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Linda Lavin, star of CBS’ long-running sitcom “Alice” and a Tony winner for Neil Simon’s play “Broadway Bound” who remained active in TV and on stage, died Sunday. She was 87.

A representative for Lavin confirmed the actress died unexpectedly Sunday due to complications from lung cancer that had been recently discovered. As recently as Dec. 4, Lavin attended the premiere of Netflix’s dark comedy series “No Good Deed” at the streamer’s Tudum Theater in Hollywood.

Lavin was also ready to co-star with Matt Bomer and Nathan Lane in the upcoming Hulu comedy “Mid-Century Modern,” which is in the midst of filming its first season. The show hails from “Will & Grace” creators/executive producers David Kohan and Max Mutchnick and director-producer James Burrows for 20th Television.

“Working with Linda was one of the highlights of our careers. She was a magnificent actress, singer, musician and a heat seeking missile with a joke.

Peter Yates' "Bullitt" is one of the most stylish cop flicks ever made. Those multi-screen opening credits designed by the great Pablo Ferro, that jazzily urbane Lalo Schifren score, those wildly cool outfits donned by Steve McQueen at the height of his laconic sexiness (some inspired by the suits sported by real life detective Dave Toschi) –- it's a stone groove punctuated by spasms of violence and, of course, a raucous car chase through the hilly streets of San Francisco. It's so ineffably pleasurable, you don't mind that the narrative is a sketchily plotted afterthought. Who needs an intricately structured story when you're watching, as Quentin Tarantino wrote in his book "Cinema Speculation," "one of the best directed movies ever made?"

You throw on "Bullitt" for the 1968-ness of it all (it's the apolitical flip-side of the coin to Haskell Wexler's roiling docudrama "Medium Cool"), as well as the...

Before Burt Reynolds was doing voice roles for a quick buck later in his career, he had a true passion for the art…or maybe just acting like a dog. His first foray into voice work was as Charlie 1989’s All Dogs Go to Heaven. While the character was written with Reynolds in mind, he brought a little something extra to the part, which resulted in none other than Dom DeLuise (who voiced Itchy) being recruited to help.

In a recent social media post, All Dogs Go to Heaven director and animation legend Don Bluth remembered Burt Reynolds going full German Shepherd. “When he first came to the microphone he made up what he called, ‘My wonderful dog voice.’ He was very proud of it, but it was awful.” As such, Bluth asked DeLuise (a longtime pal of Reynolds’) to help out, which he did…for a price. “Then I...

Bill Karn’s Door-to-Door Maniac was originally released as Five Minutes to Live in 1961, then re-released under the new title in 1966 by American International Pictures with some added salacious content and an altered ending. Either way, what you get is a low-budget heist film that boasts a cast packed with seasoned character actors, some outlandish plot elements, and an absolutely feral performance from country music star Johnny Cash as career criminal Johnny Cabot. The zesty melodramatic script was written by actress Cay Forrester, who plays beleaguered housewife Nancy Wilson.

In true noir fashion, Door-to-Door Maniac is related in flashback. Seated in a darkened room surrounded by shadowy figures, Fred Dorella (Vic Tayback) describes how his novel idea for a bank robbery went awry. Fred’s plan involves Johnny holding Nancy hostage in her own home, forcing her husband, Ken (Donald Woods), a bank VP, to oversee Fred’s substantial cash withdrawal from the bank vault.

FX’s “The Bear” has been the series equivalent of a three-star Michelin, James Beard Award-winning restaurant since its premiere in 2022. Created by writer/director/product Christopher Storer, the hit show revolves around Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), a chef from the fine dining world in New York, who returns to his home in Chicago to run the family’s sandwich shop after the suicide of his brother. The first season won 10 Emmys including best comedy series and actor in a comedy series for White. Besides earning a Peabody, “The Bear” also performed well at the SAG Awards and the Golden Globes. The second season is a strong Emmy contender and the third season which just dropped will probably follow suit in 2025.

Since the early days of TV, restaurants, nightclubs, coffee shops, bars and diners have played an important role in countless series including the beloved multi-Emmy Award-winning 1982-93 NBC sitcom “Cheers”. In fact,...

