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Welcome to Tony Talk, a column in which Gold Derby contributors Sam Eckmann and David Buchanan offer Tony Awards analysis. Two weeks after the 2025 Tonys, we discuss the upcoming Broadway season and forecast likely 2026 Tony contenders.

David Buchanan: Last June, you and I offered our earliest predictions for what could contend and even win at the Tonys a whole 12 months in the future! Looking back at our extremely early 2025 predictions, we hit some nails on the head, including the Best Musical Revival and Best Actress in a Musical showdowns between Gypsy and Sunset Boulevard and stars Audra McDonald and Nicole Scherzinger, respectively. For the 2025-26 Broadway season — which has already kicked off with Jean Smart in the solo play Call Me Izzy — it looks like the revivals are once again front and center. We have remountings of musicals Ragtime, Chess, and The Rocky Horror Show forthcoming, as well as plays Art,...

Starving and on the verge of death, a can of pickled cucumbers is discovered, offering a chance at survival. They are glorious pickled cucumbers of hope. This is a scene from the Oscar-winning film The Pianist, and this is a scene that played out in the real life of the filmmaker. Roman Polanski grew up amongst the horrors and rubble of Nazi-occupied Poland. Losing his pregnant mother to the gas chambers and then losing his pregnant wife to the Manson Family, his experiences in life profoundly influenced his worldview and later work. But The Holocaust was only the first chapter of a life marked by tragedy, scandal …and cinema. This tiny yet charming bohemian makes silly yet tragic comedies and horrific yet thought-provoking controversial thrillers. But it is the personal life of Roman Polanski that has created the most scandalous controversies or controversial scandals, as a fugitive on the run...

Though his personal tragedies and demons have sometimes overshadowed his work, there’s no denying the impact Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski has had on cinema.

Born in 1933 in Paris and raised in Poland, Polanski’s childhood was marked by tragedy when he was separated from his parents during the Holocaust. As a child, he escaped the Krakow ghetto after his mother was killed in an Auschwitz gas chamber. When the war ended, he was reunited with his father and returned home.

He turned to filmmaking as a student, making his directorial debut with the international hit “Knife in the Water” (1962), which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. His followup, the psychological thriller “Repulsion” (1965), was an even bigger hit, and he was soon drafted by Hollywood to direct the occult horror film “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968), which earned him a Best Adapted Screenplay bid.

It was during this time that he married Sharon Tate,...

Wes Anderson recommends Warner Bros.’ early Barbara Stanwyck vehicle Baby Face, made in 1933 during pre-Production Code Hollywood, for top viewing as part of the November 2023 Turner Classic Movies lineup in the Asteroid City director’s own TCM Picks video that dropped on Wednesday.

The Hollywood studio made the infamous melodrama from director Alfred E. Green during the height of the Depression and before the official censors got their scissors into studio movies after Hollywood’s attempts at self-censorship, including with the Hays Code, failed to keep critics and the authorities at bay.

“There’s a period there where there’s nobody stopping them. Baby Face follows into that time, very, very strongly. It’s one of the most pre-code, pre-codes I can think of,” Anderson says of the breakout movie for a young Stanwyck.

The legendary Hollywood actress early in her career plays a character aptly named Lily Powers, a...

As any critic will tell you, when you’re watching a comedy with an audience, it doesn’t matter how bad the movie is — even the jokes that are making you groan are going to provoke laughter. (That’s why comedies are always screened with a crowd; the studios want the audience giggles to rub off on you.) But at the Venice Film Festival, when I saw “The Palace,” Roman Polanski’s garish debacle of an ensemble comedy, I was sitting in the Sala Darsena, which seats 1400 (and was full), and on the rare occasion when a line in the movie got laughs, it was literally coming from about six people. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard a giant theater this deadly silent for a movie that’s working this strenuously to amuse you.

Polanski, if you look back over his credits, has an astoundingly consistent track...

For an admirer of his work, writing about a new movie by Roman Polanski is like facing a minefield of unsolvable questions: Can this film be judged like the others given the director’s criminal record and tarnished reputation? Is it possible to praise a work of art if certain parts of an artist’s life are reprehensible, or should the two be separated? Should Polanski still be allowed to make movies? Should this movie even be written about?

Those questions would be harder to answer if Polanski, who’s now 90, made something on the level of say, Chinatown or Rosemary’s Baby. Or even something like The Tenant or Frantic or Repulsion or his debut feature, Knife in the Water, which came out over 60 years ago and earned him his first Oscar nomination.

But the director’s latest, The Palace, leaves little room for ambiguity. It’s the worst thing...

