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On this day (Sept 1st) in showbiz history...

1934 Metro Goldwyn Mayer releases their first animated short, The Discontented Canary. It wasn't Oscar nominated but they soon begin to crash Walt Disney's stranglehold on that particular category back then, with nearly annual nominations (for a time) beginning in 1939 (Peace on Earth) and regular wins in the 1940s thanks largely to the Tom & Jerry series. 

1952 Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is first published. It wins the Pulitzer and gets adapted to the movies twice, the first time as a feature in 1958 with Spencer Tracy and the second time as an Oscar winning Russian animated short in 1999 which was painted on glass. 

1977 Blondie signed their first major record company contract. Whatever happened to that Debbie Harry biopic we were supposed to get? Wasn't it going to star Kiki Dunst or was that just our Tfe fantasy?

2004 Mike Leigh's...

I’m guessing that you, just like most of us, have always had seasonal favorites when it comes to movies that attempt to address and evoke the spirit of Christmas. Like most from my generation, when I was a kid I learned the pleasures of perennial anticipation of Christmastime as interpreted by TV through a series of holiday specials, like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and even musical variety hours where the likes of Bing Crosby and Andy Williams and Dean Martin et al would sit around sets elaborately designed to represent the ideal Christmas-decorated living room, drinking “wassail” (I’m sure that’s what was in those cups) and crooning classics of the season alongside a dazzling array of guests. (We knew we were moving into a new world of holiday cheer when David Bowie joined Bing Crosby for...

Two months after she was held at gunpoint and robbed in her Paris apartment, Kim Kardashian West has re-emerged in a very sexy video.

The 36-year-old TV personality is the star of Day 12 in Love magazine’s advent calendar, taking the publication’s steamy countdown to Christmas closer to Santa’s workshop with a video set against a backdrop of the Northern Lights.

Kardashian West strikes a series of poses in a luxurious fur coat and tan lingerie. For the majority of the video, she maintains eye contact with the camera while seductively revealing glimpses of her figure.

The video,...

Guy Buckland Dec 15, 2016

Widescreen televisions showing 4:3 TV shows? Why Christmas is the season of family aspect ratio arguments...

It’s well into December, so we can finally talk about Christmas.

Granted, many people – most notably those with commercial interests – have been talking about Christmas for quite some time already. However, I’m one of those crazy types that prefer to condense ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ into an adequately concentrated period of time, that it maintains its joy-giving potency up to and including Jesus’ birthday.

But as far as I’m concerned, once you’ve opened that first door on your advent calendar and retrieved the first indistinguishably-shaped chocolate from its plastic mould (or simply appreciated the hand drawn illustration if you’ve got a classy one) then we can talk about something festive.

And I would very much like to talk about aspect ratios.

You see,...

When MGM was almost a ghost town, the Arthur Freed unit hit one last 'special' factory musical out of the park with this strangely melancholy ode to faded ambitions. Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd put in great, memorable work, while the glorious Dolores Gray is practically a living Tex Avery cartoon. And it's designed in wide, wide CinemaScope. It's Always Fair Weather Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date November, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Dolores Gray, Michael Kidd Cinematography Robert Bronner Art Direction Cedric Gibbons, Arthur Lonergan Film Editor Adrienne Fazan Original Music André Previn Written by Betty Comden & Adolph Green Produced by Arthur Freed, Roger Edens Directed & Choreographed by Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Back in the late 1980s, I first became aware of the future of home video when Criterion introduced...

In the long list of David Bowie's collaborators - Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Queen, Trent Reznor, TV on the Radio - there's one slightly odd standout: Bing Crosby. And the pair's duet on "Little Drummer Boy" for the 1977 TV special Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas has indeed become something of an outlier in Bowie's career, landing as it did in the middle of Bowie's particularly strange - even for him - late '70s run, that found him making stark, groundbreaking albums like Low while sequestered in Berlin. The clip usually pops up around Christmas every year as part of All-Things-Bowie Internet round-ups,...

In the long list of David Bowie's collaborators - Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Queen, Trent Reznor, TV on the Radio - there's one slightly odd standout: Bing Crosby. And the pair's duet on "Little Drummer Boy" for the 1977 TV special Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas has indeed become something of an outlier in Bowie's career, landing as it did in the middle of Bowie's particularly strange - even for him - late '70s run, that found him making stark, groundbreaking albums like Low while sequestered in Berlin. The clip usually pops up around Christmas every year as part of All-Things-Bowie Internet round-ups,...

