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Ask Ed Lachman about the use of color and the cinematographer provides a perfect layman’s primer in art education.

“Why are hospitals blue and green? Those are restful, peaceful colors. Why are fast food restaurants red and orange? Because those activate our passion and our appetite,” Lachman said in his laid-back, easygoing voice. “Theoreticians on painting, like Goethe in his book in 1810 or Josef Albers in the 1960s, have talked a lot about how color affects the viewer. It’s all very primitive and emotional and I love to play around with that.”

Lachman, for sure, plays with color, as well as four different film formats, in Pablo Larraín’ “Maria,” which depicts the final days of opera star Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie). The work has earned Lachman his fourth Oscar nomination, following nods for “Far From Heaven,” “Carol” and “El Conde.”

Renowned for his artful, adventurous lensing, Lachman recently...

Sylvester Stallone is no stranger to wielding firearms of all kinds throughout his decades-long career as a Hollywood action star, but one expert has debunked the realism of one of his best-known movies. First beginning his acting career in the late 1960s, Stallone’s earliest film appearances were largely relegated to smaller supporting roles and background characters, including an uncredited performance in 1970’s M*A*S*H.

Following his first significant roles in the 1973 independent movie Rebel and the 1974 comedy The Lords of Flatbush, it was Stallone’s decision to pen the script for 1976’s Rocky that finally provided him with the vehicle that would turn him into a household name. During the 1980s, however, Stallone would begin his transformation into one of Hollywood’s leading action stars. Beginning with 1982’s First Blood, Stallone’s tenure as the misunderstood Vietnam veteran John Rambo would eventually spawn a decades-long franchise that...

One of the prolific young actor ensembles in Hollywood in the 1980s was the Brat Pack. A label coined by journalist David Blum in 1985, the Brat Pack was a play on the term, the Rat Pack, led by Frank Sinatra in the '60s. The core group consisted of Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and Andrew McCarthy. By Blum's definition, the Brat Pack was composed of the main young actors in the two successful 1985 movies "The Breakfast Club" and "St. Elmo's Fire."

The actors in the Brat Pack would appear together in a number of films throughout the '80s and early '90s, including projects before 1985. For the purposes of this article, an official Brat Pack movie needs to feature at least two actors from the previously mentioned ensemble, rather than simply just one. With 12 movies from the...

Quick Links A Street Gang Like No Other in The Lords of Flatbush Wait, What Happened Between Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere? Stallone and Gere Almost Got Into a Second Fight

Even though the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award winner has enjoyed success for many years now under the Hollywood spotlight, actor Sylvester Stallone didnt have the best of luck when first entering the acting world. For the first three years, when he was finding his footing, the main star of hits like Rocky, Rambo, and The Expendables instead found paychecks in a softcore film and various roles where he would be an extra and nothing more.

This lasted for about five years (1969 to 1974) until directors Stephen F. Verona and Martin Davidson crafted a coming-of-age drama titled The Lords of Flatbush. Running at about 86 minutes long and exploring the rough and tough motorcycle-man culture of the '50s (just...

Two years before Sylvester Stallone walloped Hollywood with the sleeper smash "Rocky" (despite the film's studio not wanting him to star in it), the struggling actor co-starred in the ensemble coming-of-age comedy "The Lords of Flatbush." The film is about four best friends who revel in their greaser personae, gleefully getting into all kinds of trouble as they confront their looming passage into adulthood. It's no "American Graffiti," but it does give the viewer a gritty sense of what it must've been like to live by one's wits and fists on the not-always-hospitable streets of Brooklyn in the late 1950s.

50 years later, Stallone is the biggest name in the cast, but at the time of the film's release in 1974, he was overshadowed by newcomer Henry Winkler, who'd just made a splashy television debut as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli on the ABC sitcom "Happy Days." Other notable names in the ensemble are...

