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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…...

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…...

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...

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,...

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes director Nanette Burstein on Eddie Fisher and Susan Oliver with Elizabeth Taylor in Daniel Mann’s BUtterfield 8: “They cast Eddie Fisher in the film and his love interest looks exactly like Debbie Reynolds.”

In Nanette Burstein’s Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes (Cannes Film Festival world première and a Spotlight Documentary selection of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival), written and edited by Tal Ben-David, we hear, through the audio tapes of journalist Richard Meryman, Elizabeth Taylor in her own words as she discusses her career and life, including her first five husbands, Conrad Hilton Jr. (Nick), Michael Wilding, Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton.

Oscar nominees Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor with Montgomery Clift in Joseph L Mankiewicz’s Suddenly, Last Summer

The tapes start in 1964. Elizabeth Taylor offers her interviewer a drink. “I’m not illicit, not immoral,” she...

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,...

Oh, Canada debuting this week on the Croisette is high time to see lesser-seen Schrader on the Criterion Channel, who’ll debut an 11-title series including the likes of Touch, The Canyons, and Patty Hearst, while Old Boyfriends (written with his brother Leonard) and his own “Adventures in Moviegoing” are also programmed. Five films by Jean Grémillon, a rather underappreciated figure of French cinema, will be showing

Series-wise, there’s an appreciation of the synth soundtrack stretching all the way back to 1956’s Forbidden Planet while, naturally, finding its glut of titles in the ’70s and ’80s––Argento and Carpenter, obviously, but also Tarkovsky and Peter Weir. A Prince and restorations of films by Bob Odenkirk, Obayashi, John Greyson, and Jacques Rivette (whose Duelle is a masterpiece of the highest order) make streaming debuts. I Am Cuba, Girlfight, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Dazed and Confused are June’s Criterion Editions.

Forbidden Planet set the template for iconic space crews like those in Star Trek and Alien, pioneering sci-fi tropes and characters. Event Horizon's crew faces demonic forces in space, testing their trust and camaraderie as they fight for survival against evil spirits. Guardians of the Galaxy redefined the space crew dynamic in the Marvel universe, emphasizing found family and real emotions in their adventures.

From Star Trek to Guardians of the Galaxy, lovable space crews are a popular trope in sci-fi movies, because they allow the filmmakers to come up with an ensemble of colorful characters. There’s the captain, who’s usually a charming renegade like James T. Kirk or Peter Quill or Malcolm Reynolds. The captain has a loyal but free-thinking sidekick, like Spock or Rocket Raccoon, and a crew made up of iconic characters like Kane from Alien, C-3Po from Star Wars, and Trinity from The Matrix.

1956's "Forbidden Planet" follows a crew of astronauts traveling the galaxy in a flying saucer. While visiting planet Altair IV, they find a scientist and his daughter (Anne Francis) living alone on this deserted world — and realize they are hiding something.

Directed by Fred M. Wilcox and starring a young Leslie Nielsen, "Forbidden Planets looks like a kitschy B-movie today — and in a way it always was, but it was also a trailblazer. It was one of the first films to show humans in the distant future flying around in faster-than-light starships. Without "Forbidden Planet," there would be no "Star Wars" or "Star Trek."

While the Enterprise has an underbelly and nacelles beneath its saucer head, the "Forbidden Planet" ship (the C-57D) is a simple flying saucer — except this UFO is operated by humans, not aliens. The ship and the other effects got the "Forbidden Planet" special effects team an Oscar nomination.

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...

Science fiction has become one of the most prevalent genres in the film industry, and this is in part due to the iconic movies that have set the standard for this exciting category of entertainment. Many modern blockbusters, whether in or out of the genre, find their roots in the adventures through space and time that have landed on the big screen over the last century. With each, new techniques for wowing audiences are developed, grander concepts are explored, and the boundaries of reality expanded so that now, the possibilities are nearly endless.

