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[This story contains spoilers from Severance season two, episode eight, “Sweet Vitriol.”]

Jane Alexander first discovered Severance because of her grandsons. “It’s very popular, I think, with young people,” she hypothesizes over Zoom.

If Alexander is right, then all those young people currently tuning in to Severance‘s season two might be too young to realize the prestige of her appearance in last week’s episode. Here’s a catch-up: Alexander is well-known for movies like 1970’s The Great White Hope (and the play, with James Earl Jones, the year before), 1976’s All the President’s Men, 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer and 1983’s Testament. She earned Oscar nominations for all of the above, won two Emmys (Playing for Time in 1980 and Warm Springs in 2005), a Tony (for the aforementioned The Great White Hope) and, from 1993 to 1997, led the National Endowment for the Arts.

“The arts have always been for everybody,” Alexander, now 85, tells The Hollywood Reporter.

When it comes to sunshine, tans, and crystal-clear waters, it's hard to beat Florida. With consistently warm weather, vibrant colors, and a bustling nightlife, the Sunshine State -- particularly Miami -- offers plenty to admire. It remains a top destination for beachgoers looking to unwind and soak up the laid-back atmosphere.

Hollywood has long taken notice of Florida's exemplary conditions, consistently using the state's magnetic glow as a backdrop for countless films. Many of these movies have achieved monumental success. But what are the 10 best movies set in the state? We're glad you asked! We've compiled a list of our favorite films that not only take place in Florida but often make the state a central figure in the story.

Keep in mind, these aren't just movies shot in Florida, like, say, Harold Ramis' "Caddyshack." Each film on this list is set in or around the Sunshine State, using its...

Ben Stiller may be one of Hollywood's beloved comedic actors, but he also has a dramatic side, which he has tapped into in everything from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty to his directing work on Severance. But to this day, one of Stiller's best and darkest roles is in Permanent Midnight, directed by David Veloz. The film, which came out in 1998, is a ruthless, gritty biopic of the life of the television writer Jerry Stahl based on his memoir of the same name, which was released in 1995. Permanent Midnight predated much of Stiller's comedy work as part of the Frat Pack, but his comedic edge elevates this movie and gives it emotional nuance.

Is Bad Boys II Michael Bay’s best-worst movie? Is it the most entertaining, so-bad-its-good mainstream action movie ever made?

If the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting different results, then one could argue Michael Bay is downright certifiable. After all, who announces their directorial debut with a movie as bold and brash as Bad Boys and proceeds to repeat, nay, magnify the same screenwriting mistakes in the critically panned sequel Bad Boys II? Then again, does it even matter? Despite being released eight years after the original, Bad Boys II may have been eviscerated by critics but proved to be bulletproof among the moviegoing masses. Instead of taking precise measures to tighten the story and bolster the witty banter between Miami Narcotics officers Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, Bay doubled down on the explosive action set-pieces and visceral chase sequences. The bet paid off so...

Better Call Saul's Rhea Seehorn has boarded the upcoming fourth installment in Sony's Bad Boys film series.

As broken by Deadline, Seehorn has joined the cast of Bad Boys 4, which is currently filming in Atlanta. However, her role is being kept under wraps for now. Seehorn joins franchise leads Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, who reprise their roles as Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, respectively, from the previous three films. Bad Boys 4 also sees Paola Núñez, Vanessa Hudgens and Alexander Ludwig reprise their roles as Rita Secada, Kelly and Dorn, respectively, from 2020's Boys for Life. That said, Seehorn is not the only Bad Boys newcomer. The upcoming fourth installment has also cast Fantastic Four alum Ioan Gruffud in an undisclosed role.

Related: Bad Boys 4: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence Provide an Optimistic Update on the Sequel

Seehorn is perhaps best known for her...

This weekend brings the release of Bad Boys for Life, but before the movie hits theaters, we’ve got a surprising bit of trivia that just came to light about Michael Bay‘s Bad Boys II. Even though the script for Bad Boys II was written by Ron Shelton and Jerry Stahl […]

The post Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg Helped Judd Apatow Rewrite ‘Bad Boys II’ appeared first on /Film.

Exclusive: OneWorld Entertainment, the Paris and La-based investment and production company set up last year by producing collective The Project and a trio of U.S. executives, has revealed its first full slate of features.

The company is led in Paris by Laurent Fumeron, Daniel Goroshko and Rodolphe Sanzé from producing collective The Project, with it U.S. division OneWorld Films in La headed up by producers Matt Bradley and Sharunya Varriale.

Financing is assured by the OneWorld Film Fund created last year and managed by Ron Bradley, founder and CEO of Pinnacle Advisors Group.