Forget the pleasantries, today sucks. Paul Reubens, best known for his incomparable work as Pee-wee Herman, has passed away. The weird, wacky, and wonderful comedy figure is one of the most influential creatives ever to do it, and left in his wake is an irreplaceable void of silly, absurdist joy. Reubens' created the character of Pee-wee Herman while performing with The Groundlings, the legendary improvisational comedy troupe boasting alumni like Laraine Newman, Pat Morita, Craig T. Nelson, Jon Lovitz, Adrienne Barbeau, Conan O'Brien, Phil Hartman, Phil Lamarr, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Coolidge, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Will Forte, Annie Mumolo, Kaitlin Olson, Edi Patterson, Tony Cavalero, and a ridiculous number of other eventual "Saturday Night Live" players.

Pee-wee Herman was an immediate hit and led to Reubens writing, producing, directing, and starring in "The Pee-wee Herman Show." He quickly became a household name, and the Pee-wee character would get another show,...

Mantícora Distribución has acquired the vampire story “While the Masters Sleep” by Santiago Alvarado Ilarri for international sales.

The film – which will also mark the debut of Spain’s La Mala Compañia, the result of a partnership between Magno Entertainment and Msp –will be presented in Cannes as one of the Gala Screenings at the Fantastic Pavilion, a brand new hub for the genre community at the Marché du Film. Sula Entertainment and Morbido TV are also on board.

“We want ‘While the Masters Sleep’ to introduce this new label. [It will be] focusing on genre films with a big audience potential, but trying to achieve this goal without losing the ideas and virtues of independent films. All the while shaking up the codes of classic horror films,” producer Joaquim Vivas said of La Mala Compañía.

In the film, Samuel and Lourdes are a humble married couple, going out of their way to...

Hollywood didn't force Tobe Hooper to make horror movies, but he and other top genre directors may have felt a little trapped in genre jail by the Hollywood brass. Tobe Hooper began his career as more of a surrealist filmmaker with the hallucinatory hippie romance "Eggshells" back in 1969. Hooper shot the film in Austin, Texas where, at that time, the capitol city was becoming a haven for the blossoming counter culture movement, even if local law enforcement and conservative Texans weren't exactly welcoming them with open arms. Hooper's inventiveness and prowess behind the camera was already apparent in "Eggshells," especially in the more psychedelic sequences that used a lot of camera tricks and compositing to make it feel like the viewer was going through the same psychotropic journey as the hippie couple up on screen. 

There were already echoes of Hooper's next film, "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre," in the setup for "Eggshells,...

It's nearly Halloween, which means it's time for musical fans to bring out their toilet paper and water guns for the perfect Rocky Horror Picture Show experience. To get ready, they might look forward to other ghoulish songs that get them in the holiday spirit. There tends to be a significant overlap between those who love musicals and those who love the spooky season, so it's no wonder that haunting musicals like Sweeney Todd and Little Shop of Horrors are common October favorites. However, these popular musicals can get old when they're all fans have to listen to, year after year.

With that in mind, Redditor Nalkarj went on a hunt for less-common Halloween show tunes to get into the right mood. There have been musicals on nearly any subject a person could think of, so surely there are enough Halloween-related songs to put together an interesting playlist. For background...

It’s something completely different . . . a genuine obscurity, a Swiss spy fantasy from the 1960s with major appeal to fans keen on (not in this order) art cinema, Fritz Lang, superspy romps, surreal silent serials, Eurocult actors, and visuals with a New Wave-ish flair. Teams of assassins vie for an atom secret held by mad scientist Daniel Emilfork. The spies target his gorgeous, innocent daughter Marie-France Boyer, but she’s obsessed with a romantic memory from ‘last summer in Shandigor.’ Jean-Louis Roy’s unique, precision-crafted gem evokes the graphic-novel pulp appeal of Dr. Mabuse, Alphaville, Judex or Diabolik — yet it is unlike any of them. It’s comic nonsense, but also earnest and original.

The Unknown Man of Shandigor

Blu-ray

Deaf Crocodile Films

1967 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date January 22, 2022 / L’inconnu de Shandigor / Available through Vinegar Syndrome / 34.98

Starring: Marie-France Boyer, Ben Carruthers, Daniel Emilfork, Jacques Dufilho, Serge Gainsbourg,...

On Aug. 8, 1969, Sharon Tate was a beautiful, B-movie actress best known for The Fearless Vampire Killers, Valley of the Dolls and a handful of episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies. On Aug. 9, 1969, Charles Manson turned her into the biggest star in Hollywood. By a horrible twist of much-documented fate, the 26-year-old starlet became the most famous victim of the so-called "Manson Family" when several followers of the manipulative, magnetic cult leader murdered almost everyone they found at 10050 Cielo Drive, a sprawling but isolated property tucked into a hillside in Los Angeles' Benedict Canyon. Tate and her husband of a year a half,...

