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Exclusive: Prolific director-writer Paris Barclay has signed with Innovative Artists Entertainment for literary representation.

Barclay has directed nearly 200 episodes of television, including episodes of NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, Lost, The Good Wife, CSI, Sons of Anarchy, House, Glee, In Treatment, Scandal, Empire, Pitch and Station 19.

Barclay won two Emmy Awards for his direction of NYPD Blue and has received seven additional Emmy nominations for producing and directing, including three for directing episodes of Glee, one for The West Wing and one for Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

He has also earned ten Directors Guild nominations for his work on In Treatment, Weeds, House, Glee and The West Wing, and won once for NYPD Blue. He also became the first director in the history of the Guild to receive a comedy and drama nomination in the same year, two years in a row, in 2008 and 2009.

A DGA member since...

Funnyman Eddie Murphy has been appearing in feature films since the early 1980s, and fans will have their own favorites for what might stand out as the most memorable. The actor and comedian himself can also name which film perhaps defines his career more so than any other.

Murphy recently appeared as a guest on The Jennifer Hudson Show, where he was joined by Keke Palmer. On the show, Hudson brought up how Deadpool & Wolverine star Ryan Reynolds said Eddie Murphy should have won an Oscar for The Nutty Professor, given how he played several different characters in the comedy. Murphy went on to share how much he loves that some people don't even realize just how many different roles he had in the film, calling it his "favorite thing." He then shared how he considers The Nutty Professor to be his career-defining role.

"I think if I could...

Image Source: Warner Bros Oh, the glory days of cable TV! Remember flipping channels and stumbling upon those wild, wonderfully weird movies that just stuck with you? Some were hidden gems, some were pure cinematic magic, and others… well, others were so delightfully bizarre they became legends in their own right. Today, we’re dusting off one of those truly unique cinematic experiences: the 1981 sci-fi thriller, Looker! This gem sprang from the brilliant, often-prophetic mind of the late, legendary Michael Crichton. Before he gave us the thunderous roars of Jurassic Park or the emergency room drama of E.R. (which literally changed TV history!), Crichton also penned and directed the iconic Westworld (starring the late Yul Brynner!). So, when he put his vision into Looker, starring the late Albert Finney, Oscar winner the late James Coburn, and Partridge Family/L.A. Law alum Susan Dey, you knew it wouldn’t be boring.

Ena Hartman, a pioneering Black actress who had a regular role opposite Burt Reynolds on the 1970-71 ABC cop show Dan August, has died. She was 93.

Hartman died April 16 of natural causes at her home in Van Nuys, her goddaughter Lorraine Foxworth told The Hollywood Reporter.

Hartman also is known for her starring turn as the tough girl Carmen Simms alongside Tom Selleck, Don Marshall, Roger E. Mosley, Phyllis Davis and Marta Kristen in the cult prison-set film Terminal Island (1973), written and directed by Stephanie Rothman.

She assisted Lee J. Cobb’s character in the spy spoof Our Man Flint (1966), starring James Coburn; played a party guest in Games (1967), starring James Caan, Simone Signoret and Katharine Ross; and was a flight attendant in Airport (1970).

And in firsts for NBC in 1968, she appeared on the inaugural episode of Adam-12 and in the telefilm Prescription Murder, which starred Peter Falk in his initial outing as Columbo.

It can’t be denied that as far as martial arts movies go, the best ones come from Asia, particularly Hong Kong during their action heyday, which was arguably the 70s, 80s and first half of the ’90s. It’s tough to compete with the likes of the Shaw Brothers and the drunken master known as Jackie Chan. That said, martial arts movies were also making a foothold in the States decades ago, thanks mainly to Bruce Lee-mania following the release of Enter the Dragon. Before that movie, very few actors in Hollywood seemed like they were credible martial artists, except maybe James Coburn, a student of Lee’s, who pulled off some pretty good-looking moves in the otherwise silly Our Man Flint movies. Steve McQueen also had training but didn’t use martial arts on screen. Up to then, though, the most notable uses of martial arts in movies usually revolved around Judo,...

The term "underrated" can be a bit nebulous in its definition, and that's especially the case when referring to art forms like films. Some people might say it refers to movies that received lukewarm responses from audiences despite deserving far more love. Others could suggest the term applies to great movies that not enough people have seen or even heard about. For our purposes here, we're going to take a little from column A and a little from column B to create something of a primer on great, underrated crime thrillers.

Of course, that leads us to having to define what exactly counts as a crime thriller. At its most basic (and obvious), a crime thriller -- a subset of the much larger thriller genre of which there are plenty of exquisite examples -- is an emotionally propulsive story with a criminal act at its center. Audiences are witness to...

