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One of the most groundbreaking shows in television history is "The Twilight Zone," created in 1959 by Rod Serling. An anthology series, each episode weaves into thought-provoking tales that individually veer into the realms of science fiction, fantasy, or outright horror. Well-received during its initial broadcast run, "The Twilight Zone" went on to produce multiple revival series after the original show's conclusion in 1964. And while horror wasn't always the series' main focus, it produced some of the most memorably frightening episodes of its time.

Whether asking disturbing existential questions or presenting genuinely terrifying antagonists and narrative stakes, "The Twilight Zone" has always been effective at telling scary stories. This remains true of several of its revivals, particularly the '80s iteration and the Paramount+ series that began in 2019. In its exploration of the surreal, there is always something haunting about "The Twilight Zone" and its best horror-oriented episodes will stay with...

When filmmaker Richard Kelly made his feature directorial debut "Donnie Darko" in 2001, it caused a stir in the arthouse world. "Donnie Darko" quickly accumulated a passionate cult who fell in love with its unbalanced hero (Jake Gyllenhaal) and its twisted time-travel plot. It was a combination psychological horror film and bizarro indie coming-of-age-in-the-1980s tale. Unsurprisingly, it only took a few additional years for "Donnie Darko" to become a regular staple on the midnight movie circuit, with fans dressing up as the film's enigmatic Frank the Bunny on Halloween.

The cult success of "Donnie Darko," however, seemingly went to Kelly's head as he appeared to become very, very convinced of his own importance as a new artistic voice in the indie film world. It took five years, but he eventually returned to theaters with the utterly gonzo "Southland Tales," an epic and ambitious film about the horrors of the George W. Bush administration.

While many works of Richard Matheson ended up on the small screen, the author was a giant when it came to genre. From post-apocalyptic monsters to gremlins on a plane, Matheson fathered a treasure trove of speculative stories that have since inspired countless other writers, including Stephen King. King said of the late Matheson: “[He] fired my imagination by placing his horrors not in European castles and Lovecraftian universes, but in American scenes I knew and could relate to.” And of all his homegrown writings, Matheson’s short story “Button, Button” may very well be his most approachable. For everyone can understand the allure of immediate wealth, even if that windfall comes with strings attached. Matheson, however, wove this universal desire into a unique and uncanny moral quandary — one where the offer is not only too good to be true, it also has fatal consequences.

Matheson’s unsettling tale has led to a few adaptations,...

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s whirlwind career of 40-plus movies made within just over a dozen years kicked off with Love Is Colder Than Death. It ended, all too soon, with a sendoff that may as well have been called Death Is Hotter Than Love. Even if it hadn’t wound up being Fassbinder’s final cinematic will and testament, Querelle, an uber-horny but otherwise unorthodox adaptation of Jean Genet’s 1947 novel Querelle of Brest, would still feel like a film precariously perched between rowdy, profane life and that liminal, insatiable zone that always follows la petite mort.

But because the timeline spanning the film’s completion to its release was bisected by Fassbinder’s death from a drug overdose, it’s nearly impossible to avoid overlaying the gorgeously wrecked glamour of his entire career onto the film, draping the virtue of his carnal vices over a package that’s already prodigiously overstuffed.

The Criterion Collection has announced its slate of releases for June 2024, which is headlined by 4K restorations of two of the boutique label’s most popular Blu-rays and four new high profile additions to the collection.

David Lynch’s landmark 1986 neo-noir horror film, which marked his first collaboration with Laura Dern alongside her future “Twin Peaks: The Return” co-star Kyle McLachlan, will be re-released by Criterion with a new 4K transfer. It joins Lynch’s “Eraserhead,” “Mulholland Drive,” “Lost Highway,” “Inland Empire,” “The Elephant Man,” and “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” in the Criterion 4K library.

Also getting the 4K treatment is Terry Gilliam’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” which sees Johnny Depp playing Hunter S. Thompson stand-in Raoul Duke in a psychedelic adaptation of the landmark countercultural novel.

New additions to the collection include Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s “Bound,” Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Querelle,” Emilio Fernández’s “Victims of Sin,...

Ahmed El-Shenawi, the Egyptian-born actor whose character delightfully announces that a slithering helping of “snake surprise” is about to be served in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, has died. He was 75.

El-Shenawi died Feb. 1 in Chelsea, London, his daughter, Eman El-Shenawi, told The Hollywood Reporter. He had been in the hospital for an operation to repair a fracture and developed an infection that led to sepsis, she said.