Acting can be hard work, and the pressure is high when so much relies on the dynamic between the cast in a given stage, television, or film project. Between these working conditions and the larger-than-life personalities and egos that actors sometimes are notorious for, this can lead to personal conflicts behind-the-scenes. After a particularly toxic working relationship or private breakdown between actors, this occasionally results in actors refusing to work with each other again (Ryan Reynolds and Wesley Snipes were in that boat for awhile before "Deadpool & Wolverine" came around). In many instances, these feuds spill out into a war of words in the public eye, fueling that shared animosity.

Here are some notable instances of famous actors who refuse to work with each other again on any future projects. The causes of these professional ruptures range from squabbling between actors on set during a difficult project or comments...

“Screamin’ Scott” Simon, who played piano in the early-rock revival group Sha Na Na for more than a half-century and co-wrote the song “Sandy” that John Travolta crooned in Grease, died September 5 of sinus cancer in Ojai, CA. He was 75.

His daughter Nina Simon announced the news.

“Screamin’ Scott” Simon in an undated family photo

The elder Simon joined Sha Na Na in 1970, the year after its founding as a 1950s/early-’60s rock ‘n’ roll and doo-wop revivalist act and its appearance at Woodstock. He remained with the group, along with original members Donny York and Jocko Marcellino, until it disbanded in 2022. He played piano — banging out energetic covers of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “At the Hop” and others — and was known for his signature shirt whose sleeves bore piano keys, which he often pretended to play.

The group basked in the ’50s and early-’60s nostalgia craze...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film at Lincoln Center

An essential retrospective of Brazil’s L.C. Barreto Productions begins.

Roxy Cinema

Another Woman and The Lords of Flatbush play on 35mm.

Museum of the Moving Image

A retrospective of the Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden begins; The Gleaners and I plays on Saturday; Speed Racer shows on Sunday.

Anthology Film Archives

An honestly titled retrospective, “Essential/Unessential Warhol,” begins.

Film Forum

A Spielberg retrospective begins, featuring E.T. on 35mm; Army of Shadows continues and West Side Story plays on Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

“Paramount in the 1970s” includes films by Warren Beatty, Elaine May, and Peter Bogdanovich.

IFC Center

Rosemary’s Baby and a 40th-anniversary restoration of Paris, Texas play daily; Caligula: The Ultimate Cut and The Conversation continue; Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Hostel, The Goonies, Mute Witness, and The Vanishing play late.

Metrograph

The Seventh Seal,...

Revolving around the storyline of a small-time boxer from Philadelphia, the Rocky franchise breasted a new set of fire into Sylvester Stallone and his repute in Hollywood. The ‘70s saw a meteoric rise in action content and the rise of legendary heroes of the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Connery, and Clint Eastwood. Differentiating himself from the rest, the Rocky Balboa star set on quite a different path for his career, one that would have the studio question their faith in him before betting big.

Sylvester Stallone at the 66th Venice Film Festival | Nicolas Genin for Wikimedia Commons

Comprising nine movies, the pop culture-defining action franchise originally had quite a different set of plans than what made it on screen. Additionally, the initial reluctance set forth by the production house could have derailed not only Stallone’s career as a revered action hero but also the mass appeal of the franchise.

It's easy to forget the humble beginnings of Sylvester Stallone's steady rise to becoming one of the most successful movie stars of the last 50 years. By the mid-1980s, when culture favored maximalist stories with muscular movie stars, Stallone was the face of contemporary cinema. Along with Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was the quintessential Herculean star who was valiant enough to take down an entire army or an android-like boxer from the Soviet Union. In 1974, two years before he triumphantly became America's favorite underdog in his breakthrough film, Rocky, he starred in the overlooked indie The Lords of Flatbush, which showcased Stallone's untapped dramatic chops.

Clockwise from top left: Megan Fox (Getty/Jason Merritt), Hula girl figurine (Getty/Erik Von Weber), Ryan Gosling (Getty/John Phillips), Natalie Portman (Getty/Michael Buckner), Edward Norton (Getty/Jason Merritt)

Losing a job sucks, no matter who you are. And although it’s easy to believe that it would...