OneWorld Entertainment has to date co-produced Andrew Desmond’s The Sonata, which played festivals including Fantasporto, Bifan and FrightFest this year before selling to Screen Media for North America as well as France and Japan.

Next up for the company are four new genre features.

Happy Mutant Baby Pills is a thriller comedy based on the book by Jerry Stahl,...

The 71st Emmy Awards are in the books, with Amazon’s “Fleabag” knocking off perennial winner “Veep” to become TV’s top comedy — among Television Academy voters, at least. “Game of Thrones” didn’t let the same happen in drama.

Amazon’s Prime Video started the night off on a real hot streak, winning the first four awards of the evening — two apiece for “Fleabag” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” — and five out of the initial six.

All told, HBO won nine trophies tonight, Amazon claimed seven, and Netflix took home four. See all of Sunday’s winners and nominees below.

Also Read: 'Pose' Star Billy Porter Makes History Winning Lead Actor in a Drama Emmy: 'The Category Is Love'

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Anthony Carrigan, Barry • HBO

Stephen Root, Barry • HBO

Henry Winkler, Barry • HBO

Alan Arkin, The Kominsky Method • Netflix

Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel...

Ava DuVernay (“When They See Us”), David Mandel (“Veep”) and Bruce Miller and Kira Snyder (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) were among those honored at the Television Academy’s Emmy nominees writers reception on Tuesday night in North Hollywood.

There, ceremony hosts, “Escape at Dannemora” star Eric Lange and “Veep’s” Sam Richardson, kept the show moving by tossing in jokes between introductions as the writers from each Emmy-nominated show posed for photographs on stage. The two stars seemed especially excited to introduce the masterminds behind their own shows. Lange’s “Escape at Dannemora” writers Brett Johnson and Jerry Stahl accepted praise for their two nominations, while Richardson claimed it was a “privilege and honor” to introduce “Veep” showrunner Mandel to the crowd.

DuVernay briefly posed for photos as she accepted the honor for writing episode four of “When They See Us.” The series itself earned 16 Emmy nominations in total, the...

You’ve probably seen some of Craig Mazin‘s films even if you haven’t realized it. The screenwriter was behind “The Hangover Part II” (2011), “The Hangover Part III” (2013), “Identity Thief” (2013) and “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” (2016). All of his screen credits, in fact, had have been in film until now. He made his big television debut with the HBO miniseries “Chernobyl,” chronicling the 1986 nuclear plant disaster in northern Ukrainian Ssr, and is currently the odds-on favorite to win the Best Limited Series/TV Movie Writing Emmy.

Since this is a real event that had such wide-ranging effects, getting the facts straight is of the utmost importance, but “Chernobyl” thrives in its balance between factual evidence and emotional beats. And these beats aren’t only prompted by the show’s striking visual presentation, but by its depiction of the disaster’s long-lasting implications and its character-driven nature. For instance, by...

Television has never looked quite like this before, with so many conversation-starting, cultural narrative-altering stories that incite, invite, or ignite something in viewers. Telling tales of grounded, often tough, topics through heightened worlds is frequently a way to soften the blow of such hard-to-watch material. Viewers may be enticed by the spectacle of gimmick (as in Hulu’s “Pen15” in which adults play teenage versions of themselves); the allure of a simpler time (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” from Amazon Prime Video), the desire to re-experience something with hindsight (Netflix’s “When They See Us”) or even the flash of fantasy (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”). While it can be challenging to balance serious material matter in a larger-than-life setting, the key for many of this year’s Emmy nominees in the writing and directing categories is authenticity and care in creation.

Ava DuVernay wrote and directed all four episodes of “When They See Us,...

Adam Parfrey, whose Feral House publishing company was a resource for underground, extreme and what some may consider “forbidden” knowledge, has died. His death at age 61 was announced on the official Feral House Facebook page.

Born in Los Angeles into a show business family – his father was actor Woody Parfrey, whose extensive film and television career was often chronicled by his son via Facebook – Parfrey grew up in the punk culture of the ’70s and ’80s.

His edgy works for Amok Publishing soon gave way to his own imprint, Feral House, which was the source and authority for many Hollywood films that explored the underground, including the Tim Burton film Ed Wood, the American Hardcore feature documentary, and Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground, for which he also co-wrote the screenplay.

Parfrey was on the cutting edge of subjects that other publishers did not have...