El-Shenawi also portrayed a prisoner who inherits a radio in Alan Parker’s harrowing Midnight Express (1978), starring Brad Davis, and he had the pivotal role of the therapist who hypnotizes the detective (Michael Elphick) in The Element of Crime (1984) — Lars von Trier’s first feature and the first in his Europa trilogy. Both movies played at Cannes.

“I believe his brief but impactful moments of fame resonated so much among many,” his daughter said.

In Steven Spielberg’s Temple of Doom (1984), the extremely large El-Shenawi,...

Long before he made Popeye Doyle race a Brooklyn subway and Regan MacNeil’s head spin, William Friedkin began his career doing live TV. He’d move on to an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, short documentaries, a Sonny-and-Cher joint (Good Times), theatrical adaptations (The Birthday Party, The Boys in the Band), and then an all-guts-all-glory double shot that instantly made him a New Hollywood power player. But like a lot of directors coming up in the early 1960s, his roots were with actors, words, conflict, and not much more.

If you want to know the particulars of why the crew of the USS Caine minesweeper turned on its captain, Lt. Cmdr. Philip Francis Queeg, seek out the 1954 film version of The Caine Mutiny, starring Humphrey Bogart in one of his defining roles, the next time it shows up on Turner Classic Movies. For now, TV returns to Herman Wouk’s stage adaptation of his 1951 novel, a classic courtroom drama first shown live as part of Ford Star Jubilee in 1955, with an Emmy-winning Lloyd Nolan reprising his Broadway role as Queeg. Director Robert Altman filmed it for TV in 1988, with Brad Davis as Queeg, and Showtime‘s new version, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, is of special interest as the final film directed by Oscar winner William Friedkin. Though not particularly flashy, Friedkin’s camera glides with purposeful restraint, keeping the focus on the combatants in a story that has been...

There was barely a dry eye in the house at the Los Angeles premiere three decades ago of HBO’s landmark AIDS’ film “And the Band Played On.” During the end credit sequence set to Elton John’s “The Last Song” was a montage of well-known people who had died of AIDS or were HIV positive including Ryan White, Rock Hudson, Anthony Perkins, Rudolf Nureyev, Arthur Ashe, Michael Bennett, Liberace, Halston, Peter Allen, Denholm Elliott, Brad Davis, Amanda Blake and Robert Reed.

No wonder emotions were running high. Deaths were rising every year. According to Social Security Administration, some 37,000 people died of HIV Illness in 1993. And it would be three years before the introduction of Haart-highly active antiretroviral therapy-that is often called the anti-hiv “cocktail.”

Based on Randy Shilts’ 1987 best-seller, “And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic,” the acclaimed film, which premiered on HBO on Sept.

Masculinity as a subject isn’t always framed kindly in narratives documenting the early exploration and discovery of the queer self. After all, its aspirational qualities for closeted boys are too often complicated by the threats associated with not having it. Yet the failed attempt at masculine performance can sometimes recast our desire to be different kind of men into an appetite for looking at them instead, and in his essay collection The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men, culture writer and critic Manuel Betancourt explores the development of his queer male gaze through candid and wide-ranging reflections on the pop-cultural influences that formed his early education in how to want and how to be.

Betancourt begins with a meditation on his early fascination with the male form specifically as represented in the Disney films of his childhood, as his reluctance to...

Shuri might not have been the main character in Black Panther, but she had a big impact on the movie and her role was expanded much further in the sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Given that Shuri is a genius and scientist, her romantic life definitely shouldn’t be the focus of her story in future films. However, as with all characters, it’s always fun for fans to imagine possible romantic relationships for their favorite characters.

Updated on November 11th, 2022 by Colin McCormick: With her return in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Shuri looks poised for a larger role in the MCU. And along with stepping into the spotlight, it could mean that she will also be getting a love interest within the MCU before long. While the perfect match for Shuri is difficult to pin down, there are some more interesting possibilities, including some of the new characters...

“The Exorcist” and “The French Connection” auteur William Friedkin is gearing up to direct his first film in five years, an adaptation of the play “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” and “24” star Kiefer Sutherland is in talks to star in the film, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Sutherland would play Lt. Commander Queeg in the film, which is an adaptation of the two-act play by Herman Wouk, itself based on Wouk’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from 1951 “The Caine Mutiny.” And the screenplay for Friedkin’s film is in fact from Wouk himself, a 50-year-old draft based on the original source material, with Friedkin making revisions.

“The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” in particular only shows the court martial scene from the larger story, and it puts the audience in the position of the jury as we only know what’s said in the trial, none of the events that led to the mutiny.

