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Although Stanley Kubrick was well-respected in his time, he didn't win as many Oscars as you'd probably think. Sure, he received Best Director nominations for "Dr. Strangelove," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "A Clockwork Orange," and "Barry Lyndon," but he didn't win any of those. One of his most acclaimed movies, "The Shining," didn't even receive any Oscar nods at all.

Kubrick's only Oscar win was for Best Special Visual Effects for his 1968 sci-fi film, "2001: A Space Odyssey." The movie competed against "Ice Station Zebra," an espionage thriller starring Rock Hudson that released to mixed reviews and a middling box office performance. If the Academy had some sort of grudge against Kubrick, as some fans of his suspect, they still couldn't deny that "A Space Odyssey" deserved the win here; even more than half a century later, the movie looks fantastic.

What must've sealed the movie's win in this category...

Submarine movies use tight spaces to create tension and compelling stories akin to space movies. A small ensemble cast faces life-or-death decisions in claustrophobic settings, mirroring courtroom dramas. The best submarine movies feature capable characters making heroic, sometimes boneheaded decisions together.

There is a long list of memorable and acclaimed submarine movies that use confined spaces and tension to set up some thrilling plots. Submarine movies have fascinated audiences since all the way back in the silent film era at the beginning of the 20th century. There is something both mesmerizing and ominous about a human-made ship that can sink below the mysterious sea to wander the ocean floor. The best submarine movies utilize these feelings of awe and menace to create a story and tone akin to space movies.

Submarine movies force a small ensemble cast into a tight space where tempers flare, patience is short, and characters make...

August is heating up on Max, with “90 Day: The Last Resort” premiering on the streamer Aug. 15 (one day after it airs on TLC).

Five fan-favorite couples from “90 Day Fiance” have reached their breaking points. In a final attempt to salvage their relationships, each couple will participate in a couples retreat to determine whether or not they can heal old wounds. Alongside a team of professionals, they’ll actively navigate issues with trust, sex, jealousy, anger and intimacy. Explosive group therapies, intense couples sessions, past life regressions, unique on-and-off-resort activities and so much more ensue. At the end of the retreat, each couple must decide if they will stay together or move on separately.

Fans of dating and relationship shows may also be interested in “Kim vs Kayne: The Divorce” on August 7, which chronicles the split between Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. There’s also Season 18 of “Sister Wives,...

Summer isn’t over yet but HBO and its streaming arm Max are already moving on to fall. With its list of new releases for August 2023, Max is focusing on football! The American kind, mind you, not the actually footy kind.

August 2023 sees the release of two major football documentaries on HBO and Max. The first is the premiere of Hard Knocks on Aug. 10. The new season of long-running NFL training camp docuseries will center on the New York Jets, new employers of legendary quarterback Aaron Rodgers. On Aug. 23, Max will air the aptly named Bs High. The doc tells the stranger-than-fiction story of high school football team Bishop Sycamore, which pulled off one of the more notable sports scams you’re likely to ever hear about.

Not of the football variety but in keeping with the North American sports theme will be season 2 of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty on Aug.

DeVaughn Nixon, Quincy Isaiah, and Delante Desouza in ‘Winning Time’ season 2 (Photograph by Warrick Page/HBO)

Hard Knock‘s new season focusing on the New York Jets and the second season of the original drama Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty join Max’s August 2023 lineup, along with Tracy Morgan’s latest comedy special. August’s schedule also includes the season finales of And Just Like That… and Warrior.

Rap Sh!t season two premieres on August 10th, and the new half-hour young adult animated series Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake arrives on August 31st.

Series & Films Arriving On Max In August 2023:

August 1

A Hologram for the King (2016)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child...

August is one of the weird months on the calendar. It feels like it should be early fall; September is Right there, after all. And yet August is one of the hottest months of the year for many in the United States, one last gasp of summer before autumn and its traditional TV schedule of new releases settle in.

This year’s fall schedule will look markedly different thanks to strikes by both the leading actors’ union and the leading writers’ guild in Hollywood, but August will still have some fantastic new hits coming to streaming. Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming platform Max is debuting new titles in just about every imaginable category, so here are the five we’re most excited for at The Streamable!

7-Day Free Trial $9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com

Get 20% Off Your Next Year of Max When Pre-Paid Annually

‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’ Season 2 Premiere | Aug.

Some sad news has come in to end the week, as it has been announced that legendary NFL player-turned-actor Jim Brown has passed at the age of 87. His passing was announced by his wife on Instagram, with no cause of death being provided.