In the early- to mid-1970s, a number of prominent filmmakers found modest success with star-studded whodunnits. In 1972, Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in a splendid adaptation of Anthony Shaffer's intricately plotted play "Sleuth." A year later, Herbert Ross directed the wickedly clever "The Last of Sheila," a mystery concocted by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim, and featuring such marquee names as James Coburn, Dyan Cannon, Richard Benjamin, Raquel Welch, and James Mason. Then in 1974, moviegoers got a double dose of Agatha Christie with Sidney Lumet's "Murder on the Orient Express", and Peter Collinson's "And Then There Were None".

There was no cultural development driving this sudden spate of whodunnits; it was just a reminder that people love to watch a bunch of great actors get thrown into the same location where foul play has been committed, and then try to work out...

“Film records the profound suffering that war brings to mankind.” That is how the Beijing International Film Festival explained a focus it has unveiled on war and peace in a special “Film and Peace” program that it is featuring during its 15th edition starting on Friday.

It will showcase “12 masterpieces” depicting “the tragedy of war” on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II this year to “immerse ourselves in history,” organizers said. “Filmmakers at home and abroad use light and shadow to remember the cruelty and endless pain of war and use memory, emotion and shocking reality to preserve recollection and sound the alarm for today.”

Among the movies screening at the Chinese fest will be the winner of the first-ever Cannes Film Festival in 1946, The Last Chance, a 1945 movie directed by Austrian-Swiss filmmaker Leopold Lindtberg. Also featured are such classics as Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah,...

At this point in their careers, Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua simply trust each other and it's not hard to see why. The pair's first collaboration, 2001's "Training Day" resulted in an Oscar win for Denzel, which considering this was the first movie in which the esteemed star played a villain, is a pretty good outcome — even more so when you consider Denzel's "Training Day" casting sparked so much controversy that he was warned against taking the role by the NAACP.

In the years that followed, Washington and Fuqua worked together multiple times, most notably on the "Equalizer" films which saw Washington going full John Wick-mode in a trilogy of action thrillers based on the 1985 CBS series. But "The Equalizer" and its sequels aren't the only Fuqua/Washington team-ups to come in the wake of "Training Day." In 2016, the director oversaw yet another Denzel Washington first with "The Magnificent Seven,...

The Twilight Zone remains one of the most groundbreaking pieces of television ever made. Rod Serling's supernatural anthology series delivered dozens of classic episodes, cloaking moral lessons in clever twist endings, and ranging from the hilarious to the utterly terrifying. It lasted five seasons and was minted a masterpiece almost before it was off the air. In retrospect, it bowed out just in time, with its creative well running dry by Serling's own admission. It thus avoided jumping the shark, and several direct reboots have only fitfully found the magic that it delivered consistently from beginning to end.

The Twilight Zone famously received a little help from an outside source. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a supernatural anti-war movie which French filmmaker Robert Enrico shot in 1961, and appeared as an episode late in Season 5 as The Twilight Zone was wrapping up. It remains the only episode to come from an outside source,...

Bruce Glover, the unorthodox actor who portrayed Mr. Wint, the assassin with the distinctive aftershave who partnered with Putter Smith’s Mr. Kidd in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, has died. He was 92.

His son, Back to the Future actor Crispin Glover, shared on Instagram that he died March 12. No other details of his death were immediately available.

Glover played Deputy Grady Coker alongside Joe Don Baker as Sheriff Buford Pusser in the unexpected box-office hit Walking Tall (1973), then returned for the 1975 and ’77 sequels that had Bo Svenson as the lead.

The Chicago native also portrayed a redneck thug in Stanley Kramer’s Bless the Beasts and Children (1971); Duffy, an associate of Jack Nicholson’s J.J. Gittes, in Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974); and a brutish debt collector leaning on a hustler (James Coburn) in Walter Hill’s Hard Times (1975).

Glover performed in hundreds of plays, appearing on...

Quick LinksWhat is The Last of Sheila About?Sondheim and Perkins' Script Adds Layers to the Typical WhodunitThe Last of Sheila is An Absolute Must-Watch For Whodunit Fans

Whodunits have been a popular mystery subgenre for decades. From Clue to Knives Out, audiences love to follow the clues and find a killer for themselves. The Last of Sheila, produced and directed by Herbert Ross, is a '70s-era gem that unfortunately has been sorely underrated. The movie has all the makings of a classic whodunit, but one of the most interesting parts of the film is that it was co-written by one of cinema's greatest killers.

The Last of Sheila features Sheila (Yvonne Romain) and her husband, Clinton Greene (James Coburn) who are causing a scene at a party. Sheila leaves and a car pulls out of nowhere, ripping down the road. Sheila is killed, and the driver takes a...

