News

Robert Watts, a production manager on George Lucas’ Star Wars and producer on its first two sequels along with Steven Spielberg’s first three blockbuster Indiana Jones movies and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, died Monday in his sleep at his home in West Sussex, England. He was 88.

His rep Julian Owen of Alliance Media confirmed the news to Deadline, writing: “Goodnight to my wonderful friend and client Robert Watts, Producer of some of the most famous films in cinema history. … Talking about his career was his favourite thing to do. We had some amazing adventures together which I will cherish forever.”

After working on Star Wars, Watts was an associate producer on smash 1980 sequel The Empire Strikes Back, which solidified and furthered the Star Wars galaxy as a cultural touchstone. The next year he served in the same role for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which introduced the world to...

It’s expressive silent filmmaking at its best — Anthony Asquith vies with Alfred Hitchcock for direction in silent-era England. Elissa Landi and Brian Aherne meet in the Tube but become entangled in the jealous scheme of the jealous Cyril McLaglen. Restored just a few years back after being unavailable for generations, this is a beauty: the BFI gives it a full orchestral orchestra score, plus a second avant-garde ‘contextual audio’ track.

Underground

Blu-ray

Kino Classics / BFI

1928 / B&W / 1:33 silent ap. / 93 min. / Street Date April 23, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Elissa Landi, Brian Aherne, Cyril McLaglen, Norah Baring.

Cinematography: Stanley Rodwell

Art Direction: Ian Campbell-Gray

Written and Directed by Anthony Asquith

If one was asked to come up with the name of a ‘tame’ English director, the answer a while back might have been Anthony Asquith, a privileged toff whose post-grad lark was to spend a year in Hollywood, learning all...

Actress Jeanne Moreau, an icon of French New Wave cinema who went on to become an international film star, has died in Paris, according to Afp. She was 89.

While cause of death has not been disclosed, reports in French media indicate she was found Monday morning in her apartment on Faubourgh-St.-Honoré by a maid.

French president Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the late star on his twitter early Monday morning, calling her a “movie and theater legend” who was “engaged in the whirlwind of life with absolute freedom.”

The star of François Truffaut’s classic 1962 film Jules et Jim,...

What a Way to Go!

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1964 / Color B&W / 2:35 enhanced widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 111 min. / Street Date February 7, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Robert Cummings, Dick Van Dyke, Reginald Gardiner, Margaret Dumont, Fifi D’Orsay, Maurice Marsac, Lenny Kent, Marjorie Bennett, Army Archerd, Barbara Bouchet, Tom Conway, Peter Duchin, Douglass Dumbrille, Pamelyn Ferdin, Teri Garr, Queenie Leonard.

Cinematography: Leon Shamroy

Film Editor: Marjorie Fowler

Original Music: Nelson Riddle

Written by: Betty Comden, Adolph Green story by Gwen Davis

Produced by: Arthur P. Jacobs

Directed by: J. Lee Thompson

Want to know what the producer of Planet of the Apes was up to, before that milestone movie? Arthur P. Jacobs was an agent for big stars before he became a producer, which positioned him well for his first show for 20th Fox, What a Way to Go!

Actor best known for roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago.

Actor Omar Sharif has died aged 83. The Egypt-born actor, who had stepped away from acting since being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, died following a heart attack this afternoon in a hospital in Cairo.

Sharif won two Golden Globes and an Oscar nomination for his role as Sherif Ali in David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia.

He won a further Golden Globe three years later for Doctor Zhivago.

Sharif was born Michel Demetri Chalhoub in Alexandria on April 10, 1932, and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Sharif began his acting career in 1953 with a role in romantic drama Sira` Fi al-Wadi before appearing in more than 20 Egyptian productions, including Ayyamna el helwa with singer Abdel Halim Hafez, La anam (1958), Sayedat el kasr (1959) and Anna Karenina adaptation Nahr el hub (1961). He also starred with his wife, Egyptian actress...

Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor who broke through barriers to become a major international star, has died in Cairo from a heart attack at age 83. In recent months, he had been battling the onset of Alzheimer's Disease. Sharif and Peter O'Toole were virtual unknowns when they were cast as the leads by director David Lean in his 1962 masterpiece "Lawrence of Arabia". Both received Oscar nominations for the film and went on to become two of the biggest stars to emerge in the 1960s. Sharif reunited with Lean for another blockbuster, the 1965 production of "Doctor Zhivago" in which Sharif played the title role. He also co-starred with Barbra Streisand in her Oscar-winning 1968 film "Funny Girl" and appeared with her in the 1975 sequel "Funny Lady". Other prominent films Sharif appeared in during the 1960s include Samuel Bronston's ill-fated but underrated "The Fall of the Roman Empire", "Behold a Pale Horse", the...