1974 was quite a year for cinema; 50 years later, Netflix (of all places) is celebrating the golden jubilee.

In recognition of the anniversary, the streamer on Wednesday launched a new, dedicated content row (and direct URL link) with the first films being honored under its new “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection” banner. Each of the 14 films came to Netflix this month by way of Warner Bros., Paramount, or Sony — the distributors that license content to Netflix.

The 1974 collection includes “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Black Belt Jones,” “Blazing Saddles,” “California Split,” “Chinatown,” “The Conversation,” “Death Wish,” “The Gambler,” “The Great Gatsby,” “It’s Alive,” “The Little Prince,” “The Lords of Flatbush,” “The Parallax View,” and “The Street Fighter” (“Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken”).

Netflix doesn’t plan to stop with disco’s heyday. In April, the streaming service will do the same for films from 1984 (turning 40); July will celebrate 1994 movies (turning 30); and in October...

It’s been nearly 50 years since Sylvester Stallone broke through in Hollywood, first with a starring role in The Lords of Flatbush and then with the film that made him famous, Rocky. Now, Stallone’s life and career has been chronicled in the new documentary, Sly. As an actor, writer, and director, Stallone has often gone above and beyond in his involvement with films. Perhaps no film exemplifies this more than the first Rambo movie he made, First Blood. Speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Conversation With… event, Stallone told the story about how he turned First Blood from a movie nobody wanted to make into one that everybody wanted to watch. (Click on the media bar below to hear Sylvester Stallone) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Slyvester_Stallone_Anti-Hero_.mp3 Sly is currently streaming on Netflix.

The post How Sylvester Stallone Saved The ‘Hated’ Rambo Movie,...

Plot: The life of Sylvester Stallone, from his humble origins to eventual superstardom.

Review: If you’re a regular visitor to this site, you’ll know many of us here are huge Sylvester Stallone fans. I do a show called Sylvester Stallone Revisited on JoBlo Originals, and interviewing the man was a highlight of my career. As such, it was a thrill that this year’s edition of TIFF paid tribute to my idol by premiering the new doc, Sly, which hits Netflix later this fall. A feature-length account of Stallone’s life and time, the ninety-minute doc, which Thom Zimny directs, definitely serves as an inspiring, respectful account of Sly’s life and times. If you’re looking for dirt, go elsewhere – but if you want a deeper appreciation of the icon’s life as an artist, this is for you.

By this point, Stallone’s rise to fame has become nearly mythological.

When you are making a documentary out of the life of someone as magnanimous as Sylvester Sly Stallone, bringing an X-factor to the table is a must. Given that it is coming from the house of Netflix, which has set pretty much a gold standard when it comes to the documentary genre, the audience would expect it to be nothing short of exceptional. Only a few weeks ago, the brilliant David Beckham documentary showed how to do it. Unfortunately, the Stallone documentary couldn’t quite achieve the greatness that it was supposed to. Let us take a closer look into both the “what” and “why” of Sly.

Childhood Was Not Too Kind

Life wasn’t easy for Sly and his brother Frank. The blame for that goes to no one but their parents, who didn’t have an easy marriage. And not only did they fail to protect the kids from the trauma of that,...

For decades, as I’ve watched Sylvester Stallone on talk shows or caught bits and pieces of promotional interviews with him, my impression, without pondering it much, has been that he’s a dude with a certain charismatic native intelligence. Yet “Sly,” the infectious and fascinating portrait of Stallone and his movies that premiered today at the Toronto Film Festival, is built around an interview with Stallone conducted in his splendid, art-bedecked Mediterranean-style mansion in Beverly Hills (he has since sold it to Adele). And throughout the film, he’s so calmly but blazingly articulate, so candid about the processes of moviemaking and his strengths (and weaknesses) as an actor, so wise about the meaning of his own stardom, that I realized, with a touch of embarrassment, a prejudice I’ve been carrying around for 47 years. Deep in my reptile brain, I still think Sylvester Stallone is Rocky.