The long-awaited Avatar: The Way of Water has once again reminded movie fans how far the science fiction genre has come. With its massive success, the Avatar sequel has proven that audiences are always eager to be wowed by the ever-advancing special effects. Still, such spectacles would not be possible without their important sci-fi predecessors– each of...

I Am Like You CINEMAflix Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Haik Kocharian Screenwriter: Haik Kocharian Cast: Stacy Edwards, Eileen Grubba, Terra Mackintosh, Curtis Butterfield, John Hosking, Lucky Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 9/4/22 Opens: September 16, 2022 As a kid, my favorite movie was Fred M. Wilcox’s […]

The post I Am Like You Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

When John Carpenter was eight years old, he saw Fred M. Wilcox's sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet" and said to himself, "I'm going to become a movie director. I have to do this." He did it. Boy, did he ever do it.

Over the last 48 years, John Carpenter has made at least six stone-cold masterpieces: "Assault on Precinct 13," "Halloween," "The Thing," "Starman," "Big Trouble in Little China" and "They Live." Very credible m-word cases can be made for "The Fog," "Escape from New York," "Christine," "Prince of Darkness" and "In the Mouth of Madness." These films are lean, mean thrill machines. You've probably watched them...

The post Why John Carpenter Doesn't Watch His Own Movies appeared first on /Film.

Sometimes it’s like they read your mind—or just notice upcoming releases as you do. Whatever the case, I’m thrilled that the release of Terence Davies’ Benediction played (I assume!) some part in a full retro on the Criterion Channel this June, sad as I know that package will make me and anybody else who comes within ten feet of it. It’s among a handful of career retrospectives: they’ve also set a 12-film Judy Garland series populated by Berkeley and Minnelli, ten from Ulrike Ottinger, and four by Billy Wilder. But maybe their most adventurous idea in some time is a huge microbudget collection ranging from Ulmer’s Detour to Joel Potrykus’ Buzzard, fellow success stories—Nolan, Linklater, Jarmusch, Jia Zhangke—spread about.

Criterion Editions continue with Bertrand Tavernier’s Round Midnight, Double Indemnity, and Seconds, while Chameleon Street, Karen Dalton: In My Own Time,...

If you’re looking to dive into the best of independent and foreign filmmaking, The Criterion Channel has announced their August 2020 lineup. The impressive slate includes retrospectives dedicated to Mia Hansen-Løve, Bill Gunn, Stephen Cone, Terry Gilliam, Wim Wenders, Alain Delon, Bill Plympton, Les Blank, and more.

In terms of new releases, they also have Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau, the fascinating documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, the Kenyan LGBTQ drama Rafiki, and more. There’s also a series on Australian New Wave with films by Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, David Gulpilil, and Peter Weir, as well as one on bad vacations with Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and more.

See the lineup below and explore more on their platform. One can also see our weekly streaming picks here.

25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Bill Plympton, 1989

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Roy Rowland,...

Sci-fi will be center stage at South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Asia’s largest genre film event. The ten-day film festival will run from Jun. 27 through Jul. 7.

Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” inspired the festival’s official artwork this year. The film will also play in special program ‘Robots: Future Beyond the Human Race’ along with Steven Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and Fred M. Wilcox’s “Forbidden Planet.”

The festival opens, a few weeks earlier than its traditional mid-July slot, with the Asian premiere of Edgar Nito’s “The Gasoline Thieves.” Korean period mystery drama “The 12th Suspect” by Ko Myoung-sung will close the festival, which packs in 288 films from 49 countries.

“BiFan has decided to gear itself for the coming 100 years of Korean cinema, instead of looking back on the past 100 years. We will take the head in nurturing the next NaWoon-gyu, Kim Ki-young, Yu Hyun-mok,...

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a few days immersed in Netflix’s new original series, Stranger Things. As someone who grew up in the 1980s and ‘90s, the show proved a wonderful exercise in nostalgia; a delightful amalgam of the wide-eyed Spielbergian ingenuousness and nightmarescapes of Stephen King that so informed my youth. From the moment the opening credits began I was hooked and a large part of this had to do with the show’s opening theme music. Composed by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, members of the Austin-based electronic outfit Survive, the show’s theme immediately brings us into the curious world of Stranger Things. Analog synthesizer motifs creep in and out of the mix, pulsating ominously, intoning dread. A percussive heartbeat simmers underneath, propelling us forward into awaiting disaster and, paradoxically, backward to another time and place. When combined with the show’s titles—its...