Door-to-Door Maniac and the ultra-rare bonus film Right Hand of the Devil, are a ‘60s double dose of neo-noir cult classics, available 27th August 2024 in a special, two-disc collector’s edition on Blu-ray and DVD from Film Masters.

Door-to-Door Maniac (1966): 75 minutes

Originally released in 1961 as Five Minutes to Live, this low-budget crime drama was re-released in 1966 as Door-to-Door Maniac. Fred narrates the film in flashback, detailing a suburban bank robbery that goes awry. As part of a simple plan, he hires a hard-up, psychotic hood, Johnny Cabot, to take the wife of the bank’s vice president hostage in her own home. What follows is a robbery gone awry in every way! You won’t want to miss this gem whose original poster proclaimed, A woman’s price drops fast as the time limit ticks away!

Noted for a great performance by Cash in his first film role—the...

In Jonathan Mostow's 1997 thriller "Breakdown," Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan play a happily married couple driving their high-tech SUV from Boston to San Diego. By accident, they almost run into a pickup truck on the remote highways of Arizona. When Russell later meets the driver of the pickup (M.C. Gainey) at a gas station, tensions are high. Later still, when Russell and Quinlan are back on the road, their car suddenly stops. Quinlan offers to hitchhike into town to get help, while Russell stays with the SUV. It will be quite a while before they see each other again. It seems that Quinlan has been kidnapped! Russell has to drive around Arizona's remote backroads looking for clues, and eventually, he faces off against the kidnappers. "Breakdown" also stars the immortal J.T. Walsh, and a punky Jack Noseworthy.

The film is Hitchcockian in its trimness, and Mostow wrings every bit...

Netflix generates more contemporary content than anyone, but they’re dipping into the past to curate the great movies from the ’70s. These are the films that people like myself discovered as kids in the early days of when HBO premiered on cable. Bravo, I say. Here’s the preliminary list.

Alice Doesn’T Live Here Anymore

A widowed singer and single mother starts over as a diner waitress in Arizona, befriending her coworkers and romancing a ruggedly handsome rancher.

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writer: Robert Getchell

Producers: Audrey Maas, David Susskind

Key Cast (Alphabetical): Ellen Burstyn, Jodie Foster, Diane Ladd, Alfred Lutter, Harvey Keitel, Kris Kristofferson, Vic Tayback

Distributed By: Warner Bros. Discovery

Initial Release Date: December 9, 1974

At the 47th Academy Awards, Burstyn won Best Actress

Black Belt Jones

High-kicking Black Belt Jones is dispatched to take down a group of Mafia goons trying to muscle in on a downtown karate studio.

1974 was quite a year for cinema; 50 years later, Netflix (of all places) is celebrating the golden jubilee.

In recognition of the anniversary, the streamer on Wednesday launched a new, dedicated content row (and direct URL link) with the first films being honored under its new “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection” banner. Each of the 14 films came to Netflix this month by way of Warner Bros., Paramount, or Sony — the distributors that license content to Netflix.

The 1974 collection includes “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Black Belt Jones,” “Blazing Saddles,” “California Split,” “Chinatown,” “The Conversation,” “Death Wish,” “The Gambler,” “The Great Gatsby,” “It’s Alive,” “The Little Prince,” “The Lords of Flatbush,” “The Parallax View,” and “The Street Fighter” (“Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken”).

Netflix doesn’t plan to stop with disco’s heyday. In April, the streaming service will do the same for films from 1984 (turning 40); July will celebrate 1994 movies (turning 30); and in October...

At the 2023 Sundance Film Festival premiere of the film A Little Prayer, Celia Weston shared her favorite moments from working on the TV classic Alice. In 1980. Weston joined the show to play truck driver turned waitress Jolene Hunnicut at Mel’s Dinner.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview founder Erik Meers, Weston reflected on her favorite episodes of the show.

“My favorite episodes, selfishly, are a couple of episodes that featured Jolene, my character,” she began. “One was when I was trying to train, to moonlight, as an airline stewardess and Alice and Mel and Vera all came on my first flight and, of course, it was disastrous.”

“Then the one that I loved was – we just loved Vic Tayback, he was our big daddy – and we had a scene one time where he gets locked in the freezer in the diner and he comes out and of course, it’s overplayed completely,...

