News

Frank Pesce, a colorful character actor whose dozens of credits range from Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and Midnight Run to Miami Vice, Matlock and Kojak, has died. He was 75.

His girlfriend Tammy Scher told Deadline that Pesce died February 6 in Burbank of dementia complications.

Born on December 8, 1946, in New York City, Pesce put the “character” in character actor. A longtime close friend of Sylvester Stallone, Tony Danza, the late Robert Forster and many other industry players, he was known for his big smile, big stories and bigger personality.

“They make movies about guys like me,” he always said. That quote — more about it below — will be written on his epitaph, Scher said.

Pesce began his screen career in the mid-1970s, guesting on such series as Police Story and Kojak and playing bit roles in the early Stallone films Rocky and Paradise Alley. He went on to work in...

Exclusive: The Matthew Miele-directed documentary Alan Pakula: Going For Truth is going out to distributors to give a posthumous appraisal of an understated filmmaker who directed some of the most seminal films of his era.

Pakula was killed in a freak accident in 1998, when a metal pipe was turned into a deadly projectile on the Long Island Expressway after a car in front him ran it over and sent it airborne. The object smashed through the windshield of Pakula’s black Volvo station wagon and struck him in the head, killing him instantly at age 70.

Pakula’s passing stunned Hollywood at the time. The film, which was first revealed by Deadline in 2017 and which played last fall at an AFI tribute to the director, celebrates the iconic works that Pakula left behind. That includes the films All The President’s Men, The Parallax View, Klute, Sophie’s Choice, Presumed Innocent, Consenting Adults and The Pelican Brief.

It was 31 years ago when cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt first met playwright John Patrick Shanley. At that point in his career, Goldblatt had photographed “The Hunger,” “Young Sherlock Holmes,” and the first two “Lethal Weapon” movies. Shanley, who had won an Oscar for writing 1987’s “Moonstruck,” needed a trained eye to lens his first film as a director. It was an offbeat romantic comedy about a terminally ill man, played by Tom Hanks, who agrees to leap into a volcano to assuage island gods.

“‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ was a wonderful experience for me,” Goldblatt said to TheWrap. “John was such an imaginative director and I think the film was well ahead of its time. We got on great together and stayed friends over these years.”

Goldblatt was born in South Africa and raised in London. Now 75, he makes his home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. A couple years ago,...

Award-winning casting director Alixe Gordin died at her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts on November 28. She was 96. Additional details about her death were not revealed.

Born Alixe Glas on April 10, 1922 in Dayton, Ohio, she took her stage name Gordin when she started performing as a musician and an actor. She got into casting in the ’60s with Studio One and The Defenders on CBS.

Gordin is known for her casting work on some of the most iconic films in history. She served as casting director for the Brian De Palma classic Scarface which earned Al Pacino and Steven Bauer a Golden Globe nomination in 1984. She worked on Alan J. Pakula’s Klute which won Jane Fonda an Academy Award in 1971. She reteamed with Pakula for his film Sophie’s Choice which went on to win an Academy Award for Meryl Streep in 1982. Gordin’s magic touch would continue with John Huston’s Prizzi’s Honor,...

Simon Brew Mar 20, 2019

When Basic Instinct hit big, Hollywood went hunting for erotic thrillers, and it found some that kept the romance flowing.

When a movie hits big out of the blue, it’s unwritten Hollywood law that the imitators aren’t too far behind. That’s why when after American Pie brought raunchy teen comedies back to prominence in 1999, the box office was flooded with similar fare for years. The Blair Witch Project, meanwhile, hit out of nowhere, and found footage horror didn't really taper off until 15 years later. The late Wes Craven even wryly noted just how quickly Hollywood had cashed in on the success of 1996’s Scream when the spoof Scary Movie popped out the year after.

Going back to 1992, though, and it was the turn of the erotic thriller to enjoy its resurgence. Paul Verhoeven’s controversial Basic Instinct, off the back of a $3 million budgeted Joe Eszterhas screenplay,...