Born on February 17, 1936, in St. Simons Islang, Georgia, Brown is considered to be one of the greatest football players of all time. He was drafted out of Syracuse University by the Cleveland Browns in 1957, and spent all nine years of his NFL career with the team. Deadline notes that “his bruising running style redefined the running back position”. He was the first NFL player to make over 100 career rushing touchdowns and set single season and career rushing records. He was a three time Mvp, Rookie of the Year, eight time All-Pro, and eight time rushing leader. With him on the team, the Browns won the NFL championship...

Jim Brown, among the NFL’s greatest players at any position who went on to star in Hollywood Films like “The Dirty Dozen” and “Any Given Sunday,” has died, his wife Monique Brown said Friday on Instagram. He was 87.

Brown’s singular dominance in the NFL of the late 1950s and 1960s was unmatched. Brown made the Pro Bowl in every season from 1957-1965, was a three-time Mvp, and won a championship with the Cleveland Browns in 1964. Of his nine seasons, he led the league in rushing yards for eight, and held most of the league’s major rushing records upon his retirement.

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A post shared by Jim Brown (@jimbrown)

Brown was born in St. Simons Island, Georgia, the son of a pro boxer and a homemaker. He excelled at every sport he tried, from football and baseball to lacrosse and track. His average of 38 points per game,...

Jim Brown, the NFL Hall of Famer and Civil Rights activist who turned to acting and appeared in films and TV shows ranging from The Dirty Dozen and I Spy to Draft Day, Mars Attacks! and The A-Team, died Thursday night in Los Angeles. His wife, Monique Brown, said in an Instagram post that he died peacefully, but she did not provide a cause.

Brown is considered among the greatest football players of all time. Drafted sixth overall in 1957 by the Cleveland Browns out of Syracuse University, his bruising running style redefined the running back position. As a rookie, he ran for 237 yards in a game against the Los Angeles Rams — a record that would stand until the 1970s.

Related: Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries

Among his myriad NFL records and milestones, he was the first to top 100 career rushing touchdowns and set single-season and career rushing...

Jim Brown, one of the greatest players in the history of the National Football League (NFL), who shocked the world by retiring during his prime after receiving his third Most Valuable Player (Mvp) award and pivoting to becoming an actor, starring in hit films like The Dirty Dozen and Ice Station Zebra, has died at age 87.

Brown was a star athlete at Syracuse University, being not only a dominant football player, but also one of the greatest lacrosse players ever. He lettered on the track team, averaged over 15 points a game for the basketball team and finished fifth in the National Championship decathlon in 1955. Still, he was obviously best known for his success on the gridiron, and when he graduated, he entered the draft for the NFL. He was picked by the Cleveland Browns with the sixth overall pick in the 1957 NFL Draft.

It was almost instantly evident that Brown was a generational talent.

Jim Brown, the NFL titan who appeared in “The Dirty Dozen,” many Blaxploitation films plus Oliver Stone’s “Any Given Sunday,” “The Running Man,” Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks” and Spike Lee’s “He Got Game,” to name a few, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 87.

His wife Monique posted the news of his death on Instagram, saying, “He passed peacefully last night at our L.A. home.”

In nine extraordinary seasons as a fullback with the Cleveland Browns, Brown set an array of NFL records. In 2002, The Sporting News named him the greatest professional football player ever. That phenomenal athleticism and a charismatic personality made him bankable as the first African American action star.

“On behalf of the entire NFL family, we extend our condolences to Monique and their family,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “Jim Brown was a gifted athlete — one of the most dominant players to...

Jim Brown, the incomparable Cleveland Browns fullback who quit the NFL at the peak of his prowess to become a Hollywood action hero in such films as The Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra and 100 Rifles, has died. He was 87.

A staunch advocate for civil rights, Brown died in his Los Angeles home Thursday night with wife Monique by his side, his family’s spokesperson told the Associated Press.

In a statement, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell praised Brown’s skills on the field, in addition to calling him a “cultural figure who helped promote change.” The message continued, “During his nine-year NFL career, which coincided with the civil rights movement here at home, he became a forerunner and role model for athletes being involved in social initiatives outside their sport. He inspired fellow athletes to make a difference, especially in the communities in which they lived.”

A synthesis of speed,...

One Breaking Bad line was a huge mystery that was never resolved in the original show, but Better Call Saul finally gave it a tragic origin. Breaking Bad set up a massive universe with lots of plot threads that were never tied off, many of which Better Call Saul explored and turned into thrilling storylines. However, the Breaking Bad line in question was quietly explained in a quick Better Call Saul moment, one that makes the original show far sadder than it already was.

