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Gene Hackman was the perfect symbol of resilience. The book Gene Hackman: The Life and Work by Peter Shelly reveals that during his days at the Pasadena Playhouse in the 1950s, he and his buddy, Dustin Hoffman, were voted the least likely to succeed. This only fueled his drive. He kept on pushing, alternating between roles on screen and Broadway. Luckily, the ‘60s turned out to be kinder to him. After getting rejected for a role in The Graduate for being too young, he was hired for Bonnie & Clyde, a role that would earn him his first Oscar nomination. From there, his career stayed on an upward trajectory.

It’s often forgotten that Hackman once did a space-themed film in the ‘60s. That’s because science fiction wasn’t one of the legendary actor’s favorite genres. Outside the Superman movies, he rarely touched anything that wasn’t rooted in realism.

Gene Hackman was a legend where I grew up. Granted, he was a legend practically everywhere, but in Pasadena, California, to theater kids and movie geeks, he was hope incarnate.

Pasadena is the home to the historic (and aptly titled) Pasadena Playhouse, a venerable theatrical institution and a college with a list of alumni that boggles the mind: David Niven, Tyrone Power, Martha Graham, Lee J. Cobb, Leonard Nimoy, Angela Bassett, Ernest Borgnine, Jean Arthur, William Holden, Ariana Grande, Dustin Hoffman — and of course Gene Hackman. But Hackman had something none of those other famous actors ever had: the lowest scores of any actor, by that point, in the Pasadena Playhouse’s history.

In fact, Hackman and his friend and contemporary Hoffman were voted “Least Likely to Succeed,” which is a pretty crappy category, if we’re being honest. It’s like dropping the Razzie for Worst Picture in the middle of the Oscars telecast.

Ed Stafford is no stranger to discomfort. He’s wrestled crocodiles, dined on grubs, and fashioned shelters from whatever nature throws his way. But even this hardened survivalist meets his match in the latest episode of “Marooned,” facing the unforgiving depths of China’s Changbai Mountain. This isn’t your average stroll in a winter wonderland; this is […]

Ed Stafford Marooned: Changbai Mountain...

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Fans of "Gilligan's Island" are likely intimately familiar with the show's original pilot, which was shot in 1963, but not aired to the public until 1992. The pilot, called "Marooned," featured Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Jim Backus, and Natalie Schafer, but also starred three rudimentary characters that didn't carry over into the completed series. The Professor was originally a high school teacher played by John Gabriel. The Mary Ann character was a secretary named Bunny (Nancy McCarthy), and Ginger was still named Ginger but was ... another secretary. She was played by Kit Smythe.

Eventually, the show was reworked, and creator Sherwood Schwartz wrote a tighter, better pilot with the Professor (Russell Johnson), Mary Ann (Dawn Wells), and Ginger (Tina Louise) that we all know and love today. 

In Schwartz's biography "Inside Gilligan's Island: From Creation to Syndication," he mentioned that Louise...

To the eyes of this author, there are four perfect TV theme songs in the history of the medium. For instrumentals, the two best themes are Jack Marshall's surf-like monster music he composed for "The Munsters" and Danny Elfman's Platonic-ideal-of-a-haunted-house music for "Tales from the Crypt."

For theme songs with lyrics, the two best of all time were, not coincidentally, written by Sherwood Schwartz. He and Frank de Vol composed the handy, catchy theme for Schwartz's own sitcom "The Brady Bunch," while Schwartz teamed with George Wyle to compose "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle." These two theme songs, each only about 60 seconds, managed to explain -- in rhyme -- the premise of their respective shows succinctly while also introducing each of the characters. Additionally, the songs are catchy earworms that burrow deep into the brains of listeners, latching onto the memory and never letting go. When I'm in my 90s,...

With a 200-minute running time, Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” (A24) isn’t unique among wide-release English-language films. In fact, it’s somewhat shorter than some major releases in recent decades.

There’s no standard for intermissions, which can vary between presentations, technical issues, or even elevating a film’s prestige. “The Brutalist” qualifies on all counts, but its intermission could herald a comeback: Audience habits have changed, and directors would love to use them to defend longer movies.

“The Brutalist” becomes 215 minutes start to finish with its precisely timed 15-minute break. Without it, it would be nine minutes shorter than “The Irishman”; about the same as “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” “The Godfather Part II,” and George Stevens’ 1956 “Giant”; and about five minutes longer than “Schindler’s List” and “Titanic.” All were released without intermissions. Among major titles, “Gone with the Wind” is still the longest...