Click here to read the full article.

FX/Hulu’s Chicago-set restaurant dramedy The Bear has sizzled its way into the awards conversation as a frontrunner in a variety of fields, including for its lead performances from Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri. But The Bear isn’t the first series to center its narrative around food service: In 1976, Alice premiered on CBS, following its eponymous waitress as she begins a new job at a diner in Phoenix.

The series was based on the 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Robert Getchell, which won a lead actress Oscar for Ellen Burstyn. Getchell spun his story into a sitcom that centers on Linda Lavin’s Alice, an unemployed widow who travels from New Jersey to Los Angeles with her son to pursue a music career, but ends up taking a waitressing job at Mel...

Quentin Tarantino concluded a mini book tour for his collection of essays and musings, “Cinema Speculation,” at The Town Hall in New York City on Wednesday night, after dates in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Austin. Hosted by Elvis Mitchell, the event was a free-flowing conversation about film critics (he always finds time to salute the late Pauline Kael), classics like “Taxi Driver,” and comic books.

When the topic came to new projects, the director made a surprising announcement. Tarantino has long stated that when he makes his 10th movie (i.e. his next one) it will be his last. But television is fair game. Indeed, he intends to shoot an eight-episode series sometime next year.

For which network or streaming service? Unknown! Based on a pre-existing property? Unknown! Is this a deal set up already, or is he just spitballing? Unknown! But it is exciting nonetheless. Tarantino was pressed for details by Mitchell,...

Christina Ricci has been a mainstay in Hollywood for 30 years, breaking out due to The Addams Family movies of the 1990s. Perfecting the role to differentiate it from previous portrayals of the character, she is still synonymous with the character to this day, so it isn't shocking that she will be appearing in Wednesday, a new show focusing on the character, coming to Netflix on November 23rd.

But Ricci is not the only actor who has appeared in a TV version of their movie. Throughout film history, numerous actors have stopped by the small screen to give a nod to their TV counterparts.

Ice Cube: Are We There Yet (2005)

Ice Cube is inarguably one of the greatest rappers of all time and his movie career, appropriately, began with more adult-orientated films. However, Are We There Yet? changed that, putting the actor in a fish-out-of-water role. It not only spawned a...

There's nothing like a Don Bluth animated film. From the wide-eyed whimsy of his characters to his confusing, dreamlike sequences, the work of this animation icon has delighted (and terrified) audiences since the release of "The Secret of Nimh." Some 40 years later, Bluth's filmography has grown to contain some of the most fascinating hand-drawn animated projects Hollywood has ever seen. From nostalgic classics like "An American Tail" and "The Land Before Time" to truly odd flops like "A Troll in Central Park" and "Rock-a-Doodle," the list goes on and on. That begs the question, which films rank as the best examples of Bluth's talents?

From the not-so-great to the ones that continue to make us smile, we'll dive deep into Don Bluth's theatrically released feature films. Sure, there are projects he worked on outside of that specific medium (including direct-to-video projects and video games) To correctly examine this filmmaker, it's...

Ben Whishaw claimed Best TV Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes in 2019 for “A Very English Scandal.” Could he win that prize again for his role in season four of “Fargo”? It’s actually pretty rare for actors to win this category twice. In fact, only five have ever done so before.

The biggest winner in the history of this category is Ed Asner with three. He won twice for playing the iconic Lou Grant in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and once more for “Rich Man, Poor Man” (1977).

SEEFunnyman Chris Rock on cusp of Golden Globes nomination thanks to tragic role on ‘Fargo’

Four other actors have won the award twice: James Brolin, Edward James Olmos (“Miami Vice” in 1986 and “The Burning Season” in 1995), Donald Sutherland (“Citizen X” in 1996 and “Path to War” in 2003) and Vic Tayback (“Alice” in 1980 and 1981).

It’s hard to repeat at the Globes under any circumstances,...

Exploitation films were thriving in the ‘70s, and everything was excess. Why have one naked woman when you could have four, or settle for one onscreen flaying when clearly several are in order? Maybe watching Mansion of the Doomed (1976) you’d be content with a single case of eye transplant surgery instead of the six offered? Well, you’d be wrong. This is a film that leans heavy on the nihilism and nastiness of the times, with nary an existential answer yet plenty to talk about.

