News

The Sixth Sense may have been a monster hit, but it inadvertently killed its own studio brand! Here’s how Disney’s mega-hit ended Hollywood Pictures!

Twenty-five years after its debut, much has been written about The Sixth Sense and its impact. One thing overlooked is how almost no one in Hollywood expected this supernatural thriller to make an impact. Indeed, in their annual Summer Movie Preview issue in 1999, Entertainment Weekly didn’t even mention Sense.

Sure, it had a big-name star in Bruce Willis, but it was an odd film from a completely unknown writer/director being released in August, traditionally the dumping ground for bad movies. It debuted to $26.6 million, then the highest August release. Thanks to good reviews, strong word of mouth and, of course, that now-famous twist ending, Sense became the second highest-grossing movie of 1999, $672.8 million worldwide. It earned multiple Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and director,...

Shel Bachrach, a top insurance broker in Hollywood whose behind-the-scenes work helped movies like Cliffhanger, The People vs. Larry Flynt and Ali get made, died Monday in Palm Springs, a publicist announced. He was 80.

Bachrach provided financial protection and mitigated risks associated with such potential problems as drug-related filming delays (think Courtney Love in The People vs. Larry Flynt), actors who pilot aircraft (Harrison Ford) and directors who could be sidelined by age issues (David Lean, for his last movie, A Passage to India) or medical issues (John Huston, who battled emphysema).

Bachrach arranged risk management on stunt-filled films — if a star is injured during production, a movie could grind to a halt — and wrote policies for magicians and “Big Cat” performers in Las Vegas and for game shows like The Price Is Right, where contestants can win great sums of money.

Born in Detroit on April 7, 1944, Sheldon Jay Bachrach...

John McTiernan is a household name. A man who defined action films. Let’s just name a few…we got Die Hard, Predator, Die Hard With A Vengeance, and yes, Last Action Hero. He has also made some other great films like The Thomas Crown Affair and The Hunt for Red October. He has made some stinkers, such as Medicine Man, The 13th Warrior, and Basic. But what if I told you that there’s a film he directed that was the catalyst to his ending up in federal prison? Sounds crazy, right? But it’s true. Today, we are here to look at Rollerball. It’s a movie whose word of mouth is so bad that you’d think we would have covered it on our Awfully Good Channel. But alas, this will be the first time we dive in. So sit back, relax, and take it all in...

Tonari no Yokai-san , an ongoing TV anime based on the supernatural drama manga, has revealed a new cast member that appears in Episode 3 of the series, which is currently broadcasting in Japan and streaming on Crunchyroll as part of the spring 2024 anime simulcast lineup . Orochi (?) and Shizuka Ito In Tonari no Yokai-san , voice actor Shizuka Ito (pictured above) plays a giant snake credited as “Orochi (?)”. The original Tonari no Yokai-san manga by noho was published from 2018 – 2022 in East Press's Mato Grosso publication. Aimi Yamauchi directs the TV anime adaptation at animation studio Liden Films. Tomoko Konparu provides the series composition, Jikou Abe provides the character designs, and Avex Music Creative and Blue Bird's Nest provide the music. Related: Tonari no Yokai-san Anime Shares Peaceful Creditless Ending Video Crunchyroll describes Tonari no Yokai-san : Welcome to Fuchigamori, the cozy town where supernatural beings are your friendly neighbors. For generations and to this day,...

John McTiernan's career was cut short and he hasn't been properly celebrated. Starting with his 1987 classic "Predator" the hits just kept coming with "Die Hard," "The Hunt For Red October," and "The Thomas Crown Affair." McTiernan's signature is big, brawny, macho action movies with a human touch. His heroes, like the wise-cracking John McClane, are tough but relatable. Heck, he even made an oiled-up Arnold Schwarzenegger seem vulnerable. McTiernan's Hollywood adventure ended prematurely in 2013 when he went to prison for lying to the FBI. He was caught up in a dragnet involving crooked Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano and served almost a year in the slammer.

The Pellicano case was supposed to be an epic Hollywood scandal. Vanity Fair predicted it would "bring down some of the town's top names." In the end, McTiernan was the only notable collar. He'd first hired the Pi in 1998 while going through a divorce.

Exclusive: Lili Simmons (Power Book IV: Force), Kim Coates (The White Houe Plumbers), Igby Rigney (Midnight Mass), Tom Bower (El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie) and Justin Marcel McManus (Power Book II: Ghost) will topline Southern Gothic (working title), an upcoming indie drama from writer-director Tom Schulman (Dead Poets Society), which has wrapped production.

The story is set in the dangerous and shady world of illegal, high-stakes keno gambling, in a run-down plantation house owned by Nick (Coates) in the rural South, at the turn of the 21st century. Nick is enamored with the smart, tough and charming Keno ace Diana’s (Simmons) intent to win big and is determined to stake her. Little Nick (Rigney), a one-time prodigy keno hustler, now reduced to servicing pool tables, strikes up a friendship with Diana and coaches her to win against the odds. Diana must then prove herself in a man’s...

Keb’ Mo’ and Old Crow Medicine Show have teamed up for the collaborative single “The Medicine Man,” which was written and recorded while the Covid pandemic spiraled in 2020.

Set to a loping groove with dashes of fiddle and banjo, “The Medicine Man” has an easygoing sound that almost conceals some sharper commentary on the crisis of the last year. Keb’ Mo’ assumes lead vocal duty here, wrestling with the physical and mental effects of the pandemic. The titular “Medicine Man,” of course, is less of a mystical, spiritual figure than...

Sean Connery’s death has led to a surge in interest for James Bond memorabilia and films, as fans seek to remember the late actor though some of his most iconic movie roles.