The screenwriter behind such family fare as Cool Runnings, Little Giants, and Snow Dogs, Tommy Swerdlow spent nearly two decades addicted to heroin and methadone, and with any addiction also comes the unceasing search for the next fix. He’s now channeled these experiences for his directorial debut, A Thousand Junkies, and we’re pleased to premiere the trailer today courtesy of The Orchard. Starring alongside co-writer Tj Bowen and the late Blake Heron–both of whom Swerdlow met in AA–one can’t imagine a more authentic rendering of such a life-consuming addiction than what this pitch-black buddy comedy captures.

“The film embodies a statement made by Jerry Stahl, writer of Permanent Midnight: a good friend who is a junkie will do all of your drugs and then spend the day helping you look for them,” John Fink said in our Tribeca Film Festival review. “A Thousand Junkies...

Michael Grodner's The Icarus Line Must Die is set to have its World Premiere when it opens La’s Non Plussed Fest on July 14th. To mark the occasion Screen Anarchy was sent the trailer and a number of images which you may peruse below. You will find more info about the fest and ticket information here. The Icarus Line Must Die is a narrative feature inspired by the No Wave films of the late seventies/early eighties and explores the La underground music scene. The film tracks Joe Cardamone, front man of The Icarus Line, as he navigates his way through the ups and downs of the modern music landscape. Ariel Pink, Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks) and Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight) are...

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

Joe Cardamone knows a thing or two about being in a lauded band with trouble and tragedy to spare. The former frontman of The Icarus Line, once billed by The Guardian as no less than “the greatest rock group of the 21st century,” struck out on his own back in 2015, so it’s only fitting that Michael Grodner’s narrative feature — appropriately titled “The Icarus Line Must Die” — will have its world premiere later this month after first starting filming that same year.

Di”The Icarus Line Must Die” is a narrative feature inspired by the No Wave films of the late ’70s and early ’80s and explores the La underground music scene. The film tracks Cardamone as a veiled version of himself — also a guy named Joe, also the frontman of a band called The Icarus Line — as he navigates his way through the ups and downs of the modern music landscape.

Punctuated with banter about the best places to score, which gas station bathroom is the best for shooting up, which neighborhoods have cops roaming, where in downtown can one get a bag of coke on a tight budget, and from whom can they steal to score the next fix, Tommy Swerdlow’s pitch-black slice of life A Thousand Junkies is a bleak, yet engaging look at a day in the life of three junkie friends. Simultaneously absurd, playful, and horrific, Trainspotting this is not.

Told as a matter-of-fact buddy comedy, the film is inspired by the real-life struggles of its stars. Director Tommy Swerdlow and co-writer Tj Bowen, along with friend Blake Heron, play Tommy, Tj and Blake, respectively, three guys that met randomly. Tommy is a successful screenwriter who occasionally uses his contacts for “get well,” a term they use to score a fix so that they can function.

It would be tough finding a harder working actor than Liev Schreiber who has successfully transitioned from supporting roles in movies to his very own TV show, playing fixer Ray Donovan on the Showtime series for five seasons. He’s received four Golden Globe nominations and two Emmy nominations playing that role.

In between seasons he’s found the time to make Chuck, a movie about the famed “Bayonne Brawler,” Chuck Wepner, whose career was documented in the Espn “30 for 30” doc, The Real Rocky. Besides being the New Jersey Heavyweight Champion in the ‘70s, Wepner famously went 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali, but his somewhat tragic story was also the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone to make Rocky.

The movie, directed by Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar), recreates Chuck’s family life with his second wife Phyllis (Elisabeth Moss) and daughter. It then shows how his brush with fame led to drinking and...

IFC has released the first trailer for its upcoming biopic Chuck, which is set to hit theaters on May 5. While many fans may not know Chuck Wepner by name, the New Jersey boxer served as the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone's iconic character Rocky Balboa. Liev Schreiber stars as Wepner, whose extraordinary true story is told for the first time on the big screen.

Chuck Wepner was a liquor salesman from New Jersey who went 15 rounds with the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali. In his ten years in the ring, Wepner endured two knockouts, eight broken noses, and 313 stitches. But his toughest fights were outside the ring: an epic life of drugs, booze, wild women, incredible highs and extraordinary lows in IFC's biopic.

Liev Schreiber is joined by an all-star cast that also includes Naomi Watts, Elisabeth Moss, Ron Perlman, Jim Gaffigan, Michael Rapaport and Pooch Hall, with...