60 years ago, "Gilligan's Island" blessed the world with an ensemble seemingly fashioned by the gods. Bob Denver as Gilligan, Alan Hale Jr. as the Skipper, Russell Johnson as the Professor, Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III, Natalie Schafer as Eunice Howell, Dawn Wells as Mary Ann, and Tina Louise as Ginger. They are immortalized in the theme song, and ironclad comedic types thanks to the reinforcement of syndication. "Gilligan's Island" was always meant to be, and we must consider ourselves fortunate that we lived to behold its goofball majesty.

So prepare to be shocked. When the "Gilligan's Island" pilot went before cameras, Sherwood Schwartz hadn't yet fully communed with the comedy gods. In terms of the castaways, he had five out of seven figured out. Where he'd yet to strike gold was with the young female characters. Schwartz had a very different notion of how to give the show the...

David Gilmour kicked off his Luck and Strange world tour Friday night at Circo Massimo in Rome, Italy. The set featured six songs from the new album, multiple guest appearances by Gilmour’s daughter Romany, three tunes from 2015’s Rattle That Lock, and 12 Pink Floyd classics.

Prior to the tour, Gilmour generated headlines all across the world by saying he had an “unwillingness to revisit the Pink Floyd of the Seventies,” and would instead play only songs from his era fronting the band in the Eighties and early Nineties. But...

David Gilmour is set to kick off a limited tour of London, Rome, Los Angeles, and New York (get tickets here) later this week in support of his new album, Luck and Strange. As a warm-up, he played a pair of live dress rehearsal shows at Brighton Centre in Brighton, England on Friday (September 20th) and Saturday (September 21st).

During the first concert, Gilmour debuted several songs from the new LP, including “The Piper’s Call,” “Between Two Points,” and “Dark and Velvet Nights.” More than half of the set was made up of classic Pink Floyd material, including many songs he hadn’t played since the mid-2000s.

Get David Gilmour Tickets Here

Besides performing The Dark Side of the Moon song “Breathe (In the Air)” for the first time since 2006, Gilmour dusted off cuts from The Division Bell like “Marooned” and “A Great Day for Freedom” for the first time since 2004 and 2006, respectively.

The theme song for "Gilligan's Island" was written by executive producer and show creator Sherwood Schwartz and songwriter George Wyle. It remains, without contest, one of the best TV theme songs of all time, efficiently communicating the show's premise and all seven of its characters, wrapped in one of the most insidious earworms ever recorded. Only the theme to "The Brady Bunch" can rival its cultural power. Only Jack Marshall's theme to "The Munsters" and Danny Elfman's theme to "Tales from the Crypt" can surpass it musically. 

It may be shocking to learn, then, that the sea shanty version we all known and love was the second theme attempted. The original theme song had a calypso beat and different lyrics. Incidentally, the original was penned by music legend John Williams. Schwartz himself sang the theme song, although one would be forgiven for thinking it was voice luminary Mel Blanc.

Deep-cut fans of Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island" will likely be able to tell you all about the show's original pilot episode, "Marooned." Considered a "dry run" of the series, "Marooned" featured the same premise -- seven whimsically mismatched castaways are trapped together on an uncharted desert isle -- but the characters were reshuffled a little bit. Gilligan (Bob Denver), the Skipper (Alan Hale), and the Howells (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer) were present, but the Professor (Russell Johnson), Ginger (Tina Louise), and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) hadn't been invented yet. 

In their places were completely different characters played by different actors. The original Ginger was played by Kit Smythe and was a sardonic secretary. Mary Ann was originally a character named Bunny, Ginger's ditzy best friend, played by Nancy McCarthy. The Professor, meanwhile, was originally a high school teacher played by actor John Gabriel, probably best known for...

Nancy Kovack's TV and film career may have been short, but she made a significant impact with notable roles in popular shows and movies. Working alongside big names in Hollywood, Kovack showcased her range in both comedic and dramatic roles, leaving a lasting impression on audiences. Kovack's Emmy-nominated performance in Mannix displayed her talent for portraying complex characters with depth and nuance, solidifying her place in Hollywood history.

Nancy Kovack only acted for a short time, but she appeared in some notable TV shows and movies in the years she was performing. Born in Flint, Michigan on March 11, 1935, Kovack got her start acting in 1958, when she appeared in an episode of the TV series, The Verdict is Yours as "Prizefighter's Girl". One-episode appearances on TV shows came to be a staple of Kovack's career, and she appeared in numerous notable and lesser-known series over her career. But even when she was only a guest,...

For a sitcom with a premise and characters so basic they could be completely summed up in a minute-long (and absurdly catchy) theme song, "Gilligan's Island" was a real bear to get off the ground. 