I think a lot of people do.

“Do I have regrets?” asks Sylvester Stallone at the beginning of “Sly,” the Thom Zimny documentary about him that served as the closing-night film at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday. “Hell yeah, I have regrets.”

Putting that quote up front is a smart way to introduce a film about the man whose career sometimes seems to have resulted in equal parts iconography and mockery. The actor, screenwriter and director created the classic characters Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, but struggled to find respect and made more than his share of terrible films.

Another smart move: New conversations with Stallone run throughout the film, but these are not the usual talking-head interviews in which the subject sits in a chair and runs through his life. Instead, Stallone almost always talks to the camera while standing up and moving around.

Zimny’s camera stays on the go, bobbing and weaving...

Does Netflix have some sort of stealth ownership stake in Planet Hollywood?

Just a couple of months after giving Arnold Schwarzenegger a three-hour puff piece documentary, the streaming giant is set to release Thom Zimny’s feature-length Sly, a documentary in which Sylvester Stallone is exactly as candid and introspective as executive producer Sylvester Stallone wants him to be.

With Schwarzenegger, the documentary had the feeling of a quid pro quo to accompany the former California governor’s series Fubar, but Stallone’s current television series Tulsa King is on a different service and isn’t so much as mentioned in Sly. It doesn’t need to be. It’s not as if, in the big picture, Tulsa King has cemented its place as a key piece of Stallone’s resumé, but it’s just one of many little and not-so-little parts of his career and life that don’t come up in Sly.

The year is 1975, and Sylvester Stallone is a struggling young actor who is barely making ends meet financially, and he's sure he has an amazing script that he's written about a heavyweight southpaw from Philadelphia who goes by the name Robert "Rocky" Balboa. The actor had appeared in a number of uncredited roles in M*A*S*H and Klute, plus a smaller role in The Lords of Flatbush in 1975, but he didn't have any money, and he knew he had a hit in the rags-to-riches story of Balboa. When he started shopping Rocky around, he was desperate to get the movie made because he needed the paycheck. He ended up striking a deal to get the film made but to say he regrets the terms he agreed to and the way things have gone down over its legacy would be a massive understatement. Not owning the rights to his...

Rocky is one of the biggest movie franchises of all time, but things would be very different if the series had not been saved by a strange connection to Happy Days. At first glance, the boxing movie franchise and wholesome TV sitcom have seemingly no connection besides both being released in the 1970s. However, Rocky and Happy Days have been inextricably linked since the beginning, with the very existence of Rocky being thanks to Happy Days.

1976's Rocky is the first entry in Sylvester Stallone's beloved boxing franchise, with the actor playing the titular Italian Stallion. The Rocky franchise has now been running for over 40 years, with the character of Rocky Balboa appearing in eight different movies. With the release of Creed III, Rocky is bigger than ever, and the announcement of an upcoming Viktor and Ivan Drago spinoff movie shows that the series is far from stopping. Sylvester...

One of the most fascinating elements of Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky" series is how each movie is a reflection of where the star was at that moment in his career. Over the course of eight films (including the two "Creed" movies in which he appeared), Stallone is critically examining his success, be it skyrocketing to ludicrous extremes (in "Rocky III") or direly on the wane (in "Rocky V"). Though his private life is another, far more complicated matter, it's rare to see a massive celebrity wrestle so honestly with his public persona. He's leveling with us because he knows how much we love The Italian Stallion. You're rooting for both Stallone and Rocky to come out on top every time. Well, almost every time.

This is a lesson Sly learned in the immediate wake of "Rocky." There's no more emphatic validation of one's artistic vision than delivering the year's top-grossing...