David Lynch and Mark Frost's 1990 TV series looks better than ever, while the 1992 feature prequel digs deeper in Laura Palmer's unpleasant final days without as many rewards. CBS's 9-disc retrospective is a setup for the highly awaited series continuation -- delayed by 25 years. Twin Peaks: The Original Series, Fire Walk with Me & The Missing Pieces Blu-ray CBS / Paramount 1990 & 1992 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame & 1:78 widescreen / 25 hours + 134 min. / Street Date September 20, 2016 / 72,99 Starring (series) Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Lara Flynn Boyle, Sherilyn Fenn, Ray Wise, Sheryl Lee, Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Richard Beymer, Warren Frost, Peggy Lipton, James Marshall, Everett McGill, Jack Nance, Joan Chen, Piper Laurie, Kimmy Robertson, Eric Da Re, Harry Goaz, Michael Horse,Russ Tamblyn, Kenneth Welsh, Wendy Robie, Miguel Ferrer, David Lynch, Heather Graham, Dan O'Herlihy, Billy Zane, James Booth, Michael Parks, Lenny von Dohlen, Hank Worden, David Duchovny, Walter Olkewicz, Jane Greer, David L. Lander,...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our special edition of Tiff-only buys, just as the annual fall festival is wrapping up in the Far North.

– IFC Films has announced that the company has acquired U.S. rights to Philippe Falardeau’s “The Bleeder.” The film, directed by Falardeau and written by Jeff Feurzeig and Jerry Stahl, stars Liev Schreiber, Elisabeth Moss and Naomi Watts. The feature had its world premiere at the 2016 Venice Film Festival followed by its North American premiere in Toronto this week.

It is “is the true story of Chuck Wepner, the man who inspired the billion-dollar film series Rocky—a liquor salesman from New Jersey who went 15 rounds with the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali. In his ten years in the ring, Wepner endured two knockouts, eight broken noses, and 313 stitches. But his toughest fights were outside...

The Bayonne Bleeder – Jersey’s own Chuck Wepner – might be a Garden State boxing legend, yet Philippe Falardeau’s The Bleeder lacks his face-splitting determination. This is a boxing dramedy less worried about the actual matches, and more focused on telling the zany story of Wepner’s egotistical squanderings (from booze to hard drugs to loose women). Falardeau’s coke-fueled vision is never a dull one, it’s just a rags-to-pretend-riches story that struggles to differentiate itself from a billion other biopics of the same self-destructive nature. Wepner slugs, swills and sins his way to iconic mediocrity, leaving a trail of white, powdery dust in his wake – but the party-dramatics feel all-too familiar, because we’ve seen them time and time again.

Liev Schreiber stars as Chuck Wepner, Bayonne, New Jersey’s own thick-headed boxer celebrity. After a string of victories, Wepner finds himself slated to face-off against a young Muhammed Ali,...

Few film festivals in the world double as an acquisitions marketplace quite like the Toronto International Film Festival, which will screen more than 300 movies between September 8 and September 18. Most of these films have yet to land a U.S. distributor, and only a select group of titles will secure a distribution deal before the end of the fest.

Which movies are likely to be swarmed by buyers at Tiff 2016? Here are nine hot titles from the lineup that could be prime targets for acquisition execs.

“The Bad Batch”

Writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour’s follow-up to her hit debut “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” is billed as a “dystopian love story in a Texas wasteland.” The film follows a young girl named Samantha (Suki Waterhouse) who’s been banished from civilized society and ends up escaping from a community of cannibals. Produced by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures, the film stars Keanu Reeves,...

The Bleeder looks a bit familiar. A film of browns and greens; disco music and ‘70s rock tunes; big haircuts and even bigger lapels. Indeed, in a way reminiscent of recent period efforts such as Black Mass and David O. Russell’s last two outings, The Bleeder is drenched in that particular decade’s elaborate trappings. It also owes a lot to the school of Scorsese, complete with wise-guy narration, east-coast working-class lilts, and a sense of “You gotta be shitting me! Is this really my life?” But it’s a sports film at heart and a rather good one at that, all plucky underdog right hooks and tragic, humiliating falls. In a way, it’s also a film about movies, too. Coming from decorated Québécois filmmaker Philippe Falardeau, it is the true life story of Chuck “The Bayonne Bleeder” Wepner, the man who fought Muhammed Ali after the champ...

“What’s the difference between a memoir and life?” “I’m an agent, not a philosopher.” That’s writer/director/actor Stephen Elliott quizzing his agent, played by James Urbaniak, in After Adderall, the director’s feature-length, rapid-response to the strange experience of having his memoir turned into a movie starring James Franco. Elliott has assembled a great cast, including Michael C. Hall and Lili Taylor alongside numerous authors playing themselves (Jerry Stahl, Susan Orlean, Michael Cunningham). The film is currently being submitted to film festivals.