By Todd Garbarini

The Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a fun-filled weekend of six science fiction classics from Friday, April 15th to Sunday, April 17th. Several cast members from the films are scheduled to appear in person at respective screenings, so read on for more information:

From the press release:

Anniversary Classics Sci-Fi Weekend

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: www.laemmle.com/ac.

Re-visit the Golden Age of the Science Fiction Film as Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series presents Sci-fi Weekend, a festival of six classic films April 15-17 at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.

It was dawn of the Atomic Age and the Cold War, as Communist and nuclear war paranoia swept onto the nation’s movie screens to both terrify and entertain the American public. All the favorite icons are here: Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet,...

Jim Knipfel Mar 15, 2019

Forbidden Planet is still dazzling and subversive, and an influence on most major space opera science fiction.

Despite the sudden and unexpected explosion in the popularity of science fiction films in the early 1950s, a number of major studios were resistant to the trend, considering the genre to be B-film fodder at best, and at worst childish gutter trash that was beneath them. When it became apparent just how much money could be made with sci-fi, however, most eventually relented. One neat trick that was used to justify taking the dive while preserving a bit of pride and self-respect was to produce lavish, big budget Technicolor adaptations of established sci-fi literary classics. As a result we ended up with George Pal’s versions of War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and Philip Wylie’s When Worlds Collide. Let Pal toss in his trademark heavy-handed Christian subtext,...

Ryan Lambie Mar 18, 2019

The 1956 classic Forbidden Planet had a huge influence on sci-fi, especially Star Trek and Star Wars...

The 1950s was a golden age for science fiction cinema. The decade saw the appearance of a succession of genre classics, including The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Thing From Another World, The War Of The Worlds, and This Island Earth.

The period's movies reflected America's fascination with the possibilities of future technology, and also a creeping sense of paranoia about the subversive potential of Communism, reflected in spectacular "Reds under the bed" films such as Invaders From Mars (1953) and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956), in which an insidious alien menace stripped mankind of its individuality.

Of all those '50s classics, one film stands among them all as a true sci-fi icon. Released by MGM in 1956, director Fred M. Wilcox's Forbidden Planet was the most expensive and ambitious...

A few years ago the editors of Shadowlocked asked me to compile a list of what was initially to be, the ten greatest movie matte paintings of all time. A mere ten selections was too slim by a long shot, so my list stretched considerably to twenty, then thirty and finally a nice round fifty entries. Even with that number I found it wasn’t easy to narrow down a suitably wide ranging showcase of motion picture matte art that best represented the artform. So with that in mind, and due to the surprising popularity of that 2012 Shadowlocked list (which is well worth a visit, here Ed), I’ve assembled a further fifty wonderful examples of this vast, vital and more extensively utilised than you’d imagine – though now sadly ‘dead and buried’ – movie magic.

It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...

'The Beginning or the End' 1947 with Robert Walker and Tom Drake. Hiroshima bombing 70th anniversary: Six movies dealing with the A-bomb terror Seventy years ago, on Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Ultimately, anywhere between 70,000 and 140,000 people died – in addition to dogs, cats, horses, chickens, and most other living beings in that part of the world. Three days later, America dropped a second atomic bomb, this time over Nagasaki. Human deaths in this other city totaled anywhere between 40,000-80,000. For obvious reasons, the evisceration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been a quasi-taboo in American films. After all, in the last 75 years Hollywood's World War II movies, from John Farrow's Wake Island (1942) and Mervyn LeRoy's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) to Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor (2001), almost invariably have presented a clear-cut vision...

Humankind’s collision with otherworldly life forms can make for unforgettable cinema.

