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Quentin Tarantino has written and directed some of the most indelibly iconic movie scenes in cinematic history. There’s the ear-slicing scene in Reservoir Dogs. The gory gimp rape in Pulp Fiction. The Crazy 88 massacre in Kill Bill. The fiendish flamethrower finale in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood…you name it. Yet, by Tarantino’s own admission, one unforgettable movie moment he authored possibly eclipses all else: The Sicilian Scene in Tony Scott’s True Romance, brought to vivid life and elevated to godly heights by Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper.

For the uninitiated, The Sicilian Scene features a scintillating showdown between Hopper’s Clifford Worley and Walken’s Vincenzo Coccotti. Coccotti arrives at Clifford’s trailer in Detroit looking for Clifford’s son, Clarence, who inadvertently made off with Drexl Spivey’s suitcase full of cocaine. After blasting Spivy and his henchmen to death, Clarence and his bride,...

Although there is a fourth movie connected to The Godfather trilogy, there is a reason that viewers have rarely heard of 1987’s The Sicilian. The Godfather trilogy is often listed among the greatest movies of all time, even though director Francis Ford Coppola’s final installment is generally viewed as a letdown. Coppola’s first two Godfather movies were so influential and acclaimed that the series as a whole is typically viewed as a vital piece of cinematic history, and even The Godfather Part 3 is better than critics gave the belated sequel credit for upon its original release.

Related Why Fredo Betrayed Michael In The Godfather Part II

The Godfather Part II's ending centers on the tragic fallout of Fredo betraying Michael Corleone, but why did Fredo almost get his brother killed?

As such, it might seem surprising that The Godfather Part 4 never happened. While some cast members were arguably...

Everyone knows that The Godfather: Part II is the rare sequel that matches (if not exceeds) the greatness of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. Then there is The Godfather Part III, the quintessential misbegotten sequel that avid fans prefer to erase from their memory. Besides a 2006 video game and a Paramount+ series, The Offer, about the making of the original film, The Godfather has been devoid of IP exploitation. Between Part II and Part III, an unknown quasi-sequel to The Godfather was released with little fanfare, and most people today are completely oblivious to its connection to Mario Puzo's source material. The Sicilian, a 1984 novel by Puzo, takes place in the Corleone universe. However, the film adaptation of the book, directed by Michael Cimino, makes little effort to connect the crime epic to The Godfather saga.

The Sicilian is a biopic about Salvatore Giuliano that is almost devoid of any connections to its inspiration, The Godfather. The Sicilian, more Western than Mafia drama, failed to capture Coppola's magic. A transparent cash-in attempt on The Godfather's success, The Sicilian is forgettable in the shadow of its predecessor.

As far as cinephiles are concerned, The Godfather movies are Francis Ford Coppola's vision. Loosely based on the book of the same name written by Mario Puzo, the trilogy chronicled the rise and fall of Michael Corleone in the American criminal underworld. Coppola's creative choices and understanding of Italian American history are so integral to these movies that it's impossible and foolish to even try to imagine what they would look like without his involvement. This, however, didn't stop countless filmmakers from futilely trying to copy The Godfather, let alone adapting more of Puzo's books. The most brazen...

In deciding on our next Wtf celebrity to cover, we passed around several names but in the end we all decided that: There could be only One! Despite being basically blind, Christopher Lambert made a name for himself as the king of Sci-Fi action films. One could say he single-handedly kept Blockbuster Video in business as most of his output in the 90’s debuted on the bottom shelves of the video rental chain. But few performers have made their mark on the international stage like Christopher Lambert, alternating between North American schlock and more prestigious French fare. Despite most of us knowing Lambert mainly for two iconic roles, there is much more to know about this American-born French actor; it’s time we find out just Wtf Happened to Christopher Lambert.

Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

But as always, we must begin at the beginning, and...

In his last dramatic and interminable years, Michael Cimino spent his days in solitude rewatching old movies in the Bel-Air mansion he bought during his heyday. On the rare occasions that he ventured out, he drove a Rolls-Royce he acquired while making The Deer Hunter in 1978, his chauffeur having left long ago, as well as his success.

Even in those final moments, he did everything he could to show a winning image to Hollywood, a town that had ostracized him ever since the colossal Heaven’s Gate fiasco that had bankrupted United Artists during the early ’80s. He had a perpetually ironic, scornful smile, but he was the first to know how pointless, even miserable, that act was. The only thing he had left from his triumphant years was some money, and he would show up at the hangouts of movers and shakers like the Polo Lounge, where he often ended...