To start off, creator Sherwood Schwartz was in a world of pain while writing the show's pilot (although that had nothing to do with his creative process and everything to do with the 40-something Schwartz -- as 40-something men are wont to do -- overestimating his ability to lift stacks of fresh timber unassisted). Then there were the brutal reactions from his agent and network execs, who practically laughed him out of the building when Schwartz proposed a comedy series about seven people being stranded on the same island, week after week. And then there was the pilot shoot in Hawaii, with the showrunner waking up one morning to find himself surveying what appeared to...

It's important to remember that few of the actors on "Star Trek," especially in the early days, were familiar with the universe of "Star Trek." While the trappings and themes of Trek are a deeply embedded part of popular culture in the early 21st century, back in the 1960s, "Star Trek" was merely a middling, mid-budget sci-fi network show. As such, when guest stars signed on to play an alien or a creature, they likely needed the premise of "Star Trek" explained to them by a director or a screenwriter. This is the 23rd century, war is over, and humanity is traveling the stars in military-twinged vessels devoted to study and diplomacy. That man, Bill, plays a starship captain named Kirk who leads by instinct. You play a [insert character description here]. These are basic motivations that an actor would need to hear in order to fall into the "Star Trek" ethos before cameras began rolling.

John Sturges’ orbital jeopardy thriller does everything right: the story is taken seriously, the actors seem committed and the special effects aren’t bad. Yet it’s more interesting for what doesn’t work than what does. As one of the first Sci-fi pictures in the wake of 2001 it wasn’t well received despite being technically astute. Did NASA’s race to the Moon put an end to fanciful space Sci-fi? Gregory Peck, Gene Hackman, Lee Grant and some ex- TV actors do their best, but producer Mike Frankovich’s space saga just sits there. It looks great in its first Blu-ray release: images of the actual Apollo 11 launch are breathtaking.

Marooned

Region-free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 113

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date March 30, 2022 (Au.) April 8, 2022 (U.S.) / Available from Amazon US / 47.99

Starring: Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus, Gene Hackman, Lee Grant, Nancy Kovack, Mariette Hartley, Scott Brady,...

Pink Floyd will release a “restored and re-edited” edition of their Pulse concert film, which documented the band’s gargantuan Division Bell tour, next year. The film will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on Feb. 18.

The film documented the band’s Oct. 20, 1994 appearance at London’s Earl’s Court and features a full performance of The Dark Side of the Moon. The band’s core lineup for the concerts featured guitarist David Gilmour, keyboardist Richard Wright, and drummer Nick Mason.

The upgraded film previously featured in Pink Floyd’s...

I don’t know about you, but this writer is more than ready to start looking forward to the Halloween season. And one of the staples of my own ongoing cinematic celebration every year is checking out all the wonderful classic horror movies that Turner Classic Movies airs on their channel. And considering the mess that 2020 has been over the last several months, I thought this year it might be helpful to also include all the genre films that will be playing on TCM throughout the month of September, as it’s never too early to get ready for Halloween.

Check out all the great classic horror movies playing on the small screen over the next two months on TCM, and be sure to set those DVRs so you don’t miss any of the classic films that are sure to get you into the Halloween spirit this year.

Thursday,...

Walmart is turning 160 of its parking lots into dive-in theaters this summer. The retailer previously announced a partnership with Tribeca to capitalize on the popularity of drive-ins that has emerged in recent months. Now, full details for the screenings have been revealed. Not only will movies like Black Panther, Ghostbusters and E.T. be showing all across the country, but the screenings will be free.

The Walmart Drive-in will transform Walmart parking lots into outdoor cinemas starting on August 14. The series will run through October 21 with a total of 320 showings of hit movies. The event aims to offer families a fun, contact-free experience where they can watch a selection of popular movies that have been curated by the Tribeca Film Festival. Those who wish to attend will be able to visit the event's website to view a full schedule, list of locations and grab tickets. Janey Whiteside, Walmart's chief customer officer,...

Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Et and Cars are among the films unveiled Wednesday for the Walmart Drive-In, curated by the Tribeca Film Festival, that will turn the giant retailer’s parking lots at 160 locations into outdoor theaters starting August 14.

Walmart said the nationwide event will feature 320 showings through October. Drew Barrymore will be the virtual host for all events and make a surprise in-person appearance at one location. Peter Berg, Jennifer Garner, LeBron James and Chrissy Metz will also appear in person or virtually at select showings.

The venture follows a Tribeca solo drive-in series that featured 30 iconic films in locations in major markets nationwide over 20 days.

The lineup includes: Friday Night Lights, The Karate Kid, Space Jam, Black Panther, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, The Lego Batman Movie, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Spy Kids, Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, Wonder Woman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Ghostbusters, Men in Black: International, Back to The Future,...

Ivan Sen’s ‘Mystery Road’.

