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Who can forget the delightful hitchhiking scene in It Happened One Night, or Clarence the angel earning his wings in It’s a Wonderful Life, or Mr. Smith collapsing in the midst of his epic filibuster in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington?

Those black and white moments and the films they’re a part of are deeply embedded in our collective cultural memory, all crafted by an unlikely cinematic author: Frank Capra, a diminutive immigrant from Sicily, born to uneducated parents, who appeared destined not for a life in the dream factory of Hollywood, but a faceless working stiff’s existence.

Frank Capra in 1937

Capra not only achieved great success as a director, winning three Academy Awards, but his films managed to capture a basic Americanness, bedrock qualities the mass of people wanted to believe about themselves in the 1930s and ‘40s – resilient, altruistic, and optimistic despite enormous hardships.

Frank Capra: Mr.

MGM has acquired “Minamata” starring Johnny Depp that will be released by MGM’s American International Pictures (Aip) label on Feb. 5, 2021, according to an individual with knowledge of the project. Additionally, MGM also acquired all rights to “Minamata” in Canada, Germany and Switzerland

The film received its World Premiere as a Berlinale Special Gala as part of the Berlin International Film Festival 2020. Depp received some of the best reviews of his career for portraying photojournalist Eugene Smith.

Per the film’s description, inspired by a true story, Depp plays W. Eugene Smith, a war photographer from World War II, who in 1971, goes up against a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan. With the glory days of World War II far behind him, Smith has become a recluse, disconnected from society and his career. But an old friend and a commission from “Life Magazine” editor Ralph Graves...

Johnny Depp has signed on the dotted line to play war photographer W. Eugene Smith in the independent drama ‘Minamata’.

Based on the book by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith, the film will centre on Smith’s work as a photographer for Life magazine in exposing the poisoning of the people of Minamata, Japan. It will focus on Smith’s life after World War II when an old friend and a commission from Life Magazine editor Ralph Graves convinces him to journey back to Japan to expose a big story: the devastating annihilation of a coastal community through mercury poisoning.

Andrew Levitas will direct. The movie has been developed by Depp’s production entity Infinitum Nihil and is produced by Sam Sarkar, Bill Johnson and Andrew Levitas. Jason Forman and Stephen Deuters will executive produce.

Also in the news – Hans Zimmer joins original Top Gun composer, Harold Faltermeyer...

Johnny Depp has joined a film project called Minamata in which he will play war photographer W. Eugene Smith. Depp has been doing a lot of big tent pole films in recent years, but he’s going back to his indie film roots with this one.

The film will center on Smith’s work as a photographer for Life magazine in exposing the poisoning of the people of Minamata, Japan.

The story will start with Smith as a recluse, with the glory days of World War II far behind him. But an old friend and a commission from Life Magazine editor Ralph Graves convince him to journey back to Japan to expose a big story: the devastating annihilation of a coastal community through mercury poisoning.

The movie is based on the book by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith and the film is being adapted by director Andrew Levitas (Lullaby) and screenwriter David K.

Johnny Depp has come on board to star as war photographer W. Eugene Smith in the independent drama “Minamata.”

The film will center on Smith’s work as a photographer for Life magazine in exposing the poisoning of the people of Minamata, Japan. Andrew Levitas will direct the film, which is based on the book by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith and adapted by David K. Kessler.

The story will start with Smith as a recluse, with the glory days of World War II far behind him. But an old friend and a commission from Life Magazine editor Ralph Graves convince him to journey back to Japan to expose a big story: the devastating annihilation of a coastal community through mercury poisoning. “Minamata” will start principal production in Japan followed by Serbia in January.

HanWay Films will handle international sales and distribution and will commence sales at the American Film Market,...

Johnny Depp has been set to star as celebrated photographer W. Eugene Smith in movie Minamata, which HanWay Films will launch at the upcoming Afm.