Fa la la la Lyons!

The first family of Fox is bringing its chart-topping musical swag to the holidays in the news special Taraji and Terrence's White Hot Holidays, and People has an exclusive First Look!

Hip-hop soap opera Empire really has been the gift that's kept on giving this year, and now stars Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard are channeling Kanye and Kim Kardashian West for a skit in their upcoming holiday special, to boot.

When the on-screen exes aren't spoofing pop culture, their TV sons Jussie Smollett and Bryshere "Yazz" Gray are also taking the stage in the musical and variety extravaganza.

25 years ago today, Kathy Bates thoroughly creeped us out when her breakthrough film “Misery” opened in theaters. The film is based on the 1987 psychological horror novel by Stephen King about a famous author who’s rescued from a car crash by his fan (more like fanatic), Annie. Soon the romance novelist (played by James Caan) realizes Annie is less caretaker and more psychotic captor. “Misery” earned Bates an Academy Award for her role as Annie. She’s since returned to the genre that gave her an Oscar with a starring role in Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story.” Bates recently showed how much she embraces the legacy of her “Misery” character when she told Entertainment Weekly, “‘I decided when I die, it’s going to be Kathy ‘Misery’ Bates. You know how they do, in People magazine, it’ll be ‘Kathy ‘Misery’ Bates passed away.’” Other notable November 30 happenings in pop culture history.

A review of tonight's "The Leftovers" coming up just as soon as I ask you something stupid... "Have you ever heard of someone being responsible for someone's Departure?" -Nora When "The Leftovers" replaced its original theme song this season with Iris DeMent's "Let the Mystery Be," it was the show's most explicit statement yet not to expect any kind of concrete explanations for the Sudden Departure. At the same time, season 2 opened with plenty of new mysteries about life in and around Jarden, with images like Jerry slaughtering a goat in the diner, or the woman posing for photos in her wedding gown, or Erika digging up the box with the bird all raising questions we probably shouldn't have expected the show to answer. Yet it has, to varying degrees. Two weeks ago, Patti told Kevin that Evie and her friends Departed, though there remains the very large question...

Awaiting Interreflections…

Peter Joseph’s highly anticipated new film series inches towards its 2016 release.

By Alex Simon

In a time of great social strife and growing inequality and public outcry, it’s no wonder Peter Joseph's work has gained more and more prominence in the counter-culture each year. Love him or hate him, Joseph continues to challenge the “zeitgeist”, leading the charge towards a new society. Art is his weapon… and the thousands of dedicated fans don’t hurt either.

Peter Joseph is a producer who created the Zeitgeist Film Trilogy, a series of films critical of society and culture. These works exploded online starting in 2007 with millions of views and can now be found in major media outlets such as Netflix. His third film, Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, had the largest grassroots, non-profit theatrical release in history, with almost 350 screenings in 60 countries in 25 languages. While I may not agree with everything in his films,...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Revisit 1939, Hollywood’s Greatest Year, with 4 New Blu-ray™ Debuts

The Golden Year Collection June 9

Features Newly Restored Blu-ray Debut of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Starring Charles Laughton, and Blu-ray Debuts of – Bette Davis’ Dark Victory, Errol Flynn’s Dodge City and Greta Garbo’s Ninotchka. Collection also includes Gone With the Wind.

Burbank, Calif. March 10, 2015 – On June 9, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will celebrate one of the most prolific twelve months in Hollywood’s history with the 6-disc The Golden Year Collection. Leading the five-film set will be the Blu-ray debut of

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in a new restoration which will have its world premiere at TCM’s Classic Film Festival beginning March 26 in Los Angeles. Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara star in Victor Hugo’s tragic tale which William Dieterle directed.

The other films featured in the Wbhe...

Whether you have fans of The Walking Dead comic book series on your shopping list this holiday season or you want to surprise an unsuspecting loved one with a zombified season’s greeting, the fine folks at Skybound have you covered, as they recently released two new The Walking Dead comic book holiday cards to go along with the batch they debuted last year.

The two new holiday cards include panels from recent issues of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, with one card featuring The Whisperers. Below, we have the full gallery of cards—both old and new—that you can browse through and share online, as well as print links for high-resolution versions if you’d like to use them as stocking stuffers. We want to give a big thanks to TheWalkingDead.com for working on these and sharing them with fans of The Walking Dead around the world.