Sydney Film Festival has selected Rachel Perkins’ Mabo and Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road for Tribeca Enterprises/YouTube’s free global online film festival, We Are One.

Sydney is just one of the 21 participating festivals in the event, with others including Tribeca, Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance.

More than 100 films will screen from this Friday May 29 to June 7 on YouTube, together with talks, Vr content and musical performances, all with the aim of raising money for the World Health Organisation’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund and local relief partners in each region.

The programming represents over 35 countries and includes 23 narrative and eight documentary features, 57 narrative and 15 documentary short films, 15 archived talks, along with four festival exclusives and five Vr programming pieces.

In selecting films to put forward, Sydney Film Festival director Nashen Moodley was challenged by Tribeca to look to films that had an...

We Are One: A Global Film Festival, a 10-day collaboration between 21 different international festivals that will bring features and short films to YouTube for 10 days of free programming, has announced a lineup of 31 features and 72 short films from 35 different countries. The free online festival will also include television and Vr programs and a series of conversations with figures including Jackie Chan, Guillermo del Toro, Bong Joon Ho and Francis Ford Coppola.

We Are One was spearheaded by the Tribeca Enterprises in the wake of that festival’s postponement this year. The online festival will begin airing on YouTube on Friday, May 29.

The films were programmed by nearly two dozen different festivals, including the Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, Sundance and New York Film Festivals. About half the festivals selected both features and shorts, though Cannes and the New York Film Festival submitted only short films, while Toronto, Macao, Tokyo and Berlin...

As festivals throughout the world remain closed or postponed, Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube have teamed for a 10-day digital film festival taking place on YouTube and launching May 29 at YouTube.com/WeAreOne.

We Are One: A Global Film Festival, which benefits the World Health Organization and other relief partners amid the ongoing pandemic, will encompass programming from 21 festivals, including Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Sundance, Toronto, New York, BFI London, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, and more. The entire festival will be free to viewers. We Are One features more than 100 films, including 13 world premieres, 31 online premieres, and five international online premieres, as well as virtual talks with Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Soderbergh, Song Kang Ho and Bong Joon Ho, as well as Guillermo del Toro, Jane Campion, and Claire Denis.

The programming will represent over 35 countries and will include 23 narrative and eight documentary features, 57 narrative and 15 documentary short films, 15 archived talks along with...

Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube have unveiled the programming slate for “We Are One: A Global Film Festival” with more than 100 films co-curated by 21 festivals.

With Covid-19 shuttering film fests worldwide, the online festival is set to run from May 29-June 7, 2020, and will be available at youtube.com/weareone. The free-to-watch programming, which will not include any ads, is to include feature films, shorts, documentaries, music, comedy and panel discussions.

Notable film presentations will include “Ricky Powell: The Individualist,” a documentary about the street photographer featuring interviews with Natasha Lyonne and LL Cool J; the online premiere of “Eeb Allay Ooo!,” a satire about professional “monkey repellers” and winner of the Mumbai Film Festival’s Golden Gateway Award; and the world premiere of “Iron Hammer,” a documentary feature directed by Joan Chen about Chinese Olympic volleyball star Jenny Lang Ping.

Audiences will have access to over 50 narrative and documentary shorts including...

As the world fights a pandemic, we’ve been reaching out to some of our favorite artists to get their takes on these unprecedented times. Here’s what Faith No More and Mr. Bungle singer Mike Patton — who just released Necroscape, an enveloping and unsettling avant-rock odyssey by tētēma, his collaborative venture with Australian composer Anthony Pateras — had to say in response to a few quarantine questions via email.

What are you doing with your unexpected time at home?

Writing. Writing. Writing. Working on several records at once, which isn’t abnormal for me,...

DreamWorks Animation’s latest short, “To: Gerard,” a love letter to Manhattan and magic, directed by storyboard artist Taylor Meacham (“Trolls”), will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18. It’s about a mailman named Gerard who dreams of becoming a magician with the help of a young girl, a legendary master named The Great Vivonti, and a very special coin.

“New York has such a historical wealth of great filmmakers that have deeply inspired me while growing up, and Manhattan is where I first got my foot in the door within the film industry,” said Meacham, who was also inspired by his father and how he helped unify his love of animation and the art of illusion. “Because of my relation to this city, it feels like such a gift to be able to come back to New York and the Tribeca Film Festival to share a part...

A record 92 animated short films have qualified for the 92nd Academy Awards, a list that will be winnowed to 10 contenders when shortlist is announced Dec. 16. Alongside entries such as Sony’s “Hair Love” and Magic Light Pictures’ “Zog,” challengers include lauded films from animators such as Tomek Popakul’s “Acid Rain,” Siqi Song’s “Sister” and Theodore Ushev’s “The Physics of Sorrow.” Ranging from studio darlings to festival gems, the diversity of projects in the category makes for a somewhat unpredictable race, yet each year a handful of shorts float to the top, generating awards season buzz.

