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As the progenitor of the Real Robot mecha subgenre of anime, the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise was a veritable trendsetter. This mostly manifested in mecha anime in particular, but science fiction anime as a whole is indebted to this brand. Nevertheless, as influential as it is, Gundam has a rather strange history with plagiarism in the most surprising way.

Many Gundam anime have songs that are seemingly outright stolen from other sources, which is a rather odd thing to associate with the mecha franchise. Some of these can actually be explained away due to one album in particular, while others are simply a result of Japan's loose copyright laws. Ironically, Gundam isn't even necessarily an anime franchise known for its music, further explaining how it's "gotten away" with this.

Zeta Gundam Doesn't Actually Steal Its 1st Opening Theme Neil Sedaka Had a “Pure Time” With the Theme Image via Sunrise...

Deftones have announced a new leg of 2025 North American tour dates set to kick off in the late summer. This time around, the alt-metal heroes will be joined on select dates by Phantogram and Idles, as well as opening act The Barbarians of California on all dates.

The new run of shows kicks off August 22nd in Vancouver, British Columbia, and runs through September 17th in Kansas City, Missouri. The 14-date outing includes stops in Minneapolis, Montreal, Cleveland, and Denver, among other cities.

Get Deftones Tickets Here

A Live Nation ticket pre-sale begins on Friday (March 14th) at 10 a.m. local time using the code Funky, while a general on-sale begins Monday (March 17th) at 10 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster.

The newly unveiled dates come as Deftones are in the midst of their first 2025 North American tour leg, which features support from The Mars Volta and Fleshwater. The current...

Since 1997, Days of Our Lives’ resident mad scientist, Dr. Wilhelm Rolf, has been on hand to resurrect the dead, brainwash Salemites, and more. Originally played by William Utay, the part was later recast in 2022 with Richard Wharton as the devious doctor. If either iteration of the demented scientist seems familiar, that’s probably because he resembles a character actor who starred in several horror classics.

A Puppet Master Like Dr. Rolf

Guy Rolfe was a British actor who appeared in films since 1937 and starred in several classics, including Ivanhoe (1952), The Barbarians (1960), and King of Kings (1961). But it was his role as the title character in William Castle’s Mr. Sardonicus in 1961 that made horror fans take notice. In the film, he played a man whose face froze in a creepy and disturbing grin.

He appeared in several subsequent TV shows, including The Champions (1968), which starred General Hospital’s Stuart Damon...

There was a time when most genre fiction was lumped together as a single collection of unserious literature by both critics and magazines. This is why weird fiction often shared an audience with sword and sorcery (and why writers like Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft could connect over their stories), with both genres influencing each other as they evolved.

There’s a similar inter-genre connection in the world of film, as many scholars have noticed a pattern where horror filmmakers eventually move onto bigger and more expensive fantasy projects. From Cannibal Holocaust’s Ruggero Deodato directing 1987’s The Barbarians to B-movie maestro Peter Jackson helming the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it seems like the horror genre somehow produces the best fantasy storytellers. However, today I’d like to discuss a particularly strange sword and sorcery flick directed by none other than Phantasm’s Don Coscarelli. Naturally, I’m...

The traditional closing-night party saw revellers celebrating until breakfast.

Iranian director Dornaz Hajiha’s Like A Fish On The Moon won the Transilvania Trophy, the top prize of the international competition at the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Romania at a gala ceremony on Saturday June 17.

Hajiha’s debut feature premiered at in Karlovy Vary’s Proxima competition in 2022 and is being handled internationally by Hong Kong-based Asian Shadows It also picked up the best performance award for the lead actress Sepidar Tari ex aequo with Nacho Quesada, who plays the lead role in Andrew Sala’s France-Argentina film The Barbarians.

The traditional closing-night party saw revellers celebrating until breakfast.

Iranian director Dornaz Hajiha’s Like A Fish On The Moon won the Transilvania Trophy, the top prize of the international competition at the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Romania at a gala ceremony on Saturday June 17.

Hajiha’s debut feature premiered at in Karlovy Vary’s Proxima competition in 2022 and is being handled internationally by Hong Kong-based Asian Shadows It also picked up the best performance award for the lead actress Sepidar Tari ex aequo with Nacho Quesada, who plays the lead role in Andrew Sala’s France-Argentina film The Barbarians.