Doomed seems to be the key word in the title that permeates nearly every frame; other titles include Eyes, Massacre Mansion, and The Terror of Dr. Chaney, with the latter perhaps being the most apropos considering the moral dilemma lies completely on his shoulders. But Mansion of the Doomed works because, well, that mansion is packed with the doomed, protags and antags alike.

Let...

Michael Cimino could have done worse for his first directing gig — a big Clint Eastwood-Jeff Bridges buddy picture with guaranteed major attention. It’s a simple crime caper for simple audiences, and he pulls it off in style. The Sunday movie supplements celebrated Cimino as a great new talent. His picture still looks handsome and it runs like a Swiss watch — the writer-director even has his vulgar comedy down pat, giving bad guy George Kennedy a few memorable choice bits to play.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1974 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date November 12, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, Geoffrey Lewis, Catherine Bach, Gary Busey, Burton Gilliam, Roy Jenson, Bill McKinney, Vic Tayback, Dub Taylor, Gregory Walcott.

Cinematography: Frank Stanley

Art Direction by Tambi Larsen

Film Editor: Ferris Webster

Original Music: Dee Barton

Produced by Robert Daley

Written and Directed...

A reboot of the classic sitcom “Alice” has received a put pilot commitment at Fox, Variety has learned.

The multi-camera series hails from writers and executive producers Diablo Cody and Liz Astrof. In the series, Long Island housewife Alice Hyatt has finally worked up the courage to leave her cheating husband. She drives cross-country to Arizona with her teenage son Tommy, and gets a job as a waitress at a roadside diner where the staff becomes their new surrogate family.

Cody will executive produce via her Vita Vera Films banner. Warner Bros. Television and Fox will co-produce. Cody is currently under an overall deal at Wbtv.

“Alice” ran for nine seasons and over 200 episodes on CBS from 1976 to 1985. The series was itself based on the 1974 feature film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” starring Ellen Burstyn and Kris Kristofferson. The original series starred Linda Lavin in the title role, while...

Aziz Ansari made history Sunday night for South Asian representation at the Golden Globes.

During the 75th annual ceremony hosted by Seth Meyers on Sunday, the Master of None co-creator and star won Best Actor, Television – Comedy, marking the second time an actor of South Asian descent has won a Golden Globe in 35 years. Ben Kingsley, who is of Indian descent, won for Best Actor – Motion Picture, Drama in 1982.

Both Ansari and Hong Chau (Downsizing) were the only two Asian actors nominated at the Golden Globes, representing roughly three percent of the actors recognized across all the film and TV categories. The last actor of Asian descent to be nominated was Riz Ahmed in 2017, for the HBO miniseries, The Night Of. The only other actors of Asian descent to win Globes in the awards' 75-year history include Haing S. Ngor, Peg Tilly, Sandra Oh and Vic Tayback.

Asian representation onscreen and at awards show has long been a...

What are two individualistic, highly motivated movie stars supposed to do when faced with an unimaginative studio system eager to misuse their talents? Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen collaborate with a great writer, director and producer for an urban romance with an eye on the sexual double standard. It’s a hybrid production: a gritty drama that’s also a calculated career move.

Love with the Proper Stranger

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1963 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Natalie Wood, Steve McQueen, Edie Adams, Tom Bosley, Herschel Bernardi, Harvey Lembeck, Agusta Ciolli, Nina Varela, Marilyn Chris, Richard Dysart, Arlene Golonka, Tony Mordente, Nobu McCarthy, Richard Mulligan, Vic Tayback, Dyanne Thorne, Val Avery.

Cinematography: Milton Krasner

Film Editor: Aaron Stell

Original Music: Elmer Bernstein

Written by Arnold Schulman

Produced by Alan J. Pakula

Directed by Robert Mulligan

1963’s Love with the Proper Stranger is...