1. Curse of the Monkeybird (Warner Bros.)

Director: Pete Browngardt

Producers: Pete Browngardt, Sam Register

The slapstick “Indiana Jones”-inspired 2D short features classic Looney Tunes characters searching for a cursed treasure inside a jungle temple. “It was a dream come true to be able to write and direct a Porky Pig and Daffy Duck cartoon from scratch,...

Netflix offered up work in progress footage from its first original animated feature, “Klaus,” at the Annecy Animation Festival on Wednesday. The wacky Santa origin story, from director Sergio Pablos (creator of “Despicable Me”), boasts innovative 2D. The streamer’s first animated Oscar contender will qualify theatrically this holiday season.

In “Klaus,” a young, lazy Scandinavian postman named Jesper (Jason Schwartzman) gets exiled by his father to a contentious village in the cold north to launch the postal service, where he meets a mysterious, white-bearded toymaker named Klaus (J.K. Simmons). The retro look has a definite Disney vibe, full of classic squash-and-stretch and illustrative design. But it’s enhanced by stunning lighting and texturing, courtesy of new tracking software from Pablo’s studio in Madrid, which takes 2D into the 21st century with some digital flourishes.

“We knew we had a story that would be better served by traditional animation,...

DreamWorks Animation screened 25 minutes of its upcoming Yeti feature, “Abominable” (September 27), along with its third short, “Marooned,” at the Annecy Animation Film Festival on Tuesday. And, for good measure, the studio also trotted out rough footage and the first trailer from “Trolls World Tour”, in which Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) step into a musical troll war with rivals from rock, country, cool jazz, classical, and funk. IndieWire got an earlier sneak peek at the Glendale campus.

“Abominable,” co-produced by Shanghai-based Pearl Studio, is a gorgeous-looking adventure about a teenage girl named Yi (Chloe Bennet), who discovers a child-like Yeti on the roof of her Shanghai apartment while playing the violin. Yi then embarks on a quest with two friends to reunite the magical creature she calls Everest (which controls nature as an expression of beauty) with its family in the Himalayas. They’re pursued by the evil...

Annecy — “·Hello, I’m Margie Cohn, and I am president of DreamWorks….”

By that time, as she walked onto the stage at Annecy on Tuesday for a DreamWorks Animation presentation of upcoming titles, Dwa president Cohn’s self introduction had been drowned by a barrage of applause and yelps of approbation.

It’s hard to underestimate the goodwill that Universal’s DreamWorks Animation has built up over the years at Annecy, first by creating a studio as an alternative to Disney, and most recently by one of its crowning achievements, the “How to Train Your Dragon” movie trilogy, presented as works in progress at Annecy to reverent appreciation, and celebrated this year by a medley of special moments from the three movies and the presence on stage of director Dean Deblois.

That said, the two upcoming movies that Cohn and creatives previewed at Annecy – a full 25 minutes of “Abominable” and...

Just days after the latest trailer for Abominable dropped, DreamWorks wowed the audience at the 2019 Annecy International Animated Film Festival by unveiling a full 25 minutes of the upcoming film. Six key scenes and several stills were revealed during the company's powerhouse presentation, which also included the first 10 minutes of the new Trolls World Tour sequel and the world premiere of its short Marooned.

The team behind Abominable, DreamWorks president Margie Cohn and Pearl Studio chief creative officer Peilin Chou, touted the film's groundbreaking cast and crew and hailed it as a “love letter to China.”

Chou noted ...

Just days after the latest trailer for Abominable dropped, DreamWorks wowed the audience at the 2019 Annecy International Animated Film Festival by unveiling a full 25 minutes of the upcoming film. Six key scenes and several stills were revealed during the company's powerhouse presentation, which also included the first 10 minutes of the new Trolls World Tour sequel and the world premiere of its short Marooned.

The team behind Abominable, DreamWorks president Margie Cohn and Pearl Studio chief creative officer Peilin Chou, touted the film's groundbreaking cast and crew and hailed it as a “love letter to China.”

Chou noted ...

Annecy — Again, we’re not saying these are the best shorts at Annecy this year. That will be left to the festival’s juries to decide. They most certainly, however, underscore the current creativity of animation, its healthy diversity. The selection is, moreover, limited to official sections so does not take in DreamWorks Animation’s “Marooned,” which will world premiere at Annecy on Tuesday off large buzz, or Warner Bros. Animation’s hugely anticipated “Looney Tunes Cartoons,” another world premiere, the first of which will be seen at June 10’s opening ceremony. The cup runneth over.

