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When thinking about the greatest Christmas movies of all time, there are some iconoclastic favorites that often come to mind, such as It’s A Wonderful Life or White Christmas. However, there is also room for more broadly accessible genre films that have overt Christmas themes or settings, such as Batman Returns or Die Hard. War is certainly not something that anyone wants to think about during the holiday season, but the reality is that a holiday in the trenches was something that many veterans had to deal with when they were dispatched overseas. The powerful war drama A Midnight Clear explores the holiday season of 1944, in which the United States was on the verge of claiming victory in World War II.

With many decades having passed since the 1983 release of John Carpenter's Christine, it's safe to say that the movie's cast has done a lot since then. Carpenter's horror film was written by Bill Phillips, based on Stephen King's horror novel of the same name. It follows a teenage nerd named Arnie Cunningham, who becomes obsessed with his new car, the titular Christine. Like the author's other works, the story takes a dark turn, with Christine revealed to be one of Stephen King's many killer cars prevalent in his novels and short stories.

Given its focus on teenage characters, the film adaptation starred a number of young actors who were just starting out in their careers, including Alexandra Paul, John Stockwell, and Kelly Preston. While relative unknowns in 1983, they've mostly gone on to have long careers in the many years since Christine's premiere, becoming much bigger names than they...

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Cinematographer Tom Richmond, whose résumé included work on such films as Stand and Deliver, Killing Zoe, Little Odessa, Slums of Beverly Hills and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, has died. He was 72.

Richmond died Friday in New York City, Anthony Jannelli, head of cinematography at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, told The Hollywood Reporter (Richmond also taught at NYU). The cause of death was not immediately available.

Richmond, who was the director of photography on nearly four dozen features, also shot Keenan Ivory Wayans’ I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), Scott Silver’s Johns (1996), Rob Zombie’s House of 1,000 Corpses (2003) and Todd Solondz’s Palindromes (2004).

He won the best cinematography prize at Sundance in 2006 for his work on Right at Your Door, a drama about a terrorist attack involving chemical bombs.

He received Spirit Award nominations for Stand & Deliver...

For many of us, the 2020 version of the holidays is going to be a more homebound one than usual. What better time to build your physical-media collection with DVDs, Blu-rays, and books to help keep the season bright?

Blu-ray debuts

This year saw the first release of several Christmas favorites on Blu-ray, from Paul Feig’s 2019 sleeper hit “Last Christmas” (Universal Home Entertainment) to the first North American hi-def releases of the moving and funny anime classic “Tokyo Godfathers” (Gkids/Shout Factory), a contemporary adaptation of the Christmas-set Western tale “3 Godfathers,” and the all-star WWII drama “A Midnight Clear” (Shout Selects). The latter, a 1992 adaptation of the William Wharton novel from writer-director Keith Gordon, features a cast of up-and-coming actors who would eventually become filmmakers themselves, including Ethan Hawke, Peter Berg, Frank Whaley, and Gary Sinise.

Stone-cold classics

Bedford Falls never looked so good: Paramount Home Entertainment offers “It’s a Wonderful Life...

David Nichols, a production designer and visual consultant on more than 20 films, such as “Rocky,” “Taxi Driver” and “Groundhog Day,” died on Wednesday in Taos, N.M., Variety has learned. He was 78.

Nichols had a 30-year career in the film industry, serving as a production designer, art director, visual consultant, writer and actor at various times. His work stretched across Hollywood films and on Broadway shows.

As a production designer, he worked on the 1993 hit comedy “Groundhog Day,” starring Bill Murray. His other credits include “Gossip,” “Buddy,” “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” “A Midnight Clear,” “Great Balls of Fire!” “The Serpent and the Rainbow,” “Hoosiers,” “Heartbreakers,” “Found Money,” “Testament,” “Swamp Thing” and “Longshot.”

As a visual consultant in the different art departments, he helped with Sylvester Stallone’s Oscar-winning movie “Rocky” and Robert De Niro’s “Taxi Driver,” which picked up four Oscar nominations. Nichols also appeared as an extra in a...