Exclusive: William Friedkin has been plenty selective in the films he directs, but the heralded helmer of The French Connection, The Exorcist, To Live and Die in L.A. and others has found both a script and a star he could not resist.

Kiefer Sutherland will star as Lt. Commander Queeg in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, using a 50-year-old play script written by Herman Wouk from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It is being plotted for a January start, and casting is just getting underway. Annabelle Dunne and Matt Parker are producing. Sutherland’s deal is being finalized.

“I’ve looked at a lot of scripts in the last 10 years, and I haven’t seen anything I really wanted to do,” said Friedkin, who most recently directed 2011’s stylish noir drama Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey. “But I think about it a lot, and it occurred to me that could be...

Sterling K. Brown, Laverne Cox, Jeremy Pope and Jake Borelli are among the all-star cast of a virtual benefit reading of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, to be directed by Paris Barclay.

The May 8 reading, to raise funds for One Archives Foundation and Invisible Histories Project, will include a special introduction by Martin Sheen.

Rounding out the cast are Vincent Rodriguez III (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend): Guillermo Díaz (Scandal); Jake Borelli (Grey’s Anatomy); Ryan O’Connell (Will & Grace); Daniel Newman (Walking Dead); Jay Hayden (Station 19); and Danielle Savre (Station 19). The reading, according to producers, will mark the first performance of Kramer’s Tony-winning play to be performed by a predominately Bipoc and LGBTQ cast.

“When I was approached by One Archives Foundation to direct a virtual reading of The Normal Heart, I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” said Barclay. “I lived in New York through the 1980s,...

 a series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Norbert Weisser co-stars as Erich in Alan Pakula's 1978 hit "Midnight Express."Our journeys into classic cinema has allowed us to explore the beginnings of the gay best friend trope and coding during the Hayes Code. Once the code was abolished, the late 60s and 70s were able to go wild. While sex, swearing and violence began to populate films, the depiction of gay people stayed relatively the same. Movies were able to actually define characters as LGBTQ+, but they were often villains or would meet a tragic fate. Sympathetic LGBTQ+ characters were tough to come by.

At first glance, the brutal prison drama Midnight Express would not seem like the place to find a nice gay best friend. But Erich (Norbert Weisser) stands out as a light among the considerable darkness. Erich acts as the confidant and guide for our protagonist,...

Alan Parker is not one of the name auteurs you learn about in Film History 101. That’s partly because he wasn’t known for doing one thing. The working-class Londoner made his mark in the 70s with commercials and television before breaking out with period child-gangster musical “Bugsy Malone” (1976), starring Jodie Foster. He died Friday morning at age 76.

True story “Midnight Express” (1978) took viewers on a harrowing descent into Turkish prison hell (starring Brad Davis as Billy Hayes), established Oscar nominee Parker as a taut manipulator of suspense, and won Oscars for screenwriter Oliver Stone and composer Giorgio Moroder. In drama “Birdy” (1984), Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage went on another unpredictable journey, from kids hanging in Philadelphia to soldiers fighting in Vietnam and finally, a grim hospital ward.

Always skilled at using music in his movies, from New York high-school musical “Fame” (1980) to Madonna vehicle “Evita” (1996), Parker became a stylish Hollywood director-for-hire.

Alan Parker, an English movie director with an exceptionally wide-ranging oeuvre ranging from “Bugsy Malone” to “Evita,” from “Midnight Express” to “The Road to Wellville,” has died. He was 76.

The British Film Institute confirmed Parker’s death on Friday, noting he died after a long illness.

Parker was twice Oscar-nominated for best director, for 1978’s “Midnight Express” and for 1988’s Mississippi Burning.” While the director’s subject matter was eclectic, he did return frequently to the musical form: His films “Bugsy Malone,” “Fame,” “Pink Floyd the Wall,” “The Commitments” and “Evita” were all musicals or had strong musical elements in one form or another.

Parker’s first feature film, 1976’s “Bugsy Malone,” made a considerable splash for an audacious concept that worked only because everyone kept a straight face. The film was a Depression-era gangster musical cast entirely with children, the oldest perhaps 15. These included Jodie Foster and Scott Baio.

Joel Grey approached Larry Kramer after seeing a preview performance of “The Normal Heart” at New York’s Public Theater in 1985.

“I was devastated and said to him, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if anything changes in the future or if there’s another production, please call me,’” Grey recalled in an interview on Wednesday shortly after learning about the writer and AIDS activist’s death.

About two days later, producer Joseph Papp called Grey and asked him if he wanted to join the show. It was bittersweet because he would be replacing Brad Davis, who had become too sick with AIDS-related illnesses to continue, as Ned.

