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Happy Valentine’s Day from The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we appreciate one of the great, under-appreciated Hollywood directors: Peter Hyams! Our B-Sides include Peeper, Hanover Street, The Star Chamber, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, and Running Scared.

Our guest is Mike Ryan, great writer, interviewer, and deep fan of Hyams’ eclectic body of work. Sudden Death is a favorite, along with 2010.

We discuss the auteur versus the “workman director,” why some filmmakers gather an intense following and others don’t, and the lasting effect many of Hyams’ films have had on the culture as well as other filmmakers.

There’s much talk about Hyams’ ability as a cinematographer, and how rare it is to be a director that films their own movies.

Mike makes the...

James B. Sikking, the Steven Bochco favorite who portrayed the no-nonsense Lt. Howard Hunter on Hill Street Blues and the good-hearted doctor dad on Doogie Howser, M.D., has died. He was 90.

Sikking died Saturday at his Los Angeles home of complications from dementia, publicist Cynthia Snyder announced.

Although best known for his TV work, Sikking did have notable turns on the big screen as a mocking hitman in John Boorman’s Point Blank (1967), as the stuffy Captain Styles in Leonard Nimoy‘s Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and as the director of the FBI in Alan J. Pakula’s The Pelican Brief (1993).

After spending the better part of two decades showing up on such shows as The Outer Limits, Honey West, The Fugitive, Hogan’s Heroes and Mannix, Sikking was cast as the pipe-smoking Hunter, leader of the Swat-like Emergency Action Team, on NBC’s Hill Street Blues.

James B. Sikking, known for his roles as Lt. Howard Hunter on “Hill Street Blues” and the titular character’s father on “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” has died. He was 90.

Sikking died Saturday of complications from dementia, his publicist Cynthia Synder said in a statement Sunday evening.

“In a remarkable career, Sikking’s wonderfully exciting face gave us drama, comedy, tragedy and hilarious farse,” Snyder shared with Variety. “His career spanned over six decades in television, film and on stage.”

Sikking was widely recognized for his portrayal of Howard Hunter on the police procedural series “Hill Street Blues,” which aired from 1981 to 1987 on NBC. He received an Emmy nomination in 1984 for his performance as the clean-cut, pipe-smoking lieutenant.

After “Hill Street Blues,” Sikking played Dr. David Howser, father of Doogie Howser (Neil Patrick Harris), for all four seasons of the ABC medical sitcom from 1989 to 1993.

He portrayed a police officer again for Steven Bochco,...

“Alien was the first time an African-American had been seen in a role like that and today we see women and African-Americans in heroic roles.”

(Reuters) – Yaphet Kotto, an American actor known for his roles in movies including “Alien” and “Midnight Run” and as a villain in the James Bond film “Live and Let Die,” has died at age 81.

Kotto’s death was first disclosed by his wife, Tessie Sinahon, on Facebook on Monday night. It was later confirmed by his agent Ryan Goldhar on Twitter. The cause of death was not announced.

Sinahon wrote that she was saddened and shocked by the death of her husband of 24 years, adding, “You played a villain on some of your movies but for me you’re a real hero and to a lot of people also. A good man, a good father, a good husband and a decent human being, very rare to find.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Yaphet Kotto, the distinctive and distinguished actor, has passed away at age 81. Kotto was born in Harlem and began to study acting at age 16. He made his big screen debut in 1964 in the acclaimed race-themed drama "Nothing But a Man" opposite Ivan Dixon, a fellow African-American whose star would rise on the basis of the film. Kotto also appeared in "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968) and was a regular presence in guest star roles on top TV series such as "Gunsmoke", "Daniel Boone", "Night Gallery", "The Big Valley", "Hawaii Five-0", "Mannix" and "The High Chapparal". He was nominated for an Emmy award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 1976 TV production of "Raid on Entebbe". Kotto simultaneously kept landing good parts in major movies such as "5 Card Stud", "The Liberation of L.B. Jones" and "Across 110th Street". In 1973, he appeared in what is perhaps his most memorable role,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actor Hal Holbrook, acclaimed star of stage, screen and feature films, has passed away at age 95. Holbrook rarely had the leading role in films but built a career as a reliable and beloved character actor. On stage, his one-man show about Mark Twain earned him a Tony Award and a subsequent Emmy for the television production. Holbrook's film career got a boost in 1968 in the popular film "Wild in the Streets" in which he played Kennedyesque presidential candidate who enlists the services of a popular rock star on his campaign tours. The plan goes awry when the musician inspires a worldwide, violent youth revolution. Holbrook's other feature films include "The Group", "The Fog", "Magnum Force", "Midway", "The Star Chamber", "The Firm", "Creepshow" and "Julia". Perhaps his most memorable role on the big screen was his unbilled cameos in "All the President's Men" in which he played the...