Chicago – It was 25 years ago today – March 4th, 1994 – that comic actor John Candy died on the set of the film “Wagons East.” It was his 45th feature film, that extended back 21 years. One of his co-stars was John C. McGinley, best known as the irascible Perry Cox on the sitcom “Scrubs.” In a HollywoodChicago.com exclusive soundbite below, McGinley describes the atmosphere on the fateful day the cast was told of Candy’s passing.

John Candy was born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. After college he had a bug for performing, and eventually ended up in Toronto with the Canadian branch of “The Second City,” which included fellow performers Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy. Radner and Aykroyd went to “Saturday Night Live,” and Candy, O’Hara, Levy, Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, Harold Ramis and Dave Thomas went on to form the hilarious “Sctv,” which gained cult...

Looking to look back on some history this Memorial Day? Critics and audiences alike didn’t think “Pearl Harbor” did WWII justice, but here are 29 other films that scored a 7/10 rating or higher on IMDb.

“Pearl Harbor” (2001).

The Michael Bay-directed film starred Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale and follows the story of two best friends as they go off to war.

“Saving Private Ryan” (1998).

Starring Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore and Edward Burns, the film follows a group of U.S. soldiers that go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper.

“The Thin Red Line” (1998).

Terrence Malick‘s adaptation of James Jones’ 1962 novel stars Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn and Nick Nolte, and focuses on the conflict at Guadalcanal.

“A Midnight Clear” (1992).

The film starring Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon and Arye Gross tells the story of the American intelligence unit which finds a German platoon wishing to surrender.

Prateik Babbar is all set to tread the path of live drama with the Indian adaptation of the one-act play by L.B. Hamilton, ‘A Midnight Clear’, in Mumbai. He will be seen alongside Suhail Sidhwani.

The unconventional actor started his career in tinsel town with our favourite Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, a movie that not only got him much appreciation and awards but also tugged at the heartstrings of every youngster. After regaling the audience with his acting and cute boy next door looks, the actor took a long hiatus only to come back with a bang in the recently released web series Shockers! Not only did he manage to spook audiences but also received accolades for his performance.

The play titled ‘6’ is written & directed by Jeff Goldberg with assistant director Vishal Handa.

‘6’ revolves around two former lovers, one a former Ipl cricket star and the other the...

One Thing I Love Today is a daily column dedicated to putting a spotlight on some pop culture item worth your attention. After all, there's enough snark out there. Why not start every day with one quick shotgun blast of positivity? Noah Hawley is a True Believer. There is no reason whatsoever that a television show based on Fargo should work, but after finishing season two of the FX series, I am blown away by what he's accomplished and by the sheer force of his love for Joel and Ethan Coen. Homage and inspiration are similar, but not the exact same things. Homage is fine, but I think you can only go so far with it. Inspiration, though, is something else. Real inspiration is a springboard to something new, something that is genuinely yours. One person looks at something and sees and processes it a certain way, and someone else...

July 25, 1980. That was the day Dressed to Kill opened in theaters across the country, and it marked the first of countless times I would see the movie projected on a big screen, on a drive-in screen, panned and scanned for home video, even interrupted and cut to ribbons for network TV. But I’ll never forget seeing it that first time, in a cavernous old movie palace in downtown Eugene, Oregon, its lush, complex, violently dynamic and meticulously choreographed images, all set to a Pino Donaggio score which reflected precisely those same qualities, thrilling me to my core. I left that theater buzzing, even if at first I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about the movie-- it took me a few days and another screening or two to decide that the outraged cries of Hitchcock plagiarism coming from some circles were unwarranted. For me, Dressed to Kill is...

The Bishops Wife | Mary Poppins | Sleeping Beauty | The Nightmare Before Christmas | The Other Side Of Yuletide | Dead Of Night | The Queen Of Spades

Christmas cinema programming tends to involve the doling out of well-worn classics, most of which are on the telly anyway – and nobody seems to mind. So for those after something – or at least somewhere – a bit special, you'll have to look a bit harder… at the rest this page.