Ben Stiller's professional onscreen career is officially turning 30 this year — that's roughly 412 in comedian years. In a business where funny people tend to quickly exhaust their limited charm and sink from telling jokes to becoming a punchline, the restless and versatile Stiller has managed to sustain one of the most consistent comic careers this side of Bob Hope. From his days as a bit player to his later emergence as a force of nature in front of the camera and behind the scenes (you have his production company Red...

Bad Boys/Bad Boys II

Witten by Michael Barrie, Jim Mulholland, and Doug Richardson/Ron Shelton and Jerry Stahl

Directed by Michael Bay

USA, 1995/2003

Say what you will about Michael Bay—and people have said a lot about Michael Bay—the man knows how to make an action movie. Bad Boys, from 1995, his first feature film, and its sequel, from 2003, which is making its Blu-ray debut as part of a 20th anniversary collection from Sony Pictures, are just two notable examples. These films are bursting at the seams with car chases, gunfights, explosions, and more, much more. There isn’t a whole lot beneath the surface, but there doesn’t really need to be. What these two films set out to do, they do very well, and what Bay does best, he does better than anybody. That may not always (hardly ever) be critically acceptable in terms of “quality cinema,...

If there was ever any doubt that Hollywood is bringing the boxing film back in vogue – 2015 has already served up Jake Gyllenhaal’s Southpaw, not to mention the soon-to-be-released Creed – one need only look to the genre pieces arriving over the next year or so. Not only can fans look forward to the Miles Teller-fronted Bleed for This, but there’s also The Bleeder, an upcoming drama that focuses on the rip-roaring career of Chuck Wepner.

Picking up the gloves and hand tape as the lead fighter is Liev Schreiber, and Deadline reports that Mad Men alum Elisabeth Moss has boarded the starry project as Wepner’s second wife. She’ll join a cast that includes Naomi Watts – Schreiber’s real-life wife, incidentally – who will play the part of the boxer’s third wife, Linda, with each significant other coming in at a crucial part of Wepner’s life.

The story of the everyman who took on Muhammad Ali in a 1975 title fight is being developed for the big screen by the man who highlighted the tale with the 2011 documentary film The Real Rocky. Filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig is writing the script for The Bleeder, along with Jerry Stahl (Bad Boys II) and Michael Cristofer (Casanova), and Deadline reports that Philippe Falardeau (The Good Lie) is taking the helm. In addition, Liev Schreiber is now confirmed as filling the lead role of professional heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner, whose lengthy and notable career led to his acquisition of the nickname The Bayonne Bleeder.

The former U.S Marine had a mixed record in terms of successful appearances in the ring, when he got a shot at challenging the already legendary Muhammad Ali for the world’s Heavyweight title – a match that took place on March 24th 1975, at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield,...

Mandalay Sports Media and Campbell Grobman Films will begin production this month in New York on The Bleeder, with Ray Donovan‘s Liev Schreiber to play heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner, and Naomi Watts to play his wife Linda. Philippe Falardeau, the Canadian helmer of The Good Lie and the Oscar nominated Monsieur Lazhar, is set to direct a script written by Jeff Feuerzeig & Jerry Stahl and Michael Cristofer. Schreiber, coming off his third season as the title character in…...

Liev Schreiber and his wife Naomi Watts are set to play heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner and Chuck's wife Linda respectively in "The Bleeder" for Mandalay Sports Media and Campbell Grobman Films.

The story follows the New Jersey liquor salesman and boxer who at age 35 got a shot to fight Muhammad Ali right after the infamous 'Rumble in the Jungle' bout. The 40-1 underdog Wepner surprised everybody when he became only the third man to knock Ali to the canvas.

Ali got up and pummeled Wepne until the fight ended, but Wepner became a folk hero and an inspiration for Sly Stallone's "Rocky" script. The film will also deal with Wepner's sudden fame and hard partying lifestyle.

Philippe Falardeau ("The Good Lie," "Monsieur Lazhar") helms from a script by Jeff Feuerzeig & Jerry Stahl and Michael Cristofer. Schreiber, Mike Tollin, Carl Hampe, Christa Campbell and Lati Grobman are producing and shooting kicks...

Pierce Brosnan and his guests sure look like they are having the time of their lives in this first-look pic from Aaron Kaufman's feature debut Urge. A group of friends on an island getaway experiment with a new designer drug that makes them lose their ability to control their urges.Kaufman had played the role of producer prior to this new directing gig. He recently produced Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and Machete Kills. He wrote Urge with Jason Zumwalt (Flock of Dudes) and Jerry Stahl (Bad Boys II)....

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

Pierce Brosnan gets wild in a scene from the upcoming thriller Urge.

In the movie, a group of friends on an island getaway experiment with a new designer drug that makes them lose their ability to control their urges.