British actor Joss Ackland, who had more than 130 acting credits to his name, has passed away.

Per Deadline, Ackland's death was announced by his family on Sunday, but no details about a cause or location were given. In a statement, the family said, "With his distinctive voice and commanding presence, Ackland brought a unique intensity and gravitas to his role. He will be remembered as one of Britain’s most talented and beloved actors.” Ackland was 95 years old.

Ackland was born in London in 1928, and he was performing as an actor on stage as a teenager. From there, he would start to pick up roles in movies and TV shows in the 1950s and beyond. Among his many memorable roles is the character Hans, a mentor to Emilio Estevez in the hit 1992 Disney movie The Mighty Ducks. The actor would reprise his role for the 1996 sequel, D3: The Mighty Ducks.

British actor Joss Ackland, known for his distinctive voice and commanding presence, has passed away at the age of 95. He will be remembered as one of Britain's most talented and beloved actors. Ackland's remarkable career spanned several decades, during which he showcased his versatility in films, television, and stage. He received a Cbe in 2001 for his contributions to the entertainment industry. Tributes from colleagues and fans poured in, honoring Ackland's memorable performances and the impact he had on the acting community. He will be deeply missed, leaving behind a legacy that spans generations.

When it comes to actors with an ability to command a scene, British actor Joss Ackland was one of the best. It was sadly announced today that the Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, White Mischief and The Mighty Ducks actor has passed away at the age of 95. The family statement (per BBC) revealed that the actor...

The Godfather trilogy has a timeless quality and is beloved by many despite its imperfections and the passage of time. The Godfather story has a complex and muddied continuity due to the inclusion of separate novels and side stories that fill in the gaps between the films. Four additional books have been written about the Corleone family, but none of them have been adapted into movies, despite Hollywood's interest in continuing legacy IPs.

The Godfather is still regarded as the pinnacle of cinema by many. While far from being a perfect trilogy, the story of the rise and fall of the Corleone family has pleased many film buffs over time and different generations. These movies have a timeless quality that makes them endearing and entertaining despite pushing 50 years since the first one premiered.

Surprising as it may seem, The Godfather has a muddied continuity since there are the canonical events...

Get ready for an enthralling and enigmatic episode titled “The Sicilian Error of Color” airing on NBC at 10:00 Pm on May 21, 2023.

Find out everything you need to know about the The Sicilian Error of Color episode of The Blacklist, including a full preview, videos, release date, cast information and how to watch!

The Blacklist The Sicilian Error of Color Season 10 Episode 13 Preview

In this episode, Siya (played by Diany Rodriguez) accompanies the ever-enigmatic Red (James Spader) on a series of unusual tasks, only to uncover more details about Meera’s (Parminder Nagra) past. As they work together, the tension between Red and Siya thickens, leaving viewers eager for more.

Meanwhile, the ambitious Congressman Hudson (Kevin Kilner) seeks to expand his crusade against the task force. In an attempt to gain an upper hand, he tries to persuade a powerful friend to join his cause, adding another layer of complexity to the storyline.

Click here to read the full article.

Bert Fields, the renowned entertainment litigator whose clients included Edward G. Robinson, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Tom Cruise, Warren Beatty, The Beatles and a host of other luminaries, studios and talent agencies, has died. He was 93.

Fields died peacefully late Sunday night at his Malibu home, a spokesperson for his law firm, Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger Llp., announced.

“For forty years, we were graced with Bert’s brilliance, decency and charm,” said Bob Baradaran, managing partner of Greenberg Glusker. “Bert was a beloved colleague, friend and mentor who trained a generation of outstanding lawyers. We were blessed to know and work with such a truly remarkable lawyer and human being.”

A longtime partner at Greenberg Glusker and mainstay on THR‘s annual Power Lawyer list, Fields during his six-decade career also represented the likes of David Geffen, James Cameron, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Jackson, Mike Nichols,...

Click here to read the full article.

It was an offer they couldn’t refuse.

APA has signed the estate of The Godfather author Mario Puzo for representation.

The agency will represent the media rights to the author’s novels with the goal of sales for motion picture and streaming minseries adaptations.

Puzo is best known for Godfather, his 1969 novel that was on the New York Times best-seller list for 67 weeks and reportedly sold 9 million copies in two years. The author gained further fame when Francis Ford Coppola adapted the book into the classic film starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. Paramount may own those rights, but APA is betting that in this age of insatiable hunger for stories, there will be plenty of interest in the author’s many other works.