There are a lot of traditions that come along with the holidays. Eating too much, spending too much, drinking too much, saying too much to that family member you hate once drunk, decorating too much. Anything that ends with us hating ourselves come New Year’s? We are all over it like ornament glitter on Goddamn Everything. For decades, one tradition that has taken root is gathering around the light of the television to watch Christmas specials. As such, certain ones have risen to the top of our frenetic desire to Christmas Harder. Anything claymation from the 1960s (Rudolph, Frosty, Santa Claus), the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, and somehow the California Raisins are among the most instantly recognized animated holiday shows. But they’re far from the only ones. Below, I’ve collected several of the more obscure bursts of nostalgia available for your pleasure on YouTube. Sadly, both The...

Today Warner Bros. announced the sequel to Man of Steel would be called Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the Internet immediately lost its mind and pounced on the title like a bunch of ghouls feasting on a newborn. And as I watched the vitriol flow across social media, all I could do is sit back and wonder why everyone is so angry all of the time these days. Maybe it's because I'm not a comics guy. I didn't grow up reading them, and as an adult I've only read a few of the more acclaimed comic runs. But can someone please explain to me what is so deeply offensive and noncomic booky about the subtitle Dawn of Justice? How is it a betrayal of characters that have had celebrated comic subtitles like Superman: Peace on Earth, Batman: Blind Justice or Wonder...

Read More...

If the tone of Amends was Peace On Earth: Goodwill To All Men With Brooding Scowls and Copious Amounts Of Hair Gel, then Gingerbread's tone is a little less forgiving. It's a curious tale, and one that follows a familiar Buffy The Vampire Slayer pattern of starting out as something unnervingly startling and then turning into something totally different halfway through. The overall picture with Gingerbread is a look at the dangers of mob mentality and bandwagon jumping – it pulls no punches, but at the same time, it's a thoughtful and frequently very funny tale that manages to keep the momentum of the impressive third season.

Gingerbread starts out with the horrific discovery of two dead young kids. It's too bad that Joyce, having chosen to accompany Buffy on patrol, with a packet of food and a flask of drink, has made this awful find. The death of a...

Aca-mazing! ‘The Sing-Off’ crowned its fourth winner during an epic Dec. 23 finale that was filled with holiday cheer, glitter, and ’80s icons. Find out who took home the top honors under the jump!

The Sing-Off‘s fourth season has been its best yet, so the final competition between country group Home Free, high schoolers Vocal Rush, and gospel collective Ten was intense. But who took home the $100,000 prize and a recording contract with Sony Music?

‘The Sing-Off’ Season 4 Finale: Home Free Wins Take Our Poll

Country crooners Home Free are definitely having themselves a Merry Little Christmas! The group performed “I Want Crazy” during the first round, then teamed up with judge Jewel for “Have a Merry Little Christmas” during the second.

In second place were Ten, who sang “Joyful Joyful” with Boyz II Men legend Shawn Stockman and then Beyonce‘s “Love On Top.” Vocal Rush came in third place,...

It's the holiday season and "Psych" stars James Roday and Dule Hill, in keeping with the comedy's nod to all things '80s, have put together their Top 10 Christmas Songs list -- but only with songs from the 1980s, of course.

Because really, the '80s are the best.

"Psych" just aired its fabulous musical episode and returns with Season 8 on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 10 p.m. Et/Pt on USA. Now, with no further ado, here are Roday and Hill's favorite Christmas songs, 1980s-style.

"Funky, Funky Christmas" by New Kids on the Block

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Mel Smith and Kim Wilde

"Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" by Bruce Springsteen

"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" by Elmo & Patsy

"Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band-Aid

"Jingle Bell Rock" by Hall and Oates 

"Christmas in Hollis" by Run-dmc 

"Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses 

"Peace on Earth...

The Twelve Days of Christmas Classics is on! EW is putting the best versions of the most-covered Christmas songs up to a daily vote to compile the ultimate holiday playlist. (We’ve already covered “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “The Christmas Song,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and “Let It Snow!”) If your favorite singer isn’t in the list below, you better not pout: Each artist will only appear once throughout the 12 days. Listen to our top six, vote for your favorite, and let us know why you made your pick in the comments below.

Update: The poll is closed below,...

Below is the Dance Camera West Film Festival schedule which starts today at the Music Center! It's funny, sexy, and endlessly resourceful. Presenting sponsors Music Center, Lacma, The Getty Museum and Annenberg Beach House.