Sharon Tate was an American actress and model that was active throughout the '60s and is a name that everyone, young and old, are familiar with, especially after she was immortalized by Margot Robbie in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 opus Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Married to Roman Polanski In the '60s, she was the 'it girl' who starred in such smash hits as 1967's Valley of the Dolls, The Wrecking Crew, and The Fearless Vampire Killers, with bit roles in The Beverley Hillbillies and Mr. Ed. She was known for shying away from the spotlight, meaning that any and all interviews about her work have long since been buried; until now, as a new interview from 1967 has been pulled from the archives with Sharon Tate seen on the set of Valley of the Dolls.

Valley of the Dolls tells the story of three young hopefuls trying to make it big in Hollywood.

Update, with Bonnie Tyler tribute Jim Steinman, the composer and lyricist whose roster of hit records included the huge Bonnie Tyler hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” was remembered by the singer as the “true genius” behind “some of the most iconic rock songs of all time.”

“I am absolutely devastated to learn of the passing of my long term friend and musical mentor Jim Steinman,” tweeted Tyler, whose other hits composed by Steinman included “Holding Out For A Hero.”

“Jim wrote and produced some of the most iconic rock songs of all time and I was massively privileged to have been given some of them by him. I made two albums with Jim, despite my record company initially thinking he wouldn’t want to work with me. Thankfully they were wrong…”

Read Tyler’s full statement below.

Deadline confirmed Steinman’s death with the Connecticut state medical examiner earlier today.

Rock and pop hitmaker Jim Steinman, who wrote and composed music for Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion, and more, died Monday, April 19th. He was 73.

The office of the chief medical examiner in Connecticut confirmed Steinman’s death to Rolling Stone. A cause of death was not given.

A statement posted on Steinman’s Facebook page read, “It’s with a heavy heart that I can confirm Jim’s passing. There will be much more to say in the coming hours and days as we prepare to honor this...

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,...

In his latest book about Hollywood, author Sam Wasson uses interviews and books — such as autobiography “Roman by Polanski” — to craft a novelistic tale about the making of the iconic 1974 movie “Chinatown.” The first chapter, “Justice,” starts off with the romance between actress Sharon Tate and young director Roman Polanski, as he casts her in his 1967 film, “The Fearless Vampire Killers.” Our excerpt (slightly edited for length) is below.

Duty was her pattern. She was a smiler, an actress.

Sharon signed with Ransohoff at nineteen. Dutifully, she faced Hollywood with professional dedication, taking courses in singing, dancing, and acting, the latter with Jeff Corey in the fall of 1963. “An incredibly beautiful girl,” Corey reflected, “but a fragmented personality.” Self-disclosure was a problem, so Corey one day put a stick in her hand and demanded, “Hit me, do something, show emotion!” Beauty was not enough. And she knew she wouldn’t be beautiful forever.

In his latest book about Hollywood, author Sam Wasson uses interviews and books — such as autobiography “Roman by Polanski” — to craft a novelistic tale about the making of the iconic 1974 movie “Chinatown.” The first chapter, “Justice,” starts off with the romance between actress Sharon Tate and young director Roman Polanski, as he casts her in his 1967 film, “The Fearless Vampire Killers.” Our excerpt (slightly edited for length) is below.

Duty was her pattern. She was a smiler, an actress.

Sharon signed with Ransohoff at nineteen. Dutifully, she faced Hollywood with professional dedication, taking courses in singing, dancing, and acting, the latter with Jeff Corey in the fall of 1963. “An incredibly beautiful girl,” Corey reflected, “but a fragmented personality.” Self-disclosure was a problem, so Corey one day put a stick in her hand and demanded, “Hit me, do something, show emotion!” Beauty was not enough. And she knew she wouldn’t be beautiful forever.

Toot Toot! The Little Engine that Could becomes a tale of the little town that could, when their tiny rail service is discontinued. A crackerjack cast of Ealing regulars — Stanley Holloway, Naunton Wayne, John Gregson — band together to take over the little spur line and keep it running. We get to see a vintage locomotive from the early 1800s in action, but the appeal isn’t limited to lovers of trains — Ealing’s knack for inspired, understated comedy is all over this show. Plus, it’s the company’s first feature in Technicolor, and is beautifully remastered.

The Titfield Thunderbolt

Blu-ray

Film Movement Classics

1953 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 84 min. / Street Date , 2020 /

Starring: Stanley Holloway, George Relph, Naunton Wayne, John Gregson, Godfrey Tearle, Hugh Griffith, Gabrielle Brune, Sidney James, Reginald Beckwith, Edie Martin, Michael Trubshawe, Jack MacGowran, Ewan Roberts.