Marvin Kaplan has died of natural causes at the age of 89. Between 1978 and 1985, Kaplan recurred as Mel's Diner regular Henry Beesmeyer on the CBS comedy Alice, starring Linda Lavin, Vic Tayback, Beth Howland, Philip McKeon, and Polly Holliday. He also voiced Choo-Choo on Hanna-Barbera's Top Cat cartoon, which first ran on ABC in the 1961-62 television season.Kaplan played producer Dwight McGonigle on the show-within-a-show sitcom, On the Air, starring Ian Buchanan, Marla Rubinoff, Nancye Ferguson, Miguel Ferrer, Gary Grossman, and Mel Johnson, Jr. Despite its title, of the seven episodes shot, only three aired, before the show was cancelled by ABC in 1992.Read More…...

The origin of the slasher movie has always been of great interest to horror fans, who have long sought to pinpoint the film that launched one of horror’s most popular and enduring subgenres. For years, it was assumed that John Carpenter’s Halloween kicked off the movement, though in recent years that opinion has been widely revised to consider Bob Clark’s Black Christmas as patient zero. Now, Scream Factory has helped dig up 1971’s Blood and Lace, a movie that suggests the origins of the slasher film as we know it began three years before Black Christmas.

Opening with an extended Pov sequence seen through the eyes of a killer as a sleeping couple is murdered with a hammer (seven years before Halloween would open in similar fashion, though still 11 years after Peeping Tom), the movie eventually follows Ellie Masters (Melodie Patterson), daughter of the murdered couple, who...

A hammer is used for something much more horrific than home improvement projects in Blood and Lace, hitting home media on Tuesday from Scream Factory. Ahead of the film's high-definition release, we've been provided with three Blood and Lace Blu-ray / DVD combo packs to give away to Daily Dead readers.

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Prize Details: (3) Winners will receive (1) Blu-ray / DVD combo pack copy of Blood and Lace.

How to Enter: For a chance to win, email contest@dailydead.com with the subject “Blood and Lace Contest”. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Entry Details: The contest will end at 12:01am Est on November 27th. This contest is only open to those who are eighteen years of age or older that live in the United States. Only one entry per household will be accepted.

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Blood and Lace Blu-ray / DVD: "After her mother’s brutal murder at the hands of a hammer-wielding maniac,...

An orphanage becomes a living nightmare for young Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) in 1971's Blood and Lace, coming out on a Blu-ray / DVD combo pack November 24th from Scream Factory. Ahead of the film's new home media release, we have high-definition clips as well as the film's trailer.

Blood and Lace Blu-ray / DVD: "After her mother’s brutal murder at the hands of a hammer-wielding maniac, teenaged Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) is suddenly orphaned. She is sent to a home for children run by the enigmatic Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame, a 1952 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award® winner for her role in The Bad and The Beautiful), in spite of the concern that Ellie will be the newest target of her mother’s killer. But as terror strikes again and again, it becomes unclear who might be the bigger threat to Ellie’s life: the mysterious murderer with a hammer…or her sadistic new caretaker.

The 1971 cult horror film Blood and Lace will hit shelves on November 24th in a new Blu-ray / DVD combo pack from Scream Factory, featuring a fresh HD transfer and more:

Press Release: She searched through the dark corridors of the unknown, only to find… the unbearable. Available for the first time on a home entertainment format, the 1971 cult favorite Blood and Lace is a twisted tale of horror frequently cited as a precursor to the slasher films of the late 70s and early 80s. On November 24, 2015, the long-lost film released theatrically from American International Pictures is finally available for horror fans on Blu-ray + DVD combo pack, complete with bonus features including a brand new high definition transfer and new audio commentary with film historian Richard Harland Smith.

After her mother’s brutal murder at the hands of a hammer-wielding maniac, teenaged Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) is suddenly orphaned. She is...

What would seem the perfect project for tough-guy director Robert Aldrich still commands a high reputation with some. Ambitious top-dog hobo Lee Marvin squares off against Ernest Borgnine's nearly demonic railroad conductor who routinely murders bums that dare to hitch a ride. The mayhem culminates in a battle on a moving flat car, between Ernie's log chain and Lee's fire ax. But the poetic dialogue and allegorical pretension may be more lethal. Emperor of the North Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 min. / Ship Date September 8, 2015 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Keith Carradine, Charles Tyner, Malcolm Atterbury, Simon Oakland, Harry Caesar, Hal Baylor, Matt Clark, Elisha Cook Jr., Joe Di Reda, Liam Dunn, Diane Dye, Robert Foulk, Sid Haig, Vic Tayback, Dave Willock, Lance Henricksen. Cinematography Joseph Biroc Art Direction Jack Martin Smith Film Editor Michael Luciano Original Music Frank De Vol...