Following the news of Hal Holbrook’s death on Monday night, Hollywood has taken to social media to remember the award-winning character actor. Holbrook was best known for portraying Mark Twain in “Mark Twain Tonight!” in 1967, along with his roles in “Into the Wild,” “All The President’s Men” and “Magnum Force.”

In a statement to Variety, Steven Spielberg reminisced on the time he met Holbrook on the set of the NBC political series “The Bold Ones: The Senator” and their time working together on “Lincoln.”

“In 1970, I visited the set of the TV series ‘The Bold Ones: The Senator’ to watch Hal Holbrook play Senator Hays Stowe,” Spielberg said. “From that day on, it was my dream to work with this transformative actor, and it finally happened 42 years later when he portrayed Preston Blair in ‘Lincoln.’ Hal was, quite simply, an American classic who brought Mark Twain and so many...

Emmy and Tony winner Hal Holbrook, an actor best known for his role as Mark Twain, whom he portrayed for decades in one-man shows, died on Jan. 23. He was 95.

Holbrook’s personal assistant, Joyce Cohen, confirmed his death to the New York Times on Monday night.

Holbrook played the American novelist in a solo show called “Mark Twain Tonight!” that he directed himself and for which he won the best actor Tony in 1966. He returned to Broadway with the show in 1977 and 2005 and appeared in it more than 2,200 times (as of 2010) in legit venues across the country. He began performing the show in 1954.

He received an Emmy nomination for a TV adaptation of “Mark Twain Tonight!” in 1967, the first of multiple noms. He won four Emmy Awards.

He also drew an Oscar nomination for supporting actor for his role in the film “Into the Wild” in 2008. At the time of the nomination,...

Exclusive: Emmy-winning The Americans star Matthew Rhys is returning to FX as the lead and executive producer of Wyrd, a drama inspired by the Dark Horse comic. The project, which is in development at the Disney-owned cable network, hails from Sheldon Turner (Up In the Air), Vendetta Prods., FX Prods. and 20th Television.

Written by Turner, Wyrd is the story of the ultimate immigrant, an extraterrestrial in exile. It centers on Wyrd (Rhys) who was sent to earth in an attempt to better understand humanity. When his people don’t come back for him, he’s forced to assimilate – all while investigating paranormal activity and searching for a way home.

Rhys executive produces alongside his The Americans co-star and wife Keri Russell. Turner and Jennifer Klein executive produce via their Vendetta Productions alongside Mike Richardson, Keith Goldberg and Chris Tongue for Dark Horse.

The four-issue Wyrd book series, created by Curt Pires and Antonio Fuso,...

Exclusive: Sheldon Turner and Jennifer Klein and their Vendetta Productions are setting up shop at A+E Studios with a first-look television development and production deal. Under the pact, Turner will pen original series, and A+E Studios and Vendetta will also develop and produce projects targeted at all global and domestic television platforms and services.

At A+E Studios, Turner and Klein will work with studio head Barry Jossen and EVP Creative Affairs Tana Jamieson.

“Sheldon and Jennifer are fantastic producers whose strong talent relations result in discovering unique voices and captivating stories,” said Jamieson. “With new series in production and a robust development slate, A+E Studios continues to grow and evolve, and now with the addition of Sheldon and Jennifer to our roster, together we will add to our arsenal of outstanding premium television across all platforms.”

Vendetta Productions is currently developing The Star Chamber for Amazon, a...

HBO Max is going to the dogs: WarnerMedia’s forthcoming streaming service has ordered the dog grooming competition series Hot Dog (working title).

The 12-episode program will feature “three dog groomers facing off in a full head-to-tail creative competition showcasing canine breeds of all kinds,” per the official synopsis. Each installment will include “imaginative challenges and out-of-the-box themes meant to spotlight the best looks for man’s best friend.”

More from TVLineTVLine Items: Hugh Jackman's HBO Film Trailer, Htgawm Casting and MoreTVLine Items: Gods Adds Danny Trejo, Desus & Mero Renewed and MoreThe TVLine-Up: What's Returning, New and Leaving the Week of Feb.