Many elements of Saul Goodman's backstory are introduced in Breaking Bad but never expanded on. However, Better Call Saul took many of these questions and answered them, using Jimmy McGill's story to fill in the gaps of Breaking Bad. It almost seems as if Better Call Saul's story was planned out all the way at the beginning of Breaking Bad, which is a testament to the show's tight writing.

Ron Masak, Angela Lansbury’s Murder, She Wrote co-star, has died aged 86.

The Chicago-born character actor, whose extensive range of TV credits include Police Story, I Dream of Jeannie and Falcon Crest, died from natural causes.

His granddaughter Kaylie Defilippis announced the news via The Hollywood Reporter.

Masak’s career lasted for six decades. His other TV appearances include an episode of The Twilight Zone, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Get Smart.

However, it was playing Cabot Cove Sheriff Mort Metzger in the final eight seasons of Murder, She Wrote that Masak is best known. He joined the show in 1988, and appeared in 41 episodes in total.

Masak’s death comes eight days after his co-star Angela Lansbury died, aged 96.

The actor’s film debut arrived in John Sturges’s 1968 thriller Ice Station Zebra, which he starred in opposite Rock Hudson and Ernest Borgnine.

In 2015, Masak wrote a memoir titled...

Ron Masak, a prolific character actor best known to television audiences as Sheriff Mort Metzger on “Murder, She Wrote,” died Thursday of natural causes, his family announced. He was 86.

Masak’s death comes just nine days after “Murder, She Wrote” star Angela Lansbury, who died Oct. 10 at age 96.

Born in Chicago in 1936, Masak began his entertainment career while serving in the U.S. Army before moving to Los Angeles. He made his screen debut on an episode of “The Twilight Zone” in 1960. He went on to appear in numerous notable productions of the era, including “The Monkees,” “Ice Station Zebra,” “Bewitched,” and “The Flying Nun,” among others.

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He worked consistently during the 1970s and ’80s, racking up appearances on shows like “Diff’rent Strokes” and “Quincy, M.E.” But it was his regular recurring role on “Murder, She Wrote,...

Ron Masak, the character actor best known for portraying Sheriff Mort Metzger on “Murder, She Wrote,” died on Thursday. He was 86.

According to a family statement, Masak died of natural causes and was surrounded by his wife, Kay, and six children.

Born in Chicago, Ill. on July 1, 1936, Masak studied theater at Chicago City College and made his acting debut with the Drama Guild in 1954. Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, he would appear in iconic television series such as “The Twilight Zone” (1960), “The Monkees” (1968), “Get Smart” (1968), “I Dream of Jeannie” (1968-69), “Bewitched” (1969-70), “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (1971), “Love Thy Neighbor” (1973), “Police Story” (1975-1978) and “Wonder Woman” (1978).

He hit his big break as Sheriff Mort Metzger on “Murder, She Wrote” in 1985, appearing in over 40 episodes of the beloved series until its end in 1996. During the ’80s and ’90s is also when Masak began to get a reputation as the “King of Commercials,...

Click here to read the full article.

Ron Masak, the familiar character actor who as Cabot Cove Sheriff Mort Metzger was the beneficiary of Jessica Fletcher’s crime-solving prowess on the last eight seasons of Murder, She Wrote, has died. He was 86.

Masak died Thursday of natural causes at a hospital in Thousand Oaks, his granddaughter Kaylie Defilippis told The Hollywood Reporter.

The Chicago native appeared six times on Police Story, five times on Bewitched and four times on Webster and also showed up on everything from The Flying Nun, Get Smart, I Dream of Jeannie, Ironside and The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Magnum, P.I., The Rockford FIles, Columbo, Falcon Crest and Cold Case during his six-decade career.

In February 1960, the everyman actor portrayed a harmonica-playing soldier on “The Purple Testament,” the 19th episode of The Twilight Zone, and had a turn as a nutty Dracula-like count on...

If you haven't subscribed for Season 17 of Cinema Retro, here's what you've been missing:

Issue #49

Lee Pfeiffer goes undercover for Robert Vaughn's spy thriller "The Venetian Affair" .

Cai Ross goes to hell for "Damien- Omen II"

Ernie Magnotta continues our "Elvis on Film" series with "Elvis: That's the Way It Is"..

Robert Leese scare up some memories of the cult classic "Carnival of Souls"

Dave Worrall and Lee Pfeiffer look back on the 1976 Sensurround sensation "Midway"

Remembering Sir Sean Connery

James Sherlock examines Stanley Kramer's pandemic Cold War classic "On the Beach".