"No venue or series offers a more exciting array of major international choreographers… Stunning in its variety… Powerful performances…Consistently surprising… Funny, sexy and endlessly resourceful…"

- Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times

"Dance Camera West seems to me to be the best festival anywhere in the world."

– Bob Lockyer, Executive Producer, BBC

Dcw 2013 Festival Schedule

Thursday May 2nd Opening Night Shorts Program at Music Center Rigler “Peace on Earth” Fountain 7:00-7:15pm Get Wet Dance Series – Choreographed by Sarah Elgart 8:00pm Opening night shorts series in The Music Center’s Eva and Marc Stern Grand Hall 9:00pm Opening Night Party & Meet the Filmmakers in the Founders Room

Friday May 3rd Day Program at Lacma The "Wilshire Stairs" Fountain 3:00-3:15pm Get Wet Dance Series - Choreographed by Tony Testa 3:30pm Two Sink, Three Float Short film by Satya Roosens, Surface Tension Short film by Mark Teague and documentary Still Moving: Pilobolus at Forty followed by Q&A with filmmaker Jeffrey Ruoff.

In the 1970s, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA, four male athletes joined a dance class. Their collaborative work led to the creation of Pilobolus and the transformation of modern dance.

5:00pm ProMotion Youth Competition Award Featuring winner of Dcw Pro Motion Youth 2013 & winners of Capturing Motion 2013 from Dfa in NYC 5:30pm Check Your Body At the Door filmmaker Sally Sommer, followed by a Q & A with associate producer Alessandra Larson and dancers, Brahms "Bravo" Lafortune and Conrad Rochester. Check Your Body at the Door is a documentary about remarkable underground House dancers in NYC. Filmed during the golden decade of the 1990s, it follows a core group of master free-stylists in to the clubs, at their jobs and in their everyday lives. Also filmed in the studio against a white background, in silhouette or in light pools, their virtuosic moves and choreography are striking.

Friday May 3Rd Evening Program at Lacma The "Wilshire Stairs" Fountain 6:45-7:00pm Get Wet Series - Choreographed by Tony Testa 7:30 Wet Short film by Daniel Mollner 7:30pm The Man Behind the Throne filmmaker Kersti Grunditz, followed by a Q&A with Vincent Paterson.

Following the life and work of director/choreographer Vincent Paterson. Who has created for Michael Jackson, Madonna and Cirque De Soleil.

Saturday May 4th Early Evening Program at The Getty Museum 4:00pm-4:30pm Get Wet Series- Director/Choreographers Daniel Ezralow and Kitty McNamee 5:00-6:30pm Site and Architecture screenings (International short & long-short film selection) Followed by a Q & A with the filmmakers. 7:00pm-7:30pm Get Wet Series- Director/Choreographers Daniel Ezralow and Kitty McNamee

Sunday May 5th Evening Program at Annenberg Beach House 5-7pm Dance Confessional Booth Dance Confession Booth will be on site for audience members (before and after the screenings) to make their own impromtu dances and view on our website. All are welcome! 6:30-7:00pm: Panel Discussion "Choreography & Environment." Local choreographers, dance film directors, and environmental experts discuss art and resource conservation, and how the art of dance can bring about awareness of environmental issues. 7:30pm Trashdance filmmaker Andrew Garrison Choreographer Allison Orr finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks and in the men and woman who pick up our trash. (2012 SXSW Special Jury Award)

More Information, Festival Tickets, And All-access Passes Can Be Purchased At www.dancecamerawest.org/tickets...

Chicago – The Chicago Cultural Center, located downtown across from Millennium Park, will be the scene for the fifth annual Peace on Earth Film Festival, a free, open-to-the-public event from Thursday, March 7th through Sunday, March 10th, 2013. All films will be shown at the Claudia Cassidy Theater within the Cultural Center, with films shown all day on Saturday and Sunday.

The film festival, presented by Transcendence Global Media, Nfp, in partnership with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, will feature documentaries, features, shorts and student films on subjects of nonviolence, tolerance, sustainability and social justice. On March 7th, the festival kicked off with two Midwest Premiere documentaries – “A Whisper to a Roar” and “Pad Yatra” – and will continue on March 8th with Latino Night (full schedule below).

Scene from ‘The Second Cooler,’ featured at the Peace on Earth Film Festival

Photo credit: TheSecondCooler.com

The Peace on Earth...

 

Over the holiday season, have a good one and be merry. We will be back blogging in the New Year.