Ann-Margret movies: From sex kitten to two-time Oscar nominee. Ann-Margret: 'Carnal Knowledge' and 'Tommy' proved that 'sex symbol' was a remarkable actress Ann-Margret, the '60s star who went from sex kitten to respected actress and two-time Oscar nominee, is Turner Classic Movies' star today, Aug. 13, '15. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” series, TCM is showing this evening the movies that earned Ann-Margret her Academy Award nods: Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Ken Russell's Tommy (1975). Written by Jules Feiffer, and starring Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, the downbeat – some have found it misogynistic; others have praised it for presenting American men as chauvinistic pigs – Carnal Knowledge is one of the precursors of “adult Hollywood moviemaking,” a rare species that, propelled by the success of disparate arthouse fare such as Vilgot Sjöman's I Am Curious (Yellow) and Costa-Gavras' Z, briefly flourished from...

Another forgotten gem from the mid-1970s receiving a new Blu-ray treatment is 1975’s Report to the Commissioner, a textured police procedural examining changing social mores and the generalized internal corruptions we’re used to in these scenarios, resulting in tragic circumstances thanks to the sincere ignorance of its protagonist. Yaphet Kotto, a regular supporting player in a number of Blaxploitation features from the decade, is a standout as a weary, sympathetic detective numbed by the machinations of law enforcement. It’s a greatly overlooked title of the era, featuring a variety of recognizable names in early roles as street hoods, and based on a novel by James Mills (The Panic in Needle Park, 1971), adapted for the screen by Abby Mann (Judgment at Nuremberg, 1961) and Ernest Tidyman (Shaft; The French Connection, both 1971). Though its narrative is, at times, a bit rough around the edges, this deliberately paced thriller features rich characterizations and excellent chase sequences.

Ewan McGregor tells Details the Trainspotting sequel "might happen" and doesn't speak to highly of Star Wars crazies saying: I don't have any experience with them. I've never been to one of the conventions. The people I meet are the f**kers who want me to sign Star Wars photos so they can sell them on the Internet or the people at premieres who are crushing children against barriers to get me to sign their f**king picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi. They're not fans -- they're parasitical lowlifes and f**king wankers. The Lego Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have signed on to write The Lego Movie 2, though no word on whether they'll return to direct the sequel which is set for a May 25, 2018 release date. Deadline Bruce Greenwood joins Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett in Truth for writer/director James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) telling the story of...

• Demian Bichir is in negotiations to take the lead in the untitled Low Riders film for Universal, Blumhouse Productions, and Imagine Entertainment. Ricardo de Montreuil is attached to direct the film. Cheo Hodari Coker and Elgin James wrote earlier drafts of the script; Josh Bierne-Gordon and Justin Tipping wrote the current draft. Set in the East Los Angeles world of lowrider cars and street tagging, the story follows a teenager caught in the middle of his traditional father, whom Bichir would play, and his estranged gangbanger brother, both of whom are competing in the annual lowrider “Supershow.” Imagine Entertainment’s...

Wesley Snipes is back in action and is set to star in a Chuck Russell-directed remake of the 1961 Johnny Cash-led crime-drama "Five Minutes to Live" for Hannibal Pictures.

The original starred Cash and Vic Tayback as two thieves who conspire to rob a bank and hold the bank manager’s wife hostage. Russell and Raul Sanchez-Inglis co-write the script for the remake.

Joseph Nasser, Michael Mendelsohn and Richard Rionda Del Castro will produce. International rights for the project will go on sale next week at the American Film Market.

Source: Variety...

Mark Wahlberg and director Rupert Wyatt are in talks to join The Gambler remake at Paramount Pictures.

Last August, Todd Phillips signed on to direct, taking over for Martin Scorsese who had been attached to direct since August 2011. Leonardo DiCaprio was, at one point, attached to star, but he is no longer involved. Deals for both Mark Wahlberg and Rupert Wyatt are still coming together, and Rupert Wyatt does have an option on an untitled project at 20th Century Fox that he may still go ahead with.