The agency has already begun discussion with producers regarding Puzo’s as-yet-unadapted novels including: Fools Die, his first novel post-Godfather,...

The 1984 film The Hit is out today on Criterion Collection --- and they're having a 50% off flash sale right now, so if you've been waiting to score some awesome box sets, get to it Asap. Directed by Stephen Frear, the film stars Terence Stamp as Willie, a former gangster-turned-informer. He's been hiding out in a sunwashed Spanish village for a good ten years when his luck runs out and he's found and delivered by a group of amateur thugs who are immediately dispatched of in...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

By Fred Blosser

In Michael Cimino’s “Year of the Dragon” (1985), now available in a handsome Blu-ray edition from the Warner Archive Collection, gang war threatens to erupt in New York’s Chinatown when the city’s elderly Triad kingpin is spectacularly murdered by a young Chinese thug. Police Captain Stanley White (Mickey Rourke) is brought in to crack down before more blood is spilled, as long as he doesn’t crack down too hard. As far as the NYPD and the neighborhood elders are concerned, things are fine the way they are in Chinatown under the Triad. All that’s needed is to bring the suddenly upstart youth gangs under control. But Stanley knows that the only way to really clean up Chinatown is to wipe out the underlying corruption of the Triad itself. To that end, he plunges into his assignment with a zeal that even Dirty Harry Callahan might find excessive.

Hulu has released its list of all the new content coming May 1 as well as everything that will leave the streaming service at the end of the month.

Highlights include Hulu Originals like “Into The Dark: All That We Destroy,” the show’s eighth episode coming May 3. Hulu describes the show as “A geneticist who fears that her son may be becoming a serial killer creates a group of clones in an attempt to cure him of his psychopathic tendencies by allowing him to relive the murder of his first victim.”

George Clooney’s “Catch-22,” which is on the Joseph Heller novel of the same name arrives mid-month. Per Hulu: “‘Catch-22'” is the story of the incomparable, artful dodger, Yossarian, a Us Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him.” The show stars Kyle Chandler,...

Francoise Bonnot, a film editor who won an Oscar for Z and a BAFTA Award for Missing among dozens of credits, died Saturday in Paris. She was 78.

The France native worked with a number of top directors during her nearly 50-year career, notably editing seven consecutive films by Costa-Gavras — from 1969’s Z to 1983’s Hanna K. She won a BAFTA Award for his 1982 film Missing. She also worked with such noted helmers as Jean-Jacques Annaud — on his 1976 debut feature Black and White in Color — Roman Polanski, Michael Cimino (1985’s Year of the Dragon and 1987’s The Sicilian) and four film for Julie Taymor: Titus (1999), Frida (2002), Across the Universe (2007) and The Tempest (2010).

Among her earliest editing credits during a career that would span nearly a half-century was 1962’s A Monkey in Winter for director Henri Verneuil. They also would work together on three other films that decade and eventually were married.

Richard Venture, the prolific character actor who lent gravitas to the best picture Oscar nominees All the President's Men, Missing and Scent of a Woman and dozens of other films and TV shows, has died. He was 94.

Venture died Dec. 19 in Chester, Connecticut, his daughter Rebecca told The Hollywood Reporter.

Venture was especially memorable as Peter Sellers' valet in Hal Ashby's Being There (1979) and as a cop who commits suicide in Steve McQueen's final film, The Hunter (1980).

His body of work also includes roles in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), The Greatest (1977), Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), The Onion Field (1979), Touch and Go (1986), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), The Sicilian (1987), Courage Under...

Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Italian-American actor-director John Turturro, who stars in Richard Price and Steve Zaillian’s widely hailed limited series “The Night Of” (HBO).

Bottom Line: For 37 years, versatile New York actor John Turturro has delivered memorable characters who can be incredibly smart (“Quiz Show”) or insanely stupid (bowler Jesus Quintano in “The Big Lebowski”), lovable (“Fading Gigolo”) or menacing (the pool hustler in Martin Scorsese’s “The Color Of Money”). He’s a go-to player for both the Coens and Spike Lee as well as a reliable character actor for Hollywood tentpoles such as “The Transformers.”

Career Peaks: After winning a scholarship to the Yale Drama School and performing Ibsen, Ionesco, and John Patrick Shanley off-Broadway, Turturro got stuck playing violent killers in films like “Five Corners...

Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Italian-American actor-director John Turturro, who stars in Richard Price and Steve Zaillian’s widely hailed limited series “The Night Of” (HBO).