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe

Film Editor: Seth Holt

Original Music: Georges Auric

Written by...

Iconic producer Robert Evans’ death at 89 this week was met with a wave of appreciations for the driving force behind “Chinatown” and “The Godfather,” but if it wasn’t for a documentary released 18 years ago, that legacy might have remained in the shadows. Co-directors Brett Morgen and Nanette Burstein’s “The Kid Stays in the Picture” recounts Evans’ pivotal role in many of the iconoclastic Hollywood achievements that defined the 1970s, as well as the fatal missteps — from a cocaine bust to a scandalous murder trial — that threw him off track.

“I think the movie gave people a better understanding of him,” Burstein said in a phone interview this week. “People thought he was very Nora Desmond-like.” The stylish documentary, which adapted Evans’ 1994 memoir into a subjective retelling of his highs and lows using his voiceover as a guide, became a breakout hit at Sundance and brought Evans back into public view.

As we hit the midway point of October, we have a ton of new horror and sci-fi hitting Blu-ray and DVD this week, featuring a slew of new genre offerings and tons of cult classics. In terms of recent releases, Rob Zombie’s 3 From Hell arrives on Blu, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD this Tuesday, and if you happened to miss the latest from Alexandra Aja, Crawl is making its way onto both Blu and DVD (and is a film this writer highly recommends—perfect for some aquatic horror thrills this October).

Speaking of seasonal horror movies, Haunt comes home this week, and if you can’t get enough of Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House, Lionsgate is putting out a special director’s edition release that fans are definitely going to want to pick up.

In terms of classic horror, Häxan is getting the Criterion treatment (and...

Mario Bava excelled with at least five super sword ‘n’ sandal pictures — shooting two Hercules classics and directing two viking sagas in addition to this eye-popping mix of mythology and horror. Forget warring armies and casts of thousands. Bava places Reg Park, Christopher Lee, and several beautiful Italo actresses within his weird visual world of and hallucinatory imagery: swirling mists, intensely physical actors and retina-burning color. Kino’s disc carries three discrete versions on two discs, and a gotta-hear commentary by Tim Lucas. On your next trip to The Underworld, remember Not to trust what you see! Trust instead, uh, trust your … oh, just use the Force!

Hercules in the Haunted World

Blu-ray

Kino Classics

1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / Hercules in the Center of the Earth, Hercules in the Haunted World, Vampire gegen Herakles (Germany/Italy 86 minutes) / Ercole al centro della Terra / Street Date October 8, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Reg Park,...

Some movies just don’t get the respect they deserve, which cues pushy reviewers to sing their praises. Forget everything you’ve read and give this Roman Polanski picture a chance — it’s the classiest Halloween treat ever, a lavish blend of Hammer horror, slapstick comedy and wistful romance — plus a vampire horde more balefully scary than a carload of zombies. It’s the beloved Sharon Tate’s best picture, and its vampire king is an original apart from Bela Lugosi and Chris Lee’s Draculas — an aristocratic one-percenter on a satanic mission to put all of humanity in a graveyard of the undead. Warners’ Panavision-Metrocolor restoration is drop-dead beautiful. And they’ve even revived Frank Frazetta’s original ‘jolly chase’ poster art.

The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 107 91 min. / Dance of the Vampires, Your...

Roman Polanski celebrates his 86th birthday on August 18, 2019. Though his personal tragedies and demons have sometimes overshadowed his work, there’s no denying the impact this Oscar-winning director has had on cinema. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1933 in Paris and raised in Poland, Polanski’s childhood was marked by tragedy when he was separated from his parents during the Holocaust. As a child, he escaped the Krakow ghetto after his mother was killed in an Auschwitz gas chamber. When the war ended, he was reunited with his father and returned home.

He turned to filmmaking as a student, making his directorial debut with the international hit “Knife in the Water” (1962), which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. His followup, the psychological thriller “Repulsion” (1965), was an even bigger hit, and he...

by Jason Adams

It's hard not to walk out of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood without Sharon Tate on your mind. Whether it's because you thought the film needed more of what Margot Robbie was serving or if like me it's because you thought what Robbie did serve was A+ First Class stuff, the specter of that real woman, rightfully, lords over the entire experience. Sharon Tate only got to make six films before she was murdered, and two of them were horror films -- not an unlikely statistic for any young beautiful actress, but one that's linked itself arm in arm with Tate's fate nonetheless. 

I've never seen her 1967 British occult flick Eye of the Devil, which had her playing a witch opposite David Niven and Deborah Kerr. But I've seen her other horror flick of that same year, Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers,...