Like a Fish on the Moon, the feature debut of Iranian writer-director Dornaz Hajiha, has won the Transilvania Trophy for best feature film at this year’s festival, marking the first time in the event’s 22-year history that Transilvania International Film Festival’s top award went to a female director.

The film follows new parents who are forced to adapt when their apparently healthy son suddenly stops talking.

“The film we have chosen impressed us for the originality of its premise, the power of its performances and the intelligence with which it explored very difficult subject matter,” Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco, the jury president, said in a statement. “The director demonstrated great attention to detail and an impressive, singular vision. We were also impressed by the script, which captured the often conflicting pressures of parenthood, the brutality of devotion. It is a film that resonated long after it ended.

Iranian filmmaker Dornaz Hajiha took home the top prize Saturday at the Transilvania Film Festival, as the jury awarded the first-time director with the Transilvania Trophy for “Like a Fish on the Moon,” a moving family drama about two parents coping with the emotional fallout when their young son suddenly stops talking.

In the jury’s citation, Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco highlighted “the originality of its premise, the power of its performances, and the intelligence with which it explored very difficult subject matter,” describing “Like a Fish on the Moon” as “a film that resonated long after it ended.”

Hajiha was visibly moved as she took the stage to accept the award, which was presented to her by Transilvania Lifetime Achievement Award winner Geoffrey Rush moments after the Australian actor delivered an impassioned and at times whimsical tribute to the power of cinema.

“It’s such an honor to get...

The 22nd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival kicked off Friday night in the city of Cluj-Napoca with the international premiere of Northern Comfort, a comedy directed by Icelandic filmmaker Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, and with a tribute to the film’s star, Timothy Spall.

The famed British character actor, known for his roles in Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy and Mr. Turner, Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai, Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech and the Harry Potter films, received this year’s lifetime achievement award at the festival’s opening gala.

The Icelandic-uk-German co-production Northern Comfort is part of the massive Nordic Focus at the festival this year, with more than 40 films from Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, as well as live music performances and cine-concerts. Some of the Nordic highlights include Ruben Östlund’s 2022 Palm d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness, Lars von Trier...

Leading French producer Michael Gentile’s Paris-based outfit The Film is about to start shooting Julie Delpy’s next directorial outing, “The Barbarians,” and Laurence Arné’s “Les Hennedricks” starring Dany Boon.

Delpy’s comeback to French filmmaking since “Lolo,” “The Barbarians” is a satirical comedy unfolding in a small town in Brittany which is preparing to welcome Ukrainian refugees after voting unanimously to greet them in exchange for subsidies from the government. But instead of seeing Ukrainians come into town, they see Syrian refugees, causing some tensions among locals and testing their liberal beliefs. Delpy will star in the film opposite Sandrine Kiberlain (“Mademoiselle Chambon”), Laurent Lafitte (“Elle”) and Ziad Bakri (“The Weekend Away”), India Hair (“Angry Annie”), Mathieu Demy (“The Bureau”) and Delpy’s father Albert Delpy.

Delpy penned the script with Matthieu Rumani (“Family Business”), in collaboration with Lea Domenech (“Bernadette”). “The Barbarians” will start filming on...

The Romanian film festival runs June 9-18.

Transilvania International Film Festival has announced the line-up for its 22nd edition which takes place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

The official competition is made up of 12 features while the documentary strand, entitled What’s Up Doc?, will screen 10 titles. All of the films are from first and second-time directors.

Among the competition selection is Ion Bors’ Carbon which premiered in San Sebastian’s New Directors strand last year, having won the festival’s Wip Europa Industry and Wip Europa awards the previous year. The dark comedy, surrounding the Transnistrian conflict of the 1990s, is...

Stars: Grant Schumacher, Rick Montgomery Jr., Caitlin Duffy, Andrew Gombas, William Champion, George Katt, Ariella Mastroianni | Written and Directed by Bruce Wemple

With The Tomorrow Job writer/director Bruce Wemple steps away from the creature features like Monstrous and Dawn of the Beast that he’s been making lately to go back to the time paradox films such as Lake Artifact and Altered Hours that he started his career with.