Simon Brew Feb 3, 2017

When Basic Instinct hit big, Hollywood went hunting for more erotic thrillers. Er, it found some. Includes Kevin Spacey with odd hair.

When a movie hits big out of the blue, it’s unwritten Hollywood law that the imitators aren’t too far behind. That’s why, after American Pie brought Porky’s-esque sex-tinged (late) teen comedies back to prominence in 1999, the box office was flooded with similar fare for years after. The Blair Witch Project, meanwhile, hit out of nowhere, and found footage horror is only now dying away. The late Wes Craven, meanwhile, wryly noted just how quickly Hollywood had cashed in on the success of 1996’s Scream, when spoof Scary Movie popped out the year after.

See related Lara Croft Tomb Raider 1 & 2: What went wrong? Walton Goggins interview: The Hateful Eight

Going back to 1992, though, and it was the turn of the erotic thriller to enjoy its resurgence.

As Iggy Pop stars in the violent thriller Blood Orange this week, test your knowledge about how many bloody scenes you recognise for past films

Blade

Resident Evil

Let Me In

Saw III

The Talented Mr Ripley

Basic Instinct

American Psycho

Presumed Innocent

28 Days Later

Dawn of the Dead

The Thing

The Ruins

Friday the 13th

Body Double

Dressed to Kill

Black Christmas

Falling Down

Society

Hellraiser

The Stepfather

Cabin in the Woods

30 Days of Night

Kill Bill: Volume One

Hot Fuzz

Pacific Heights

Cape Fear

Single White Female

Consenting Adults

Death Proof

Gone Girl

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Let the Right One In

Suspiria

Halloween

An American Werewolf in London

Misery

It Follows

The Blue Lagoon

Deep Blue Sea

Castaway

8 and above.

Red looks good on you

0 and above.

That was a bit bloody tough for you

4 and above.

Bleedin' hard huh?

Continue reading...

Savage Sadists

“A young innocent learns the ropes!”

A pair of armed thugs (David Christopher & Dan Stevens) are on the hunt for a pornographer (Martin Patton, The Story of Prunella) who owes their boss some money. They pay his wife (Nicole Bernard, Corruption) a visit and at gun point, have some fun because who said you can’t mix business with pleasure? After they have given the wife their message, she decides to visit her husband’s office to warn him, but walks in on him having some fun of his own with one of his performers (Ginger Roberts, Den of Dominance; her only other role). Before she do anything about it, they are rudely interrupted by the thugs and the husband, who is clearly an honourable chap, hides under the desk essentially allowing his wife, mistress and his innocent secretary (Bibi, Den of Dominance also being her only other...

Ivor Novello last film: 'Autumn Crocus' (photo: Ivor Novello and Fay Compton in 'Autumn Crocus') Can a plain looking, naive spinster school teacher ever find real love in faraway places? This was a question asked by Shirley Booth in Arthur Laurents' 1952 stage play The Time of the Cuckoo; Katharine Hepburn in the 1955 David Lean-directed film version, Summertime (1955); and Elizabeth Allen in the 1965 Richard Rodgers-Steven Sondheim musical adaptation, Do I Hear a Waltz? Can such a woman's yearning for romance ever be satisfied? "Yes" and "No," according to Basil Dean's fine 1934 British film Autumn Crocus, which marked the last film appearance of British stage and screen superstar Ivor Novello (Alfred Hitchcok's The Lodger). Autumn Crocus starts out during the holiday season, when two British schoolteachers decide to spend their vacation together on the Continent. Soft-hearted Jenny Grey (Fay Compton) longs to see the Austrian Alps,...

Review Kaci Ferrell 26 Feb 2013 - 11:00

Kaci can't find enough superlatives to praise the current season of Being Human (USA). Here's her review of the latest episode...

This review contains spoilers.

3.7 One is Silver and the Other Pagan

This week's episode of Being Human (USA) features the return of two of my favourite recurring characters, so naturally I was destined to love it, but wow is this show on fire this season. We're seven episodes in and there hasn't been a bad one yet. I am honestly on the verge for forgiving the writers for the entirety of last season. And believe me, I am not readily inclined to forgive that muddled mess.