Friends suggested that Grey seek a doctor’s advice about taking the job because it involved kissing other men. “Someone said you better call UCLA and ask a doctor there if you are putting yourself in harm’s way.

It’s safe to say that we all knew this would be happening, but now it’s official: Zendaya will be reprising her role as Michelle “Mj” Jones in Spider-Man 3. The beloved character made her first onscreen appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming, where she took over as the head of the Decathlon team and eventually befriended Ned Leeds and Peter Parker.

Her friendship with the hero soon sprouted into a romance during their trip to Europe in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Michelle is one of the few people who know about her boyfriend’s alter ego, too, and as the franchise moves forward, fans are excited to get to watch their relationship continue to evolve. Given how things left off between them at the end of the last flick though, it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen next.

Spider-Man: Far From Home HD Stills 1 of 15

Click to...

You might remember the Spider-Man: Far From Home cast’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live back in May, in which Tom Holland and the rest joked about the confusing state of the McU timeline following Avengers: Endgame. On the topic of how Peter Parker and his friends are still in high school following the five-year time jump, Holland jokingly called it “the biggest plot hole of all time.”

Now that we’ve actually seen the movie, it’s clear that the filmmakers were aware that this needed some clarification. In fact, the opening scene explains that those who were turned to dust before “the Blip” are required to redo the whole school year now that they’ve been resurrected. It wasn’t really a plot hole at all, then, so why did the cast pretend it was?

While speaking to Huffington Post, Far From Home director Jon Watts was asked...

‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ (Photo: Sony Pictures).

Remy Hii landed a supporting role in Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home just two days after he sent a self-tape to the producers.

Now he is in Los Angeles, celebrating the sequel’s stellar debuts in the Us, Australia and multiple other markets.

Directed by Jon Watts, the action adventure, which also features Angourie Rice, smashed the all-time opening day record in the Us and racked up $150.4 million after its first few days in international markets.

Set in Europe after the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the movie rang up $2.92 million in Australia on Monday, Sony Pictures’ biggest ever launch day. Through Wednesday it has earned $6.96 million, according to Numero.

Starring Tom Holland as Peter Parker, Zendaya as Mj, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Jake Gyllenhaal as Quentin Beck/Mysterio, it scored an estimated $39.3 million in the Us on Tuesday.

Spider-Man: Far From Home features some of our favorite returning Marvel stars, including Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Jacob Batalon (Ned), and Zendaya (Mj). But there are also some new, insanely attractive faces gracing the big screen with their presence. One of the standout hunks is the character Brad Davis, who competes with Peter for Mj's attention. So, who plays him? Say hello to 32-year-old Remy Hii.

In the comics, Brad is the star quarterback at Empire State University where he and Mj date. But in the McU, he's introduced as a suave ladies' man, amassing countless eye-rolls and side-eyes from Peter. When half of all living things get snapped to dust in Avengers: Infinity War - an event dubbed "the blip" - those who disappear into oblivion don't age within the five years it takes for the Avengers to get back on track and ultimately defeat Thanos. Spider-Man: Far From Home reveals that Peter,...

Avengers: Endgame might tie up some loose ends, but it also blasts a gargantuan hole through the wall of possibility for Marvel's fourth phase. Spider-Man: Far From Home is the official final movie in the Infinity Saga, and it's already giving us a glimpse at just how wild things are going to get once we dive into the new McU era. We already know that the film hints at the possibility of a multiverse - an infinite realm in which different versions of our world exist - but there's another anomalous occurrence that the movie addresses: how the heck are Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and his classmates still in high school?

The answer is simple, albeit trippy. But let's first rewind a bit. We already know that Thanos delivers the noxious snap in Avengers: Infinity War and wipes out half the universe, including Spider-Man. After the Avengers suffer from that devastating defeat,...

As the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be released after the shoot-the-works finale of the “Avengers” saga, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” gets to test-drive a crucial question of blockbuster culture, if not movie aesthetics: What does it feel like to watch a Marvel film in a post-Avengers world? Is there anything at stake left?

There has, on occasion, been something at stake in a Marvel movie, yet rarely does it have much to do with how the end of civilization looms up in these movies. It has to do with that mysterious, hard-to-bottle chemistry of audience and superhero — the flow of actor, character, mythology, and FX concept as they merge and navigate a universe of eye-widening hermetic excitement. On that score, “Far From Home” takes a quantum leap — or maybe just a spider swing — over the first Peter Parker film in the McU, 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” (Many...