Dave Worrall goes in search of the Disco Volante hydrofoil from "Thunderball"

Raymond Benson's Cinema 101 column

Gareth Owen's "Pinewood Past" column

Darren Allison reviews the latest soundtrack releases

Issue #50

50th anniversary celebration of "The French Connection" : Todd Garbarini interviews director William Friedkin

"Scars of Dracula": Mark Cerulli interviews stars Jenny Hanley and...

Angelenos are still processing their grief about the closure of the ArcLight theaters. Pacific Theatres announced on Monday that it would close all of its locations, which include the ArcLight Hollywood and the historic Cinerama Dome.

Not as well known is that the theater chain also owns the Cinerama technology. The three-camera filming technique was introduced in 1952 in response to the rise of television, and was virtually obsolete by the time the Cinerama Dome opened on Sunset Boulevard in November 1963. The name lived on for a few years after that, in the form of single-camera 70 millimeter releases that were marketed as Cinerama films — including “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” the first film ever shown at the dome.

The dome itself was not outfitted with the three-camera projection technology until 2002, to coincide with the format’s 50th anniversary. The same year, David Strohmaier released the documentary “Cinerama Adventure,” detailing the history of the process.

Issue #51

Dave Worrall chronicles the challenges of bringing Cleopatra to the big screen in a 14 page Film in Focus feature loaded with rare photos.

John Harty looks at the ambitious but disastrous Soviet/Italian co-production of "The Red Tent" starring Sean Connery, Claudia Cardinale and Peter Finch

Terence Denman rides tall in the saddle with his story behind "The Savage Guns", the only Western ever made by Hammer Films

Dave Worrall and Lee Pfeiffer unveil the secrets of "Ice Station Zebra" starring Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan and Jim Brown

Rare original U.S. drive-in movie theater adverts

Brian Davidson's exclusive interview with David McGillivray (aka McG), screenwriter of 1970s horror flicks and looks back at "Hoffman", the bizarre film that Peter Sellers wanted destroyed.

Nicholas Anez examines the underrated thriller "The Night Visitor" starring Max Von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Per Oscarsson and Trevor Howard

Plus regular columns by Raymond Benson,...

Clint Eastwood proves again that he Owns the western genre with this odd tale of land reform insurrection and establishment blowback, in New Mexico of 1906. To direct the script by the great Elmore Leonard, Eastwood brought in the western movie legend John Sturges. But Sturges discovered that collaboration now meant acceding to whatever the star wanted. The beautifully filmed movie falls apart even though Sturges saved the day with an 11th hour stunt action climax.

Joe Kidd

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 88 min. / Street Date October 27, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, John Saxon, Don Stroud, Stella García, James Wainwright, Paul Koslo, Gregory Walcott, Dick Van Patten, Lynne Marta, John Carter, Pepe Hern, Joaquín Martínez, Clint Ritchie, Chuck Hayward.

Cinematography: Bruce Surtees

Film Editor: Ferris Webster

Original Music: Lalo Schifrin

Written by Elmore Leonard

Produced by Sidney Beckerman

Directed by John Sturges

In 1971 the hottest...

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By Doug Oswald

Rock Hudson and George Peppard are WWII commandos in “Tobruk,” available on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. Hudson is Major Donald Craig, a Canadian prisoner of war on board a German transport ship anchored off an Italian controlled port in North Africa sometime in late 1942. A group of frogmen surface near the ship and sneak on board with silencers fixed to their guns in order to kidnap Craig. The frogmen are led by Captain Bergman (George Peppard) who is part of a team of German commandos. They take Craig to a German airfield and fly him to a desert landing strip. They’re unexpectedly greeted by a group of British soldiers led by Colonel Harker (Nigel Green). It turns out Bergman is the leader of German Jews who fled Nazi Germany for obvious reasons and are now part of...

The life and career of Rock Hudson gets a revisionist look in Ryan Murphy’s new limited series “Hollywood.” The Oscar-nominated actor made a name for himself as a hunky leading man in romantic comedies, melodramas and adventure flicks. While you’re binging Murphy’s newest show, let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Hudson spent years as a supporting player and leading man in B-pictures before shooting to stardom in Douglas Sirk‘s soap opera satire “Magnificent Obsession” (1954). Shot in glossy Technicolor with a sweeping musical score, the film was the first of many the actor made with the German-born auteur, including “All That Heaven Allows” (1955), “Written on the Wind” (1956), and “The Tarnished Angels” (1957). Trashed by critics and adored by audiences in their time, these works have found a second life as clever subversions of American values, influencing filmmakers such as Pedro Almodovar and Todd Haynes.