‘Bavure’

In a novel mix of live action and animation, Donato Sansone’s “Bavure,” literally “smudge” in English, is an almost biblical visual construction of man from start to futuristic finish. What begins as a flesh-colored glob of paint, is transformed into a man, woman and child. The baby becomes and adult, puts on...

Like the art form it celebrates, the Annecy International Animated Film Festival has been growing creatively and commercially by leaps and bounds — increasingly attracting attention from Hollywood’s expanding roster of animation studios.

Annecy artistic director Marcel Jean says the number of festival goers has nearly doubled since 2013 to 11,700 in 2018. The number of projects has also soared, prompting the addition this year of a competition called Contrechamps for lower-budget, indie feature films.

And while the Mifa market at the Imperial Palace drew nearly 3,800 badge-holders last year, an annual increase of 22 percent, it’s the festival’s appreciation of and openness to the creativity of animation that draws an influential audience too tempting for studios to pass up.

“It’s really about the art of animation there, not so much about the business of animation,” says Melissa Cobb, VP of kids and family at Netflix, which is officially attending the festival...

Universal’s DreamWorks Animation has unveiled first-look images of “Marooned,” the latest title in its burgeoning short films program. The film is produced by Jeff Hermann, just attached to produce Tom McGrath’s “The Boss Baby 2.”

Directed by Andrew Erekson,“Marooned” world premieres on June 11 at France’s Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival as part of a DreamWorks Animation feature presentation which has now been expanded, to offer a first look at “Trolls World Tour,” the sequel to “Trolls,” which earned $347 million worldwide.

Part of a muscular DreamWorks Animation Annecy presence, hosted by president Margie Cohn, the Dwa feature presentation will also showcase excerpts from “Abominable,” written and directed by Jill Culton, as previously announced.

Hermann and Erekson, a story artist on “How To Train Your Dragon,” will both attend the Annecy presentation. Billed as a stylized look at a not too distant future, “Marooned” turns on C-oR13, a...

Exclusive: The Boss Baby director Tom McGrath is returning to helm the DreamWorks Animation sequel. The first 2017 movie earned McGrath an Oscar nomination in the animated feature film category and grossed over $527M at the worldwide box office. It also spawned a Netflix series The Boss Baby: Back in Business.

The Boss Baby 2 will mark McGrath’s sixth movie as a director with Dwa followinig the Madagascar trilogy, Megamind, and the first Boss Baby. Combined, McGrath’s Dwa pics have grossed $2.7 billion at the worldwide B.O. Adapted by Michael McCullers from Marla Frazee’s book, Boss Baby stars Alec Baldwin as a suit-wearing, briefcase-carrying baby who pairs up with his 7-year old brother to stop the dastardly plot of the CEO of Puppy Co. Boss Baby 2 is scheduled for a March 26, 2021 release via Universal.

It was also announced today that Jeff Hermann will be making his feature film...

Disney-Pixar’s “Toy Story 4,” Nickelodeon’s “Spongebob’s Big Birthday Blowout,” work-in progress sneak peeks at Netflix’s “Klaus” and Warner Animation Group’s “Scoob” look set to be some of the highlights at this year’s Annecy Intl. Animation Festival whose lineup was announced in Paris on Monday.

Opening, as already announced, with the world premieres of an episode from Warner Bros. Animation’s “Looney Tunes Cartoons” and Lino Disalvo’s “Playmobil: The Movie,” the biggest French production of 2019, and taking in the first screening of DreamWorks Animation’s short “Marooned,” the 2019 Annecy Festival also features Gaumont/Amazon Studios’ “Do Ré & Me.”

Running June 10-15 in a picturesque lakeside town in the French Alps, Annecy has grown year-on-year for near two decades, driven by the resurgence of animation worldwide.

This year’s event, at first glance, looks to underscore two growth drivers. A larger platform on the lake,...

Universal’s DreamWorks Animation will sneak-peek extended footage for its upcoming feature “Abominable” (September 27) and premiere its latest short “Marooned” at the 43rd Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June 10th-15th). The animation powerhouse’s president Margie Cohn will additionally offer a first look at the new “Fast & Furious” animated series, and present an exhibition of artwork from the “How to Train Your Dragon” trilogy at the Manège du haras. The third installment in the series, “The Hidden World,” has passed $509-million worldwide.

Following a strong CinemaCon promo, DreamWorks will preview its upcoming feature slate on June 11, headlined by “Abominable,” a co-production with Pearl Studio, written and directed by Jill Culton (“Open Season”), about teenager Yi (Chloe Bennet of “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) venturing to the Himalayas to reunite a Yeti with its family.