Jason Adams from Mnpp here, continuing our little Pride Month run of Lgbt-centric "Beauty vs Beast" contests -- we're turning our eyes towards the small screen this week for one of our favorite on-going queer series, Phoebe Waller-Bridge's fabulously twisted sapphic spy versus spy series Killing Eve. Deserving all of the awards we can violently fling at them in one corner we've got Sandra Oh as Eve, the hyper-capable but darksided intelligence officer, and in the other there's Jodie Comer as the psychopath but don't call her that Villanelle (god that name is so good), who's spotted a little something inside Eve she can't wait to dig her fingers around in.

survey services

Previously That low-cut tank-top on Brad Davis proved too tough for us to resist, tilting last week's Querelle poll perilously in his favor with a broad-chested 82% of the vote. I would shed a tear for Franco Nero but.

Jason Adams from Mnpp here using this week's "Beauty vs Beast" to memorialize a sad anniversary -- the great German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder died of an overdose on this day in the year 1982. Unsurprising given his extraordinary output over the course of his 37 years on Earth Fassbinder's projects outlived his days, and one finished film came out a few months after he'd passed -- his gorgeously gay and strange Genet adaptation Querelle, starring Brad Davis as a sailor entangled in lusty criminalities in port, and that's where we'll rest our eyes today (since we're also covering Lgbt films all June to boot). Much like Lieutenant Seblon can't keep his eyes off his charge, neither can we all these years later...

find bike trails

Previously The first week of Pride Month took us to sweet Translyvania, where Tim Curry's Dr. Frank N Furter easily swanned off with 0ver 80% of your Rocky Horror votes.

Herman Wouk, the author of novels adapted to the big and small screen, including “The Caine Mutiny,” “Marjorie Morningstar,” “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance,” has died. He was 103.

“The Caine Mutiny,” a 1951 bestseller that won Wouk the Pulitzer Prize, was memorably adapted into the 1954 film starring Humphrey Bogart, who played the paranoid, mentally unstable captain of a Navy minesweeper whose actions drive his subordinates to mutiny. That pic, directed by Edward Dmytryk and also starring Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray, drew seven Oscar nominations, including those for best picture and screenplay for Stanley Roberts.

Wouk relied upon his wartime experiences not only for “The Caine Mutiny,” but for his later novels “The Winds of War” (1971) and “War and Remembrance” (1978). These expansive works, which followed one character, Navy Commander Victor “Pug” Henry, through seemingly every important moment in WWII, were adapted into the highly successful ABC miniseries of the same name.

World AIDS Day takes place on December 1st each year. It's an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day. Globally, there are an estimated 36.7 million people who have the virus. Despite the virus only being identified in 1984, more than 35 million people have died of HIV or AIDS, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in history.

Today, scientific advances have been made in HIV treatment, there are laws to protect people living with HIV and we understand so much more about the condition. World AIDS Day is important because it reminds the public and government that HIV has not gone away – there is still a vital need to raise money, increase awareness, fight prejudice and improve education.

2017-04-03T04:41:09-07:00John Cena Makes Big Announcement at Wrestlemania.

After having his love for Nikki Bella publicly questioned by The Miz before their match at WrestleMania 33, John Cena proposed to his longtime girlfriend on pro wrestling's biggest stage Sunday.

The proposal came after he and Nikki beat The Miz and his wife, Maryse, in a tag-team match.

The Wrestling Observer's Bryan Alvarez joked it finally answered one of the biggest questions about Cena's in-ring career.

Cena's failure to propose earlier was a part of the rivalry that led him and Nikki to cross paths with The Miz and Maryse at WrestleMania. During the buildup to the show, The Miz and Maryse ridiculed the couple and said Cena loved himself rather than Nikki.

Not only will Cena's proposal be a patented WrestleMania moment, but it could be a fitting send-off for Nikki, much like when her...

John Hurt‘s passing has left behind another hole in the heart of Hollywood, but his roles will live on forever.

Hurt, who died at the age of 77, had a long-lasting career in films and the stage, starring in such classics as David Lynch’s The Elephant Man and Midnight Express.

Midnight Express (1978)

Hurt’s turn as Max in this classic film earned him his first Academy Award nomination for his portrayal as a heroin addict imprisoned in a Turkish jail.

Starring opposite Brad Davis, who played the main character Billy Hayes, an imprisoned American college student, Hurt delivered an...