If it's an alternative to It's A Wonderful Life you're after, a good bet could be The Bishop's Wife, made a year later and covering similar themes – angels, the true spirit of Christmas, etc – with Cary Grant and David Niven filling that James Stewart-shaped gap. It plays at Picturehouses and other venues, as do Mary Poppins and the Bolshoi Ballet's Sleeping Beauty. (various venues).

It's a good year for festive counter-programming in general, actually, partly thanks to...

(Keith Gordon, 1992; Second Sight, 15)

This haunting small-scale war movie, given a very limited release 20 years ago and available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray, is based on a widely praised novel by William Wharton, who was wounded serving in the Us infantry during the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944-45, the setting for the film. An ironic, at times surreal fable about the madness of war, it centres on a six-man intelligence and reconnaissance squad dispatched by a reckless, vainglorious major (a mortician in civvy street) on a dangerous mission on the snowbound border of France, Belgium and Germany in the Ardennes, and how they become involved with an equally disillusioned Wehrmacht unit who want to negotiate a separate peace. The film's witty, intelligent narrator is Sergeant Will Knott (Ethan Hawke), and the plot's twists are matched by the sharpness of its moral insights.

The writer-director,...

★★★☆☆ Keith Gordon's A Midnight Clear (1992) is an undeniably intriguing investigation into the human survival instinct, focusing upon a group of young soldiers during the Second World War and their desperate attempts to return home unscathed. Set against the French winter of 1944, a group of American Intelligence operatives locate a group of German troops who wish to surrender rather than die fighting. Both groups find themselves isolated, and thus decide to spend Christmas together. However, due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, the plan goes awry and blood is tragically spilt.

Read more »...

Black Pond

When you hear a movie cost only £25,000, as Black Pond is reported to have, it's hard not to be automatically impressed.

However, in most of these cases impressed is all you're likely to be, as these micro-budget affairs often deserve to be patted on the head rather than clutched to your heart. But the co-directors of this, Will Sharpe and Tom Kingsley, have worked either side of the camera and have access to better equipment and talent than most, so £25,000 in their hands goes further than it would for many. Cost aside, Black Pond is not just an experiment in pound-stretching ingenuity, it's a film that has plenty of character, something no amount of money can buy. The story concerns the Thompson family, introduced to us by tabloid headlines branding them murderers. With interviews and flashbacks, the lively and witty storytelling reveals more, as the events that transpire...

While several characters in the "Mission: Impossible" films are taken from the original 1960s TV show, Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt was created specifically for America's movie star extraordinaire. Hunt's M.O. is that he doesn't stop ... ever. The unflappable Imf super-agent will do whatever it takes to stop a madman from unleashing warfare, be it chemical, nuclear, or other.

Who could possibly go head-to-head with such a deadly adversary? We chose New York-based actor, writer and Gen-x slacker icon Ethan Hawke, not so much because he has the necessary skills to beat someone of Hunt's caliber, but because their names are kinda similar.

On the eve of the "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" release, find out who comes out on top in this battle of monumental proportions.

Occupation

Ethan Hunt: Agent of the elite Impossible Mission Force (Imf)

Ethan Hawke: Actor, director, screenwriter and novelist

Advantage: Hawke,...

Some new Blu-ray clips have popped up online for the Brian De Palma slasher classic Dressed to Kill, and of course we have every damned one of them right here for ya! We're good like that!

From the Press Release

Relive every suspenseful, erotically-charged fantasy captured in the timeless MGM classic Dressed To Kill, making its Blu-ray debut September 6 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Written and directed by critically-acclaimed filmmaker Brian De Palma (Scarface, The Untouchables), Dressed To Kill is a dark, psychological crime thriller with twists and turns around every corner.

Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson, “Police Woman”) is a sexually-repressed housewife who seeks treatment from Dr. Robert Elliott (two-time Academy Award®-winner Michael Caine, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Cider House Rules). While secretly leaving a hotel after a one-night affair, Kate is mysteriously murdered by a tall blonde woman wearing sunglasses. The only witness is a high-priced call girl,...

Release Date: Sept. 13, 2011

Price: Blu-ray $16.99

Studio: MGM Home Entertainment/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

A murderous New York City blonde is Dressed to Kill.

We’re thrilled about the high-definition Blu-ray release of Brian De Palma’s (Scarface) sexy (and kinky!) thriller Dressed to Kill. The ever-so-stylish filmmaker was at the height of his visual powers when he made this 1980 movie. Not to mention that it stars Michael Caine (The Man Who Would Be King), Angie Dickinson (TV’s Police Woman) and Nancy Allen (Blow Out) — and the Blu-ray includes the film’s unrated cut.

The movie stars Dickinson as Kate Miller, a sexually repressed New York City housewife who seeks treatment from Dr. Robert Elliott (Caine). While secretly leaving a hotel after a one-night affair, Kate is mysteriously murdered by a tall blonde woman wearing dark shades. The only witness is a high-priced call girl, Liz (Allen), who becomes the killer’s next target.

I'll never forget it. The year was 1980, and I was watching TV with my parents. On came a trailer for Dressed to Kill. After it was over, my dad looked my mom straight in the face and said, "'Police Woman' Angie Dickinson naked? Get your coat! We're going right now!"

Should he still be here, I'm sure my dad would have the same kind of boner for seeing Ms. Dickinson in her birthday suit via Blu-ray hi-def. If only you had the chance, pop!

From the Press Release

Relive every suspenseful, erotically-charged fantasy captured in the timeless MGM classic Dressed To Kill, making its Blu-ray debut September 6 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Written and directed by critically-acclaimed filmmaker Brian De Palma (Scarface, The Untouchables), Dressed To Kill is a dark, psychological crime thriller with twists and turns around every corner.

Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson, “Police Woman”) is...

Ah, the 80′s back when John Carpenter was making killer genre flicks, Coca-Cola was cheap and De Palma was being toted as the next Hitchcock. You guys remember that? I sure do. De Palma has been one of my favorites, even when I was a young 7 years old, I saw The Untouchables and knew that the Racine apartment scene was something important on a technical level. He was one of the first directors that I started researching his prior catalog. Unfortunately, by the time I started getting into his work, his later films kind of fell apart. I digress. De Palma’s thriller Dressed to Kill is being released in an Unrated Blu-Ray via Twentieth Century Fox. Read beyond the break for the skinny.

From the Press Release:

Relive every suspenseful, erotically-charged fantasy captured in the timeless MGM classic Dressed To Kill, making its Blu-ray debut September 6 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

It appears Christopher Nolan has caught the producing bug lately, as word spread on Thursday (apologies for the lateness in a write-up but we have just launched a new site!!) that his company Syncopy will be lending their help to a supernatural thriller from writer/director Keith Gordon. Hot off directing the TV hit Dexter and an episode of the magical The Killing, Gordon previous cinematic credits include an early Robert Downey Jr comeback movie titled The Singing Detective and the 1992 war picture A Midnight Clear. In the 90′s he was known as a smart and talented director who never got his big commercial break and his career somewhat flounded. Nolan, clearly a fan of his mature themed work, is about to give him the biggest platform of his career.

Interestingly the supernatural thriller will be based on a novel that Nolan has bought the rights too but is keeping under-wraps.

Briefly: A great many big-name directors, after establishing their career directing pictures, move into producing. Some do it earlier than others (Eli Roth, Timur Bekmambetov) while many don't start lending their names and clout to other projects for many years. Christopher Nolan wasn't known as a producer of any films other than ones he would direct until the new Superman film, Man of Steel, started to come together at Warner Bros. Now we've got basic info on his second producing project, a supernatural thriller that Keith Gordon will write and direct. (Perhaps best known for starring in Christine, and he has also directed films like A Midnight Clear and Waking the Dead, and episodes of Dexter and The Killing.) Warner Bros. will release the film. We don't have a title or plot details, though Deadline [1] says the script is based on an as-yet unidentified novel. The site IDs Jordan Goldberg...