James Caan starred in the original 1974 drama The Gambler, which followed a literature professor who is addicted to gambling and gets into hot water with some local gangsters. Paul Sorvino and Lauren Hutton co-starred in the film, which was directed by Karel Reisz.

William Monahan (The Departed) wrote the screenplay for the remake, with Irwin Winkler set to produce. No production schedule was given.

Director Todd Phillips, who is set to go into production on The Hangover Part III soon, has lined up his first drama project with Paramount's remake of The Gambler.

We first reported on this project last August, when Martin Scorsese was attached to direct from a screenplay by William Monahan. The story centers a UCLA literature professor, who has a serious gambling addiction and gets in trouble with with gangsters. Our earlier report indicated that Leonardo DiCaprio was circling the lead role, but it isn't known if he is still involved.

Irwin Winkler, who produced the original, is back on board as a producer. It is believed that this could be Todd Phillips' next project after he wraps on The Hangover Part III, although that has not been confirmed.

The Gambler was released September 1974 and stars James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton, Morris Carnovsky, Jacqueline Brookes, Burt Young, Carmine Caridi,...

Jan de Bont has signed on to direct a remake of the 1961 crime thriller Five Minutes to Live for producers Joseph Nasser and Jack Nasser.

Raul Inglis is writing the screenplay, which follows two men who attempt to rob a bank through an unconventional method. One man holds the bank manager's wife hostage, while the other tells the manager his wife only has five minutes to live unless he transfers money to their account. Musician Johnny Cash starred in the original Five Minutes to Live, which also featured Ron Howard.

Nasser Entertainment Group is financing the drama, which will begin casting immediately. No production schedule was given for Five Minutes to Live.

Jan de Bont, who was a longtime cinematographer before making his directorial debut with Speed, has not directed a movie since 2003's Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life.

Five Minutes to Live was released December 7th,...

One of the stranger turns in his entertainment career, Johnny Cash starred in the 1961 crime thriller Five Minutes to Live, playing a criminal named Johnny Cabot involved in a kidnapping and bank robbery. Deadline now reports that the project is planned for a remake with Jan De Bont directing.

Re-released in 1966 under the title Door-to-Door Maniac, the film still featured Cash's opening credits song, also called "Five Minutes to Live". The plot saw his character teaming with another criminal, Fred (played by Vic Tayback) to pull a two-sided heist. Fred will hold up a bank while Johnny takes the wife of the bank's vice president hostage in her own home, ensuring that the robbery goes smootly.

Read more...

One of the stranger turns in his entertainment career, Johnny Cash starred in the 1961 crime thriller Five Minutes to Live , playing a criminal named Johnny Cabot involved in a kidnapping and bank robbery. Deadline now reports that the project is planned for a remake with Jan de Bont directing. Re-released in 1966 under the title Door-to-Door Maniac , the film still featured Cash's opening credits song, also called "Five Minutes to Live." The plot saw his character teaming with another criminal, Fred (played by Vic Tayback) to pull a two-sided heist. Fred will hold up a bank while Johnny takes the wife of the bank's vice president hostage in her own home, ensuring that the robbery goes smootly. The new version of the story has been written by Raul Inglis, who...

Don't get your panties in a bunch, Kenny Rogers fans! Director Martin Scorsese and writer William Monahan are remaking The Gambler. But rest assured, it's the 1974 drama from director Karel Reisz that starred James Caan as an English professor with a gambling problem. Not a reimagining of the great bearded one's time spent in the old west.

Leonardo DiCaprio is wanted for the lead role in this new version of The Gambler, though no deal is in place yet. Irwin Winkler, producer of the original, will be back to produce this new version as well.

William Monahan will base his screenplay on the short novel of the same name from Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The story finds this New York teacher so desperate to bet his meager wages that he ends up extorting money from his own mom and eventually has one of his students rig a basketball game.

Martin Scorsese is...

Westwood - The master of sensual European cinema golden years have a tint of blue. UCLA just hosted retrospective of Radley Metzger’s films. His most important films are being released on Blu-ray. He’s about to take the director’s chair as he approaches 83.