In the mean time have a look at just some of our favourite festive visual treats below, to keep you entertained for the Christmas!

A Muppet Family Christmas

Peace On Earth

 

 Christmas Comes But Once a Year

Star Wars Holiday Special

Nicholas Was

Terry Gilliam - The Christmas Card

Ain't no party like an Arnie Christmas party!

Halle Berry and fiancé Olivier Martinez are looking to make their Christmas more peaceful than their Thanksgiving ... so they're jetting off to France for the holidays.The happy couple was seen yesterday at Lax, sans Nahla, who is staying with daddy Gabriel Aubry for a few days before joining Halle in France later.Peace on Earth and goodwill toward men. Read more...

Carol for Another Christmas, an updating of Dickens by screenwriter Rod Serling and director Joseph H. Mankiewicz, missing in action for 47 years, makes a welcome and timely return by way of TCM this Christmas. It's a fascinating piece, possibly major Serling, though its placement in Mankiewicz's career is a little trickier. As befits the marriage of Dickens and Serling, it's a preachy allegory that relies on sentiment and humanism rather than urging any specific political course. Mankiewicz was rarely an advocate for anything in his movies, but he orchestrates this affair with typical elegance.

Take the phrase "Peace On Earth" as its watchword, the scenario makes Scrooge a wealthy recluse advocating the stockpiling of nuclear weapons and a foreign policy that combines isolationism with "get our retaliation in first" belligerence. The casting of Sterling Hayden in this role, very satisfactory in itself, has the additional effect of evoking memories of Dr. Strangelove,...

Whatculture! will return you to your regular internet browsing after this brief commercial interruption.

Compiled here, you’ll find some of the most cherished, and enduring Christmas commercials of all time. It’s fitting that we stop and pay tribute as the holiday commercials that have accompanied our favourite Christmas TV specials over the years have become just as much of a tradition as the shows themselves.

Yes, of course I know about concerns about the commercialization of Christmas and all that stuff, but really it doesn’t bother me like it used to. Stores spend all year advertising and trying to get us to buy their wares, so why should we expect them to stop around Christmas?

And in all honesty, it is only around Christmas that advertising takes on a different tone: there is an element of caring, joy, peace, and wonder that seems to emanate from even...

It's that time of year again, when stars leave their bubbles of fabulousness to visit the mortal realm in order to not eat turkey with their families. In a show of solidarity with us norms, the stars dress up like ordinary people, particularly for trips to those big boxy buildings that the little people call, "airports." Don't be fooled. That's Diane Kruger, who, in the spirit of the holidays, makes her way through a Paris airport dressed all casual in a comfy looking sweater. Peace on Earth and goodwill to the non-famous. Speaking of cazh, this is how Katie Holmes dresses for a late night appearance Meanwhile, Kate Upton wore glasses at JFK—part of her secret identity as a person...

Christina Aguilera and Michael Bublé are among the artists confirmed for two forthcoming Christmas compilation albums. The LPs - which are due for release this October - will also include tracks from Jason Mraz, Train, Rascal Flatts and Amy Grant, Idolator reports. Proceeds from the records - called A Very Special Christmas 25th Anniversary and A Very Special Christmas: Bringing Peace on Earth - go to the Special Olympics, an organisation dedicated to proving year-round sports training for people with intellectual disabilities. The charity is this year celebrating 25 years of its festive albums, which have previously (more)...

Break out the mince pies and hand me a glass of eggnog! In case some of you have been locked in a cupboard since October, or are a graphic designer, Christmas, like a speeding truck with its drunken driver asleep behind the wheel, is approaching full speed with headlights blazing. All over the western world we anxious shoppers are filling the malls and emptying our wallets, pausing only to munch on a festive turkey ‘n cranberry burger before launching ourselves once more into the breach. Soon we will all stagger home, tearful and loaded with useless crap only to discover that once more we have forgotten to buy sellotape and we will have to improvise with homemade flour and water glue to secure our wrapping paper. After a couple of strong drinks, we will shove our insecurely covered gifts under a leaning, shedding tree and try to forget what we...

We interrupt your regularly scheduled holiday proceedings to wish each and every one of you a safe, healthy and happy holiday season. May all of your [insert your holiday here] wishes come true.* Particularly if they happen to coincide with a few of ours (Which you can see after the jump).

• For life to imitate art in terms of Syfy’s upcoming creature feature Jersey Shore Shark Attack.