This article will highlight the best of live-action human vs. alien films. The creatures may be from other planets or may be non-demonic entities from other dimensions.

Excluded from consideration were giant monster films as the diakaiju genre would make a great subject for separate articles.

Readers looking for “friendly alien” films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), It Came from Outer Space (1953) and the comically overrated Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) are advised to keep watching the skies because they won’t find them here.

Film writing being the game of knowledge filtered through personal taste that it is, some readers’ subgenre favorites might not have made the list such as War of the Worlds (1953) and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).

Now let’s take a chronological look at the cinema’s best battles between Us and Them.

‘Gilda,’ ‘Pulp Fiction’: 2013 National Film Registry movies (photo: Rita Hayworth in ‘Gilda’) See previous post: “‘Mary Poppins’ in National Film Registry: Good Timing for Disney’s ‘Saving Mr. Banks.’” Billy Woodberry’s UCLA thesis film Bless Their Little Hearts (1984). Stanton Kaye’s Brandy in the Wilderness (1969). The Film Group’s Cicero March (1966), about a Civil Rights march in an all-white Chicago suburb. Norbert A. Myles’ Daughter of Dawn (1920), with Hunting Horse, Oscar Yellow Wolf, Esther Labarre. Bill Morrison’s Decasia (2002), featuring decomposing archival footage. Alfred E. Green’s Ella Cinders (1926), with Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, Vera Lewis. Fred M. Wilcox’s Forbidden Planet (1956), with Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Robby the Robot. Charles Vidor’s Gilda (1946), with Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready. John and Faith Hubley’s Oscar-winning animated short The Hole (1962). Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), with Best Actor Oscar winner Maximilian Schell,...

Ridley Scott's Prometheus movie Philosophical question: if God created the universe and all its creatures, did he also create the title character in Ridley Scott's 1979 horror classic Alien? If so, then for what purpose? To make Sigourney Weaver a star? "How far would you go to get your answers? What would you be willing to do?" inquires Michael Fassbender's David The Android in the British trailer (please scroll down) of Scott's Alien sort-of prequel Prometheus. Although I don't think David is referring to Sigourney Weaver's stardom, the answer to that particular question seems to be … hop on a huge spaceship and travel to a distant, dark planet where things may not be quite as they seem. Hint: That's the place where Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Ian Holm, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, and Yaphet Kotto encountered the remains of several gigantic beings in addition to...

As part of its "Summer Under the Stars" film series, Turner Classic Movies is showing 12 Anne Francis movies today, including three TCM premieres. Those are actor-director William Conrad's Brainstorm (1965), veteran Raoul Walsh's A Lion Is in the Streets (1953), and actor-director Richard Benedict's Impasse (1969). [Anne Francis Movie Schedule.] Brainstorm is about a scientist intent on killing the husband of the woman he loves. The B thriller stars performers who had seen better big-screen days in the '40s and/or '50s: Jeffrey Hunter, Dana Andrews, Viveca Lindfors, and Francis. At the time, however, Francis was doing well for herself on television in the series Honey West, in which she played a sexy gumshoe whose partner was an ocelot. Based on a novel by Adria Locke Langley, A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) is a political drama that got made probably thanks to Robert Rossen's 1949 Oscar winner All the King's Men.

Anne Francis on TCM: Forbidden Planet, Brainstorm, A Lion Is In The Streets Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Summer Holiday (1948) Musical remake of Ah, Wilderness!, about a small-town boy's struggles with growing up. Dir: Rouben Mamoulian. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Gloria DeHaven, Walter Huston, Frank Morgan, Jackie Jenkins, Marilyn Maxwell, Agnes Moorehead. C-93 mins. 7:45 Am So Young So Bad (1950) A crusading psychiatrist tries to help troubled reform school girls. Dir: Bernard Vorhaus. Cast: Paul Henreid, Catherine McLeod, Cecil Clovelly, Anne Jackson, Rita Moreno. Bw-91 mins. 9:30 Am Battle Cry (1955) A group of Marines eagerly await deployment during World War II. Dir: Raoul Walsh. Cast: Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Dorothy Malone, Nancy Olson, Tab Hunter, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, William Campbell. C-148 mins, Letterbox Format. 12:00 Pm Bad Day At Black Rock (1955) A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero's family.