Michel Legrand, three-time Oscar winner and composer of such classic film songs as “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “I Will Wait for You,” “You Must Believe in Spring” and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?,” along with the groundbreaking musical score for “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” has died. He was 86.

Legrand died at his home early Saturday in Paris, his publicist told Agence France-Presse. His wife, French actress Macha Meril, was at his side.

His most recent film score was “The Other Side of the Wind,” composed for Orson Welles’ last film, which was finally completed and released in 2018. Decades ago, after their 1974 collaboration on “F for Fake,” the legendary director had asked for another Legrand jazz score. “I take it as a gift from Orson, through the clouds,” he said early last year.

The Paris-born Legrand was active in all musical fields, composing classical works, stage musicals,...

Writer, director Christopher McQuarrie continues developing his remake of the Arctic thriller "Ice Station Zebra" (1968) based on the 1963 spy novel by author Alistair MacLean.

The original feature directed by John Sturges, starred Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine and Jim Brown, with a parallel to real-life events in 1959.

"...'Commander James Ferraday', captain of the nuclear submarine 'USS Tigershark' is dispatched to the polar ice region on a rescue mission when an emergency signal is received from research station, 'Ice Station Zebra'.

"On board the sub is a civilian and likely spy, 'David Jones', whose orders are secret. Along the way, they collect two additional passengers, a Russian named 'Boris Vaslov', likely also a spy, and 'Us Marine Capt. Leslie Anders' who takes command of the Marines traveling as passengers.

"It soon becomes apparent that the mission is more that just a simple rescue operation. It also becomes apparent...

Jack White took my phone and locked it in a bag. To be fair, it was actually Yondr, a company that specializes in phone-free experiences, like White’s homecoming concert on Tuesday night at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. But the no-technology, no-distractions edict was clearly the famously analog musician’s idea. And a good one, it turns out.

Over four-and-a-half hours, three distinct acts soundtracked a dark arena that, without the glow of mobile devices, was nearly impossible to date. White’s set, guitar-heavy, up-tempo and anthemic, could have been...

Rock Hudson would’ve celebrated his 93rd birthday on November 17, 2018. The Oscar-nominated actor made a name for himself as a hunky leading man in romantic comedies, melodramas, and adventure flicks. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Hudson spent years as a supporting player and leading man in B-pictures before shooting to stardom in Douglas Sirk‘s soap opera satire “Magnificent Obsession” (1954). Shot in glossy Technicolor with a sweeping musical score, the film was the first of many the actor made with the German-born auteur, including “All That Heaven Allows” (1955), “Written on the Wind” (1956), and “The Tarnished Angels” (1957). Trashed by critics and adored by audiences in their time, these works have found a second life as clever subversions of American values, influencing filmmakers such as Pedro Almodovar and Todd Haynes.

He received his sole Oscar nomination for...

Blown up to Road Show spectacular dimensions, a fairly modest idea for a comedy western became something of a career Waterloo for director John Sturges. But it’s still a favorite of fans thrilled by fancy 70mm-style presentations. A huge cast led by Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton and Pamela Tiffin leads the charge on a whisky-soaked madcap chase. It’s all in a fine spirit of fun. . . so where are the big laughs?

The Hallelujah Trail

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 155 min. / Street Date February 27, 2018 / available through the Olive Films website / 24.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton, Pamela Tiffin, Donald Pleasence, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, John Anderson, Tom Stern, Robert J. Wilke, Dub Taylor, Whit Bissell, Helen Kleeb, Val Avery, Hope Summers, John Dehner.

Cinematography: Robert Surtees

Film Editor: Ferris Webster

Original Music: Elmer Bernstein

Written by John Gay from the novel by William Gulick

Executive...

Filmways Television co-founder and film/TV producer Martin Ransohoff has died. He was 90 years old and passed away at his home in Bel-Air, according to his family. Ransohoff had a long list of film and TV credits, including The Cincinnati Kid – a film on which he fired director Sam Peckinpah – as well as Save the Tiger, The Sandpiper (with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton), Catch 22, Jagged Edge, The Americanization of Emily, Silver Streak, Ice Station Zebra, and TV…...

Filmways Television co-founder and film/TV producer Martin Ransohoff has died. He was 90 years old and passed away at his home in Bel-Air, according to his family. Ransohoff had a long list of film and TV credits, including The Cincinnati Kid – a film on which he fired director Sam Peckinpah – as well as Save the Tiger, The Sandpiper (with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton), Catch 22, Jagged Edge, The Americanization of Emily, Silver Streak, Ice Station Zebra, and TV…...