Urge also features Ashley Greene (Twilight trilogy) and is directed by Aaron Kaufman (producer on Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, Machete Kills).

The film is written by Aaron Kaufman, Jason Zumwalt, and Jerry Stahl and produced by Skip Williamson (Underworld) and Mark Neveldine (Crank, upcoming The Vatican Tapes).

Brosnan starred last year in The November Man and can be seen in No Escape alongside Owen Wilson and Lake Bell – due in theaters Sept. 2, 2015.

Fortitude International is handling international sales of Urge at the European Film Market.

Variety has it listed as one of the Top Buzz Titles at the Berlin Film Festival.

The post First Look Photo of Pierce Brosnan...

Twin Peaks, Season 2, Episode 4, “Laura’s Secret Diary”

Written by Jerry Stahl and Mark Frost & Harley Peyton & Robert Engels

Directed by Todd Holland

Originally aired October 20, 1990 on ABC

“Have you ever experienced absolute loss?”

Every time I write the above line, ending with “on ABC”, I am reminded of the fact that Twin Peaks aired on one of the main broadcast networks in 1990. Not only that, but that for a brief period of time, it was the most popular show on television (the pilot managed over 34 million viewers). This is often remarked upon, but it never gets less strange to write and recall. Around this point is where interest began to wane, however, with this episode drawing only 12 million.

This is interesting, because the show’s plots are still plausible (if occasionally sensationalized) rather than the ridiculousness that comes later on. In fact, this is the most somber episode of the second season thus far.

The company has bolstered its Afm slate with the thriller starring Pierce Brosnan and Ashley Greene.

Chef executive producer Aaron Kaufman makes his feature directorial debut on the story about friends on an island getaway who take a designer drug that releases all inhibitions. Kaufman wrote the screenplay with Jason Zumwal and Jerry Stahl.

Skip Williamson and Mark Neveldine produce through their Blackmrkt Incorporated banner and production is set for New York later this month.

Bridgeworks Media Capital, Tci and 360 Elite Media & Entertainment will finance the project. Tim Smith, Alastair Burlingham, Lee Vandermolen, Yoram Barzilai, Frank Martinez, Anthony Gudas, Clay Pecorin, Russell Geyser, Gerald Fruchtman and Peter Fruchtman will serve as executive producers.

Fortitude co-principal Nadine de Barros and vice-president of international Katie Irwin will kick off sales at the Afm, set to run from November 5-12.

Fortitude’s slate includes Gee Malik Linton’s dramatic thriller Daughter Of God starring Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas and David Foster...

With a deadly designer drug at the centre of upcoming thriller, Urge, there’s a steady stream of talent coming aboard who may succumb to its effects. The latest addition to the cast is That ’70s Show star Danny Masterson.

The movie will revolve around a group of friends who jet off for an island adventure. Upon their arrival, they meet a drug designer who lures them into sampling his latest product. The twist here is that the side-effect (or the main effect, however you choose to look at it) of the pill causes people to lose their ability to control their urges. A bit like most drugs, then. Still, with Pierce Brosnan attached as the dodgy drug creator, here’s hoping we’ll get a brilliantly hammy villain who spews crazed soliloquys. Leading the group of friends into their doomed and/or enlightened druggy experience is Twilight‘s Ashley Greene.

Exclusive: Danny Masterson has joined Pierce Brosnan in the thriller feature Urge as cameras get set to roll this month in New York. Producer Aaron Kaufman (Machete Kills, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, Chef) is making his directorial debut with the film, about a group of friends on holiday on an island who get caught up in a dangerous new designer drug that makes them lose their ability to control their urges. Masterson will play Neal, the cutthroat but secretly lonely hedge fund tycoon who treats his friends to the island getaway. The That ’70s Show alum, who most recently starred on TBS’s comedy series Men At Work, is also producing Urge alongside Skip Williamson (Underworld) and Mark Neveldine (Crank) who are producing through their Blackmrkt Incorporated banner. Bridgeworks Media Capital, Tci and Tresoro Ventures are backing the project, with Tim Smith, Alastair Burlingham, Lee Vandermolen, Yoram Barzilai,...

• Keegan-Michael Key and Regina Hall have signed on for New Line's Vacation reboot, joining Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Chris Hemsworth, and Leslie Mann. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are directing, marking their directorial debut. They also wrote the script. The film will tell the story of a grown-up Rusty Griswold (Helms) who takes his wife (Applegate) on a cross-country road trip, similar to one he took as a kid. Their destination is Walley World, an amusement park. Key and Hall will play family friends to the Griswolds. David Dobkin is producing through his David Dobkin Productions alongside Chris Bender.