• For a portion of the thirty million or so viewers who made Jerry Seinfeld’s sitcom the very definition of “Must See TV” to realize that Happy Endings is the new Seinfeld.

• For NBC’s upcoming new series Smash to be just that.

• A second season for Terra Nova. And not just because an Australian set visit is incredibly high up on our bucket list. Okay, maybe a little.

• More Twitter followers.

• Should the unthinkable happen and Fringe not get renewed for a fifth and likely final season,...

As a nice Jewish girl, I’ve always loved Christmas and Chanukah and Festivus for the rest of us.

We lived on a “not quite” cul-de-sac that had an island in the middle of the street. On that island was a huge old fir tree, and every holiday season all the “cul-de-sac’ers” would decorate it for Christmas. Yep, it was “National Brotherhood Week” on Hodges Place – I always wondered if the street was named for Gil Hodges of the Brooklyn Dodgers. I doubt it – this was on Staten Island, not Brooklyn – but it would make a nice story, wouldn’t it?

Anyway, my brother and I didn’t feel cheated in mid-December – like every snotty, young, selfish Jewish kid, Chanukah meant eight days of presents. And latkes ; potato pancakes for the uninitiated. But truth to tell, we also thought the story of the oil in the Temple miraculously burning...

"Well, there ain't no men in the world no more, sonnies. But as I remember the critters, they was like monsters. They wore great big iron pots on their heads, & walked on their hind legs. They carried terrible lookin' shootin' irons, with knives on the end of them. And they had great big long snoots like this, curled down & fastened onto their stomachs." -- Grandpa Squirrel

American animation companies Hanna-Barbera and MGM gave kids more than The Flintstones and Yogi Bear. They also gave them nightmares almost every Christmas eve when television stations all over the country aired either of their strange, post-apocalyptic short films where squirrels and mice tell the story of how mankind was obliterated from the earth. Yay, festive!

The first incarnation of these short films came from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1939. It was called Peace on Earth and was a one-reel 1939 cartoon short directed by Hugh Harman, about...

What will you do while awaiting the second season of HBO’s stellar adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones? Well, there’s that slightly overdue fifth book in the series coming in a matter of weeks then there’s today’s announcement that the first novel is being adapted for comics.

New York, NY – June 29th, 2011 – Bantam Books, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, announced today Alex Ross and Mike S. Miller as the cover artists for the comic adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series.

The series will be illustrated by Tommy Patterson and adapted and scripted by Daniel Abraham, the award-winning and bestselling author of The Long Price Quartet. The first issue of the monthly comic-which will be published by Dynamite Entertainment-is planned to release in September 2011, with compilations of the comics in graphic novel form to follow under the Bantam imprint.

Kimberly Frost will be appearing at Comicpalooza in Houston, Texas on Memorial Day Weekend, May 27-29. She is an author of three novels, the latest being Half Way Hexed. Frost is a fan of horror and sci-fi and is hilarious with some of her answers below. Check out my latest Versus with author Kimberly Frost and remember to find her at Comicpalooza on Memorial Day Weekend.

Brian S- How'd you get into writing?

Kimberly Frost- I was dragged kicking and screaming by an enormous winged muse with fangs.

Brian S- What are your inspirations for writing? Who do you look up to?

Kimberly Frost- Almost anything can inspire me. Usually books, movies, and mythology. Sometimes it can be a piece of art or a funny line. Sometimes, the weather. Anything that sets the imagination rolling. In terms of other storytellers whom I've admired, the list is long and varied because...

The beginning of March saw the annual London Italian Film Festival at the Cine Lumiere as part of a week showcasing 10 new and exciting works from Italy. Last week, we wrote about five films we thought deserve wider recognition and support.

Two of them, especially, were absolute knockouts. Michele Placido’s forthcoming Angels of Evil and Matteo Brotugno and Daniele Coluccini’s poetic-realist look at life on a Roman council estate, the beautifully titled, Et In Terra Pax (And Peace On Earth).

As Placido’s film is released in the UK on 27th May we’re seriously hoping Brotugno and Coluccini’s film gets picked up for distribution because it’s a marvellous film and deserves to be seen. Brotugno and Coluccini kindly accepted my request for an interview to discuss their exploration of Roman life on a vast council estate in the suburbs of the Eternal City.

FilmShaft: Was...