Exclusive: Amazon Studios has put in development The Star Chamber, a thriller drama inspired by the 1983 Michael Douglas film of the same name, from Sheldon Turner and Jennifer Klein’s Vendetta Productions and Fox 21 Television Studios. The project stems from Vendetta’s deal at 20th Century Fox TV and Fox 21 TV Studios, divisions of Disney TV Studios.

Written by Turner (Up In the Air), The Star Chamber series gives the movie a gender twist. It follows a revered female federal appellate court judge in San Francisco. She leads a shadowy group of judges that decide to right the wrongs of the broken legal system as she struggles to balance her obligations to law, to religion and to her family.

More from DeadlineAmazon Studios Names Christian Davin Global Head Of Movies MarketingCoronavirus: Amazon Studios, Lionsgate Issue Work From Home Recommendation -Update'Master': Zoe Renee, Amber Gray Join Regina Hall In Amazon...

Jack Kehoe, a character actor whose 50-year career was highlighted by appearances in Serpico, The Sting, The Untouchables, Car Wash and Warren Beatty’s Reds, died Jan. 14 at age 85. The Hollywood Hills resident had suffered a debilitating stroke in 2015.

Kehoe’s family announced his death today.

Kehoe made his Broadway debut in 1963 as a supporting player in Edward Albee’s The Ballad of the Sad Cafe starring Colleen Dewhurst, and would appear on Broadway again in 1977’s The Basic Training of Pavel Hummel starring Al Pacino.

The role in Pavel would be his second opposite Pacino: Kehoe appeared as a crooked cop in 1973’s Serpico, the first in a string of high-profile movies throughout the 1970s and ’80s that would include Melvin and Howard, The Sting (as the con man called The Erie Kid), Reds, Car Wash, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, The Star Chamber, The Untouchables and Midnight Run,...

Jack Kehoe, best known for his roles in the Al Pacino-led crime drama “Serpico” and “Midnight Run,” died on Jan. 10 at a nursing home in Los Angeles. He was 85. The actor suffered a debilitating stroke in 2015, which left him inactive in recent years.

Kehoe also appeared in several Academy Award-winning films during his 50-year career, including “Melvin and Howard,” “The Sting” alongside Robert Redford and Paul Newman, and Warren Beatty’s “Reds.”

Other notable movies on Kehoe’s resume: “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” “The Star Chamber,” “The Untouchables,” “The Paper,” “Midnight Run,” “Young Guns II,” “The Game,” and the cult classics “Car Wash” and “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.” He also appeared on the TV shows “Murder, She Wrote” and “The Twilight Zone.” Additionally, he reunited with Pacino in 1977 on Broadway in “The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel.”

Born on Nov. 21, 1934, in Astoria, Queens, Kehoe served in the...

Some believe it’s based on a terrifying truth, while others harbor the hope that it’s purely fiction, but what many can agree on is that for years the Delta Green role-playing game universe has offered endless hours of eerie entertainment. With a new wave of Delta Green projects now underway, Daily Dead recently caught up with Arc Dream Publishing co-founder and lead Delta Green editor Shane Ivey, who discussed the new RPG and much more in our latest (and in this case, Lovecraftian) Q&A feature.

Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for us, Shane. For those that are unfamiliar, can you talk a little bit about Delta Green and its Lovecraftian history?

Shane Ivey: Delta Green was a secret unit that conducted psychological operations for the Office of Strategic Services in World War II. It was disbanded with the rest of the Oss after the war.

Los Angeles, Calif. (October 2, 2015) – In 1915 William Fox founded Fox Film Corporation and forever changed the course of cinema. Over the next century the studio would develop some of the most innovative and ground-breaking advancements in the history of cinema; the introduction of Movietone, the implementation of color in partnership with Eastman Kodak, the development of the wide format in 70mm and many more. Now in honor of the 100th anniversary of the studio, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will celebrate by releasing some of their most iconic films that represent a decade of innovation.

Starting today, five classic films from the studio will be made available digitally for the first time ever – Sunrise (1927), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Man Hunt (1941), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). Throughout the rest of the year a total of 100 digital releases will follow from Fox’s extensive catalog, including 10 films...

Peter Hyams Takes Us Closer

By

Alex Simon

Peter Hyams has been making movies for over forty years. A native New Yorker, Hyams has the distinction of being one of the only directors who also serves as his own cinematographer on his films, a hyphenate that has caused him some controversy among cameramen (see below for more details). After making his mark with such classics as Capricorn One, Outland, The Star Chamber, 2010, and many others, Hyams hasn't slowed down, bringing us his twenty-first feature film. Enemies Closer is a white-knuckle thriller starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as the ruthless (and flamboyant) leader of a drug cartel on a search and destroy mission for his missing cache of product, which sits at the bottom of a lake on the U.S.-Canadian border. Tom Everett Scott plays the U.S. Park Ranger with a murky past who tries to stop him, along...