In fact, The Tomorrow Job reworks Altered Hours’ premise of a drug that can send its user a day into the future as the jumping-off point for its tale of Lee and his crew of time travelling thieves. Lee was a subject of the late Dr. Tupple’s experiments in time travel. And when he left the project, he took the remaining samples of the drug with him.

Now he, along with Finn and Martin use it to steal information for clients.

Ruggero Deodato, the Italian filmmaker whose hyper-realistic found-footage horror pic Cannibal Holocaust got him arrested and was banned in more than 50 countries, died today, Italian media reported. He was 83. No details of his death were given.

Deodato wrote and/or directed dozens of films and TV shows spanning myriad genres during a 60-year career, but none was more notorious, controversial or scrutinized than 1980’s Cannibal Holocaust. The film’s intense and authentic-looking gore led many to believe that local actors actually were murdered on screen. The film was seized by Italian authorities, who later arrested Deodato and put him on trial for murder and animal cruelty.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery Related Story Pelé Dies: Soccer's All-Time Great And Global Sports Icon Was 82 Related Story Actor Tyler Sanders' Cause Of Death Revealed By L.A. Coroner

Cannibal Holocaust was a pioneer of the found footage and mockumentary genres.

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Ruggero Deodato, the Italian director behind the gruesome and controversial 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust, died Thursday in Rome, the Il Messaggero newspaper reported. He was 83.

Made in the style of a documentary and shot in Colombia, Cannibal Holocaust starred Robert Kerman and employed purported “found footage” taken by a sadistic American film crew during an expedition into the Amazon jungle to locate indigenous tribes.

It depicted murder, mutilation, torture, gang rape and animal slaughter and was banned in several countries including Deodato’s own, with Italian authorities seizing his film and destroying prints shortly after it hit theaters.

Deodato was put on trial for murdering actors and faced 30 years in prison, but he produced the supposedly dead men in court, and the charges were dropped (the actors had signed contracts to disappear for a year). He was fined for obscenity, however.

Deodato said he...

The film world has lost one of its most controversial figures, as it has been confirmed that Italian screenwriter, director, and actor Ruggero Deodato has passed away at the age of 83. Described by filmmaker Mick Garris as “a sweet man who made brutal cinema”, Deodato was best known for directing the 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust, which got him arrested because the authorities suspected he had really murdered members of his cast. They were all just fine, but Cannibal Holocaust has also sickened and disturbed many viewers with its depiction of multiple real animal killings. Deodato would later say he regretted including the deaths of those animals, saying it was “stupid” to put those moments in the movie.

Deodato was born on May 7, 1939, and got involved with filmmaking at the end of his teens because the area in Rome where he lived also happened to be the neighborhood where the major film studios were located.

Breaking news this Thursday morning as Italian director Ruggero Deodato has reportedly passed away at the age of 83. The news came per The Sun, who sources respected Italian news sources including Il Post and Il Messagero.

Deodato is best known as the filmmaker behind the shocking and controversial Cannibal Holocaust (1980), which inspired several notable filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth, the latter of which would cast Deodato in his own Hostel: Part II (2007).

Deodato’s contributions are scattered across the board, although he also directed giallo films Body Count (1986) and Phantom of Death (1987), as well as the cult The Barbarians (1987) and House on the Edge of the Park (1980). He recently helmed a segment of Deathcember (2019).

The Sun notes that as a solo director he made more than 30 movies but was most famous for 1980’s pioneering shocker Cannibal Holocaust, which was incredibly controversial for several reasons, including that the “gruesome...

“The Cannon Film Guide is a treasure trove of info for Golan/Globus fans. Even diehard Cannon scholars will learn from this tome.” – Paul Talbot, author of the Bronson’s Loose! books

The unbelievable story of the legendary 1980s B-movie studio continues in The Cannon Film Guide Volume II, which covers the company’s output from 1985 to 1987, their peak production years under maverick moguls Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. This highly-anticipated sequel to the original Cannon compendium takes an up-close look at sixty Cannon movies, from deep cuts to cult classics, including American Ninja, The Delta Force, Over the Top, Invasion USA, Masters of the Universe, Runaway Train, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, King Solomon’s Mines, Lifeforce, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, and many more. Order the book Here

With hundreds of photos and more than forty interviews with Cannon directors, writers, and stars, this is an indispensable reference book for...