Last week saw the annual London Italian Film Festival showcase a week of exciting new Italian cinema at Ciné Lumière. This year’s raft of 10 titles was picked by Irene Bignardi and two Film London’s Adrian Wootton. They chose well. Very well, indeed. The festival continues throughout March at the Italian Cultural Institute with an homage to Federico Fellini and Mario Monicelli and a series of screenings focused on film and food.

Film-goers were treated to Passion (dir: Jon Turturro), We Believed (dir. Mario Martone), And Peace On Earth (dirs: Matteo Botrugno & Daniele Coluccini), Lost Kisses (dir. Roberta Torre), Basilicata Coast To Coast (dir. Rocco Papaleo), Angels of Evil (dir. Michele Placido), Sorelle Mai (dir. Marco Bellocchio), The Passion (dir. Carlo Mazzacurati), A Quiet Life (dir. Claudio Cupellini) and Gorbaciof (dir. Stefano Incerti).

One thing is for sure, all the films shown deserve to be seen and distributed in the UK.

The Italian Film Festival 2011 will kick off on 1 March 2011 with a concert at London’s Cadogan Hall by Nicola Piovani, winner of the Academy Award for the score of Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful in 1998. The festival, due to become an annual event, is organized by the Italian Cultural Institute in London and Cinecittà Luce in Rome.

The festival’s programme includes ten new Italian films: a selection of eight titles made by Italian film critic Irene Bignardi and a special choice of two by Adrian Wootton of Film London. The screenings at Ciné Lumière will be followed by Q&A sessions with directors and actors.

The event will offer an opportunity for London audiences to see Italian films most of which have yet to be screened in the UK, and a rare opportunity for British film distributors to catch up with brand new, cutting edge Italian cinema. The...

When Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly's characters in the 2008 Adam McKay comedy Step Brothers took the stage to perform the rap song "Boats and Hoes," no one could have predicted where it would take them. In the movie, it helps spawn a business for their group Prestige Worldwide and now, in real life, it might do the same. McKay revealed on his Twitter page [1] that the duo were working on a real life rap album. Are we currently working on a Step Bros rap album? Yup. Then, in case anyone thought the Anchorman and Other Guys director was joking, he tweeted again [2] with an open invitation to rapper/actor Mos Def. I wasn't kidding about Step Bros rap album. And we just found out we have a crazy big time producer. Mos Def, you up for a guest flow? See the song that inspired this album, Ferrell and...

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have recreated a classic Christmas duet, "The Little Drummer Boy," famously performed by Bing Crosby and David Bowie on Bing's 1977 Christmas TV special. Ferrell, as Bowie, and Reilly, as Crosby, really bring the Christmas spirit with this spoof/homage. What's so amazing about Ferrell and Reilly's rendition is the meticulous attention to detail: the outfits, dialogue, set, even the camera angles and facial expressions, have all been reproduced exactly (with one notable difference occurring at the end of the new version).  For maximum effect, watch the two videos back-to-back below. Happy holidays from Nerve! Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy with Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly from Will [...]...

Co-stars for the upcoming Gulliver's Travels, Jack Black and Jason Segel, have released a video and song for the holiday season; check out the animated music video inside. The two comedic actors have recorded an updated version of the 1977 hit 'Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth.' The original song was made famous by David Bowie and Bing Crosby. Both actors have music backgrounds and their take on the song is a good mix of each of their respective musical backdrops. Here's the music video, courtesy of Collegehumor.com:...

Think your holiday get-togethers can get a little messy? Check this out. Gulliver's Travels star Jack Black dropped in at Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night, and in honor of the Yuletide he and host Jimmy Fallon performed a Very Special Rendition of the holiday classic "Peace on Earth"/"Little Drummer Boy". Decked out in white clothing and goggles and surrounded by multi-colored bottles of paint, the pair of funny-men proceeded to brighten up the holidays in a most spectacular—and definitely unsanitary—way: The "Peace on Earth"/"Little Drummer Boy" mash-up has been a favorite of celebrities for decades, starting with the 1977...

One of the stranger bits of Christmas video in history comes courtesy of Bing Crosby and David Bowie, who teamed up in 1977 on Crosby's Christmas special for a run through the yuletide classic "Little Drummer Boy." The song (which also featured Bowie adding an interpolation of "Peace on Earth") became an inexplicable hit in 1982 (after Bowie ascended to international pop star status on around the success of Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) and the Queen duet "Under Pressure"). The video is a classic piece of YouTube lore, featuring fantastically outdated fashion and some pretty stilted dialogue between Crosby and Bowie.