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, dear readers, and I hope a lot of you got out to see Frozen over the holiday weekend. December is finally here, and it’s time for us all to start preparing for our preferred winter holidays. In the meantime, this week’s slightly belated Trailer Trashin’ column takes a look at Enemies Closer, one of next January’s more low-profile releases.

Premise: Henry (Tom Everett Scott), a forest ranger and ex-Navy Seal, has his quiet life disrupted by the arrival of Clay (Orlando Jones), a former comrade with a vendetta against him. But before Clay can attempt to get revenge, the two men are caught by a ruthless drug cartel led by a man named Xander (Jean-Claude Van Damme). The cartel forces the two men to help retrieve a major shipment of heroin which went missing deep in a forest on the Us-Canadian border.

Sneak Peek director Peter Hyams' 1983 mystery thriller "The Star Chamber", now available on DVD from Anchor Bay, starring Michael Douglas, Hal Holbrook, Yaphet Kotto and Sharon Gless:

"...'Steve Hardin' (Douglas), a young judge, must grapple with his conscience as vicious criminals in his court are going free as a result of slick lawyers finding obscure loopholes in the law.

"Hardin feels utterly powerless until he discovers 'The Star Chamber', a small group of powerful men bent on their own kind of vigilante justice. Meeting behind closed doors in the utmost secrecy, they decree their own punishment for the guilty who have slipped through the system without paying for their crimes..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Star Chamber"...

Anybody who has ever been to a high school reunion (and I’ve been to my share) will tell you that the calendar and the clock can be incredibly cruel (particularly when combined with the long-term effects of gravity, but let’s not go there).

Time punishes creative works as well. Some work grows dated, stale, stiff. Time and the evolving form of the given art leaves a once vibrant and exciting work behind looking dead and obsolete.

More cruel, perhaps, is work that is simply…forgotten. Not for any good reason. Good as it was, maybe it was simply not successful enough to lodge very deeply in the popular consciousness; working well enough in its day, but soon lost among the ever-growing detritus of a lot of other pieces of yesterday.

Movie music is particularly vulnerable to the cruelties of time. Outside of the form’s devotees, it rarely...

Back in the early days of cable, movies were rerun endlessly so if you liked one, you could burn their frames onto your retinas and it became a part of yourself. As a result, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for 1974’s Busting. You sit there, scratching your head, and can’t recall the film and there’s no shame in that.

Written and directed by Peter Hyams (The Star Chamber, Outland), it is a buddy cop film before that became in vogue and is very much from the era. It has a nice grainy film stock, makes the cops and the thugs slovenly and a visual shambles. While most of Hyams’ peers set their gritty tales of big city corruption and the only honest cops’ efforts to bring down the kingpin of crime in New York City, Hyams set his in Los Angeles, although you’d be hard-pressed to tell.

Nicolas Cage makes his second visit to post-hurricane Katrina New Orleans in this efficient, fast-moving thriller. Two years ago he played a deranged cop in Werner Herzog's remake of Bad Lieutenant. Here he's the slightly hyper high-school English teacher Will Gerard whose wife Laura (January Jones) is raped, robbed and severely beaten by an evildoer known to the police but unlikely to get more than a minimum sentence. A sinister, tight-lipped stranger calling himself Simon (Guy Pearce) approaches Gerard, offering to dispose of the rapist in exchange for some future consideration of a minor kind. The distraught Gerard reluctantly accepts, and there follows a brilliantly handled scene in which he signals his acceptance of the invitation by buying two bars of chocolate from a vending machine in the hospital's oncology department. From then on he's hooked by a wide-ranging conspiracy of dedicated vigilantes who exploit his guilt and undermine his natural decency,...

Nicolas Cage makes his second visit to post-hurricane Katrina New Orleans in this efficient, fast-moving thriller. Two years ago he played a deranged cop in Werner Herzog's remake of Bad Lieutenant. Here he's the slightly hyper high-school English teacher Will Gerard whose wife Laura (January Jones) is raped, robbed and severely beaten by an evildoer known to the police but unlikely to get more than a minimum sentence. A sinister, tight-lipped stranger calling himself Simon (Guy Pearce) approaches Gerard, offering to dispose of the rapist in exchange for some future consideration of a minor kind. The distraught Gerard reluctantly accepts, and there follows a brilliantly handled scene in which he signals his acceptance of the invitation by buying two bars of chocolate from a vending machine in the hospital's oncology department. From then on he's hooked by a wide-ranging conspiracy of dedicated vigilantes who exploit his guilt and undermine his natural decency,...