Robert Altman's murder tale reeks of insider access and Hollywood hipster Bs; its main claim to greatness is its fifty-plus star cameos. It may no longer seem as smart as it looked in 1992, but they don't make 'em any slicker than this. The Player Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 812 1992 / Color /1:85 widescreen / 124 min. / Available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 24, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Brion James, Cynthia Stevenson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lyle Lovett. Cinematography Jean Lépine Original Music Thomas Newman Written by Michael Tolkin from his novel Produced by David Brown, Michael Tolkin, Nick Wechsler Directed by Robert Altman

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Robert Altman's filmography is undergoing what looks like a full retrospective through Criterion; even the 1975 title Nashville came out not long ago. This very successful later picture marks a revitalization of the director's career. It's sort of a Kafkaesque spin on Hail,...

Even as a new version of the classic mini-series is in the works, Warner Bros. is aiming to please fans by bringing the entire original series of Roots to the high definition format with a slew of bonus features. Come inside to learn more!

If you're a fan of the original Roots series, or weren't old enough to remember the iconic mini-series, then you're in luck. Today WB has announced a new blu-ray set to bring the entire series to blu-ray with loads of special features that dive into the heart of the story on June 7, 2016. All the details are below:

The groundbreaking, acclaimed television miniseries that captivated the entire nation and won multiple awards, Roots, will be released on Blu-ray™ for the first time, by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (Wbhe) on June 7, 2016. The legendary family saga, which follows the inspiring story of Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton, Transformers: Rescue Bots,...

Brad Pitt 'Glory Days' costar Nicholas Kallsen Brad Pitt 'Glory Days' costar Nicholas Kallsen dead at 48 Nicholas Kallsen, who was featured opposite Brad Pitt in the short-lived television series Glory Days, has died at age 48 in Thailand according to online reports. Their source is one of Rupert Murdoch's rags, citing a Facebook posting by one of the actor's friends. The cause of death was purportedly – no specific source was provided – a drug overdose.* Aired on Fox in July 1990, Glory Days told the story of four high-school friends whose paths take different directions after graduation. Besides Nicholas Kallsen and Brad Pitt, the show also featured Spike Alexander and Evan Mirand. Glory Days lasted a mere six episodes – two of which directed by former Happy Days actor Anson Williams – before its cancellation. Roommates Nicholas Kallsen and Brad Pitt vying for same 'Thelma & Louise' role? The Murdoch tabloid also...

NBC’s preview to the Golden Globes Awards ceremony, “Countdown to the Globes,” to air Friday will feature a roster of stars from film, television and series on streaming websites.

Hosted by Meredith Vieira, the special includes interviews from nominees such as Benedict ‘s Cumberbatch (“The Imitation Game”), Patricia Arquette (“Boyhood”), Kevin Spacey (“House of Cards”), Uzo Aduba (“Orange Is the New Black”) and singer John Legend for his nominated ballad “Glory” featuring rapper Common from the film “Selma.”

See photos: Golden Globes 2015: The Nominees

Joining Vieira as host are E!s “Untold” host Maria Menounos, “NBC News” reporters Cynthia McFadden and Tom Brokaw.

Hayes in his one man stage show Riding the Midnight Express with Billy Hayes, which is now on tour.

By Mark Cerulli

“Ne Oldu, Ne Oldu, Veelyam Hayes…” That line from Midnight Express, delivered with swaggering menace by a depraved prison warden (played by the great Paul L. Smith) burned itself into this scribe’s cortex back in 1978. Alan Parker’s iconic film about the real-life ordeal of American student Billy Hayes caught smuggling drugs in Turkey and sentenced to a hellish prison became a cultural phenomenon – not to mention an international box office success. It earned glowing reviews and Oscars for screenwriter Oliver Stone and composer Gorgio Moroder. Hayes even met his wife Wendy at the splashy Cannes premiere. No joy for Turkey, though - there was an international outcry about their seemingly draconian justice system and the country’s once-booming tourism hit the skids hard. The gritty association...

Exclusive, Updated At 6:06 p.m. with comments about Spotlight at end: You might call August, 2014 a full-circle month for Mark Ruffalo. His performance as Ned Weeks in Ryan Murphy‘s HBO version of The Normal Heart earned one of that film’s astonishing 16 Emmy nominations, with the winners to be announced on Aug. 25. He’s eager to catch the Broadway revival of the 1996 stage play that launched his career, Kenneth Lonergan‘s This Is Our Youth, which begins on the 18th with Michael Cera and Kieran Culkin.

Writing about his work in Lonergan’s You Can Count On Me, the New York Times’ Stephen Holden said, “Mr. Ruffalo’s star-making performance deserves to be added to the list of charismatic, grownup lost boys that includes the Marlon Brando of A Streetcar Named Desire and the Jack Nicholson of Easy Rider.”