Beverly Hills, CA . The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will explore the technology behind .Forbidden Planet. (1956) with a discussion and screening highlighting the production methods used to create the sci-fi classic on Saturday, July 16, at 7 p.m. at the Academy.s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Presented by the Academy.s Science and Technology Council, the program will be hosted by Oscar®-winning visual effects supervisor Craig Barron and Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt.

Prior to the screening, Barron will examine the film.s breakthrough effects sequences that used miniatures and matte paintings, as well as explore how Joshua Meador created his animated .id monster. effect and combined it with live-action photography. Burtt will explain how the electronic score was created, using newly discovered source tapes from the film.s composers, Louis and Bebe Barron (no relation to Craig).

In the 1950s, when science fiction films were usually cheaply produced B-movies.

24-Hour Tribute to Include Taylor.s Academy Award®-Winning Performances in Butterfield 8 (1960) and Who.s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Plus Memorable Roles in Nine Films

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will remember the life and career of two-time Academy Award®-winning actress and beloved humanitarian Elizabeth Taylor on Sunday, April 10. Ms. Taylor died at the age of 79 at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Hospital on March 23, 2011. The 24-hour memorial tribute, which is set to begin at 6 a.m. (Et/Pt), will include both of Taylor.s Oscar®-winning performances, with Butterfield 8 (1960) at 8 p.m. (Et) and Who.s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) at 10 p.m. (Et).

TCM.s tribute will also feature Taylor in such memorable films as the family classics Lassie Come Home (1943) and National Velvet (1944); the delightful comedies Father of the Bride (1950) and Father.s Little Dividend (1951); the historical epic Ivanhoe (1952); and the powerful dramas Giant (1956), Raintree County (1957) and...

Earlier today screen legend Elizabeth Taylor passed away due to congestive heart failure. She was 79. People deal with death in different ways. If you’re one of those people who needs to wallow in good memories afterward, or it you are just woefully undereducated when it comes to the career of the late actress, then TCM is putting on a marathon of Taylor movies that should be essential viewing. The marathon will begin April 10th, starting at 6 am Et, and it is set to run for a full 24 hours. Over the course of the marathon many of Taylor’s best remembered performances will be aired, including the two that won her Oscar statues, her sexy portrayal of femme fatale Gloria Wandrous in BUtterfield 8, and her tortured performance as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The marathon in tribute of the great actress will run as follows: 6:00 a.m...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will remember the life and career of two-time Academy Award-winning actress and beloved humanitarian Elizabeth Taylor on Sunday, April 10. The 24-hour memorial tribute, which is set to begin at 6 Am (Et/Pt), will include both of Taylor's Oscar-winning performances, with Butterfield 8 (1960) at 8 Pm (Et) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) at 10 Pm (Et).

TCM's tribute will also feature Taylor in such memorable films as the family classics Lassie Come Home (1943) and National Velvet (1944); the delightful comedies Father of the Bride (1950) and Father's Little Dividend (1951); the historical epic Ivanhoe (1952); and the powerful dramas Giant (1956), Raintree County (1957) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). Also included is the spy drama Conspirator (1949), with Taylor in her first adult role.

The following is a complete schedule of TCM's April 10 memorial tribute to Elizabeth Taylor (all times Eastern):

6 Am - Lassie Come Home (1943), with Roddy McDowall and Edmund Gwenn; directed by Fred M. Wilcox.

I’m sure we’ve all heard the sad news by now… I stumbled upon this 2007 Turner Classic Movies (TCM) video tribute to Elizabeth Taylor, narrated by none other than Paul Newman, who also passed away in recent years.

And by the way, TCM will remember the life and career of the two-time Academy Award-winning actress on Sunday, April 10, in a 24-hour retrospective tribute. The full press release announcing the tribute follows underneath.