A man who works with his hands is a laborer;

a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman;

but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.

Louis Nizer

In his indispensable film study text, Understanding Movies, Louis Gianetti held forth on what separated craftsmanlike directors from those who rise above the norm:

“…what differentiates a great director from one who is merely competent is not so much a matter of what happens, but how things happen…”

In other words, Gianetti continued, the difference was in how effectively the director used form – visual style, composition, editing, mise en scene, and the rest of the directorial toolbox – to “…embody (a film’s) content.”

But with the rise of big budget blockbusters in the 70s and 80s, there came the ascendancy of a breed of director for whom content mattered less than form.

Director Darren Lynn Bousman is mostly know for directing horror films such as Saw II-IV, Repo! The Genetic Opera, and the upcoming two films Mother's Day and 11-11-11. He is going to move away from the horror movie genre for his next film which is described as a "cerebral thriller" in the vein of The Parallax View and The Firm involving flash mobs. 

The director sold the spec to the untitled thriller to Warner Bros., Andrew Adamson and Aron Warner's Strange Weather Films shingle. He said that this spec "is a chance for him to stretch beyond the horror genre and avoid being typecast for future projects." Which makes perfect sense, especially if he wants to make non-horror films. To help sell his spec, the director showed off a five minute trailer and booklet.

Bousman went into a little more detail when talking with Bloody-Disgusting saying,

It's...

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Knight and Day I'm starting with this one, not because I think it's a must buy, but I certainly want to have it in my collection as I enjoyed it quite a bit. I'll admit, the film has its problems, but I was able to overlook them as Knight and Day is one of the few films I saw in the theater twice this year. My Blu-ray review copy has yet to arrive so I can't tell you how it stacks up at home, but if you haven't seen it, this is one of those films I suggest a Netflix rental just to see what you think before spending your cash. As an unashamed Cruise fan I'm certainly susceptible to his films, but you may feel differently. The Sorcerer's Apprentice I enjoyed this film as well, but unlike Knight and Day...

Actor Hal Holbrook has had a long and distinguished career. Best known for his legendary role as the Watergate conspiracy lynchpin Deep Throat in All the President's Men, the actor was introduced to an all new audience in 2007 when he was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in Sean Penn's Into the Wild. A veteran of over one-hundred and twenty film and television projects, the actor has appeared in such movies as John Carpenter's The Fog, Capricorn One, The Star Chamber, Wall Street, Fletch Lives and The Firm, not to mention countless performances on popular television programs like Evening Shade, The West Wing and The Sopranos. It's safe to say that at age eighty-four, Holbrook shows no signs of slowing down as he is currently getting rave reviews for his performance as a Tennessee farm owner dealing with being forced off his farm and into a retirement home in That Evening Sun,...

The property has been bouncing around Hollywood for at least a dozen years, but producer Jerry Bruckheimer is intent on bringing Lorenzo Carcaterra's Apaches to the big screen. According to a recent Variety report, Jerry has hired the screenwriting team of Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples to take a shot at the source material. And no, it's not about actual Apache warriors. It's actually a crime story about a group of retired cops who go on a vigilante spree when the need arises. If this duo can bang out a workable draft, and that's something a lot of established writers have failed to do, then we may have a cool action flick to check out. The book even has a sequel called Chasers, so there's that to consider.

Movie fans will remember Carcaterra's name from Sleepers, the Barry Levinson film that was based on the author's book, plus he's...

At the tail end of last month news broke of a new action movie called Drive Angry that Nicolas Cage has committed to star in. He still is going to star in that film which starts rolling in April but now Cage has found another paycheck to earn before Drive Angry gets rolling.

The Hollywood Reporter says that the comic book Coppola will topline The Hungry Rabbit Jumps, a thriller that will shoot in January in New Orleans (the same place where Drive Angry will lens.) Get this: the story will have Mr. Ghost Rider playing a man whose wife is a victim of a brutal crime, so he gets caught up somehow in an underground vigilante group that ferrets out justice on criminals. Sounds like Fight Club meets The Star Chamber meets Death Wish. At this rate it's pretty much a given that if you're playing a son, daughter...