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...

The central romance of “Better Call Saul” is one of the most profound on television — because on the surface, it’s barely there.

When viewers first see Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim (Rhea Seehorn) together in the pilot episode, the scene proves to be a memorable introduction: He finds her smoking in the Hh&M parking garage, and barely touches her as he plucks the cigarette from her mouth, taking a drag before returning it to her lips.

The moment speaks to a pre-established intimacy between two people we don’t really know yet, and as the series has continued, there’s still a lot to be uncovered about who these two people are, and what it means when they’re together. Part of that comes from how subtly creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have woven their love story into the narrative, most notably avoiding the sort of physical...

Warren Beatty performs the latest resurrection of the eccentric movie mogul, following Tommy Lee Jones and Leonardo DiCaprio. But who played him best?

Related: Rules Don't Apply review – Warren Beatty as Howard Hughes: a strangely compelling vanity project

For all the talk of foot-long fingernails, shower-avoidance, Kleenex boxes for shoes, the multiple viewings of Ice Station Zebra, his decades-long addiction to painkillers and a Citizen Kane-sized persona, Howard Hughes did manage early in his career to make a sizeable dent in movie history. As a producer he backed Howard Hawks’s landmark, censor-baiting, gangster classic Scarface, as well as that marvel of logistics and barminess, Hell’s Angels. Since Hughes stopped making movies himself, other people have started making movies about Hughes, especially since his mysterious death in 1976.

Continue reading...

Laurence Bowen’s London-based Dancing Ledge Productions has entered into a deal with publisher HarperCollins to adapt the novels of Alistair MacLean as event TV series. The first project under the pact is San Andreas, a thriller set on board a torpedoed Ww II hospital ship. Tony Marchant (The Secret Agent) is adapting. HarperCollins owns the rights to bestselling author MacLean’s novels which also include The Guns Of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare. Each…...

This fall semester I started taking an Italian language class two evenings a week with my daughter, and Thursday night I was looking to decompress after our first big quiz. (Scores haven’t been revealed yet, but I think we did just fine.) So I started rummaging through my shelves and came across the Warner Archives DVD of Francesco Maselli’s A Fine Pair (1968), an ostensibly breezy romantic caper comedy which reteams Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale, a pairing their public was presumably clamoring for after their previous outing together in Blindfold (1965), a Universal programmer written and directed by Phillip Dunne, the screenwriter of, among many other notable movies, How Green Was My Valley. I’ve had a mad crush on Claudia ever since I first saw her in Circus World (1964) with John Wayne when I was but a youngster, and I always welcome the chance to visit movies of...

A review of tonight's Better Call Saul coming up just as soon as I lay down my new Welcome mat... "You knew what you wanted, but I got in the way." -Kim For the second week in a row, Jimmy disappears for long stretches of his own show. (Other than his performance of the episode's title song, "Bali Ha'i" from South Pacific, he doesn't appear at all between when he pulls out of the nail salon parking lot and when Kim calls him to announce she has a fish on the line.) And, for the second week in a row, the stories involving Kim and Mike are so compelling that the show does just fine leaving its leading man to suffer off-screen mortification at the hands of Erin. For the second week in a row, the Mike subplot had me giddily renouncing all previous beliefs that Saul should take its...

Later this month, my father will be in La, and Toshi is already asking me what movie he's going to get to watch with Grandaddy this time. As we covered in an earlier Film Nerd 2.0, my dad shared some John Wayne films with Toshi and Allen during a vacation to Big Bear a few years ago, and they both connect John Wayne to my father now, exactly the same way I did when I was their age. Today, my father turns 76 years old, and one of the things that I love about our relationship was the way he defined certain icons of cool for me because I saw what they meant to him. Steve McQueen, for example. I can't think of McQueen without thinking of my dad. On more than one occasion, I was able to get him to stop cold in his tracks simply by flipping past a cable...

A review of tonight's Better Call Saul coming up just as soon as I'm jealous of your big bowl of balls... "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. McGill." -Mrs. Strauss Prequels can be like straightjackets, where the writers are so bound by pre-established facts about their characters that there's barely any room to move, or breathe. With Jimmy and Mike, though, we know a whole lot more about how their respective stories ended on Breaking Bad than how they started, which has given Better Call Saul a lot of lattitude in showing how each of them arrived in Albuquerque with the best of intentions before ultimately stumbling down paths that would intersect not only with each other, but eventually with Walter White. This season has slowed that descent, in part because the Saul creative team clearly enjoys writing these versions of the characters, in part because many of them were...