By Lee Pfeiffer

One of the most rewarding byproducts of reviewing movies for a living is that you will often encounter some prominent gem that somehow managed to escape your attention previously. In certain cases, it's arguable that a film might well be more appreciated many years later than it was during its initial release. Such a case pertains to the 1965 crime drama Once a Thief. Directed by the under-rated Ralph Nelson, the film successfully invokes the mood and atmosphere of the classic black-and-white film noir crime thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s. Although this movie was widely credited as being Alain Delon's first starring role in an English language production, he was among the all-star cast seen the previous year in the big budget Hollywood production of The Yellow Rolls Royce. It is accurate to say, however, that Once a Thief afforded him his first opportunity to be...

Interview Ryan Lambie 8 Oct 2013 - 06:19

We talk to producer Robert Watts about his remarkable career in movies, which includes the Star Wars trilogy, Roger Rabbit and more...

With a career stretching back to the 1960s, British film producer Robert Watts played a key role in making some of the most influential films of the 1970s. Just a quick glance over his credits as a producer reveals an extraordinary career, which includes Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and its sequels, the first three Indiana Jones films, and the groundbreaking Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Those films are but the tip of the iceberg; before Star Wars, he worked on two James Bond films - Thunderball and You Only Live Twice - collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey, and, in films such as Man In The Middle, Darling and Papillon, worked with such legendary actors as Robert Mitchum,...

The former MGM international publicity director died at his home in Cape Town, South Africa, on Jul 31. He was 84.

Edwards’ son Nicolas, said his death was quite sudden and added that he had been unwell for the past few months.

Born in Sutton-in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, England, on Apr 4 1929, George William Edwards began his film career in London in 1952 at the trade paper Kine Weekly after three years in the Royal Navy and two as a reporter for the Sheffield (England) Star.

He joined MGM in 1961 as a unit publicist and became the studio’s European publicity director, working on such films as The V.I.P.s, The Yellow Rolls Royce and The Dirty Dozen.

He enjoyed a warm working relationship with Sophia Loren, with whom he collaborated on Operation Crossbow, Lady L and The Countess From Hong Kong.

In his recently published biography, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, co- author...

Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine in Billy Wilder's The Apartment Shirley MacLaine on TCM: Ocean's Eleven, The Yellow Rolls Royce Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Two Loves (1961) A conservative teacher struggles with her values while teaching natives in New Zealand. Dir: Charles Walters. Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Laurence Harvey, Jack Hawkins. C-97 mins, Letterbox Format. 8:00 Am The Sheepman (1958) A tough sheep farmer battles the local cattle baron for land and a beautiful woman. Dir: George Marshall. Cast: Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine, Leslie Nielsen. C-86 mins, Letterbox Format. 9:45 Am Two For The Seesaw (1962) A conservative attorney considering a divorce gets involved with an emotionally fragile dancer in New York. Dir: Robert Wise. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shirley MacLaine, Edmon Ryan. Bw-119 mins, Letterbox Format. 12:00 Pm The Children's Hour (1961) A malicious student tries to destroy the teachers at a girls' school. Dir: William Wyler. Cast: Audrey Hepburn,...

Shirley MacLaine, Irma la Douce on TCM Shirley MacLaine is Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" star of the day today, August 10. This evening, TCM is presenting its last four Shirley MacLaine movies: Billy Wilder's Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), which is on right now; Vincente Minnelli's Some Came Running (1958), which earned MacLaine her first Best Actress Academy Award nomination; Lewis Milestone's Ocean's Eleven (1960), in which MacLaine has a mere cameo; and Anthony Asquith's omnibus feature The Yellow Rolls Royce (1964), in which MacLaine is one of about a dozen stars in several individual stories. [Shirley MacLaine Movie Schedule.] It's too late for me to recommend The Apartment, though recommendable it is. For one thing, this collaboration between Billy Wilder and screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond features what is, in my view, Fred MacMurray's best performance by far. Usually an intolerable leading man — macho, reactionary, humorless, unsexy, dull — MacMurray could be a fascinating slimeball,...

Stay off the streets and stay in with a movie…that takes to the streets.

Los Angelenos are aflutter with impending chaos. And, if you don’t live in Los Angeles, you probably don’t understand. (I live here and I’m not sure I fully understand.) But this weekend (July 15-17), the City of Los Angeles has gotten it in its mind to shut down the 405 Freeway, one of the central lifelines for the (frankly absurd) amount of traffic that hits Los Angeles on a daily basis. This means that, functionally, no one’s going anywhere this weekend and the entire West side of Los Angeles is going to be choked off by the cold, unrelenting hands of the Los Angeles Dot.

Naturally, this has become a bit of a cultural meme (surely confusing anyone who doesn’t live in Los Angeles) dubbed by internet pun genii as “Carmageddon.