Bottom Line: For 37 years, versatile New York actor John Turturro has delivered memorable characters who can be incredibly smart (“Quiz Show”) or insanely stupid (bowler Jesus Quintano in “The Big Lebowski”), lovable (“Fading Gigolo”) or menacing (the pool hustler in Martin Scorsese’s “The Color Of Money”). He’s a go-to player for both the Coens and Spike Lee as well as a reliable character actor for Hollywood tentpoles such as “The Transformers.”

Career Peaks: After winning a scholarship to the Yale Drama School and performing Ibsen, Ionesco, and John Patrick Shanley off-Broadway, Turturro got stuck playing violent killers in films like “Five Corners...

There are days where the Internet feels like the most ghoulish game of telephone ever, particularly when the word starts to spread that someone notable has died. Edgar Wright was the first one I saw mention the death of Michael Cimino this afternoon, quoting a Tweet by Cannes luminary Thierry Fremaux, who announced, “Michael Cimino died peacefully, surrounded by his family and these two women who loved him. We loved him also.” Without question, Cimino’s career was defined by one remarkable high and one remarkable low, and to some degree, his career is the perfect illustration of what happened as film culture moved from the ‘70s to the ‘80s, and part of what makes him such a fascinating figure is how questionable every “fact” about him was. Cimino was a mystery in many ways, and when he made his debut as a director with Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, he looked like...

Michael Cimino “The Sicilian” (1987) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 13 percent “The film is a mess, though hardly on the panoramic scale of ‘Heaven’s Gate,'” Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times. “The Sunchaser” (1996) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 17 percent “Michael Cimino — a daredevil director for whom the tidy story is never worth shooting — pokes around interesting themes of mysticism, healthy (and unhealthy) lifestyles, bonds between men, and the joys of driving in the desert really recklessly but doesn’t know what to do with what he finds. Nothing jells,” Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote in Entertainment Weekly. “Desperate Hours” (1990) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 36 percent “It’s a variation.

Michael Cimino, director of the Oscar-winning film The Deer Hunter, has died. He was 77. Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux announced Cimino's passing on Twitter Saturday. "Michael Cimino died peacefully, surrounded by his family and the two women who loved him. We loved him too," Fremaux wrote in French. Among the eight works in his directorial career, The Deer Hunter is arguably Cimino's best known film. In 1978, he directed, produced and co-wrote the war drama that starred Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Cazale. The Deer Hunter took home five Oscars that year. Michael Cimino est mort, en paix,...

Michael Cimino, the Academy Award-winning director and cinematic visionary behind films like The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate, died Saturday.

Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux first announced news of Cimino's death, tweeting that Cimino died surrounded by family members. A representative for the director could neither "confirm nor deny" whether Cimino had died. No cause of death was provided. Cimino was reportedly 77.

"I cannot believe Michael Cimino has passed away too," director Edgar Wright tweeted."'Thunderbolt & Lightfoot' is one of my favourite films. R.I.P."

After beginning his career in art and advertising,...

Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Cimino has died at the age of 77.

Cimino was one of the filmmakers that made up the 'New Hollywood' wave in the 1970s which pushed directors as the driving creative force behind filmmaking. He broke onto the scene with the 1974 heist film "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges.

It was his second film though, 1978's post-Vietnam war drama "The Deer Hunter," which became a bonafide cinematic classic and Best Picture Winner. A scathing look at the fallout and impact of the war on the lives of people from small town Pennsylvania, it remains a major milestone in the careers of its stars like Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage.

Following up such a film was always going to be a tall order, and Cimino's third film became famous for other reasons. The 1980 western "Heaven's Gate" scored a reputation for being...

It had been a long time since I was in the same room with director Michael Cimino. My first job out of Nyu Cinema Studies was in the publicity department at United Artists in New York, where I witnessed the long delays on Cimino’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning 1978 anti-war diatribe “The Deer Hunter,” the period western “Heaven’s Gate.”

The director got caught up in chasing authenticity in the myriad details of the production, training for weeks the cast led by Kris Kristofferson and Isabelle Huppert to roller-skate for one scene — and demanding endless retakes until he shot more feet of film, over 1 million, than even Francis Coppola did on another memorably out-of-control UA movie, “Apocalypse Now.” The original $11 million budget bloated to $32 million (Cimino’s figure), as recounted in Steven Bach’s “Final Cut: Art, Money and Ego in the Making of ‘Heaven’s Gate.’

“Heaven’s...