Will filmgoers rally behind space travelers who “hate dying” but keep courting death?

The director who gave us Parasite, a cool, curmudgeonly social comedy, is challenging filmgoers with a big-budget, genre-bending epic titled Mickey 17 that will likely be a tougher sell.

Fans of Bong Joon Ho’s movies will now have to deal with dystopian class warfare spearheaded by a Donald Trump leader (Mark Ruffalo) who disdains “Expendables.” Loud and orange, he has big ambitions for a frozen planet that’s as hospitable as a hockey rink. Jeopardy lurks everywhere: Even sex is death defying.

Mickey 17 is a $120 million satire – “one that may challenge the public mood,” observes one veteran distributor, who readily admits that no one understands the “public mood.” Robert Pattinson adeptly plays Mickey 17 and is resigned to become Mickey 18 too, and beyond, as he’s meticulously “re-printed” after every death.

Warner Bros...

Harrison Ford's first feature film was an uncredited role as a bellhop in the 1966 James Coburn crime thriller "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round." He was 24. It's wild to think that Ford, when he was 80, also starred in the 2023 blockbuster "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," which was set in 1969. The elderly Indiana Jones, if he was a movie fan, could have seen the film debut of Harrison Ford.

Sylvester Stallone's first feature film came in 1969, when he was 23. He played an uncredited extra in a film called "The Square Root." Indeed, for the first three years of his career, Stallone mostly played uncredited roles, turning up in films like "What's Up, Doc?," "Bananas," and "Klute." Stallone doesn't have a career wraparound like Ford's above, but he was recently the subject of "Sly," a documentary about his career.  

Both Stallone and Ford appeared in one film together: 2014's "The Expendables 3,...

Since 1975 nearly a thousand hosts have graced the stage at Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center for “Saturday Night Live.”

Actors, comedians, musicians and even politicians have taken the stage to make America laugh on Saturday night for 50 seasons. Twenty five of these hosts have been inducted into the “Five Timers Club.” The club was first introduced during Tom Hanks’ 1990 monologue, featuring Steve Martin, Elliott Gould and Paul Simon.

During Martin Short’s December 2024 appearance, several Five Timers Club members popped up on the show to welcome him into the club, including Emma Stone, Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig and more, to give him the ceremonial robe.

Alec Baldwin has hosted the show 17 times, the most in the series’ history, with Martin, Hanks, Buck Henry and John Goodman following close behind.

As the show celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, we have rounded up every person who has hosted the sketch show.

Quick LinksCharade Starred Cary Grant and Audrey HepburnCharade Bears a Resemblance to Other Hitchcock FilmsThe Film Charade Is Technically in the Public Domain

Charade is a film that almost defies categorization. It's part mystery, part suspense, part romantic comedy, and it's often mistakenly credited to one of Hollywood's most iconic directors: Alfred Hitchcock. But another Hollywood icon, Stanley Donen, led the film. It featured music by Henry Mancini and a title song with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Anyone who's watched a Hitchcock film can see why it's often mistaken for one of his own. Its twists and turns and suspenseful style often mirror the horror front-runner's.

Following its release, the film garnered a handful of award nominations. It's leading cast members were also recognized for their performance with the same honor. Charade would mark a clear turning point in both Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn's acting careers. And it's...

Disney movies are some of the most popular and beloved, with titles like The Little Mermaid, Tarzan and Frozen becoming instant classics. And through Disney's partnership with Pixar, movies like Monsters, Inc., Nemo, and Toy Story have earned the public's love and have made their way to becoming extremely quotable and part of pop culture. Yet while there are many Disney movies that are popular, not all of them are good from start to finish.

Some of the most popular Disney movies still had a few flaws or a controversial ending or twists that fans were still willing to look past. However, there are other Disney movies that are flawless from start to finish and have some of the best and most heartwarming endings. These movies not only took audiences on a journey but also added the cherry on top with a brilliant, emotional, and memorable ending that brought perfect...

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, a prisoner of war is any person captured or interned by a belligerent power during war. In the strictest sense, it is applied only to members of regularly organized armed forces, but by broader definition, it has also included guerrillas, civilians who take up arms against an enemy openly, or noncombatants associated with a military force.

Prisoner of War films have consistently been a popular and acclaimed subgenre of war movies. In the 1950s and 1960s, Hollywood prisoner-of-war movies reached the apex of their popularity thanks to films such as Stalag 17, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and The Great Escape. Japanese auteurs such as Masaki Kobayashi and Nagisa Ōshima directed The Human Condition and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, two iconic works within the prisoner-of-war genre. French filmmakers Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson made significant contributions to the prisoner-of-war genre through their films The Grand Illusion...