Returning for the first time in far too long, we have Bridget. Now that Sally's free to see her friends from her old life, she goes to find the girl who almost shared her original fate. It turns out that,...

Frog Kiss, the award-winning critical and audience favorite of the 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival, begins its world premier performances on January 15th at the historic Wells Theatre, home of Virginia Stage Company, Norfolk,. This saucy and swinging musical with book and lyrics by Charles Leipart and music by Eric Schorr, is adapted from the novella The Frog Prince, A Fairytale for Consenting Adults by Stephen Mitchell. Opening Night is Friday, January 18th with performances through February 3rd.Check out photos of the cast in action below...

Saving Hope focused on characters making decisions tonight. Some good and some bad, but decisions nonetheless. And some editor made the decision to bring back the blue light, which made me question what that person was thinking. But I digress.

"Consenting Adults" dealt with what happens when the people we love, or for whom we're caring, make choices we disagree with and the consequences of those decisions. It also firmed up what I love and dislike about this show.

Just to get it out of the way, we'll start with what I dislike about so we can end on a positive note.

First, the medical jargon they force the actors to use is almost over-the-top. I wrote in the first few Saving Hope reviews that this didn't feel very medical. What I think I meant is that it doesn't feel like the medical aspect of this show comes very naturally to these actors.

On entering adolescence, and discovering that cinema had more to offer than Roland Emmerich and Jackie Chan, this writer's favorite working actor swiftly became Kevin Spacey. The actor had been working for over a decade, converting his theater cred into supporting roles in the likes of "Working Girl," "Henry & June" and "Consenting Adults," but the middle of the 1990s saw him take pivotal roles in a number of the decade's biggest and best cult successes, becoming a by-word for a certain kind of morally ambivalent figure, even while creeping towards stardom in commercial hits like "Outbreak" and "A Time…...

Upon first reading about The Ledge, it felt like one of those classic Sundance Film Festival movies that could breakout and be a hit. It has a well-known cast, an experienced writer/director and a story that's easily digestible. The story is about how and why a man on the ledge of a building is ready to kill himself, the cast includes Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson and Terrence Howard and the writer/director is Matthew Chapman, who wrote Runaway Jury, Color of Night and Consenting Adults. And while The Ledge is filled with interesting characters, solid performances and even some smart, thought-provoking dialogue, the story itself wanders around like leaf in the wind, at times totally unaware of the driving force of the movie: the Ledge of the title. Read more after the jump. Hunnam, best known for roles on Sons of Anarchy and Undeclared, plays Gavin, a...

Last week, I had the opportunity to spend about 20 minutes at the Loews Regency Hotel in New York with one of my favorite actors, Kevin Spacey, who had just flown in from London to do a few interviews about and attend a special screening of the new film “Casino Jack” (Ato Pictures, 12/17, R, trailer), a dramedy directed by the late George Hickenlooper in which he portrays the disgraced Washington, D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and for which he recently received a Golden Globe nod — the sixth of his career — for best actor (musical or comedy). Spacey was clearly exhausted and under the weather after his travels (he sipped on a bowl of matzo ball soup throughout our time together), but he still managed to give me a wonderful interview about his remarkable life and career, and for that I am very grateful.

Click Here To Listen To Audio Of Our Conversation!

#22. The Ledge - Matthew Chapman Will a festival that promotes new talent behind the camera be interested in a first-time veteran? Matthew Chapman, the author/writer of Consenting Adults, Color of Night, Runaway Jury, and Kaye's Black Water Transit, took to directing his debut film earlier this year and technically the dramatic thriller should be in the can...but admittedly, despite a cast that includes Patrick Wilson, Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler and Terrence Howard, if The Ledge were to be included in the line-up it would be somewhat of a small victory. Expect a Premieres screening if included. A young man, Gavin, stands on the ledge of a building and seems determined to take his own life. Enter a detective, Hollis, who has been sent to talk the "jumper" out of it - but discovers that Gavin is being forced to jump off the building before noon. We soon learn...