The worldwide trailer for Holocaust revenge film “Plan A” has been revealed, with Variety given an exclusive first look. The English-language drama, based on a true story, stars August Diehl, Sylvia Hoeks, Nikolai Kinski (“The Barbarians”) and Michael Aloni (“Shitsel”).

The film, by Israeli helmers Yoav and Doron Paz, will be released by Menemsha Films in North America, Signature in the U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, New Select in Japan, Twelve Oaks Pictures in Spain, Nos Lusomundo in Portugal, Danal Entertainment in Korea, and CaiChang in Taiwan. Further territory sales, negotiated by Global Screen, are to be announced soon.

Set in Germany in 1945, the film centers on Max (Diehl), a Holocaust survivor, who meets a group of Jewish vigilantes. Together they develop a plan to take monstrous revenge against the German people for the Holocaust: to poison the water system in Germany, and kill 6 million Germans. The film...

Greta Van Fleet have released a new song, “Heat Above,” from their upcoming album, The Battle at Garden’s Gate, set to arrive April 16th.

“Heat Above” will be the first track on The Battle at Garden’s Gate, and it arrives with the heavenly drone of a Hammond organ before opening up into a sun-drenched stomp. Despite the bright tone, much of the song finds frontman Josh Kiszka painting a stark picture of destruction and looming war, although he injects a hopeful note when he sings, “Can you feel my love?...

Netflix has announced that Part 2 of its smash hit French series Lupin will arrive later this year, after the mystery show became the streaming service’s biggest French international hit to date. It also revealed that Lupin, often described as a “contemporary rereading” of the Gentleman Thief, is on track to reach a whopping 70 million households in its first month of release, putting it close to its big budget fantasy series The Witcher in terms of eyeballs on screens.

Indeed, Lupin Part 1 has smashed expectations so far, trending in Netflix’s Top Ten globally and reaching number one in France, Brazil, Vietnam, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, the Philippines and Sweden.

The series stars Omar Sy (Jurassic World) as Assane Diop. As a teen, Assane’s life changes dramatically after his father is accused of a crime he didn’t commit and dies. Part 1 follows Assane 25 years later...

New Indie

The critically-acclaimed “Aviva” (Outsider/Strand) casts both male and female dancers as both of the romantic leads, throwing out conventions of gender and sexuality in a love story that features some gorgeous choreography. Boaz Yakin’s film was programmed at the 2020 SXSW festival, and the Blu-ray features behind-the-scenes footage of dance rehearsals.

Also available: Stand-up Steve Byrne wrote and directed the comics-on-the-road saga “The Opening Act” (Rlje Films), featuring such industry vets as Jimmy O. Yang, Alex Moffat, Cedric the Entertainer, Bill Burr, and Whitney Cummings; “Buddy Games” (Saban/Paramount) stars Josh Duhamel and Dax Shepard in an ensemble comedy about estranged friends enduring a ridiculous competition for a $150,000 prize; a newly sober carpenter tries to build a home and establish a life in “Major Arcana” (Gde/Kino Lorber).

New Foreign

Melina León’s Cannes fave “Song Without a Name” (Film Movement), about an indigenous woman trying to...

Univision’s Christian Gabela appointed as vice president, international TV co-productions from Univision.

Gaumont has hired Christian Gabela to manage and expand the company’s international TV distribution/co-production partnerships, with a focus on Latin America.

Gabela joins the Narcos producer as vice president, international TV co-productions from Us-based Spanish-language network Univision, where he was vice president and general manager of its production division, Story House Entertainment. His previous projects include Netflix originals El Chapo and Tijuana.

He will report to Gaumont’s Vanessa Shapiro, president, worldwide TV distribution and co-production, and work with creative executives in Los Angeles, Paris,...