Prior to its release in 1991, there was every reason to believe that Michael Lehmann's heist comedy "Hudson Hawk" would be a hit. It was written by star screenwriter Steven E. de Souza, who had already had gigantic success with film like "48 Hrs.," "Commando," "Jumping Jack Flash," and "The Running Man." His biggest smash was "Die Hard" in 1988, and he was tapped to write the sequel two years later. "Hudson Hawk" would re-team de Souza with "Die Hard" star Bruce Willis, and the film would boast performances from Danny Aiello, fresh from "Moonstruck," as well as James Coburn, Richard E. Grant, Sandra Bernhard, and Andie MacDowell. Lehmann, meanwhile, also had a big cult success in 1988 with "Heathers." Never mind that his bonkers mutant-bug movie "Meet the Applegates" bombed in 1990. The sensibility was there. 

"Hudson Hawk" is an odd duck. Willis plays the titular cat burglar, freshly released from prison,...

Quick Links 'The Color of Money' Is a Sports Movie About Growing Up Tom Cruise Should Have Been Honored

Nine ball — one of the numerous variations of pool, the cue sport. The striking game (widely known for its hustling and gambling culture) started in the United States of America sometime in the 1920s and has been going strong ever since. Like any other competitive game, Hollywood has managed to grab hold and transform it into a storytelling vehicle for some big-screen productions.

This is no criticism, though, as there are some sorely underrated movies revolving around cue sports in general, such as 1980's The Baltimore Bullet (featuring the legendary James Coburn), 2002’s Poolhall Junkies (starring Chazz Palminteri), and The Rack Pack (a 2016 British TV film about snooker). Standing above all — in what seems to be a largely untapped subgenre — is a 1986 movie that not only subtly analyzes the...

Veteran soap actor Thom Christopher has died. The One Life to Live alum, who portrayed mob boss Carlo Hesser and his twin Mortimer Bern on the soap, was 84 when he passed. His former television son, Anthony Crivello, who portrayed Johnny, confirmed his death on social media.

Goodbye To A Legend

Crivello shared the news on Facebook. He wrote, “My dear friend of many years, actor Thom Christopher passed today. He was always a gentleman, always supportive, and he and his wife Judith who proceeded him in death, where [sic] always gracious to me and welcoming. Thom and I worked together on the ABC daytime series One Life to Live in the 1990s…. It was a wonderful time, difficult hours and long days, but joyful each minute. May Thom fly on Wings of Angels to be beside his beloved Judith, and may they enjoy each other’s company once again, beside the ‘Pearly Gates’ of heaven.

The incomparable Eddie Murphy has been a staple on both the big and small screen since skyrocketing to superstardom on Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s, with the talented comedian and actor going on to star in a slew of fan-favorite hits like Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, and the beloved Shrek franchise. The recipient of numerous accolades like a Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy, Murphy is one of Hollywood's most respected and illustrious performers, but there is one award he hasn't nabbed: an Oscar.

Though Murphy was nominated for the award for his impressive work in the musical Dreamgirls, he has yet to take home the prestigious statuette, a fact that Ryan Reynolds believes is downright shameful. In fact, the Deadpool star feels that Murphy's side-splitting performances in the '90s sci-fi comedy The Nutty Professor was worthy of winning the coveted Oscar, as he...

The 1960s proved to be an incredible time period for cinema, with the decade producing some of the most acclaimed and widely celebrated films ever made, regardless of genre. From seminal spaghetti Western outings in the vein of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and nerve-jangling horrors like Psycho all the way to mind-bending science fiction offerings such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, the decade played host to a number of iconic and culturally influential movies that have stood the test of time to earn status as undisputed cinematic classics.

War movies were decidedly not exempt from this status quo, an unsurprising state of affairs given the social climate of the 1960s. The decade witnessed the debuts of several wildly successful and influential war films, many of which are widely regarded as some of the best war movies of all time. Producing an immersive snapshot of armed conflict that...

“It’s so nice to talk to The Hollywood Reporter,” Olivia Williams says, as we start our interview, “because I really had that Hollywood experience. I went from living in a damp basement flat in Camden Town to, in a matter of days, flying in a private jet to go on set of a huge Hollywood movie.”

Over the course of a single year, from 1997 to 1998, Williams (before then a jobbing British theater actress, doing commercials for Dove shower cream — “they asked me to audition in a bikini…I felt like giving up”) starred in three studio films: Kevin Costner’s The Postman, Wes Anderson’s Rushmore and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense. The Postman was a legendary flop. Rushmore an indie breakout. The Sixth Sense a gargantuan, global hit. Williams, it appeared, had arrived.