It had been a long time since I was in the same room with director Michael Cimino. My first job out of Nyu Cinema Studies was in the publicity department at United Artists in New York, where I witnessed the long delays on Cimino’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning 1978 anti-war diatribe “The Deer Hunter,” the period western “Heaven’s Gate.”

The director got caught up in chasing authenticity in the myriad details of the production, training for weeks the cast led by Kris Kristofferson and Isabelle Huppert to roller-skate for one scene — and demanding endless retakes until he shot more feet of film, over 1 million, than even Francis Coppola did on another memorably out-of-control UA movie, “Apocalypse Now.” The original $11 million budget bloated to $32 million (Cimino’s figure), as recounted in Steven Bach’s “Final Cut: Art, Money and Ego in the Making of ‘Heaven’s Gate.’

“Heaven’s...

The director of The Deer Hunter Michael Cimino received his Leopard award on the Piazza Grande at the Locarno Film Festival Photo: Richard Mowe

Michael Cimino has died at the age of 77, Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux has announced. The director of The Deer Hunter, and Desperate Hours and The Sicilian was a popular figure on the festival circuit and had recently released a long-awaited director's cut of his most troubled film, Heaven's Gate, in Venice.

Cimino directed a total of eight films in his lifetime and wrote several more, including science fiction classic Silent Running. He recently spoke to us about the huge collection of screenplays he wrote but never managed to bring to the screen.

No details of the cause of death have been released but Cimino is said to have passed away peacefully in the company of the two women who loved him....

In the new film Fading Gigolo, John Turturro (who also wrote and directed) plays an unlikely escort pushed into the world's oldest profession by his cash-strapped friend (Woody Allen) — though when your clients include comely women played by screen beauties Sharon Stone, Sofia Vergara, and Vanessa Paradis, you don't remain a reluctant gigolo for long. And since there are some similarities between the life of a gigolo and the life of an actor who is paid to occasionally kiss beautiful actresses from time to time, John Turturro rang up Vulture to look back at some of the women he's romanced onscreen, as well as to ponder the nature of the love scene itself.Do you remember with whom you had your first screen kiss?Wow, that's a really good question. I think that's the first time I've ever been asked that! I may have had a quick kiss in The Sicilian,...

Perhaps the most acclaimed and notable set of films of the 20th century, "The Godfather" films told the story of the complicated machinations and drama of the Corleone crime family, jumping from Vito's emigration from Italy to the mad, backstabbing scramble by his sons to be his successor. And while the second film gives glimpses of the Don's past life and rise to power, there were many more questions left unanswered about his early years. Or so we thought.

Mario Puzo, who wrote the novel upon which the films were based and helped write the first two screenplays, had another Corleone story in his pocket, it turns out, tracing in more detail Vito's rise through the 1920's and 30's New York mob scene. The tales took shape in a screenplay that went unproduced, and while the original actors are far too old or otherwise unavailable to bring a fourth "Godfather...

DVD Playhouse—November 2010

By Allen Gardner

Paths Of Glory (Criterion) Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 antiwar classic put him on the map as a major filmmaker. Kirk Douglas stars in a true story about a French officer in Ww I who locks horns with the military’s top brass after his men are court-martialed for failing to carry out an obvious suicide mission. A perfect film, across the board, with fine support from George Macready as one of the most despicable martinet’s ever captured on film, Ralph Meeker, and Adolphe Menjou, all oily charm as a conniving General. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins; Excerpt from 1966 audio interview with Kubrick; 1979 interview with Douglas; New interviews with Jan Harlan, Christiane Kubrick, and producer James B. Harris; French television documentary on real-life case which inspired the film; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby 1.0 mono.

Winter’S Bone (Lionsgate) After her deadbeat father disappears,...

There’s no end of blogging about wrong-headed Oscar wins. The litany of complaints about “Shakespeare in Love” winning over “Saving Private Ryan,” or “Forrest Gump” over “Pulp Fiction,” or “The Greatest Show on Earth” over any of the other nominees that year, not to mention how Gwyneth Paltrow won over Cate Blanchett for “Shakespeare,” or Costner over Scorsese for “Dances with Wolves.”

Sometimes, though, the win is totally justified; it’s the body of work after the win that drags the winner down, and makes you wonder if maybe the Oscar win wasn’t just some sort of one-trick point, a gold-plated piece of lightning in a bottle. That’s why there’s no quibbling in this post about the quality of the performances, but rather about everything that came afterwards.

With the 2009 nominations coming out tomorrow, and with plenty of nitpicking sure to abound, I’m presenting seven...