Indie artist foulperalta has gone viral for his tongue-in-cheek take on retro band tees, reimagining the musical artists with pop culture characters and memes. The artist’s “Spicoli Cobain” tee, which juxtaposes Sean Penn’s character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High with the iconic Nirvana logo, may be his best-known piece, but there are dozens of other designs available to buy now.

The shirts are all sold on Teerepublic, a print-on-demand site that lets you superimpose the image or artwork of your choice onto a T-shirt, tank-top, hoodie, mug and even a face mask.

Sylvester Stallone will return as Barney Ross in The Expendables 4 this fall, and there'd be no greater actor to play the villain than Richard Gere. As we've seen in the previous installments of the series, The Expendables features an ensemble cast of popular action movie stars as the heroes. The movies have also brought in big name actors to play the villains for the titular team of mercenaries to take on.

Richard Gere isn't quite the action movie star as the other actors in The Expendables, but there's long been a real-life feud between the Pretty Woman star and Stallone that could translate well to the screen. It's fairly well known that the two are not big fans of one another, so there would be a certain tension for viewers with that knowledge going in. Any heated scenes that could be featured with Gere and Stallone would also be...

Perry King has been hard-working actor for 50 years. Recently, he made his directorial debut with the feature The Divide, which he also stars in. King always dreamt of directing his own movie, and he directed The Divide with skill and honesty outside of the Hollywood system. His own Californian cattle ranch in El Dorado County served as a backdrop. The Divide, a good-natured, neo-Western, tells the strory of Jack, a rancher suffering from the onset of dementia. The feature was shot entirely in black-and-white, evoking Perry King’s favorite frontier dramas from his favorite classic Hollywood directors.

Perry King has been an acting legend since making his film debut as Billy Pilgrim’s son Robert in George Roy Hill’s remarkable Slaughterhouse-five in 1972. For the next decade, Perry starred in one memorable film after another: The Possession Of Joel Delaney (1972), The Lords Of Flatbush (1974), Mandingo (1974), The Wild Party (1975), Lipstick, Andy...

Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy this new episode of The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we examine movies from established movie stars that have flopped at the box office, been forgotten by time, or remain hidden gems. These aren’t the films that made them famous or kept them famous. These are the other ones.

And, man oh man, does Sly have a bunch of other ones. We cover one movie from each decade of the movie star’s career: his directorial debut Paradise Alley in 1978, the prison drama Lock Up from 1989, James Mangold’s Cop Land (1997), the remake Get Carter and, finally, Bullet To The Head from 2013.

We get a bad impression from podcast producer Conor O’Donnell and some sharp insight from our guest Chadd Harbold, an accomplished filmmaker with two films in theaters right now: Depraved, directed by Larry Fessenden, and Villains, starring Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe.

David Hedison, who was best known for his work in two James Bond films and on the series “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” has died. He was 92.

Hedison’s death was confirmed by his daughter Alexandra Hedison. He’s survived by his two daughters Alexandra and Serena.

Hedison played Captain Lee B. Crane for 110 episodes on the ’60s adventure and sci-fi show “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” opposite Richard Basehart and Robert Dowdell.

Also Read: Stephen Verona, Writer/Director of 'The Lords of Flatbush,' Dies at 78

He is starred as CIA agent Felix Leiter alongside two different actors playing James Bond, first in “Live and Let Die” with Roger Moore and later “License to Kill” with Timothy Dalton in 1989.

Hedison also starred in the original version of the cult horror film “The Fly” from 1958 and appeared in episodes of “Fantasy Island,” “The Love Boat,...

Stephen Verona, producer, co-writer and co-director of “The Lords of Flatbush,” died from lung cancer this past weekend in Los Angeles. He was 78.

Released in 1974, “The Lords of Flatbush” follows four Brooklyn greasers in 1958 as they steal cars and pick up girls even as the looming specter of adulthood nears. The film helped launch the careers of Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler, who played two members of the gang prior to their big breaks in “Rocky” and “Happy Days.”