“I went from galloping horses with Kevin Costner — doing my own stunts, thank...

Ryan Reynolds thinks one of Eddie Murphy's comedic performances was overlooked by the Academy. During a recent appearance on Variety's Awards Circuit podcast, the Deadpool & Wolverine actor shared that Murphy not receiving an Oscar nod for his multi-character work on The Nutty Professor is one of the "greatest, most, greatest injustices." When asked what he considered the greatest Oscars snub of all time, Reynolds shared:

"One of the greatest, most, greatest injustices is that Eddie Murphy doesn't have an Oscar for 'The Nutty Professor.'"

The Murphy-led comedy is a remake of the 1963 movie of the same name that starred Jerry Lewis. Directed by Tom Shadyac, the 1996 version sees Murphy tackle seven different roles, including Professor Sherman Klump and his charming but devious alter ego Buddy Love. The film earned mostly positive reviews from critics (and currently holds a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), who praised Murphy for his hilarious portrayals.

Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, is a talented fencer and a licensed airline pilot who has flown all across the world.

But is all just a covert way of covering up the fact that he’s really a spy? His good friend, director Sacha Gervasi, and podcast host Rich Roll evidently think so.

Dickinson sat down for a two-and-a-half hour podcast interview about his life, career and side hustles with Roll, who has recently interviewed the likes of Tom Holland and Orlando Bloom.

The singer talked about learning to fly, piloting his band around the world and the time that he was smuggled into Sarajevo to play a concert during the middle of the war.

Roll said, “The idea that you would have made for this optimal fighter pilot… in an alternate reality, or a parallel universe, or in some kind of sliding doors situation,...

One of the sequels to the legendary Western film The Magnificent Seven will soon get a new streaming home. 1969's Guns of the Magnificent Seven will arrive on Prime Video on November 1.

Directed by Paul Wendkos and produced by Vincent M. Fennelly, Guns of the Magnificent Seven stars George Kennedy as the character Chris Adams, originally portrayed by Yul Brynner in previous franchise entries. Rounding out the seven are James Whitmore as Levi Morgan, Monte Markham as Keno, Reni Santoni as Maximiliano "Max" O'Leary, Bernie Casey as Cassie, Scott Thomas as P.J., and Joe Don Baker as Slater. The group bands together to free the Mexican revolutionary Angel Quintero, played by Fernando Rey, and fight the oppression of the sadistic Colonel Diego, portrayed by Michael Ansara. The movie's cast also includes Wende Wagner, Tony Davis, Frank Silvera, Sancho Gracia, Luis Rivera, George Rigaud, and Peter Lawman.

Related 1 of the...

Conceived by Barbara Pyle and media mogul Ted Turner, Captain Planet was an ecological hero way ahead of his time. The animated series ran for years with some nifty design work by Neal Adams and his Continuity Associates. Each episode featured an adventure and a lesson (of course). It endeared itself to a generation of viewers and remained an enduring figure from the 1990s.

Now, Warner Home Entertainment has released Captain Planet the Complete Franchise, with 41 hours and 31 minutes of environmental goodness. For silly legal reasons, the show has two titles evenly split among its six seasons: Captain Planet and the Planeteers (animated by Dic) and The New Adventures of Captain Planet (animated by Hanna-Barbera) for the final three seasons.

Gaia, the spirit of Earth, was voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, who set the tone and standard for the entire series. She was accompanied by a voice cast that included Margot Kidder...

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60 years ago this September, Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name stepped on screen for the first time in Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars." It would be a few more years until the low-budget Spaghetti Western made it to America, but the actor's star power and the director's talents were instantly recognizable for early adopters – even if critics took longer to get on board. By the time Leone had released two more Eastwood-led films, rounding out what became known as the Dollars Trilogy, Eastwood's narrowed eyes and steely attitude had become a fundamental image of the movie cowboy.

The Dollars trilogy, which continued with "For A Few Dollars More" and concluded in 1966 with "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," is now celebrated as one of the best on-screen Western sagas of all time. The genre would...

Let’s say that, in January of 1972, you had never heard a note of Kris Kristofferson’s music. You didn’t know the former helicopter pilot and Rhodes scholar had written “Me and Bobby McGee,” which Janis Joplin had turned into her signature song. Or “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” which he gave to Johnny Cash after allegedly landing a whirlybird in the Man in Black’s backyard. (Print the legend.) Or “Once More With Feeling,” “For the Good Times,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” or a number of...