By Doug Oswald

Released by Universal in 1967, “Tobruk” opens with the feel of a 1960s spy thriller. Rock Hudson is Major Donald Craig, a Canadian prisoner of war on board a German transport ship anchored somewhere off the North Africa coast in late 1942. A group of frogmen surface near the ship and sneak on board with silencers fixed to their guns in order to capture Craig. The frogmen are led by Captain Bergman (George Peppard) who reveal themselves to be part of a team of German commandos.

The commandos take Craig to a German airfield and fly him to a desert landing strip. They’re unexpectedly greeted by a group of British soldiers led by Colonel Harker (Nigel Green). It’s revealed that Bergman is the leader of a German-Jewish commando unit attached to a group of British commandos operating in North Africa. They secured the rescue of Craig due...

Martin Ransohoff, the co-founder of Filmways Television who went on to produce such acclaimed features as The Cincinnati Kid — on which he fired director Sam Peckinpah — Save the Tiger and Jagged Edge, has died. He was 90.

Ransohoff, whose credits also include Arthur Hiller’s The Americanization of Emily (1964) and Silver Streak (1976) and John Sturges’ Ice Station Zebra (1968), died Wednesday morning at his home in Bel-Air, his stepson, Steve Botthof, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The son of a prominent coffee broker, Ransohoff founded Filmways in 1952 with Ed Kasper to make industrial films and TV commercials....

You love the horror, suspense thriller, action and science fiction films that make up the world of Canadian cult cinema affectionately known as Canuxploitation.

You’ve watched the entire David Cronenberg genre filmography (if not, please do so now as The Brood, Scanners and The Fly are three of the greatest horror films ever made).

You’ve seen Black Christmas and The Changeling and watched a slasher-ific marathon of Prom Night, Terror Train, Happy Birthday to Me and My Bloody Valentine.

You caught up with Cube, the Ginger Snaps series, Splice, Hobo with a Shotgun and WolfCop all while keeping close tabs on the works of Astron-6.

Yet your hunger for Canadian genre film productions and co-productions cannot be satiated.

To aid you in your deeper exploration of the field, following is a chronological look at a number of Canadian genre films that simply don’t get enough attention.

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The Groundstar Conspiracy...

Over a decade passed between Christopher McQuarrie's directorial debut The Way of the Gun and 2012's Jack Reacher. McQuarrie plans to fill up his slate for the decade that follows. He begins shooting Mission: Impossible 5 in February 2014 for a Christmas 2015 release. McQuarrie is also attached to direct adaptations of the sci-fi anime Star Blazers, the British miniseries Unforgiven, and the 1968 Rock Hudson movie Ice Station Zebra. Add one more to the pile. Deadline reports McQuarrie is signed to direct Three to Kill, an adaptation of the Jean-Patrick Manchette noir novel set on the French coast. Colin Firth is set to star as "disillusioned businessman witnesses a murder and finds himself being hunted by two relentless sociopaths." Read the book synopsis after the jump. Businessman Georges Gerfaut witnesses a murder—and is pursued by the killers. His conventional life knocked off the rails, Gerfaut turns the tables and sets...

For a guy who claimed to have once alienated himself from the film industry, Christopher McQuarrie now seems to have a couple of options on his plate. While he’s still trying to decide whether or not to helm “Mission: Impossible 5” that just saw Tom Cruise officially sign on, Warner Bros. has now given McQuarrie the chance to write and direct a project that’s long been gestating at their studio. The project is a remake of “Ice Station Zebra.” The original was released in 1968 by MGM and starred Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, and Jim Brown. The film became a major hit at the time and is credited for helping to boost Rock Hudson’s then-floundering career. 'Zebra' centered on an American Naval submarine team that races Russians to retrieve sensitive photographic material in the arctic. But soon, the crew discovers that there is a traitor on...

Mission: Impossible 5: Tom Cruise has confirmed what was, for all intents and purposes, a foregone conclusion: he will star in and help produce Mission: Impossible 5. The previous installment, directed by Brad Bird, made more than $700 million worldwide. Still up in the air, however, is who will write and/or direct the project. Back in November, Christopher McQuarrie, who worked with Cruise on Jack Reacher, was named as the only candidate for the directing job, but his availability is in question. [Deadline] Ice Station Zebra: Christopher McQuarrie may not be available to work on Mission: Impossible 5 because he's now been signed to write and direct a new version of Ice Station Zebra, based on a Cold War thriller by Alistair MacLean. The first version, directed by John...