Andrew Levitas (Lullaby) will direct Minamata based on the book of the same name by Aileen Mioko Smith and Smith and adapted by David K. Kessler (A Hard Day’s Day). Shoot is due to begin in Japan followed by Serbia in January 2019.

The film will follow the reclusive Smith after his celebrated exploits during the Second World War as he travels to Japan in the 1970s to fulfill a commission from Life editor Ralph Graves. Armed with only his trusted Nikon camera he goes there to document the Minamata disease scandal: an annihilation of a coastal community by the Chisso Corporation’s negligent mercury poisoning and local police and government cover-ups. The victims’ case against the corporation responsible for the environmental disaster represents one...

Johnny Depp will star as a real-life war photographer W. Eugene Smith in “Minamata,” which takes place in Japan in 1971.

Andrew Levitas will direct the film based on the book of the same name by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith and adapted by David K. Kessler.

“Minamata” will start principal production in Japan and then in Serbia in January 2019.

Also Read: Johnny Depp to Produce and Star in 'Waiting for the Barbarians' in Production Partnership with Andrea Iervolino

Per the film’s description, Depp plays W. Eugene Smith, a war photographer from World War II, who in 1971, goes up against a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan. With the glory days of World War II far behind him, Smith has become a recluse, disconnected from society and his career. But an old friend and a commission from “Life Magazine” editor Ralph Graves...

Comedy actress Alice Howell on the cover of film historian Anthony Slide's latest book: Pioneering funky-haired performer 'could have been Chaplin' – or at the very least another Louise Fazenda. Rediscovering comedy actress Alice Howell: Female performer in movie field dominated by men Early comedy actress Alice Howell is an obscure entity even for silent film aficionados. With luck, only a handful of them will be able to name one of her more than 100 movies, mostly shorts – among them Sin on the Sabbath, A Busted Honeymoon, How Stars Are Made – released between 1914 and 1920. Yet Alice Howell holds (what should be) an important – or at the very least an interesting – place in film history. After all, she was one of the American cinema's relatively few pioneering “funny actresses,” along with the likes of the better-known Flora Finch, Louise Fazenda, and, a top star in her day, Mabel Normand.[1] Also of note,...

Kitty Gordon: Actress in silent movies and on the musical comedy stage. Rediscovering a long-forgotten silent film star: Kitty Gordon It seems almost unthinkable that there are still silent stars who have not been resurrected, their lives and films subject to detailed, if not always reliable, examination. Yet I am reminded by Michael Levenston, a Canadian who has compiled what is best described as a “scrapbook” of her life and career, that there is one such individual – and not just a “name” in silent films, but also from 1901 onwards famed as a singer/actress in musical comedy and on the vaudeville stage in both her native England and the United States. And she is Kitty Gordon (1878-1974). 'The Enchantress' and her $50,000 backside Kitty Gordon was a talented lady, so much so that Victor Herbert wrote the 1911 operetta The Enchantress for her; one who also had a “gimmick,” in that...

Brigitte Helm in Fritz Lang's Metropolis (top); Jack Holt, Fay Wray in Frank Capra's Dirigible (middle); Walter Huston, Barry Fitzgerald, Roland Young, Louis Hayward, Judith Anderson in René Clair's And Then There Were None (bottom) London's BFI Southbank will be screening several Frank Capra efforts today and on Saturday, in addition to films based on Agatha Christie's works and the restored Metropolis. Most notable among those screenings is probably a 1986 British television production named Shades of Darkness: Agatha Christie’s The Last Séance. Directed by June Wyndham-Davies, the 50-minute show stars Jeanne Moreau in a "suitably spooky, at times surreal" supernatural tale about spiritualism. Frank Capra will be represented with Dirigible (1931), an early adventure tale set in the South Pole that features Fay Wray sandwiched between popular late-'20s players Jack Holt and Ralph Graves; The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932), an overbaked interethnic romance-drama-tragedy starring...