Kris Kristofferson, the legendary “outlaw” country singer-songwriter and actor, died this weekend at 88. Kristofferson won four Grammys throughout his career, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. He was a member of The Highwaymen, a platinum-selling country music supergroup that also featured Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, and many of his songs were covered by other artists to great success including Cash (“Sunday Morning Coming Down”), Janis Joplin (“Me and Bobby McGee”), Al Green (“For The Good Times”), and Gladys Knight (“Help Me Make it Through the Night”) just to scratch the surface.

In the early 1970s, as his recording career began taking off, he began appearing in films. His first credit was in Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie” and then he starred in Sam Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” with James Coburn and Bob Dylan. In 1974 he co-starred opposite Ellen Burstyn (who won an...

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

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

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

Now who doesn’t know Clint Eastwood, an actor and director who pretty much revolutionized the face of Hollywood with his acting and directing talent. A one-of-a-kind star, it wasn’t until he was cast in Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars that he received the much-needed break that would enable him to become an enduring cultural icon of masculinity.

Clint Eastwood | Credits: Gran Torino / Warner Bros Pictures

One of the most iconic collaborations in the history of films, A Fistful of Dollars, not only put Eastwood on the map but also revolutionized the Western genre and the era of ‘Spaghetti Westerns’. However, the film wouldn’t probably have made it so far if hadn’t been for the brilliance of Eastwood, who was a compromise ‘cast’ after Leone failed to sign his first choice.

Sergio Leone on Casting Clint Eastwood in His Breakthrough Role Clint Eastwood in a...

The 1990s were a fantastic time for Nicolas Cage and a decade that featured some of his greatest film roles. After building up his reputation throughout the 1980s, this was the era that Cage really broke into the mainstream to become a household name and one of the biggest movie stars Hollywood had ever seen. Not only did this period feature his Oscar-winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas, but Cage also proved his skills as a major action hero in a number of now-iconic movies, including Con Air and Face/Off.

Many of the best Nicolas Cage movies were released during the 1990s, as he proved himself a sternly committed actor willing to take serious risks. While there were some truly disappointing releases during this decade, the fact that Cage was willing to fail and come back swinging proved him an actor of great determination and ability. The 1990s was a...

With things constantly being swapped out or deleted from your favorite streaming service, a commitment to physical media should be stronger now than ever before. And thankfully both big studios and smaller boutique labels understand how important physical releases are.

We are running down the very best 4K Blu-ray and DVD releases from July and August 2024.

“Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” MGM

One of the most hotly anticipated home video releases of the year is here – and it was worth the wait. Sam Peckinpah’s highly contested western, about an older Pat Garrett (James Coburn) hired to track down and kill Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson), was taken away from the filmmaker in post-production and released in a truncated version that he and several of the cast and crew members outspokenly derided. This Criterion release acknowledges and engages with the various iterations of the movie, with 4K discs devoted...

Clint Eastwood’s rise to global stardom wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. Before becoming the icon he is renowned as today, the actor’s initial days in showbiz saw him working as a contract actor for Universal, which didn’t last long, as he was eventually fired for his Adam’s apple, which Universal claimed stuck out too far.

Clint Eastwood in a still from A Fistful of Dollars | Credit: United Artists

But the setback didn’t hold his career back for too long as he’d soon land his breakout role and later headlined the iconic Dollars trilogy. However, his success outside Hollywood did little to garner him roles when he returned.

Clint Eastwood’s Success Overseas Didn’t Get the Ball Rolling in Hollywood

After rising to prominence following his stint in the CBS hour-long western series Rawhide, which he wasn’t particularly fond of, the actor then...

Harrison Ford has long been one of the biggest names in Hollywood, but he was lucky enough to have his onscreen debut in a movie starring one of the biggest acting legends of the Western movie genre. The figure in question may have been in a role outside the genre he's most known for, but it was still a brilliant opportunity for Ford to be part of the same cast. The movie in question doesn't come anywhere near Harrison Ford's best movies. In fact, it can scarcely be described as one of "his" movies at all, but it remains a vital career milestone for the veteran actor.

Ford has shared the screen with huge names throughout his career and has become an icon himself in that time. Even in the present day, he continues to make movies and TV shows alongside other incredibly successful actors - some of whom weren't...

Midway boasts a stellar ensemble cast with Hollywood legends like Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda leading the charge. Despite lukewarm reviews, the film was a box office success, grossing $66.4 million against a $4 million budget. Some up-and-coming actors, like Erik Estrada and Tom Selleck, had small roles in Midway before becoming big stars in the future.

