her roles in the 1960 British cult horror classics Circus of Horrors and The Brides of Dracula, died of cardiac arrest on April 18 in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Monlaur was 77. According to various online sources, she was born Yvonne Thérèse Marie Camille Bédat de Monlaur in the southwestern town of Pau, in France's Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, on Dec. 15, 1939. Her father was poet and librettist Pierre Bédat de Monlaur; her mother was a Russian ballet dancer. The young Yvonne was trained in ballet and while still a teenager became a model for Elle magazine. She was “discovered” by newspaper publisher-turned-director André Hunebelle,...

Raro Video continues remastering rare and obscure Italian titles with the long unavailable 1970 curio from Duccio Tessari, Death Occurred Last Night. A rare hybrid of police thriller and giallo, this fascinating title is a definite highlight in the little known Tessari’s varied filmography. Most noted for his work in spaghetti westerns, those unfamiliar with his work will surely be interested in seeking out other available titles. As seedy and ridiculous as it is intriguing and unfailingly amusing, its attention to character and narrative development sets it apart from similar titles of the time period, preceding comparable American fare such as Paul Schrader’s 1979 Hardcore.

A self-controlled yet increasingly desperate father (Raf Vallone) informs Detective Duca Lamberti (Frank Wolff) at the police station in Milan that his girl is missing. As he answers a round of questions, we discover his girl is actually a mentally handicapped twenty five year old...

Norma Bengell controversies (photo: Norma Bengell in Walter Hugo Khouri’s ‘Eros’) (See previous post: “Dead at 78: Norma Bengell, First Actress to Go Full Frontal in Mainstream Films.”) Norma Bengell found herself embroiled in numerous controversies throughout her life. For instance, besides her not infrequently "scandalous" anti-establishment screen roles of the ’60s and ’70s, she took to the streets to protest against both censorship in the arts and Brazil’s military dictatorship. At the 1985 edition of Rio de Janeiro’s Fest Rio, Bengell got into a verbal match with American actress and fellow jury member Ellen Burstyn (Oscar winner for Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore) following alleged improprieties at the festival’s awards ceremony and Bengell’s role in the jury. Presumably to justify her worth as a jury member, the native Portuguese-speaker Bengell bellowed in Spanish: "I am a great actress!" Norma Bengell: Controversial filmmaker In later years,...

Norma Bengell dead at 78: Iconic (and controversial) Brazilian film, stage, television, and recording star made history as the first actress to be seen naked (full frontal) in a mainstream film (photo: Norma Bengell and John Herbert in ‘As Cariocas’) Norma Bengell, a sort of Brazilian Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Bardot, and Jane Fonda rolled into one, died of lung cancer in her hometown of Rio de Janeiro on October 9, 2013. She was 78. Best known internationally for her leading-lady roles in several Italian-made cult classics of the mid-’60s, Norma Bengell was known in Brazil as a controversial show business veteran and for being the first “name” actress (purportedly anywhere in the world) to be seen fully naked — full frontal — in a mainstream film. Note: Hedy Lamarr, then billed as Hedy Kiesler, does swim and run around in the nude in Gustav Machaty’s 1933 Czech drama Ecstasy. However, Lamarr’s naked swimming was disguised by the water,...

I recently wrote an article on the mega babes who graced our screens in the Euro Cult days and it got me thinking – what about the men? There are a stable of Euro Cult male actor stalwarts who rarely receive a mention compared to our Euro Siren actresses. The women may provide ample thrills due to their feistiness and beautiful looks, but behind every good Euro Cult heroine, there is a Euro Cult actor.

The actors listed below should be applauded for their services to Euro Cult cinema. They have fought off cannibals, vampires and zombies to solidify their reputations as true heroes of Cult cinema. I have picked 8 specimens for you to enjoy below. These are just a few names that came to me off the top of my head. I would be really chuffed if you could name me some more Euro Cult heroes in the comments section below…...

Without a doubt, Suspiria is Dario Argento’s best film (some of you may not feel the same, but I stand behind my choice), and one of the most atmospheric and artistic films ever made in the horror genre. It is the first in Argento’s “The Three Mothers” trilogy, which also includes Inferno and The Mother Of Tears. Argento was at the top of his proverbial game when directing both Suspiria and Inferno as they defy everything you've come to expect from horror films. Not only are they brimming with suspense and incredibly stylized violence, they are absolutely beautifully filmed.

Suspiria defines the horror film as a work of visual art. Scenes are lit with bright reds, greens, and blues making them look more like moving paintings than film. It's a masterpiece of visual filmmaking. Suspiria also includes one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time. Goblin, who...

Lisa And The Devil

Stars: Elke Sommer, Telly Savalas, Sylva Koscina, Alessio Orano, Gabriele Tinti, Kathy Leone, Eduardo Fajardo, Franz von Treuberg, Espartaco Santoni, Alida Valli | Written and Directed by Mario Bava

When it comes to Italian horror it’s fair to say that Mario Bava is one of the most known names. A visionary director he’s brought us the likes of Black Sunday and not only paved the way for the success of Italian horror but also brought us some truly unique films, one of them being Lisa and the Devil. Now that Arrow Video have brought this classic directors cut to Blu-ray along with the alternative version House of Exorcism we can see what his original vision was and why in my view it’s one of his best pieces of work.

When holidaying in Spain, Lisa is shown a painting said to be of the devil,...