The bidding site, eBay, saw searches spike for Bond-related merch over the weekend, with more than 8,000 listings as of this writing, from signed photos of Connery to props from some of his most memorable films. Over on Amazon, the “James Bond Collection” Blu-ray set quickly soared to the top of Amazon’s best-sellers list following the news...

Noooooooo not another!! The one-and-only Sean Connery has died at age 90. His family reports that he has been "unwell for some time" (via BBC), and passed away in the Bahamas with much of his family with him. The original James Bond! Indiana Jones' dad! And so many other iconic roles in so many outstanding movies - including The Man Who Would Be King, The Great Train Robbery, Murder on the Orient Express, Zardoz, Time Bandits, The Hunt for Red October, Medicine Man, The Rock, Dragonheart, Entrapment, and Finding Forrester. Connery only won one Academy Award in his lifetime - for Best Supporting Actor in The Untouchables (in 1987) but that's it. He also won one BAFTA Award for Best Actor in The Name of the Rose (in 1986). He proved himself over and over in different roles, and almost always charmed everyone. He has only one child, Jason Connery born in 1963, as...

Def Leppard have compiled a thorough accounting of their earliest days — when they burst out of their native Sheffield, England, as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal — for a new box set.

The Early Years 79-81 collects remastered versions of their first two LPs, On Through the Night and High ‘n’ Dry, along with live recordings, outtakes, and recordings for the BBC. The five-disc set, which frontman Joe Elliott executive-produced, will come out March 20th.

“Well, the fans asked, and we listened,” Elliott said in a statement.

Director John McTiernan at La Cinémathèque Française's masterclass.Last autumn, my friend and colleague, Christopher Small, and I took the vacation of a lifetime to Paris. Did we go to eat macarons, drink wine and sneak a peek at the Mona Lisa? No, no we didn’t. We went to Paris to watch movies. Movies? Yes, movies. Did we go to Paris to watch the latest Godard, visit the site of the first cinema screening or drink beer with friendly Parisians until 4 in the morning? No, but we did anyway. What Christopher and I went to Paris to do was to watch John McTiernan’s movies on glorious 35mm at the Cinémathèque Française. To understand how special this trip was, I should probably provide a bit of background information: my husband, Jake Barningham, and his best friend, Daniel Gorman, started Mission:McTiernan back in 2010. They were right there with Notebook alum...

We look at the films that slipped through Hollywood's net, from biblical epics to a time travelling Gladiator sequel...

This article contains a spoiler for Gladiator.

If you're one of those frustrated over the quality of many of the blockbusters that make it to the inside of a multiplex, then ponder the following. For each of these were supposed to be major projects, that for one reason or another, stalled on their way to the big screen. Some still may make it. But for many others, the journey is over. Here are the big blockbusters that never were...

1. Airframe

The late Michael Crichton scored another residential on the bestseller list with his impressive thriller, Airframe. It was published in 1996, just after films of Crichton works such as Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure and the immortal Congo had proven to be hits of various sizes.

So: a hit book, another techno thriller,...

The 1990s: a time when Sleepwalkers, Burt Reynolds, No Escape, Chevy Chase and F/X/2 could top the Us box office...

By the 1990s, studios were waking up to movie marketing, and the era of the blockbuster. Tim Burton's Batman, released in summer 1989, had introduced the idea of a big opening weekend, and modern movies now target their promotional work to get just that. As such, it's harder and harder for smaller films to snare the top slot at the Us box office, even for one weekend.

In the 1990s, particularly the first half of the 1990s, that wasn't so much the case though. In fact, many films that have long since fallen from the public conscious topped the chart. And in this piece, I've tried to capture some of them.

Inevitably, you're going to have heard of some of them, and what a UK dweller sees as a...

During a December episode of 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy stepped in front of an ultra-powerful high-definition camera that revealed him to be a younger, thinner, even more debonair version of himself. In fact, it was footage of Jack Ryan, the dashing intelligence analyst Baldwin played in the submarine thriller, The Hunt for Red October. It’s been 20 years since Tom Clancy’s first novel sailed on to movie screens, but whenever Baldwin catches a glimpse of himself in his hunkish prime, he only notices his youthful naivety. "I can't help but think, 'Look how hard that guy is working,...

As Blu-ray keeps going we’re going to get releases of some classic films, and Sony has put out to early 90’s action films that benefit from new transfers. Those films are both from 1993: Cliffhanger and The Last Action Hero. The pairing of these films as interesting as they both star action stars from the 1980’s (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone) at the beginning of the end of their runs. But the end of the decade, both had worn out their welcome as the industry shifted towards comic book heroes for their summer thrills. My reviews of Cliffhanger and Last Action Hero after the jump.

Cliffhanger is the better of the two. Directed by Renny Harlin, it was definitely of the CGI era, but it also came in that transitioning time where there were a lot of sets and practical locations. Stallone stars as Gabe Walker, who used to do...

Will Smith is producing some Unfinished Business, as he fosters a cop-drama for the Sci Fi Channel. The show will initially take the form of a two hour TV feature-length pilot, with hope of a series to follow, and will track an ex-cop who takes on the memories of the recently deceased, leading him to help them finish their unfinished business, like The Ghost Whisperer with a badge.Sadly, the charisma-tastic Smith won't be abandoning his glittering career for a return to his TV roots with an actual role in the show, but it's always interesting to see what producing roles Big Willy takes. Like the love child of Ghost Town and Cold Case, or even  Constantine crossed with The Bill, Unfinished Business may become the I, Robot of prime time dramas with Smith and James Lassiter executive producing, alongside Blue Velvet actor Ken Stovitz.Band Of Brothers' Emmy...