“Marooned,” about selfish robot C-0R13, stranded on an abandoned lunar outpost,...

Not to be outdone by Ariana Grande’s impending record news, filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón has announced the track list and release date for his new album, which, coincidentally, is also due Feb. 8. He’s the curator of “Music Inspired by the Film Roma,” which was already teased by a Billie Eilish track, and is now revealed to include songs from an eclectic lineup of rock, pop and Edm acts including Beck, Patti Smith, El-p, DJ Shadow, Laura Marling and T Bone Burnett.

This new album is not to be confused with “Roma (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack),” which came out in December and contains the songs — mostly but not entirely Spanish-language — heard in the movie. The “Inspired By” album consists of all new recordings, mostly but not entirely in English, and credits as co-producers Lynn Fainchtein, who served as music supervisor on the film, along with Randall Poster, another celebrated music supervisor.

Beck recorded an ornate cover of Colourbox’s “Tarantula,” a song later made famous by This Mortal Coil, for his contribution to a compilation of songs inspired by Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-nominated film Roma. The song is a slow build, as orchestral strings and piano provide a moody bed for Beck’s reverb-saturated vocals; eventually, percussion joins in for a big outro. Leslie Feist and Alex Lilly contributed backing vocals to the recording.

It’s starkly different from the synth-driven version Colourbox first released as the B side to their...

Topping both our Us and UK critics’ polls, this is a great piece of storytelling with inspired and surreal setpieces and electrifying sequences in the teeming streets of Mexico City

The top 50 films in the UKThe top 50 films in the USThe best culture of 2018

Is this the film that Alfonso Cuarón has been yearning to make all his career, or all his life? It certainly looks like the apparently difficult, non-commercial, personal work that only someone with a vast accumulation of prestige could get made. Every richly considered detail looks as if he spent a great deal of time honing it. Roma, based on his own childhood and set in a well-to-do household in early 70s Mexico City, is Cuarón’s return to his roots after high-profile English-language movies such as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the dystopian nightmare Children of Men and most recently his glorious outer space adventure Gravity.

“Tell me, why do we require a trip to Mount Everest in order to perceive one moment of reality?” asks Wallace Shawn in “My Dinner with Andre.” “I think if you could become fully aware of what existed in the cigar store next to this restaurant, I think it would just blow your brains out!”

There are no cigar stores in Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” but after zipping us through a future dystopia in “Children of Men” and all of outer space in “Gravity,” the director takes us through a far more quotidian version of reality in his gorgeous new film. And it did, admittedly, blow my brains out.

Shot in 65mm black-and-white — please, Netflix, let audiences see this movie projected in 70mm before it hits your streaming service — the film remains mostly housebound to tell us the story of a bourgeois family in Mexico City in the 1970s, mostly as viewed by their housekeeper,...

Sneak Peek footage from the "Titans" live-action TV series streaming on DC Universe, plus take a look at DC's "Titans" #30, now available, written by Dan Abnett and illustrated by Minkyu Jung:

"... in 'Marooned', part two, stranded on an alien world with no means of travel, 'Beast Boy' finally succumbs to his more monstrous tendencies and could become the most dangerous thing on an already dangerous planet.

"Then the Titans are forced to square off against a gargantuan 'Garfield'. Will the 'Titans' be able to maintain their fractured team in the face of extraterrestrial adversity and sinister secrets coming to light? And even if they can, how on Earth will they ever get back home?..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Titans"...

Gene Hackman is a treasure of American cinema. His role in Bite the Bullet is a good example of a less-heralded performance that nonetheless sheds light on his brilliance. Born in 1930, Hackman served in the U.S. Marines shortly after the conclusion of World War II and then labored at various jobs before trying his hand at acting, both on stage and in various TV shows. His stage work led to his film debut in Lilith (1964), starring Warren Beatty, and that led to Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and his Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. My first screen memory of Hackman dates back, I think, to seeing him when The Gypsy Moths or Marooned (both 1969) played on TV. He stood out visually...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

It’s the one saga of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral that puts Western legend into proper perspective as to the nature of money, power and the law: Edward Anhalt’s vision is of a gangland turf war with sagebrush and whiskey bottles. James Garner is a humorless Wyatt Earp, matched by Jason Robards’ excellent Doc Holliday. It’s one of John Sturges’ best movies.

Hour of the Gun

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: James Garner, Jason Robards, Robert Ryan, Albert Salmi, Charles Aidman, Steve Ihnat, Michael Tolan, William Windom, Lonny Chapman, Larry Gates, William Schallert, Jon Voight.