Yet this is the same guy who plays the Hulk in the Avengers franchise.

Waterworks some nights at 11. This one is from the vaults from the first season. But it's worth a revisit as the film is currently available on Netflix Instant Watch.

I've always been a little bit a lot perplexed by the famous shower scene in Alan Parker's Midnight Express (1978). I'm not exactly sure why it's in the movie. Midnight Express strongest asset is arguably its expressive physicality and gritty tactile quality; you feel like you're right there in the grotty hellish Turkish prison, sweating and suffering along with Billy Hayes (Brad Davis). But the sexual vibes coming off of the movie are at times unfathomable. Is it gay? Is it bi? Is it straight? Is it just horny? Or is its ambiguous eroticism simply a by-product of casting a star as carnally charismatic as Brad Davis in the lead role?

As warm up to the famous shower scene we get...

Toting some precious cargo, Jimmy Fallon carried baby daughter Winnie Rose out of his New York City apartment on Thursday (August 8).

The “Late Night” host held his little angel while carefully lugging his briefcase down into the Big Apple sidewalks.

During a recent episode of his show, Fallon poked fun at a few Major League Soccer players.

After last week’s All Star game, DeAndre Yedlin, Kyle Beckerman, Brad Davis, Mike Magee, Will Johnson, Marco Di Vaio, and Patrice Bernier were under fire in Jimmy’s latest monologue.

Watch the clip below!

Toting some precious cargo, Jimmy Fallon carried baby daughter Winnie Rose out of his New York City apartment on Thursday (August 8).

The “Late Night” host held his little angel while carefully lugging his briefcase down into the Big Apple sidewalks.

During a recent episode of his show, Fallon poked fun at a few Major League Soccer players.

After last week’s All Star game, DeAndre Yedlin, Kyle Beckerman, Brad Davis, Mike Magee, Will Johnson, Marco Di Vaio, and Patrice Bernier were under fire in Jimmy’s latest monologue.

Watch the clip below!

The desperate plight of real-life American drug smuggler Billy Hayes - portrayed by the excellent Brad Davis - makes for haunting viewing in Alan Parker's first-rate prison drama. After being caught taking hash through Istanbul Airport, Hayes was handed a life sentence in a notoriously harsh Turkish slammer. He learns to survive with the help of fellow inmates, including John Hurt's drug-wasted Max.

With Bryan Forbes passing, I was reminded of what a good director he was. He taught me the importance of listening. Oh, I had taken acting classes with Wyn Handman, who directed the American Place Theatre with classmates the likes of Richard Gere and Brad Davis, and filmed many commercials as a spokesperson, but "Stepford Wives" was my first major motion picture. It was the 1975 Ira Levin thriller in which women are turned into docile electronic incarnations of themselves. The scene I recall his talented direction was the following: All we wives were seated in...

Cleaning my basement the other day turned into a musical archaeological dig. I unearthed a Men at Work vinyl album from when I was 8, a bag of old-school rap cassettes ranging from Fresh Prince to N.W.A. and a flipbook of alt rock-era CDs from Alice in Chains and Beck to Smashing Pumpkins and Tool, each one of which I still know by heart from the first track to the hidden one. (Ask a Gen Xer, they’ll know what I’m talking about.)

Nowadays, most everyone, especially young folks, have ephemeral MP3s scattered across their hard drives and smartphones. Increasingly, they don’t even bother with downloads but simply stream songs via services like Rdio.

Millennials have never really known a world, at least for the past 13 years, in which every song they ever wanted wasn’t readily available to them freely file-sharable, for a buck on iTunes or though a subscription.

By Allen Gardner

A Separation (Sony) This drama from Iran won the 2011 Best Foreign Film Oscar, telling the story of a couple who file for a legal separation, with the wife pushing for a divorce. He won’t leave his Alzheimer’s-afflicted father behind, while she is wanting to take their young daughter with her to the United States. After a series of misunderstandings, threats and legal actions, the couple find that there is more than just their marriage that’s on the line. Hyper-realistic to a fault, reminiscent of the neo-realist films that came out of post-ww II Europe, but also repressive and redundant in the extreme, with the characters seeming to throw the same temper tantrum for two hours straight while the story, meanwhile, seems stalled. Wildly overpraised film is a real litmus test, with viewers seeming to be staunch defenders or equally impassioned detractors. It did win an Oscar,...