In fact, the original clip is so funny that it almost looks like parody, which is why the parody version (with Will Ferrell as Bowie and John C. Reilly as Crosby) mostly adheres to the actual content of the source material. In a special clip created as a Christmas gift on FunnyOrDie,...

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Now Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly perform “Little Drummer Boy” and yes, it’s still creepy.

We don’t really know what has inspired the homages to Bing Crosby/David Bowie’s awkward duet of “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” that’s since turned into a classic, but we just got our second remake in as many weeks. Following Jack Black/Jason Segal’s far superior animated version, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have served up their own Christmas salute to odd couple. Ferrell and Reilly go pretty much for a note-for-note recreation of the Crosby/Bowie TV special--down to the baby blue sweater-- but somehow manage to make it even creepier than the original. They only veer off at the end, when...

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have reimagined David Bowie and Bing Crosby’s “Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth” duet, originally recorded for Crosby’s 1977 television special, Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas. (See also: Jack Black and Jason Segel’s animated version from last week, Stephen Colbert and Willie Nelson’s marijuana-inspired version from A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!, and many more.) Except for their faces — can’t change a face! This isn’t Bridalplasty — the Funny or Die duo have matched the Bowie/Crosby original detail for detail, right down to the mind-blowing exchange about “modern music” and eerie,...

David Bowie and Bing Crosby's "The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth" recording and TV special is nearly as much a part of obligatory holiday viewing as "A Charlie Brown Christmas." This year Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly decided to revisit the oddball pairing, which was totally surreal in the late 70's when it debuted. Ferrell and Reilly both have about 40 pounds on Bowie and Bing, but they almost impersonate the two legends too well here. [Pitchfork]

It's not as much funny as it is unnerving, until.... ever wonder what happened after Bing and Bowie wrapped the song? Here you go:

Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy with Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly from Will Ferrell...

For me, Will Ferrell movies are either hit or miss, and, when they miss, it's a big f*cking miss (Semi-Pro, The Other Guys, Land of the Lost, I'm looking at you and I'm not smiling, not once). The man's still got it, though, when it comes to comedic sketches and has always had a handle on deadpan bizarre (his bearded guest spot on Conan's last episode of "The Tonight Show" being my favorite example). In this video for Funny or Die, Ferrell and my favorite indie actor turned comedian, John C. Reilly, take on one of the oddest moments in TV history, a young David Bowie singing "Peace on Earth/The Little Drummer Boy" with Bing Crosby for the 1977 special, "Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas" (ye olde timey!).

While Reilly nails Bing's jolly, Southern grandpa persona, Ferrell's British accent is positively Van Dykeian in its level of badness and...

Funny Or Die is spreading holiday magic with this new video featuring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly singing a pair of beloved Christmas duets. You’ll want to stay for the ending.

Shot for shot, the Reilly/Farrell version is pretty close. Here’s the original Bing Crosby & David Bowie classic version – “The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth”

Source: Funny Or Die...

Comedians Faithfully Redo The Classic Bing Crosby/David Bowie Christmas Duet David Bowie (Will Ferrell) visits Bing Crosby (John C. Reilly) during the holidays to sing a mash-up duet of two Christmas classics, "Peace on Earth" & "The Little Drummer Boy." If you remember the original (also below the jump), their get-to-know-you conversation is pretty uncomfortable, hilarious and awkward. Crosby's line of questioning basically amounts to, "do you alien freaks do normal x-mas stuff besides anal rape and self-mutilation?" and Ferrell and Reilly do a good job of underscoring that vibe without underlining it too obviously. Both clips below.

One of the best holiday traditions every December is to watch the classic "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer" boy duet between Bing Crosby and David Bowie. The wonderfully bizarre duet took place in 1977 on Crobsy's "Merrie Olde Christmas" TV special. Crosby died just a month after filming and the special, his last, aired on CBS a few weeks later. Today we have a new version of a modern classic courtesy of Funny or Die. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly filmed a...

Just in time for Christmas, Jack Black and Jason Segel have recorded an updated version of the 1977 hit Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth, the same track David Bowie and Bing Crosby made famous a while back. College Humor posted an animated video to go along with the song which shows Segal visiting his next door neighbor Black to borrow an ingredient for his ginger bread. Segal spots a pianoe and ends up getting a refresher in the holiday spirit as the two launch into a rendition of the famous Christmas tune. Enjoy!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.