Ahead of the release of New Line Cinema’s hotly-anticipated horror sequel It Chapter Two, ArcLight Cinemas has announced a partnership with director Andy Muschietti for a presents series titled “Prepare To Scare”. The curated film series will begin on July 29 and features six classic titles picked by Muschietti: Poltergeist, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Fright […] The post It’s Andy Muschietti Presents Horror Series At ArcLight appeared first on Dread Central.

Ahead of the release of It: Chapter Two, director Andy Muschietti has hand-selected a batch of horror films to play as part of ArcLight’s “Prepare to Scare” film series, now playing in all ArcLight theaters nationwide. Films selected include Poltergeist, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Fright Night,The Thing, An American Werewolf in London, and The Omega Man. The series […]...

Quentin Tarantino's next movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, will mix his usual ensemble-heavy pop-culture-infused storytelling with a real-life tragedy. Focused mainly on fictional characters, the feature's backdrop will be Tinseltown in the late 1960s, with a specific link to a true crime involving famous Hollywood players.  One of those celebrities in focus is actress Sharon Tate, wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski and star of such films as Valley of the Dolls and Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers. Portraying Tate on screen is Margot Robbie, who just shared a first-look portrait of herself as the actress. See the photo and about the movie below.  Here's everything we know about Quentin Tarantino's next movie...

Sharon Tate’s wedding dress will be auctioned along with other artifacts belonging to the actress who was killed by followers of Charles Manson in 1969, her sister tells People.

“I have been working on this auction for eight months,” says Debra Tate. “I think it’s time to share her with other people.”

From Nov. 12 to Nov. 16, fans of the Hollywood starlet will get a chance to view her personal items at a location to be determined. The Los Angeles-based Julien’s Auctions is working with the Estate of Sharon Tate in the upcoming sale.

Tate’s iconic ivory silk moiré...

June 12 marks the 50th anniversary of “Rosemary’s Baby,” which still remains a gold standard for suspense movies. Though Ira Levin’s novel was a hit, the film adaptation “remained a big question mark until its initial screenings,” Variety wrote on May 29, 1968. The skepticism was because director Roman Polanski’s 1967 “The Fearless Vampire Killers” lost money, while star Mia Farrow was unproven at the box office. But Variety reviewer A.D. Murphy predicted it would be a success and praised the film’s “brilliant” work, above and below the line. With a budget of $3.2 million, the movie was one of the year’s biggest winners, bringing $12.3 million in rentals to Paramount. It was also subtly radical: While other 1960s shockers took place in isolated locations or creaky old homes, “Rosemary’s Baby” found horror in everyday urban settings. And after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy that year,...

Few latecomer ’60s spy movies were big successes. This amusing Brit effort sank without a trace, perhaps taking with it the career of the talented Tom Courtenay as a leading man. The comic tale pits an underachieving, cheeky London lad against an intelligence conspiracy that wouldn’t be doing anybody much harm — if they didn’t insist on murdering people.

Otley

Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator (UK)

1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / Available at The Ph page / Street Date March 19, 2018 / £15.99

Starring: Tom Courtenay, Romy Schneider, Alan Badel, James Villiers, Leonard Rossiter, James Bolam, Fiona Lewis, Freddie Jones, James Cossins, James Maxwell, Edward Hardwicke, Ronald Lacey, Phyllida Law, Geoffrey Bayldon, Frank Middlemass.

Cinematography: Austin Dempster

Film Editor: Richard Best

Art Direction: Carmen Dillon

Original Music: Stanley Myers

Written by Dick Clement, Ian la Frenais from a book by Martin Waddell

Produced by Bruce Cohn Curtis, Carl Foreman

Directed by Dick Clement

The British film...

Roman Polanski and actress Sharon Tate had one of the most infamous and tragic relationships in Hollywood history. Their complicated one-year marriage ended in horror in 1969 when Tate, who was 8½ months pregnant with the couple’s first child, was murdered — along with Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and Steven Parent — in a horrific stabbing at their Los Angeles-area home by followers of cult leader Charles Manson.

Manson, whose name became synonymous with evil after his arrest in connection with the 1969 murders of Tate and eight others, died of natural causes on Sunday night. He was 83 and serving a life...

Sharon Tate was 26 in 1969 and about to begin a new chapter of her life: The successful actress was married to director Roman Polanski and eight-and-a-half months pregnant with their first child.

But that was all cut short when Sharon was killed — along with Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and Steven Parent — in a horrific stabbing at her Los Angeles-area home by followers of cult leader Charles Manson.

Manson, whose name became synonymous with evil after his arrest in connection with the 1969 murders of Tate and eight others, died of natural causes on Sunday night. He was 83 and serving a...

By Salim Garami

What's good? 