Although it was met with mostly negative reviews from critics upon its release, 1976s Midway is surprisingly one of the most star-studded war movies of all time. Directed by Jack Smight, best known for helming Airport 1975, Midway dramatizes the Battle of Midway, which marked a major turning point in the Pacific Theater of Operations in the Second World War. It wasnt the first (or last) movie to chronicle the game-changing Battle of Midway the most recent one arrived in 2019 but it is one of the ones with the most famous actors in its cast.

When it was first released,...

Kino Lorber has acquired the North American rights to Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, which reteams Richard Gere with Schrader after their collaboration on American Gigolo.

Gere plays an American documentarian who relocated to Montreal as a Vietnam draft refugee and attempts to set the record straight in one final interview. The film, which portrays a man contemplating his legacy while facing the end of his life, co-stars Uma Thurman, Jacob Elordi, and Michael Imperioli and premiered in competition in Cannes.

“Oh, Canada is a stunning artistic achievement by the great Paul Schrader, a poignant, formally daring rumination on aging, memory, and mortality anchored by a commanding performance from Richard Gere,” said Kino Lorber head of theatrical acquisitions and distribution Lisa Schwartz in a statement.

Oh, Canada will screen at the Toronto Film Festival and the New York Film Festival ahead of Kino Lorber planning an awards season theatrical release this December.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is now available in the Criterion Collection.

Sam Peckinpah is extremely relevant to my evolution as a cinephile. Straw Dogs was the first Criterion Release I ever owned, given to me as a birthday gift many years ago by a film-loving friend who introduced me to many important films I might not have seen otherwise. I was captivated by the film’s brutality and depth. These are themes that define most Peckinpah films and part of what makes him such a controversial, yet important, filmmaker. Surprisingly, this was my first viewing of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Unsurprisingly, it delivered exactly what I wanted from a gritty 70’s western directed by one of the strongest auteurs of his time.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid plot

When Pat Garrett (James Coburn) takes on the role of Sheriff, he’s tasked with bringing in...

Personally and professionally, Sam Peckinpah was running on fumes by the time he made 1973’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Years of substance abuse left the director in such fragile health that he spent some days on the production’s Mexico locations filming from a hospital bed, and his dilapidated condition only exacerbated his notoriously combative personality and contributed to the film’s budget and schedule overruns. Infuriated by the escalating expense of the production and set on an arbitrary runtime ceiling, MGM took over editing before Peckinpah could finish the job and released a hastily assembled 106-minute version that hit theaters to indifferent reviews and middling returns. Only in 1988, four years after the director’s death, did the film gain stature as one of his finest works thanks to the release of a rough, never-finalized preview cut prepared by Peckinpah.

An account of the final days of the...

Eddie Murphy considers The Nutty Professor his best performance due to the dual roles and makeup. The 1996 film was a box office hit but divided audience opinions. Murphy's comeback includes recent projects with Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.

Eddie Murphy recently shared an opinion on which of his own performances he prefers over any other, and the result could be surprising to many. It seems that his 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor is the movie that Murphy holds in the highest regard among his many movie roles, despite the film being heavily criticized by audiences on its release.

The Nutty Professor was originally a 1963 movie starring Jerry Lewis, one of the legendary actors most memorable comedies. In Murphys version, he plays Sherman Klump, a professor who is loveable and large, but not in any way an outgoing kind of guy. When he discovers a chemical formula that transforms him...

Eddie Murphy considers The Nutty Professor his best performance due to transformative makeups by Rick Baker. He believes few other actors could play the role of Sherman Klump like he did. Murphy has other iconic roles, including Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop and Donkey in the Shrek series.

Eddie Murphy explains why he thinks The Nutty Professor is his best performance of all time. A remake of the 1963 film of the same name, 1996's The Nutty Professor, sees Murphy playing Sherman Klump, an obese and lovable professor that discovers a unique chemical that magically induces his weight loss. In addition to Murphy, the film featured a leading cast including Jada Pinkett Smith, James Coburn, Larry Miller, Dave Chapelle, and John Ales. The Nutty Professor was well-liked during the time of its release, and inspired the sequel Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.

Speaking with The New York Times, Murphy explains...

Monsters, Inc. 2 can finally address Sulley and Boo's reunion following the first film's cliffhanger ending. Disney previously scrapped a devastating sequel idea where Boo would have died. Pixar must make sure Monsters, Inc. 2 lives up to the original film's high standard.

A Monsters, Inc. sequel has been a long time coming, and although Pixar hasn't officially confirmed another movie, one has been teased, hopefully finally paying off the original film's ending. The 2001 animated comedy, directed by Pete Docter, was only the fourth Pixar movie ever made, following in the footsteps of Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2. Although Monsters, Inc. is one of Pixar's oldest films, it's still among the animation company's best. It deserves a sequel, which must live up to the hype that's been building since Monsters, Inc. ended on a cliffhanger 23 years ago.