Urge

Pierce Brosnan has signed on to star in Aaron Kaufman's dramatic thriller "Urge". Kaufman co-penned the script with Jason Zumwalt and Jerry Stahl. Filming begins this October in New York.

The story follows a group of friends holidaying on an island destination who try a new designer drug that makes them lose their ability to control their urges. Brosnan will play the creator and distributor of the narcotic. [Source: Deadline]

Dead Rising

Meghan Ory, Jesse Metcalfe and Virginia Madsen will join the previously announced Dennis Haysbert in Zach Lipovsky's feature length "Dead Rising: Watchtower," an adaptation of the "Dead Rising" videogame franchise from Legendary Digital Media and Crackle. Filming begins September 30th in Vancouver.

Tim Carter penned the script that revolves around a zombie outbreak, and the pursuit of the root of the epidemic when a government vaccine fails to stop the infection. The project is Legendary's first...

Pierce Brosnan is back! He never strictly went away, but it still feels like it’s been an age since we’ve seen him onscreen. On the heels of his recent thriller, The November Man, he’ll return to ethically-questionable material as he’s set to play a drug creator in Urge.

Aaron Kaufman, who produced Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and Machete Kills, is on board to make his directorial debut based on the script he co-penned with Jerry Stahl and Jason Zumwalt.

Taking place in the middle of nowhere, Urge follows a group of friends on vacation who decide that quad biking, bungee jumping and sex with strangers doesn’t constitute fun. They decide to take a new drug, created by Brosnan’s character, that alters a person’s way of thinking. Yes, most drugs do that. This one removes people’s ability to control their urges.

After attempting to recapture his Bond days with action thriller The November Man, Pierce Brosnan is taking aim at a character on an even dodgier moral keel. He’s set to play a drug creator in Urge.Aaron Kaufman, who has worked as a producer with Robert Rodriguez on the likes of Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, is looking to make the movie as his directing debut. He wrote the script with Jason Zumwalt and Jerry Stahl and wants the cameras rolling next month kicking off in New York.The plot follows a group of friends on holiday at a swanky island destination, who throw caution to the wind and take up the offer of a new designer drug that causes them lose the ability to control their urges. So, like many already existing drugs and booze, then? Hopefully this will offer a new twist to the tale,...

Some images Nsfw:

Dr. Caligari had always been the stuff of legend for me. I had heard many discuss this odd little porn-ish film full of cranial craziness, but I had never been able to get my hands on a copy. I finally stumbled across this film at an aging video rental store in North Hollywood, California. Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee may very well be one of the last great video rental stores in existence. Their shelves are always packed with endless obscure titles, and it’s rare that I journey to the shop and not leave with some strangely enthralling and possibly extinct monster of a horror gem. Dr. Caligari is one such find.

Back in 1982, porn director Stephen Sayadian tried to bridge porn into the mainstream film industry with a sci-fi infused flick called Café Flesh. Café Flesh (which is equally difficult to locate) was far too...

August Osage County (2013) Film Review, a movie directed by John Wells and starring Meryl Streep, Dermot Mulroney, Julia Roberts, Sam Shepard, Juliette Lewis., Julianne Nichols, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Cooper, Abigal Breslin, Jerry Stahl, Newell Alexander, Will Coffey, Misty Upham, and Margo Martindale. “Here we go round the prickly pear…” [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: August: Osage County (2013): Dysfunction Personified...

Breaking Bad is over and what a finale it was, although it may have been predictable based on what we knew from the flash forward at the start of the season, it still didn’t disappoint and was full of stirring and thrilling moments. More importantly, now that this is over, Netflix crucially need to up their game.

Hansel and Gretel and Texas Chainsaw, two pretty dire entries from earlier this year, just are not going to cut it against Argo and The Perks of Being a Wallflower regardless of who did what at the box office. Netflix seem to have the monopoly on quality catalogue titles this week with some little seen gems with Permanent Midnight and Orange County but this means nothing to the public and mostly registers with nerds like me.

This isn’t a suggestion that the company is in trouble at all but consider what...

The Panic in Needle Park

Written by Joan Dion and John Gregory Dunne; based on the book by James Mills

Directed by Jerry Schatzberg

USA, 1971

Al Pacino gives a riveting performance as Bobby, an energetic street hustler and heroin addict who forms a bizarre, yet accepting relationship with a homeless woman, Helen, played by Kitty Winn. The Panic in Needle Park is a gut-wrenching expose into the drug culture in New York City. American films of the late sixties, such as Easy Rider, Performance and The Trip, portrayed the edgy glamour and counter-culture boom of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll revolution, but after the release of The Panic in Needle Park, filmmakers forecast the downward spiral of addiction. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll transgressed into heroin, prostitution and jail. To this day, no other film has topped the realistic portrayal of the drug culture. Shot in a documentary-like fashion,...