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There's no such thing as impossible for international superstar Tom Cruise. It's been two years since we saw Cruise performing his own hair-raising stunts in "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," but it seems like just yesterday. Luckily, fans of agent Ethan Hunt won't have to wait much longer to catch up with his latest globe-trotting adventures. Cruise is in the middle of making a deal with Paramount to take on his fifth "Mission: Impossible," although the roles of writer and director are still up in the air. When "Ghost Protocol" came out, folks were wondering if co-star Jeremy Renner would take the reins from Cruise. It will be interesting to see if Renner will return for his role as fellow Imf agent William Brandt. The "Avengers" actor has had a few missteps in the past few years with "The Bourne Legacy" and the long-stalled "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" fantasy/action flick.

Sneak Peek clips from the Oscar-nominated spy thriller "Ice Station Zebra", in anticipation of writer-director Christopher McQuarrie's upcoming Warners remake, based on the 1963 spy novel by author Alistair MacLean.

The original feature directed by John Sturges, starred Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine and Jim Brown, with a screenplay by MacLean, Douglas Heyes, Harry Julian Fink and W. R. Burnett, with a parallel to real-life events in 1959:

"...'Commander James Ferraday', captain of the nuclear submarine 'USS Tigershark' is dispatched to the polar ice region on a rescue mission when an emergency signal is received from research station, 'Ice Station Zebra'.

"On board the sub is a civilian and likely spy, 'David Jones', whose orders are secret. Along the way, they collect two additional passengers, a Russian named 'Boris Vaslov', likely also a spy, and 'Us Marine Capt. Leslie Anders' who takes command of the Marines traveling as passengers.

News Simon Brew 7 May 2013 - 06:58

Tom Cruise is confirmed to star and produce in Mission: Impossible 5, which appears to be moving forward...

In a surprise to pretty much nobody, Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions have put the wheels firmly in motion for a new Mission: Impossible film. The last movie in the franchise, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, raked in just shy of $700m at the global box office, making it the most successful to date at the box office. As such, a deal has now been done that will see Tom Cruise reprising the role of Ethan Hunt, and also producing once again.

At one stage, you may recall, it wasn't going to be like this. Off the back of the commercial disappointment of Knight And Day, the fourth Mission: Impossible film was apparently retooled so that it was less of a leading man vehicle for Tom Cruise.

Deadline reports that they have received confirmation from Paramount that Tom Cruise has signed on for Mission: Impossible 5, but that the studio is reluctant to release directing or writing details.

Despite this, Deadline believes that director and longtime Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspect, Jack Reacher) will direct.

While the studio has declined to reveal a release date, it is still uncertain how McQuarrie’s Ice Station Zebra remake (which he just signed onto) would affect the new Mission: Impossible project, if he were to be announced as director.

McQuarrie most recently directed the crime-thriller Jack Reacher, based on the book One Shot by Lee Child.

Source: Deadline...

The Hollywood Reporter writes that Warner Bros. is remaking the Cold War Thriller Ice Station Zebra (1968), with Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) directing.

The original was directed by John Sturges (The Magnificient Seven, The Great Escape) and starred Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan and Jim Brown.

Excerpt of synopsis from Turner Classic Movies:

U. S. Navy Comdr. James Ferraday, stationed in Scotland, receives orders from Admiral Garvey to take his nuclear submarine to a British North Pole weather station called Ice Station Zebra. Ferraday’s mission, which he does not yet know, is to recover a capsule from a grounded Russian space satellite containing reconnaissance photographs of all U. S. and Russian missile sites.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter...

"Jack Reacher" writer/director Christopher McQuarrie has come onboard to pen and direct the Cold War thriller remake "Ice Station Zebra" at Warner Bros. Pictures.

Based on the novel by Alistair McLean ("Where Eagles Dare," "The Guns of Navarone"), the original 1968 John Sturges-directed feature begins when a spy satellite containing a highly valuable payload comes down in the Arctic Circle just north of Greenland.

A U.S. nuclear submarine stationed in Scotland is sent to rescue the personnel onboard a civilian weather station in the same area, the captain (Rock Hudson) forced to bring along a British intelligence agent (Patrick McGoohan), a Russian defector (Ernest Borgnine) and a troop of marines who have their own top secret mission - get to that payload before the Soviets do.

How this will affect "Mission: Impossible 5" is unsure as McQuarrie has long been the favorite to direct it, but the film's production schedule remains unsure.