Monsters, Inc. was Pete Docter's feature directorial debut, and...

John Sturges' "The Magnificent Seven" is one of the best Westerns of all time. We are bound by the Unspoken Rules of the Internet to acknowledge that the film is a loose remake of Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai," and Kurosawa himself found it "disappointing, but entertaining." With all due respect to the Japanese master, though, "The Magnificent Seven" is a banger. Led by a stalwart cast that serves as a who's who of 1960s manly men, including Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Horst Buchholz, Brad Dexter, and Charles Bronson, the plot follows a small Mexican village that's being terrorized by a gang of bandits led by a guy named Calvera, played Eli Wallach. With their backs against the wall, the villagers decide to hire a group of seven gunslingers to protect them, and the stage is set for an inevitable showdown.

Brynner and McQueen butted heads behind the scenes,...

Sister Act 3 script is complete, according to Sister Act 2 star Tanya Trotter. Trotter expresses eagerness for the collaboration with the legendary Whoopi Goldberg in the upcoming sequel. Tyler Perry shares frustration over Sister Act 3 script revisions, emphasizing the importance of doing justice to the iconic film.

Fans of the Sister Act series have reason to celebrate as Sister Act 3 inches ever closer to fruition. Sister Act 2 star Tanya Trotter recently shared some exciting news about the progress of the much-anticipated sequel.

During an interview with Et (via Entertainment Weekly), Trotter revealed that the script for Sister Act 3 is finally complete. While she remained tight-lipped about her involvement in the upcoming film, her enthusiasm was evident, saying:

Well, I can't say [whether or not I'm a part of it], but I do know that the script is done.

The prospect of returning to the beloved franchise is clearly something Trotter is eager for, especially if...

How would you like to spend a special Father’s Day with your dad? Here’s a suggestion — why not sit down for a couple of hours and watch one of these movies that’s all about fathers, both terrific and horrible? Our ranked photo gallery above includes many fine suggestions, all of which feature an Oscar-winning performance by an actor who plays a father where that role was pivotal to the plot.

Though there are thousands of films in which one character happens to be a father, you won’t find them all on this list. Besides the fact that these 17 films contain a paternal performance that won an Academy Award, they show a wide array of what it means to be a father. There’s the courageous father, the inspirational dad, the loving father and even the monstrous father. Lead and supporting actors include Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day-Lewis,...

When Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni were writing the screenplay for their 1954 epic "Seven Samurai," they couldn't have predicted its lasting influence on cinema. Not only did Kurosawa's masterful direction alter and revolutionize the way action sequences would be shot, but the premise became a reliable and lasting template that multiple other filmmakers would employ in the ensuing decades. For those unlucky enough to have never seen "Seven Samurai," the setup is simple: a remote farming village is regularly looted by passing bandits, leaving them destitute. Unable to withstand another attack, the villagers gather up their modest means and hire seven rogue samurai to protect them. The samurai know that the job won't pay, but each one has their own reasons for joining the cause. Using their cunning and limited means, the samurai repel the bandit attack.

Most recently, the "Seven Samurai" premise was transposed onto Zack Snyder's "Rebel Moon.

Paul Schrader’s 1999 adaptation of novelist Russell Banks’ Affliction, led by scorching performances from Nick Nolte and James Coburn, was an unsettlingly bleak meeting of two writers who share a fascination with conflicted morality and complicated relationships pushed to dark extremes. But Schrader’s return to the late author’s work, this time the 2021 novel Foregone, yields fewer rewards. For a film about big themes like mortality, memory, truth and redemption, Oh, Canada feels both slight and stubbornly page-bound, too unsatisfyingly fleshed out to give its actors meat to chew on.

Published two years before Banks’ death in early 2023, the book is an intimate portrait of a man contemplating his legacy while approaching the end of his life. It’s easy to see what drew Schrader to the story, given his own pandemic health scares and the diagnosis of his wife, the actress Mary Beth Hurt, with Alzheimer’s. But...

Hard to believe it has been 44 years since Paul Schrader and star Richard Gere last worked together on 1980’s seminal American Gigolo, a film that became not just a keystone in Gere’s celebrated career but also one for one Schrader’s as one of his earliest directorial credits. Of course he has written some of the great screenplays, particularly in his collaborations with Martin Scorsese on Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and Taxi Driver. But it is what interests him now a half century later as a writer-director that continues to fascinate.

In recent years that has included insular works like The Card Counter, Master Gardener and the critically acclaimed First Reformed. Now he has returned to more of what he labels a “mosaic,” in this case a movie made up of pieces of a life put under a cinematic microscope at different periods, all moving in...