Chicago – It doesn’t sound like a particularly bad idea. In exploring the globe-trotting adventures of author Ernest Hemingway and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, why not use archival footage of the actual sights and sounds that they encountered, while nesting the actors into the frame, a la “Forrest Gump”? I didn’t think it was a bad idea at all until roughly three minutes into the movie.

Suddenly the picture fades into a grainy blue haze as Hemingway (Clive Owen) is witnessed on his fishing boat, pulling in his latest big catch with cavalier bravado. The moment is supposed to function as a stirring introduction to his character, but it’s completely undermined by the jarringly amateurish special effects juxtaposing the actors against a green screen projecting old footage of a jarring sea (even the splashes of water seem superimposed). Considering the often stellar production values of HBO films, it...

News broke last week that porn star Princess Donna is working on a new project with James Franco. While no other details were revealed at the time, today we can tell you that we believe the project is a film centring on the famous silent film star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Franco released several photos from the production this week, one of which features a slate from the film dated December 20th, 2012.

From the photo, which is seen above, we can tell that the film features at least 28 scenes, which suggests at least a long form short film, if not a feature length project. The slate also tells us the film is being shot by Bruce Cheung, the Dop from Tar.

Interestingly enough, Franco wrote a piece for The Huffington Post on Jerry Stahl’s book I, Fatty back in June, so it isn’t surprising that he is now creating...

"Modern Family" and "Breaking Bad" are the clear front-runners in the nominations for the 2013 Writers Guild of America Awards.

Both shows are nominated in their respective series categories, and they each occupy at least half the slots in the episodic categories. "Breaking Bad" scored four of the six nominations for individual drama episodes -- that's half of the episodes the AMC series aired in 2012 -- while "Modern Family" has three of the six episodic comedy nods.

The other series nominees are "Boardwalk Empire," "Game of Thrones," "Homeland" and "Mad Men" in the drama category and "30 Rock," "Girls," "Louie" and "Parks and Recreation" on the comedy side.

Here are the prime-time categories in the 2013 WGA Awards. See the full list here.

Drama series

"Boardwalk Empire"

"Breaking Bad"

"Game of Thrones"

"Homeland"

"Mad Men"

Comedy series

"30 Rock"

"Girls"

"Louie"

"Modern Family"

"Parks and Recreation"

New series

"Girls"

"The Mindy Project"

"Nashville"

"The Newsroom...

What do Walter White and Phil Dunphy have in common? They’re both at the center of the TV shows most honored by the Writers Guild of America today. The group just announced the nominees for its annual awards, which will be handed out Feb. 17 at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York. Breaking Bad garnered five nods; Modern Family drew four. Here’s a list of all the primetime and late night series in contention for the event’s biggest prizes:

Drama Series

Boardwalk Empire, Written by Dave Flebotte, Diane Frolov, Chris Haddock, Rolin Jones, Howard Korder, Steve Kornacki,...

Following Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, it’s always a good day when we learn that we’ll have to wait a little longer to see the next film from the team that brought us that vapid blockbuster. First announced over a year-and-a-half-ago, director Rob Marshall (Chicago, Nine) and Johnny Depp have been planning to remake the 1934 detective comedy classic The Thin Man, but now those plans have halted to a stop.

Deadline reports that Warner Bros. have smartened up and realized that maybe bringing back an old property with Depp in the center wasn’t a good idea, after Tim Burton‘s Dark Shadows grossed far less than his previous film, with the same poor critical results. The film had yet to be greenlit, and although they had a shortlist of actresses (Eva Green, Amy Adams, Emma Stone, Carey Mulligan, Rachel Weisz, Kristen Wiig, Emily Blunt and...

Chicago – It pains me to say this — HBO’s “Hemingway & Gellhorn” is a complete mess, a film littered with awful directorial decisions, built on a misguided screenplay, and featuring performances that range from mediocre to downright horrendous. I’m as big a cheerleader for HBO and their line of original films as you’re likely to find but this is one of the worst.

TV Rating: 1.5/5.0

It’s not merely that I so often love what HBO delivers (their current Sunday line-up of “Game of Thrones,” “Girls,” and “Veep” is one of the best two-hour blocks of television in years) but that the cast, crew, and subject matter of this 154-minute epic seems tailor made for me. I would say that Ernest Hemingway’s work is one of the reasons that I became an English major in college and that director Philip Kaufman’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” helped make me a film nut.