Also Read: Stewart, Dog Who Played Cheddar on 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine,' Dies at 13

Stallone in particular saw his career resurrected thanks to “The Lords of Flatbush.” According to a retrospective in Ultimate Classic Rock, Stallone was considering giving up on acting when he was discovered by Verona at an acting workshop. Stallone has later said that his performance as Stanley Rosiello, a boorish greaser with a sensitive side that plans...

Stephen Verona, who co-wrote, co-directed and produced The Lords of Flatbush, the 1974 film that provided a career boost for young actors Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler, has died. He was 78.

Verona died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles after an 18-month battle with lung cancer, his wife, Ann, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Verona also co-wrote and directed Boardwalk (1979), a gloomy Coney Island-set drama that played at the Cannes Film Festival and starred veterans Ruth Gordon, Lee Strasberg and Janet Leigh. 

Verona had served for a short time as a director at Strasberg's famed Actors Studio, and ...

Stephen Verona, who co-wrote, co-directed and produced The Lords of Flatbush, the 1974 film that provided a career boost for young actors Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler, has died. He was 78.

Verona died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles after an 18-month battle with lung cancer, his wife, Ann, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Verona also co-wrote and directed Boardwalk (1979), a gloomy Coney Island-set drama that played at the Cannes Film Festival and starred veterans Ruth Gordon, Lee Strasberg and Janet Leigh. 

Verona had served for a short time as a director at Strasberg's famed Actors Studio, and ...

How's this for irony? Henry Winkler had to audition for the role of an acting teacher on HBO's Barry. "I was so nervous," the icon has said. "But here's the great thing about getting a little older: I was able to handle it and keep my concentration intact." Henry first found fame on the smash 1974 to 1984 sitcom Happy Days. But it was playing the zany theater coach who mentors hitman-turned-actor Barry (Bill Hader) on Barry earned Henry his sixth Emmy nomination. He's yet to win, but that's Ok with him. "It's a wonderful thing — you go and get dressed up, have a pig in a blanket, and a Perrier, and go home," he once said with a laugh. Henry as Fonzie on 'Happy Days.' (Photo Credit: Getty Images) The role has also taken Henry, 72, back to his early days as an actor, studying with the legendary Stella Adler...

Just like Han Solo, never tell Perry King the odds.

After all, the actor already defied statistical probability by enjoying consistent and considerable success over a four-plus decade career in Hollywood, beginning with his breakout turn in 1974’s The Lords of Flatbush, which also launched the star trajectories of Henry Winkler and Sylvester Stallone.

But beyond that, he’s also the only actor outside of Harrison Ford to have played the Star Wars saga’s roguish mercenary-with-a-heart-of-gold, until Alden Ehrenreich assumed the role for the current prequel film Solo: A Star Wars Story. King memorably gave voice to Solo in a trio of ...

Just like Han Solo, never tell Perry King the odds.

After all, the actor already defied statistical probability by enjoying consistent and considerable success over a four-plus decade career in Hollywood, beginning with his breakout turn in 1974’s The Lords of Flatbush, which also launched the star trajectories of Henry Winkler and Sylvester Stallone.

But beyond that, he’s also the only actor outside of Harrison Ford to have played the Star Wars saga’s roguish mercenary-with-a-heart-of-gold, until Alden Ehrenreich assumed the role for the current prequel film Solo: A Star Wars Story. King memorably gave voice to Solo in a trio of ...

Exclusive: Cooley High has been set for a remake at MGM with DeVon Franklin, Common and Tony Krantz partnering on the seminal 1975 coming-of-age drama. Seth Rosenfeld will write the script. Set in 1960s Chicago and focused on a group of high school pals with big dreams of getting out of the South Side, Cooley High fell in with a series of terrific coming-of-age films that included American Graffiti, The Lords Of Flatbush and The Wanderers. Beyond that, the original became…...