Exclusive: Production is underway in Berlin on Netflix Original mini-series Unorthodox, which will star Shira Haas (The Zookeeper’s Wife) and be directed by actor-filmmaker Maria Schrader (Deutschland 83).

The Yiddish and English-language four-part mini-series, executive produced by Deutschland 83/86 creator Anna Winger, will see Haas star as a young woman who leaves an arranged marriage in New York and sets out on her own to Berlin. The story is inspired by Deborah Feldman’s bestselling memoir of a young Jewish woman’s escape from a religious sect. Also starring are Jeff Wilbusch (Little Drummer Girl) and Amit Rahav (Dig).

Feldman’s novel has been adapted for screen by Winger and Alexa Karolinski (Oma & Bella). Eli Rosen of the New Yiddish Repertory Theater in New York is translating. The series is produced by Anna Winger’s Studio Airlift, Henning Kamm at Real Film Berlin. It marks the first project out of...

Netflix is making its first foray into German original films, unveiling a slate of three projects that it will produce with local film and TV powerhouses Ufa, X Filme and Zdf.

In the lineup are “Betongold” (“Concrete Gold”), a fast-paced satire about the world of real estate from Ufa Fiction; “Isi & Ossi,” a young-adult romcom from X Filme Creative Pool; and “Freaks,” a drama about a working-class mom with supernatural powers, from Zdf and Lüthje Schneider Hörl Film. The movies are set to start production this spring and will be released globally on Netflix from 2020.

The feature projects follow Netflix’s strong commitment to series in Germany, where it is currently producing a slew of shows, including supernatural hit “Dark” and gritty crime drama “Dogs of Berlin.”

“Concrete Gold,” written and directed by Cüneyt Kaya, follows three young real-estate grifters in Berlin, played by David Kross (“The Keeper”), Frederick Lau (“The Captain”) and Janina Uhse,...

At the bitter end of a ten-year slide into ever-cheaper productions, The Cannon Group sends stars David Bradley (a nice guy), Steve James (everyone's favorite) and Marjoe Gortner (a stiff) to South Africa for an anemic entry in this series. Cannon is considered a 'fun' subject this year because of those funny documentaries that came out. Savant cut the trailer for this particular picture, so takes the opportunity to talk about the wild life and times in the Cannon trailer department. American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt Blu-ray Olive Films 19 / B&W / 2:35 1:85 widescreen / 1:37 flat Academy / 90 min. / Street Date August 16, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring David Bradley, Steve James, Marjoe Gortner, Michele Chan,Yehuda Efroni, Alan Swerdlow. Cinematography George Bartels Film Editor Michael J. Duthie Original Music George S. Clinton Written by Gary Conway from characters by Avi Kleinberger & Gideon Amir Produced by Harry Alan Towers Directed...

If you didn’t grow up during the late-80′s/early-90′s, you may not remember the Barbarian Brothers. Peter and David Paul were muscle-bound body builders known for their extreme dedication to their craft. One look at their impossibly chiseled physique and you knew you were dealing with a different breed of weight-lifter. In 1987, someone got the bright idea to cast the siblings in a fantasy flick called “The Barbarians”, a film I vaguely recall during the late-night Cinemax escapades of my youth. The film must have been a moderate success, as the brothers found themselves in a small batch of like-minded action/comedies which focused on the fact that they were big, they were strong, and, more importantly, they were twins. Enter John Paragon’s 1992 epic “Double Trouble”, a buddy cop flick which finds the two brothers joining forces to take down the dastardly son-of-a-bitch behind a high-stakes jewel smuggling operation.

This week, John Carvill steals himself through the sobs and reminds us of the best cinematic separations

"Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs," sang Paul McCartney. Others do something similiar with movies: from the silents to 3D, the arthouse to the multiplex, romance sells. Why? Well, to give and receive love is an innate human need: once we've sorted those bare necessities such as food and shelter, love is next on the agenda.

Romcoms may be hugely popular, but that name is misleading – in real life, relationships are seldom funny. Love can be hard work, and it can hurt. As a sagacious stranger warns Woody Allen in Annie Hall, love can fade. Love can die. Make love, not war – or so they say – but what about when love becomes war, what about when it kills? That's why breakup scenes are so powerful. They're the romantic equivalent...