Earlier this summer in July, Palme d'Or and Oscar winner Quentin Tarantino had announced the development of his ninth feature film (assuming Kill Bill considered as one work on his part): a movie revolving around the infamous Charles Manson family cult and their terrorizing in Hollywood in 1969. Reportedly, the focus is not going to be on Manson himself but orbiting him as it was also announced that Margot Robbie is slated to play his most notorious victim, the late actress Sharon Tate (of Valley of the Dolls and The Fearless Vampire Killers fame).

None of this is particularly news at this point, nor is the fact that Tarantino removed the production away from the Weinstein Company in the aftermath of the overwhelming amount of sexual allegations against company co-founder and former co-chairman Harvey Weinstein.

What is news is a newfound bidding war...

(Aotn) Turner Classic Movies is bringing the horror next month. Starting on October 1st the channel will be bringing back movies such as the original Cat People and Dracula. Fan’s of classic movies will surely not want to miss this.

If you have ever wanted to know where the band White Zombie got there name be sure to tune in on Halloween morning at 8:30 Am. The Universal Monster’s are sprinkled throughout this marathon and will hopefully delight old school horror fans.

Complete Schedule Below:

Sunday October 1, 2017

8:00 Pm Dracula (1931) 9:30 Pm Dracula’s Daughter (1936) 11:00 Pm Son Of Dracula (1943)

Monday October 2, 2017

12:30 Am Nosferatu (1922)

Tuesday October 3, 2017

8:00 Pm Frankenstein (1931) 9:30 Pm Bride Of Frankenstein (1935) 11:00 Pm The Mummy (1932)

Wednesday October 4, 2017

12:30 Am The Wolf Man (1941) 2:00 Am Island Of Lost Souls (1933) 3:30 Am The Black Cat (1934) 4:45 Am The Invisible Man (1933)

Sunday October 8, 2017

2:00 Am Night...

Of all the legendary early horror films Carl Theodor Dreyer’s vampire nightmare was once the most difficult to appreciate — until Criterion’s restoration of a mostly intact, un-mutilated full cut. Dreyer creates his fantasy according to his own rules — this pallid, claustrophobic horror is closer to Ordet than it is Dracula or Nosferatu.

Vampyr

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 437

1932 / Color / 1:19 Movietone Ap. / 73 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 3, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Julian West (Baron Nicolas De Gunzberg), Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel, Sybille Schmitz, Jan Hieronimko, Henriette Gérard.

Cinematography: Rudolph Maté

Art Direction: Hermann Warm

Film Editor: Tonka Taldy

Original Music: Wolfgang Zeller

Written by Carl Theodor Dreyer, Christen Jul from In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu

Produced by Carl Theodor Dreyer, Julian West

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr is a tough row to hoe for horror fans, many of whom just...

Steve Martin brings down the house with this adoring, hilarious pastiche of mad doctor and disembodied brain motifs — surely the epitome of cultured comedy. Under Carl Reiner’s direction Martin is marvelous, and he’s aided and abetted by the daring sexpot-turned comedienne Kathleen Turner — who has a better handle on outrageous sexy comedy than they do. It’s class-act nonsense and inspired silliness. Where else can a crazed surgeon proclaim his special screw-top skull surgery method, and utter the immortal words, “Scum queen?!”

The Man with Two Brains

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1983 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 90 93 min. / Street Date August 29, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Steve Martin, Kathleen Turner, David Warner, Paul Benedict, Richard Brestoff, James Cromwell, George Furth, Peter Hobbs, Jeffrey Combs.

Cinematography: Michael Chapman

Film Editor: Bud Molin

Production Design: Polly Platt

Original Music: Joel Goldsmith

Written by Carl Reiner, George Gipe, Steve Martin

Produced by William E. McEuen,...

Take this with a giant heap of salt, but a reddit user claiming to have inside information on Quentin Tarantino’s as-yet untitled movie about Charles Manson has shared his or her findings online. “I’m normally the last one to say ‘I have a friend who knows somebody in the business etc’ but for once I might have something so I thought I’d share,” begins the post, which then offers details about the cast (including Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lawrence) and plot.

Read MoreQuentin Tarantino’s Manson Family Murders Movie: Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the Rumored Project

Pitt will star as Tex Watson, with Lawrence as Susan Atkins, according to b1rdnest; Margot Robbie will play Sharon Tate alongside Harvey Keitel as Manson in his later years, as “aspects of the story are told through him.” In a plot twist that seems just weird...

Tony Sokol Joseph Baxter Sep 27, 2018

Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has had to sadly replace Burt Reynolds with Bruce Dern. Still, good casting.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will put one of Tinseltown’s most temeritous crimes, the 1969 murders by the Manson Family, through the madcap--and often quasi-historical--lens of writer-director Quentin Tarantino. It will also be Tarantino's first effort since 2015’s The Hateful Eight, meaning it is supposedly his penultimate film.