Keith Gordon, who wrote and directed "A Midnight Clear" and "The Chocolate War," among others, will write a psychological thriller for Christopher Nolan, TheWrap has confirmed. The movie is similar in tone to "Shutter Island." Nolan's production company, Syncopy, set up the movie at Warner Bros. Gordon is repped by CAA and the Arlook Group. Nolan is now shooting "Dark Knight Rises," his Batman sequel, for Warners. Deadline first reported the news. Related Articles:  Christopher...

Veteran’s Day is a time to remember the fine men and women who help protect and maintain their home countries, specifically our country, America. And when we say fine, we mean Foine. To celebrate our beloved Veteran’s, Bwe.tv has put together this list of the 25 Sexiest Movie Soldiers. We’ve narrowed it down from literally hundreds of thousands of possibilities, as almost every hot person looks hotter with a military uniform on. While we’re on the topic, it should be known that VH1 is putting together an all-out troop celebration at the VH1 Divas: Salute The Troops, Presented by the Uso, and hosted by Kathy Griffin. The show will also feature performances by Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Keri Hilson, Sugarland, Paramore, Grace Potter and The Nocturnals. Catch the show Sunday, December 5 at 9/8c only on VH1. And in the meantime, upload a pic here and VH1 will donate $1 to our troops.

It's June, so that means it's time for the Sundance Labs, where emerging writers, directors and composers hone their skills in preparation for their next films. This year, we'll be featuring a number of Lab participants blogging from the Sundance Institute, and to launch the series we're really happy to have actor and writer/director Keith Gordon (A Midnight Clear, Mother Night, Waking the Dead) conveying his experiences as an advisor to the Directing Fellows. In this first post, penned in the middle of his drive from L.A. to Utah, he writes about the reasons he goes back to Sundance year after year. Check back regularly this month for more reports. I’m writing this from a Comfort Inn motel in St. George Utah. This will be my ninth...

Rock stars want to be movie stars and movie stars want to be rock stars; models want to be designers and designers want to tooth-tug Keira Knightley's ear on the cover of Vanity Fair. These are known facts, demonstrable often to a shudder-inducing degree. What to make, though, of the latent career ambitions suggested by the humble novelist's propensity for cameos? Do they all want to be comedians? Professional winkers? Or just slightly richer?

From Saul Bellow playing the "Man in Hallway" in an adaptation of his novel "Seize the Day" 30 years after it had been first published to Michael Chabon taking abuse in a bookstore in the upcoming adaptation of his 1988 novel, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," many authors can't resist the idea of essentially walking into their own novel when put to celluloid. Below are a few of those, and a few more whose motivations are more elusive.

Artist and novelist William Wharton has died in California after a lengthy battle with ill health. He was 82.

Born Albert du Aime in Pennsylvania, Wharton first made his name as an Expressionist painter but switched to literary success with the novel Birdy in 1979.

The book, which became a cult movie starring Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine, earned the writer an American Book Award in 1979. He was also a Pulitzer Prize runner-up.

Wharton went on to write Dad and A Midnight Clear, which also became movies.

Filmmaker Keith Gordon has been hired to pen an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's science fiction novel The End of Eternity for C/W Prods. and Paramount Pictures. Asimov's 1955 novel revolves around Andrew Harlan, a technician working in the distant future in a place known as Eternity. Eternity operates outside of space and time, and its primary task is to alter minute events in the "time-strip" of human history in order to avert disasters such as war and severe depression. Harlan stumbles upon a beautiful woman in one of the centuries and falls in love with her and decides to break the rules to be with her. Gordon most recently garnered attention as a director for The Singing Detective. He also directed 2000's Waking the Dead. As a writer-director, his credits include A Midnight Clear and The Chocolate War. Gordon is repped by UTA and attorney Craig Emmanuel.