The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer's semi-autobiographical off-Broadway play about a New Yorker confronted with AIDS in the early years of the pandemic, has been a perennial "movie project." In the last couple of decades, Oscar winners Barbra Streisand and John Schlesinger have at some point in time announced they were going to tackle it, but to date no film version of The Normal Heart has reached the production stages. [Photo: Matt Bomer.] Now, enter Glee creator and movie director Ryan Murphy (Running with Scissors, Eat Pray Love), who optioned the film rights to the play last summer following its Broadway revival success: The Normal Heart won Tonys for Best Revival, Best Supporting Actor (John Benjamin Hickey), and Best Supporting Actress (Ellen Barkin). Murphy apparently hasn't been sitting idly. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Normal Heart already has a cast: Eat Pray Love's Julia Roberts (who'll next be seen as the...

When Billy Hayes is caught by Turkish customs officers trying to smuggle hash out of the country he suddenly finds himself caught up in a draconian, harsh judicial and prison system. Initially hopeful of a more lenient sentence, he is eventually convicted of drug trafficking rather than possession and in the face of several decades rather than just several years at the hands of corrupt, violent and abusive prison guards, he begins to crack.

*****

Although the film begins with “based on true events”, the cast and crew are candid enough throughout the impressive and educational extras to admit to the sequence of re-writes that caused the final screenplay to depart a little from its factual roots. Nonetheless, what remains is a powerful and savage indictment of corruption and brutality and it comes as no surprise to hear how displeased Turkey were with the prospect of a film being based on...

Almost as soon as it was announced that J. Edgar Hoover would be getting a new biopic, speculation has been rife over how his relationship with Clyde Tolson would be portrayed.

Although there's no definitive proof either way, it's widely assumed that Hoover, long-term director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Tolson, his assistant director, were lovers. Director Clint Eastwood sparked concern that Hoover's story would be “straightwashed” when he told The Wall Street Journal that the script “didn't quite go down [the] road” of addressing rumors of Hoover's being closeted and a cross-dresser. (Eastwood later confirmed with The Hollywood Reporter that he included a scene showing Hoover wearing his mother's dress.)

Meanwhile, out J. Edgar screenwriter Dustin Lance Black assured AfterElton that Hoover and Tolson would not be “de-gayed,” saying “To think that somehow you’re going to make a movie about somebody like J. Edgar and...

Time for your semi-weekly theater fix. This one's about a famous play that has (thus far) eluded movie adaptations, the most publicized of which was Barbra Streisand's attempt to have a go at it in the late 1980s.

A new Tony nominated Broadway revival of Larry Kramer's psychic scream The Normal Heart opened recently to absolutely ectastic reviews. The play is very much a product of its time and place, AIDS ravaged 1980s New York. The original play premiered in 1985 Off Broadway, with film star Brad Davis in the lead role. (Davis was diagnosed with the disease himself that same year though this wasn't revealed to the public until 1991 before his death) The play must have been an absolutely defiant shock to the system at a time when people were still struggling to even say the word "AIDS" out loud. Though Kramer's best known work has been revived a few times since,...

Esteemed miniseries still get produced by PBS, like last year’s Return to Cranford, but the major broadcast networks abandoned the genre after cable proved so adept at it (See: Band of Brothers, Angels in America, Broken Trail). A network miniseries hasn’t been nominated for an Emmy since 2005 (Elvis) or won since 2001 (Anne Frank: The Whole Story). But now ABC plans to bring back the spectacle of those must-see events. Not only is the network developing an eight-hour version of Wicked with Salma Hayek, but ABC recently announced it’s producing a four-parter about the doomed voyage of the Titanic,...

The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons and Pushing Daisies’ Lee Pace have joined the cast of director Joel Grey’s Broadway premiere of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. Set in New York City in the early ’80s, the play follows a group of friends who refuse to let doctors, politicians and the press bury the truth of the unspoken HIV/AIDS epidemic. The 12-week engagement begins April 19, with an official opening set for April 27, and must align perfectly with Parsons’ hiatus between Big Bang Theory seasons.

The Normal Heart debuted off-Broadway in 1985, with Grey eventually replacing Brad Davis...

The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons and Pushing Daisies’ Lee Pace have joined the cast of director Joel Grey’s Broadway premiere of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. Set in New York City in the early ’80s, the play follows a group of friends who refuse to let doctors, politicians and the press bury the truth of the unspoken HIV/AIDS epidemic. The 12-week engagement begins April 19, with an official opening set for April 27, and must align perfectly with Parsons’ hiatus between Big Bang Theory seasons.

The Normal Heart debuted off-Broadway in 1985, with Grey eventually replacing Brad Davis...