TCM Remembers Two-Time Oscar®-Winning Actress and Beloved Humanitarian Elizabeth Taylor on Sunday, April 10

24-Hour Tribute to Include Taylor’s Academy Award®-Winning Performances

In Butterfield 8 (1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966),

Plus Memorable Roles in Nine Films

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will remember the life and career of two-time Academy Award®-winning actress and beloved humanitarian Elizabeth Taylor on Sunday, April 10. The 24-hour memorial tribute, which is set to begin at 6 a.m. (Et...

"There was no one like her, everything you could do in life she did."- Larry King TCM will honor the late, great Elizabeth Taylor by showing some of her finest films. Today marked the passing of the two-time Academy Award-winning actress, her films will be shown on April 10 in a 24-hour memorial tribute, set to begin at 6 a.m. (Et/Pt). Taylor's Oscar-winning performances - "Butterfield 8" (1960) at 8 p.m. (Et) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) at 10 p.m. (Et) are to be savored. From TCM: 6 a.m. . Lassie Come Home (1943), with Roddy McDowall and Edmund Gwenn; directed by Fred M. Wilcox. 7:30 a.m. . National Velvet (1944), with Mickey Rooney, Anne Revere...

Turner Classic Movies announced a tribute to Elizabeth Taylor that will include 24 hours of movies from the late star’s career.

The tribute will begin Sunday, April 10 and will include Taylor’s Oscar-winning performances in Butterfield 8 (1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), as well as screenings of Father of the Bride (1950), Father’s Little Dividend (1951), Ivanhoe (1952), Giant (1956), Raintree County (1957) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). Full schedule below:

Read more:

Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79

All About Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor: 11 Roles for the Ages

Elizabeth Taylor: What’s your favorite role?

Elizabeth Taylor: The unpublished photos from Life.

Forbidden Planet (1956) Direction: Fred M. Wilcox Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Robby the Robot, Warren Stevens, Earl Holliman, Richard Anderson, Jack Kelly, George Wallace, Robert Dix Screenplay: Cyril Hume; from a story by Irving Block and Allen Adler inspired by William Shakespeare's The Tempest Oscar Movies Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis, Robby the Robot, Forbidden Planet By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica: When one thinks of 1950s science-fiction films, one thinks of the sort of schlocky black-and-white B movies that were parodied on the old Mystery Science Theater 3000 television show. Yet, while there were a whole lot of films like Plan 9 from Outer Space and Robot Monster, the 1950s did have some truly good sci-fi movies, among them The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The War of the Worlds, and The Thing from Another World. For its literacy...

Anne Francis (minus beauty mark), William Lundigan in Henry Koster's Elopement Anne Francis, best known for sporting a futuristic mini-skirt in Fred M. Wilcox's classic sci-fier Forbidden Planet (1956, right with Robby the Robot) and for her tough, smart and sexy private detective in the 1960s television series Honey West, died Sunday, Jan. 2, at a retirement home in Santa Barbara, about 150kms northwest of Los Angeles. Francis (born Sept. 16, 1930, in Ossining, N.Y.) had previously undergone an operation for lung cancer, though the official cause of death was pancreatic cancer. She was 80. Anne Francis' filmography is quite short. Thirty-six film appearances during the course of nearly half a century. Her career as a leading lady was even briefer; in fact, it was surprisingly brief, spanning from 1951 to 1957 — a period during which she usually alternated leads in programmers with supporting roles in major releases. That's it. Yet, [...]...

Anne Francis, the beautiful heroine of the 1956 film "Forbidden Planet" who also made guest appearances on shows such as "Twilight Zone" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" in the 1960s, died Sunday. She was 80. Francis played Alta Morbius in "Forbidden Planet," the Fred M. Wilcox film that also starred the late Leslie Nielsen, who died in November. Both actors were upstaged in the film by Robby the Robot, the character that would appear in other sci-fi productions in the 1950s and 1960s, and who would later be included among the most iconic screen robots. Francis had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, according to the Associated Press. However, her family said she actually died from pancreatic cancer. She appeared in films with Spencer Tracy, Paul Newman and others. However, ...