Cinematography: Lucien Ballard

Art Direction: Alfred C. Ybarra

Film Editor: Ferris Webster

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Written by Edward Anhalt

Produced and Directed by John Sturges

Producer-director John Sturges’ Hour of the Gun was a dismal non-performer in...

It’s not enough to love films, we now must enumerate that love or hate relative to any similar films.

It has become a familiar ritual — the latest release in a franchise or a noted director’s canon spawns more than one site to run a “The Films of ___________, Ranked” article. We’ve done this dance with the Marvel movies since At Least 2012 when The Avengers came out, and no doubt someone is at this very moment preparing a ranking of the 14 previous films in the McU to accompany the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Wonder Woman will likely spur on a ranking of all the DC Films, and we saw just in the past week where everyone stood on the existing Fast & Furious movies.

And yes, I got into the act with my own “The Films of Assistant Director Frank Capra III, Ranked.” Hopefully the point was made.

However...

Arrow Video announced the UK release of The Count Yorga Collection on Blu-ray and DVD. Also in today’s Highlights: a look at six preview pages from the hardcover edition of the Dead Vengeance comic and DVD and Digital HD release details for Sean K. Robb’s Scars.

The Count Yorga Collection UK Blu-ray / DVD Release Details & Cover Art: From Arrow Video: “Updating the vampire mythos to early 1970s Los Angeles, these much-loved cult classics star Robert Quarry (Dr. Phibes Rises Again) as the svelte Count Yorga, living in a mansion in the southern California hills with his equally mysterious “brides”. Introducing himself as a mystic from Bulgaria who’s an expert on séances, his true nature is given away by the title of his first film, Count Yorga, Vampire, long before the hapless Donna (Donna Anders, Werewolves on Wheels) and her friends discover the truth.

The sequel, The Return of Count Yorga,...

“Space travelers in the gray mists of time? An inadmissible question to academic scientists. Anyone who asks questions like that ought to see a psychiatrist.” • Erich von Danniken

“It’s just one more thing to remember to charge throughout our busy days.” • Joseph Volpe of Engadget.com critiquing the Apple Watch

Well, I finished rewatching Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica.

The most popular question (dissatisfaction?) I remember floating around the message boards connected with the finale of BSG was: “What, or who, was the returned-from-the-dead Kara Thrace, a.k.a. Starbuck?” And I also remember that there was a lot of frustration and unhappy people who were really angry with Mr. Moore for not giving a black-and-white answer. I suppose these dissatisfied viewers wanted to see an extension of Kara’s final scene with Lee Adama in which, in their imagination, she would say – sort of a Spoiler Ahead!

The Interview and the geopolitical crisis it caused is arguably the most important movie-related story of recent weeks.

The story device featured in The Interview, the idea of a film featuring the assassination of the current ruling leader, is nothing new, and in fact is seen through much of film’s history. In 1941 a German-in-exile Fritz Lang shown an unsuccessful attack on Adolf Hitler in Man Hunt (this story was also told in BBC’s Rogue Male from 1976 starring Peter O’Toole). The Shaw Brothers used the actual newsreel footage of Queen Elisabeth visiting Hong-Kong (then a British colony) in their 1976 martial arts flick A Queen’s Ransom (a.k.a. The International Assassin) starring post-James Bond George Lazenby as an Ira assassin and Angela Mao as a heroine trying to stop him. In fact, the Queen of England might be the most popular assassination target among actual world leaders...

We’re back with another news round-up. This time around we have a casting update on the Matt Smith-starring Patient Zero, special features details for Shout! Factory’s 4-disc Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD box set, and news on The Jetsons in-development animated feature film.

Deadline reveals that Stanley Tucci is lined up to play the head villain in Patient Zero, the upcoming horror-thriller from Screen Gems. Tucci will play “a deliciously evil role: a professor who becomes infected, and highly violent. He becomes determined to crash the lab that’s working on a cure and thwart the search for Patient Zero.” Matt Smith (Doctor Who) and Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) star and Stefan Ruzowitzky (Deadfall) directs off a script by Mike Le (Dark Summer).

“In Patient Zero, an unprecedented global pandemic of a super strain of rabies has resulted in the evolution of a new species driven by violence.

Ahead of Interstellar's launch, here's a selection of 10 underappreciated sci-fi films about space travel...

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar wears many of its influences proudly. The director has openly said that his film is inspired by such acclaimed pieces of cinema as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff, as well as the human warmth of Steven Spielberg's 80s output. Interstellar depicts a near future where life on Earth teeters on the brink of extinction. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former test pilot turned farmer, joins a last-ditch mission to enter a wormhole in space and find a new home for humanity; he realises that the only way to save his family is to leave it behind.

It's the latest film to tap into our fascination with the depths of space - a topic that has been explored many times since the earliest days of cinema.