As if that idea wasn’t intriguing enough, Tarantino is putting together an amazing cast for the film, with names like Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Damian Lewis, Dakota Fanning, along with the director’s repertory players Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Zoë Bell.

Now comes news that Tarantino has found his replacement for the late, great Burt Reynolds who passed away in 2018 before his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood...

This French disc release of the Jacques Tourneur classic gets everything right — including both versions in picture perfect transfers. Devil debunker Dana Andrews locks horns with Niall MacGinnis, a necromancer “who has decoded the Old Book” and can summon a fire & brimstone monster from Hell, no election fraud necessary. Even fans that hate ghost stories love this one — it’s a truly creepy, intelligent highlight of the horror genre.

Night of the Demon

Region A + B Blu-ray + Pal DVD

Wild Side (Fr)

1957 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 95 & 82 min. / Street Date November 27, 2013 / Curse of the Demon, Rendez-vous avec la peur / Available from Amazon UK or Foreign Exchange Blu-ray

Starring: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Maurice Denham,

Athene Seyler

Cinematography: Ted Scaife

Production Designer: Ken Adam

Special Effects: George Blackwell, S.D. Onions, Wally Veevers

Film Editor Michael Gordon

Original Music: Clifton Parker

Written by Charles Bennett and Hal E. Chester

from the...

A breezy five-episode compilation movie about swindles plays out in five film capitals, under the eye of five different directors including Claude Chabrol and Jean-Luc Godard. But Roman Polanski’s Amsterdam segment couldn’t be included, which is a shame. It’s in B&W ‘scope, and everybody gets to bring their favorite cameraman and composer along.

The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1964 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 95 108, 124 min. / Street Date April 25, 2017 / Les plus belles escroqueries du monde / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Mie Hama, Ken Mitsuda, Nicole Karen, Gabriella Giorgelli, Jan Teulings, Arnold Gelderman, Guido Giuseppone, Giuseppe Mannajuolo, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Catherine Deneuve, Francis Blanche, Sacha Briquet, Jean-Louis Maury, Philomène Toulouse, Charles Denner, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Seberg, László Szabó.

Cinematography: Raoul Coutard, Tonino Delli Colli, Jerzy Lipman, Asakazu Nakai, Jean Rabier

Film Editor:

Original Music: Serge Gainsbourg, Pierre Jansen, Krzysztof Komeda, Michel Legrand, Keitaro Miho, Piero Umiliani...

Sometimes a movie is simply too good for just one special edition… Savant reached out to nab a British Region B import of Georges Franju’s horror masterpiece, to sample its enticing extras. And this also gives me the chance to ramble on with more thoughts about this 1959 show that inspired a score of copycats.

Eyes Without a Face (Bfi — U.K.)

Region B Blu-ray + Pal DVD

Bfi

1959 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 90 min. / The Horror Chamber of

Dr. Faustus, House of Dr. Rasanoff, Occhi senza volto / Street Date August 24, 2015 / presently £10.99

Starring: Pierre Brasseur, Edith Scob, Alida Valli, Francois Guérin,

Béatrice Altariba, Juliette Mayniel

Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan

Production Designer: Auguste Capelier

Special Effects: Charles-Henri Assola

Film Editor: Gilbert Natot

Original Music: Maurice Jarre

Written by Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, Pierre Gascar, Claude Sautet from a novel by Jean Redon

Produced by Jules Borkon

Directed by Georges Franju

Savant has reviewed Eyes Without a Face twice,...

I'm a big fan of Mike Mignola's work, especially with what he's done with Hellboy. His latest project has just been announced and I'm pretty excited about it! The project is a vampire graphic novel called Mr. Higgin's Comes Home.

Mignola wrote the comic and it will feature art from Warwick Johnson-Cadwell (Helena Crash). This story is an homage to old-fashioned vampire stories, and it features a pair of vampire hunters who have to convince the titular Mr. Higgins "to return to the scene of his wife’s tragic death and confront the dark mysteries of what happened to him at the sinister Castle Golga."

When talking to io9 about the project, Mignola said:

“I’d been a fan of Warwick’s work for a very long time. I met him recently, discovered he had a fondness for sad werewolves, and that got the ball rolling for Mr. Higgins.

Revenge of the Blood Beast

Blu-ray

Rarovideo

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 79 min. / Il lago di Satana, La sorella di Satana, The She-Beast / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 29.95

Starring: Barbara Steele, John Karlsen, Ian Ogilvy, Mel Welles, Lucretia Love

Cinematography: Gioacchino Gengarelli

Film Editor: Nira Omri

Original Music: Paul Ferris

Produced by: Paul Maslansky, Michael Reeves

Written and Directed by Michael Reeves

It’s back into the genre argument pits with the interesting director Michael Reeves. Reeves has persisted as a cult figure far longer than most directors with only three credited feature films. The movies are uneven but promising, and certainly the artistic equal (or better) than most of the work being turned out at the time by American-International and the majority of the Euro-horror crowd. The second half of the 1960s saw a general depression in the horror field, with Hammer losing touch with its audience and continental fare turning to sex content to generate interest.