Ed Lachman 's first credit as a cinematographer was on the 1974 film "The Lords of Flatbush," which introduced both Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler. More than four decades later, both he and Stalllone are nominated for the second Oscars of their respective careers. While Stallone contends again for reprising his role as Rocky Balboa in "Creed," the lenser is nominated for "Carol," another collaboration with director Todd Haynes with whom he worked on "Far From Heaven" (2002). He contended for an Oscar for that film and reaped an Emmy bid for Haynes' 2011 remake of "Mildred Pierce." -Break- Subscribe to Gold Derby Breaking News Alerts & Experts’ Latest Oscar Predictions During our recent conversation (listen above), Lachman reflected on the changing landscape of movie-making from film to digital, from images created on set to images manipulated during post-production. &...

Read: Interview: Martin Davidson's "Echo"; A Hollywood Vet's Tale of Dashed Dreams The established studio executive Fred Bernstein is launching a new production and financing company, Astute Films. The newly formed company is kicking off its campaign with $50 million in private equity funding. Bernstein's venture has already made use of the capital by snatching up the distribution rights to Albert French's acclaimed, race-driven novel, "Billy." Martin Davidson ("The Lords of Flatbush") will produce, direct and adapt the work, while Wendell Pierce ("The Wire") has signed on to produce. The novel is set in rural 1947 Mississippi during a time when returning ethnic soldiers did not receive the respect and admiration they deserved, particularly in the South. It is during this time that the story unfolds, going through the events in which a young 10-year-old boy becomes tragically involved with the death of a 14-year-old white girl. The...

By Eddy Friedfeld

If you’re above a certain age, Sylvester Stallone is more than an icon, he is an inspiration. The real-life backstory of Rocky is just as mesmerizing as the film itself, as a struggling actor refused to sell his script unless he was able to star as The Italian Stallion. The rest of his history is also ours.

Strolling through the private preview in Manhattan was a tour through my own recollections, as well as Stallone’s filmography. Over 750 props, costumes and personal items will be offered. Boxing gloves, trunks, robes, and the original handwritten script are up for sale, as well as the ball Rocky plays with as he walked through the streets of Philadelphia.

Rambo’s field jacket, machete and Bowie knife, as well as a set of costumes, prop armour and gun from Judge Dredd are on the block. You can also buy pieces...

Cinematographer Edward Lachman may not be a household name, though he undoubtedly should be. One of the most highly regarded directors of photography in the business, Lachman has collaborated with some of the best filmmakers of his generation: Steven Soderbergh, Todd Haynes, Todd Solondz, Paul Schrader, Sofia Coppola, Robert Altman, Werner Herzog, George Sluizer, Wim Wenders, Mira Nair, Ulrich Seidl, and Andrew Niccol — to name a handful.

His career began in 1975 by photographing the infamous Sylvester Stallone–Henry Winkler Brooklyn gang cult-fave, The Lords of Flatbush. In the last 40 years, he’s carved out a truly varied résumé. For example: in 2002, Lachman co-directed Ken Park with filmmaker Larry Clark, before moving onto direct the exercise video Carmen Electra’s Aerobic Striptease in 2003.

Lachman’s most recent feature, Carol — his third partnership with Haynes, and perhaps his finest work — just entered a limited release, so there’s no better time to...

Around the time I brought this Vestron Video release home from my local video store, I had an adolescent fascination with how the punk rock subculture that influenced my development had been portrayed in the media. In everything from video games to television and films, punk rockers were mostly portrayed as villains. There was a mythological aura surrounding the way these rebellious thugs were portrayed and it's clear in Class of 1984 that filmmaker Mark L. Lester (Commando) had a similar fascination and knew that pushing the legend made for better cinema.

Lester proudly declares now that he was prophetically making a film that bares important social significance and considers it to be the best film he's ever made, but let's be honest and admit that this movie is pure sleazy exploitation. Don't get me wrong, I love some good fun exploitation and as far as that's concerned there's no...