Directed by: Fred M. Wilcox

Written by: Cyril Hume

Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Earl Holliman

So, how great is this movie? Forbidden Planet, made in 1956 and directed by Fred M. Wilcox, is still one of the best sci-fi flicks around. But why is it so great? Maybe it's the wonderful futuristic set design or the little micro-mini skirt that the forward-thinking, hotsie-totsie Anne Francis runs around in (almost 15 years before they were acceptable fashion — talk about prescient). Or perhaps it's the pitch-perfect performances from vets like Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens and Earl Holliman (they know it's a goofy sci-fi flick, but they play it straight as straight can be — possibly because it’s based on Shakespeare's The Tempest). It could well be the impressive special effects and spacey electronic score, which were light years ahead of their time. But my bet is that it's all of the above,...

This list may contain some spoilers…

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

The concept of 'Room 101' was tormenting readers and viewers - both viscerally and morally - many years before the phrase 'torture porn' was coined. Of all that culture has taken from George Orwell's dystopic novel, nothing has exerted so powerful a grip on the common imagination as the terrifying-yet-banal entrance to this interrogation-cell within a future fascist state - a room that holds whatever your worst nightmare may be.

But crossing the threshold of Room 101 is additionally the doorway through which oppressed office-worker Winston Smith (John Hurt) will finally believe the horrible truth that O'Brien (Richard Burton) has been espousing to him: that man is a mere animal that will choose its own self-preservation over any emotional attachment. This is no mere entrance to the gallows - it's the doorway to spiritual and emotional obliteration.

King Kong (1933)

When ingénue...

  When most people think of Leslie Nielsen, they think of spoofs such as Airplane! (1980), The Naked Gun (1988), Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), and Wrongfully Accused (1998). Perhaps a little strangely, when I think of Leslie Nielsen, who died at the age of 84 from complications of pneumonia at a Ft. Lauderdale hospital on Sunday, the first thing that comes to mind is the older guy Debbie Reynolds pines for in Joseph Pevney's Tammy and the Bachelor (1957). It's while daydreaming of Nielsen that Reynolds sings Ray Evans and Jay Livingston's ballad "Tammy." Don't laugh. It's actually a charming romantic song. Else, I think of the spaceship commander J. J. Adams in Fred M. Wilcox's 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, which features Walter Pidgeon as the off-kilter Dr. Edward Morbius, Anne Francis in a skimpy mini-skirt, Robby the Robot, and a still very much relevant message about the seeds [...]...

Forbidden Planet is Shakespeare in space, director Fred Wilcox threw The Tempest into the sci-fi genre at a time when the grand masters of science fiction were honing their craft and delivering some of the most influential stories and ideas, shaping the imaginations of filmmakers such as George Lucas, and it is as powerful and vibrant today as it was in 1956.

Its status in the sci-fi pantheon is both assured and well deserved and the iconic design is luminous on this new Blu-ray which is among the finest I’ve ever seen. The picture is sharp and colours rich, it is a feast for the eyes. The electronic score and special effects (in particular the Id Monster) may seem conventional now, but they retain, as does the whole film, a charm and a power to impress fifty four years later.

Following a rescue mission to the remote planet of Altair...

As Forbidden Planet makes its Blu-ray debut, we salute this classic of 50s sci-fi cinema…

The 50s was a golden age for big screen sci-fi. The decade saw the appearance of a succession of genre classics, including Destination Moon, The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Thing From Another World, The War Of The Worlds and This Island Earth.

The period's movies reflected America's fascination with the possibilities of future technology, and also a creeping sense of paranoia about the subversive potential of Communism, reflected in spectacular ‘Reds under the bed' films such as Invaders From Mars (1953) and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956), in which an insidious alien menace stripped mankind of its individuality.

Of all those 50s classics, one film stands among them all as a true 50s sci-fi icon. Released in 1956, director Fred M. Wilcox's Forbidden Planet was the most expensive and ambitious genre film to appear...

Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton in Mike Nichols‘ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Elizabeth Taylor, Butterfield 8, Her First Oscar Schedule (Pt) and synopses from the TCM website: 3:00 Am Lassie Come Home (1943) A faithful collie undertakes an arduous journey to return to her lost family. Cast: Roddy McDowall, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp. Dir: Fred M. Wilcox. C-89 mins. 4:30 Am National Velvet (1944) A British farm girl fights to train a difficult horse for the Grand National Steeplechase. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp. Dir: Clarence Brown. C-124 mins. 6:45 Am Life With Father (1947) A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost. Cast: William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor. Dir: Michael Curtiz. C-118 mins. 8:45 Am Father Of The Bride (1950) A doting father faces mountains of bills and endless trials when his daughter marries. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth [...]...

November To Remember3 Memorable Movies

Presented In Memory of Bob Eberenz*

(See below for explanation)

November 20 & 21

At the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre

A Not-For-Profit Arts Center In a Historic Movie Palace

54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ 07306

Tel: (201) 798-6055

Web: www.loewsjersey.org

Friday, November 20 at 8Pm

"Monsieur Verdoux" -- Starring Charlie Chaplin.  Also starring Mady Correll, Isobel Elsom, Audrey Betz, Ada May, Martha Ray.  Directed by Charlie Chaplin.  (1947, 124mins, B&W) Chaplin called this film his "cleverest and most brilliant", but he is certainly not the familiar Tramp in it.  He plays a suave serial killer who makes his living marrying and murdering lonely rich women.  Chaplin turned this shocking conceit into a black comedy that seems surprisingly modern to us today -- especially in its presentation of the hypocrisy of societies that condemn murder committed by individuals but glorify war.

A rare big screen revival.

Saturday, November 21 at 2Pm...

Undertones: Volume 6 The classic science fiction film emerged during a period of great societal paranoia in the Us in the early 1950s. The post-WW2 environment saw an increased concern with nuclear armament and a fear of the infiltration of communism on the American way of life. Essentially, the sci-fi film was Hollywood’s great metaphor for these threats; its power largely dependent on playing on the fears of the cinema-goer. Many of the films were low-budget affairs pumped out by the studios; a steady stream of high-camp and cheap thrills in order to provide what one can only assume was constant necking-fodder for teens at drive-ins. Amongst these ‘B’ pictures, many of which have been long lost in time to the more technologically-savvy audiences of recent years but considered charming nostalgia to retro film junkies, are films that stand out for their innovation and social commentary and are considered classics by modern cinophiles.

As much as the incomparable John Cusack in High Fidelity made it über cool to compose ‘top fives’ – or ‘top tens’ in this case – personally, I’ve always found it a colossal struggle, as though I’m somehow betraying otherwise very close friends; a mother forced to select favourites from her brood.

Given that my book, Monster Movies, contains 75 or so (all) marvellous monster flicks that have been granted inclusion within the 45,000 words/200-ish pages for one reason and one reason alone (they’re fine examples of the genre), I’d like to nominate each of these films as a top monster movie. But – and I capitalise ‘but’ to emphasise the shackles of my brief – if forced down on my knees with pistol pressed to temple, the following films listed below would compose a Top Ten Monster Movies of All Time, and I’ll endeavour to explain why.

As for...

A classic science fiction movie before its time. That’s what I thought of the 1956 film, Forbidden Planet.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a classic film that will always stand the test of time. It had suspense, comedic cast support, a brave space crew, a tortured scientist, the hot but super intelligent young lady and a mysterious monster lurking just out of sight. All woven together masterfully in a screenplay by Cyril Hume, directed by Fred M. Wilcox and translated to us by stars such as Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen (no, he wasn’t the comedic support) and Robby the Robot.

As fellow Screen Rant writer Brian Ketler put it, Forbidden Planet is “Based loosely on ‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare and tells the tale of the search for the missing [human] colonists of the planet Altair-4. The rescue team discovers the remains of an ancient alien civilization,...