On Monday, Theater People podcast welcome's Hamilton's Mandy Gonzalez. Shemade her Broadway debut in 2000 in Aida as the Amnneris standby. She eventually took the role over full-time. She went on to originate roles in Dance Of The Vampires and Lennon before winning her breakout role as Nina in Lin-Manuel Miranda's In The Heights, a role she originated in the show's pre-Off Broadway days. She went on to take over the role of Elphaba in Wicked and can now be seen eight times a week in the hottest show on Broadway, Hamilton.

Cassandra Peterson is celebrating 35 years of Elvira in a big way. October 5th sees the release of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, a coffee-table-style book from Tweeterhead that includes photos and sketches from her career, including a significant number of never-before-seen images.

Ahead of the book's release, I had a chance to catch up with Cassandra to talk about how this project came together, a photo that foretold her "Queen of Halloween" status at an early age, and much more:

I know that you've worked with Tweeterhead on those wonderful Elvira statues, and they are known more for their maquettes. How did developing a book with them come about?

Cassandra Peterson: Chad [Colebank], who runs Tweeterhead, has done my various maquettes, which have been amazingly good and my favorite so far. I talked to him about how I was thinking about doing a coffee-table book. Chad is just such a go-getter,...

High camp or just plain trash? A cultural-cinematic swamp in perfectly rotten taste, this adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's supermarket 'dirty book' seeks out tawdry sleaze like no American movie had before. Junk beyond belief, and great entertainment if you're in a sick frame of mind. Valley of the Dolls Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 835 1967 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 123 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 27, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke, Sharon Tate, Susan Hayward, Tony Scotti, Martin Milner, Charles Drake, Alexander Davion, Lee Grant, Naomi Stevens, Robert H. Harris, Jacqueline Susann, Robert Viharo, Joey Bishop, George Jessel, Dionne Warwick, Sherry Alberoni, Margaret Whiting, Richard Angarola, Richard Dreyfuss, Marvin Hamlisch, Judith Lowry. Cinematography William H. Daniels Film Editor Dorothy Spencer Conductor / Music Adaptor John Williams Written by Helen Deutsch, Dorothy Kingsley Jacqueline Susann Produced by Mark Robson, David Weisbart Directed by Mark Robson

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I...

Over this past weekend at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, this writer had the opportunity to speak with none other than Cassandra Peterson, the beloved actress and performer who is forever engrained in the pop culture lexicon as the horror hostess Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Growing up, Elvira’s weekly show, Movie Macabre, was a huge part of my childhood and horror education, which made our conversation a career highlight and a truly unforgettable experience for me, both personally and professionally.

During our chat, Peterson discussed her influential career over the last 35 years, including her latest project, the Elvira: Mistress of the Dark photo book that hits shelves this October. She also talked about being a female horror icon during the 1980s, her favorite and least favorite movies she celebrated on Movie Macabre, and more.

Really great to speak with you today, Cassandra. What’s really cool about your career...

Goodbye, Bon Temps. Hello, Broadway?

HBO’s now-cancelled vampire drama True Blood is in the very early stages of becoming a musical, the New York Post reports.

VideosTV’s Steamiest Sex: Watch Pulse-Raising True Blood, Scandal and Game of Thrones Scenes (*If Your Boss Isn’t Looking)

The project — with music by Nathan Barr, who composed the music for the TV series, and book and lyrics by Living Dead Girl author Elizabeth Scott — apparently recently held a hush-hush table read. As such, details are scarce, but per the Post: The musical is set in the same little Louisiana town as...

Summer just officially started just a few days ago, so Halloween is months away. Perhaps a great way to get us cooled off, to put us in a Fall state of mind, would be to pay a visit to one of the oldest horror movie icons: the vampire. Everyone’s aware of how scary those fanged fiends can be, but you may have forgotten how funny they are (intentionally, of course). Movie audiences have emitted nervous laughter ever since Max Schreck emerged from the shadows in the silent classic Nosferatu. And certainly there are bits (and bites) of humor (mostly comic relief supporting players) in 1931’s Dracula and Mark Of The Vampire, both with Bela Lugosi. It wasn’t until 1948 that he was in an all out farce (though the Count is never lampooned) in Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein. After Hammer Studios brought back (in full gory color) the bloodsuckers ten years later,...