His masterwork Camille 2000 was just released Blu-ray with an extended version from Cult Epics. The 1969 update of Dumas’ The Lady of the Camellias takes place in an esoteric Italy. The restored high definition transfer gives a detailed look at that magical time. The Party Favors had a chance to chat with Radley Metzger about the release.

Trailer provided by Video Detective

Radley is a true independent filmmaker. He owns the rights to his films instead of selling them off to distributor. He’s not at the mercy of an indifferent studio executive to keep his cinematic legacy available. The first question had to be...

All Dogs Go to Heaven was direct competition to Disney’s The Little Mermaid in theaters way back in the late ’80s. Both features were released on the same day and audiences headed to the movie with the teen mermaid in a shell-bra rather rather than the gambling mongrel. Though respectable during its theatrical release, the film didn’t showcase Don Bluth might like his previous features An American Tail and The Land Before Time. Still, All Dogs Go to Heaven did amazingly well when it arrived on VHS. It’s new-found popularity helped spawned a TV series and a theatrical squeal.

The film was one of those movies I never got around to seeing. Ever. There’s no particular reason why I unconsciously avoided All Dogs Go to Heaven. Perhaps it was divine intervention that my eyes never landed on the misadventures of Charlie B. Barker (voiced by Burt Reynolds...

Though at times it’s easy to forget, there were animated films in the 80s and 90s that didn’t come from Disney. Remember The Land Before Time? An American Tail: Fievel Goes West? Among this generation of non-Disney films was All Dogs Go to Heaven, a pseudo-musical that had some of the necessary charm and some great animation, but ultimately couldn’t live up to Disney standards. This tale of two dogs and the little girl who could talk to animals was dragged down by miscast parts which led to some miserable songs. Looking back on it all, it seems that the title is more memorable than the film itself.

Charlie (Burt Reynolds) and his sidekick Itchy (Dom DeLuise) break out of the kennel and decide that Charlie’s old stomping ground should be their first stop. They arrive at the casino that Charlie and Carface (Vic Tayback) used...

Burbank - Traci Lords was the biggest name in showbiz in 1986, but for all the wrong reasons. She had become a major star in the adult industry. Her run started as Penthouse Pet of the month for the issue that exposed Vanessa Williams in September of 1984. Dozens of video titles appeared as she became the it girl noted for her youthful looks.

There was a reason for her looking so young: she’d used fake IDs to appear 20. She was under 18 in dozens of her adult films. Only one was made after she turned 18. The FBI and other police agencies poured over the valley investigating everyone connected to the industry. In the midst of this ugliness, Traci Lords still dreamed of being an actress. Luckily she found entry into the profession through the gates of Roger Corman’s studio.

She was signed to remake Not of This Earth with Jim Wynorski directing.

Paris - When you want to escape to the Riviera without spending the vacation time, you can always catch a foreign film that captures the sea, sun and fun. The Girl From Monaco transports us to the principality nestled along the French coastline.

Fabrice Luchini plays a Parisian lawyer who heads to the coast to defend a client accused of killing a Russian mobster. He gets distracted from the courthouse drama by a local weather girl (Louise Bourgoin). Can he get his mind back on the homicide? Or has he gone on vacation?

The film is now out on DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment. Director Anne Fontaine was willing to answer a few questions via email. Fontaine had been an actress in French cinema during the ’80s before stepping behind the camera as a writer-director. She also recently wrote and directed critically praised Coco Before Chanel.

Party Favors: What was...

The shocking 1971 thriller Blood And Lace (not to be confused with Mario Bava’s similarly titled Blood And Black Lace from 1964) opens with a bloody hammer murder shot from the point of view of the killer that predates an almost identical opening to John Carpenter’s Halloween by 6 years. The plot of Blood And Lace involves murder, pedophilia, incest, and a freezer full of child corpses. And it was rated PG! (more accurately Gp, the 1971 equivalent). An irresistible mix of bad psychodrama, overacting, and gratuitous gore, Blood And Lace is a disturbing film of genuine misanthropy, bereft of humanity on any level and it’s hard to believe that children in 1971 were allowed into movie theatres showing it. It’s also hard to believe that it is Not available on DVD.

The victim of Blood And Lace’s aforementioned hammer attack was village hooker Edna Masters, leaving her troubled teenage...