In his first foray in producing since winning a Tony Award for producing “Clybourne Park” on Broadway, “Selma” star Wendell Pierce has come on to produce the racial drama “Billy” with Jerry Leider (“The Jazz Singer”), TheWrap has learned. Writer-director Martin Davidson is behind the adaptation of author Albert French’s debut novel, which was published in 1995. Davidson is the filmmaker behind the cult classics “Eddie and the Cruisers” and “The Lords of Flatbush.” A “To Kill a Mockingbird”-esque drama set in 1947, “Billy” is an emotional roller-coaster that tells the story of how a small segregated town in Mississippi reacts.

Now what would the movies be like if everybody on the big screen was a conformist and blandly played by the rules? Every now and then it can be quite therapeutic to have a bad apple shape our rigid outlook with a dosage of cynicism in cinema. Whether intentionally unruly or merely questioning the status quo movie rebels can be compellingly entertaining for various reasons.

So who are your choice big screen rabble-rousers that like to stir the pot and cause dissension in the name of justice or just plain anti-establishment? In Trouble With a Cause: The Top 10 Movie Rebels let us take a look at some of the on-screen troublemakers with a taste for colorful turmoil, shall we?

The selections for Trouble With a Cause: The Top 10 Movie Rebels are (in alphabetical order according to the film titles):

1.) Brad Whitewood, Jr. from At Close Range (1986)

In director James Foley...

"Two gerbils in a pet shop are talking and one says to the other: 'If Richard Gere comes in tell him you're a hamster.'"

That's a hacky old joke, but behind every joke lies a kernel of truth, right? Right? Richard Gere is many things: An actor, a Buddhist, an officer, a gentleman and drinking buddies with the Dalai Lama. We left off 'extreme bestiality sexual deviant' because we're still not sure where we stand on this whole "gerbilling" thing, so we dug deep (really deep) to find out just how far this thing goes.

Yes, it's another chapter of Hollywood Myths. We exposed the naked truth about Jamie Lee Curtis, and now it's time to poke and prod the man of "Pretty Woman."

History

So your basic retelling of the legend states that in the early '90s — when the actor was having boffo success with "Pretty Woman...

HollywoodNews.com: The 14th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, presented by Starz, are pleased to announce that Hollywood icon and Academy Award-nominated Sylvester Stallone will receive the “Hollywood Career Achievement Award,” Oscar-winning Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary will be recognized with the “Hollywood Innovator Award,” and director Tom Hooper will be honored with the “Hollywood Director Award” at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony.

“It is a privilege to honor and to celebrate Sylvester Stallone’s extraordinary talent and remarkable career, as well as the great innovative work of Morgan Freeman and Lorie McCreary in the convergence of technology and filmmaking, and the outstanding directing talent of Tom Hooper in his new film “The King’s Speech,” said Carlos de Abreu, Founder of the Hollywood Awards Gala..

Previously announced honorees for this year’s Hollywood Awards Gala include: Sean Penn for the “Humanitarian Award”; Annette Bening for the “Actress...

Chicago – The 2009 Best of the Midwest Awards, at Rockit Bar and Grill in Chicago on December 1st, had many notable attendees. Actors Armand Assante and Lori Petty, along with film critic Richard Roeper, were among them.

The 2009 BMAs celebrate the best of the Midwest Independent Film Festival, and stars, directors and the film press mingled at the awards event. HollywoodChicago was there, and scored interviews with Emmy Winner Armand Assante, Lori Petty, Best Director at the BMAs and featured in “A League of Their Own” and local celebrity critic Richard Roeper. Also lending some perspective was the producer of the Best Feature, Steven A. Jones of “The Merry Gentleman.”

Armand Assante, Actor, Emmy Winner for the Miniseries “Gotti”

The veteran character actor, who first made a big splash in 1980’s “Private Benjamin,” continues to smolder the screen with his distinctive style and look. He just wrapped up another Chicago-based film,...