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Francis Ford Coppola’s projects may be few and far between nowadays and his most recent film, passion project Megalopolis was a flop with audiences and critics (our own Chris Bumbray gave it a 5/10), but the guy still has a staggering presence and remains one of the most respected and influential filmmakers of his generation. As such, the industry is prepared to honor Coppola with the AFI Life Achievement Award next year.

In a statement, chair of the AFI Board of Trustees and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, said, “Francis Ford Coppola is a peerless artist – one who has created seminal works in the canon of American film, and has also inspired generations of filmmakers who now embody his artistry and his independent spirit. AFI is honored to present him with the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award.”

Like so many, Francis Ford Coppola came up through the Roger Corman system, delivering...

Amazon's new Zorro series embraces the Native American connections that have been overlooked in previous adaptations. Native Americans were close allies to Zorro in the original stories, and the show explores this relationship in depth. Zorro's origin story in the show involves a Native American tribe central to his character development. The show introduces the idea that the Zorro mantle is associated with championing the rights of the tribe against oppression, creating a unique twist on the classic character. While maintaining the traditional elements of the Zorro story, Amazon's adaptation stands out by incorporating Native Americans and changing the origin story. This brings a fresh perspective to the franchise and honors the source material.

Amazon's new Zorro series gets one element of his classic stories right that all of his movies have overlooked. Released on Amazon Prime Video, the new Spanish-language Zorro adaptation brings the swashbuckling vigilante back to the...

Never Give A Sucker An Even Break was a 1941 movie from W.C. Fields. But it could have been the theme to Bill Maher’s Real Time on Friday night.

From Donald Trump’s latest foibles, through TikTok’s right to exist in the US, to the growing lost generation of young men, Maher and his guests tried to make sense of a world that seems to be flailing in its battle to find solutions.

Ultimately, Maher turned his guns on nepo babies, the children of the famous who feel they’ve hit a triple when they’re born on third base.

Maher’s New Rules editorial focused on the long string of Hollywood stars that got a leg up thanks to their connections, starting with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. “It doesn’t make them bad people or untalented,” Maher said. “But let’s also admit they weren’t the only...

When Katharine Hepburn made her final big-screen appearance in Warren Beatty's 1994 romantic drama, "Love Affair," it marked the first time in her 62-year film career that she played a supporting role (aside from a cameo in 1943's "Stage Door Canteen") -- and this is all the more amazing when you consider how much she struggled at various junctures to maintain her leading lady status.

Hepburn's options were plentiful at birth. The Connecticut-born daughter of a wealthy urologist and a suffragette campaigner, Hepburn was raised in a permissive environment where societal limitations existed to be disregarded. She cut her hair short, excelled at sports like tennis and golf, wore pants, and smoked cigarettes. She pursued social justice causes at an early age, and received a liberal arts education at Bryn Mawr College (graduating with decidedly unladylike degrees in history and philosophy).

There was nothing performative about Hepburn's interests. She was appreciative of her good fortune,...

Sometimes, the antagonism you see between two characters in a movie isn't acting. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" is one of the most infamous examples thereof; their feud has inspired books, podcasts, and even a mini-series.

In the film (directed by Robert Aldrich), they play the Hudson sisters, Jane (Davis) and Blanche (Crawford). The limelight has moved past them both; Jane was a child star whose talents didn't last to adulthood while Blanche had a film career before being paralyzed in a car crash. Jane has to dote on the incapacitated Blanche, only furthering the resentment. There's a clear meta-textual undercurrent; Davis and Crawford were not considered "bankable" as women in their fifties, and there's no industry as hostile to middle-aged women as Hollywood.

Davis/Crawford's infighting began before the film even started production. According to Davis, Crawford initially suggested she play Jane and Davis play Blanche,...

There were numerous superstars during the silent era from the clown princes of comedy Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd to such dramatic and action icons as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson and Lillian Gish. One was a good boy — the German Shepherd Rin Tin Tin. Not only is Rin Tin Tin, aka Rinty, credited with saving Warner Bros., but Hollywood lore also insists he, not Emil Jannings, was the first Best Actor Oscar winner.

With Warner Brothers celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and the Academy Awards just around the corner, it’s time to look at the Rinty phenomenon and its place in Hollywood history.

Rinty wasn’t the first canine star. Blair, the pet collie of British director Cecil Hepworth, headlined his 1905 thriller “Rescued by Rover.” The film was so popular it had to be shot twice because the...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Friday that it is “conducting a review” of this season’s Oscar campaigns, with the grassroots effort that resulted in a surprising best actress Oscar nomination for Andrea Riseborough’s performance in the independent film To Leslie almost certainly the main focus of their inquiry.

The nom for Riseborough, a 41-year-old British actors’ actor, evoked audible gasps when it was announced last Tuesday because few people except members of the Academy’s actors branch, which solely determines the acting Oscar nominees, had ever even heard of the film it came for, which cost — and grossed — virtually nothing. But given the tremendous critical response to Riseborough’s portrayal of a spiraling alcoholic following the film’s premiere at last year’s SXSW film festival, and the lack of financial resources possessed by the film’s U.S. distributor Momentum Pictures, the film’s director,...

Merriam-Webster chose “gaslighting” and Oxford Dictionaries went with “goblin mode”, but “nepo baby” is making a last-minute bid for word of the year. But what is it and what are its implications?

It may sound like one of those digital pet toys from the 1990s, but “nepo baby” actually refers to children of famous people who have been given special privileges and career advancements due to, well, being the children of famous people—you know, nepotism! There is a long, long list of nepo babies out there, many of whom have indeed benefited from their bloodline.

Jamie Lee Curtis, a self-described “Og Nepo Baby” herself as the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh (star of the greatest movie ever made?), has made a call for kindness amid the term’s explosion, saying the entire conversation is meant to “diminish and denigrate and hurt.” Further, she said, “It’s curious...

Babylon, an epic period drama, has left viewers wondering if the movie is based on a true story. It details the rise and fall of several characters during Hollywood’s transition from the silent film era to sound films during the roaring 20s. Babylon also has an ensemble cast, starring many famous actors and actresses such as Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie.

The movie is directed by critically acclaimed director Damien Chazelle, who is known for such award-winning works as 2014’s Whiplash and 2016’s La La Land. Early reactions for Babylon described the movie as over-the-top and reminiscent of 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street. Like many epics, the movie also has an extensive runtime, clocking in at just over three hours long.

Related: Wolf Of Wall Street: Real Life Fraud Allegations Explained

Babylon Isn't Based On A True Story

Although the backdrop of Babylon is based on truth, with...

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When Blanche Sweet sang “there’s a tear for every smile in Hollywood” in Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), she wasn’t wrong. Movie people have long been warning starry eyed wannabes to tread carefully if there were coming to Tinseltown full of hopes and dreams. In The Truth About the Movies by the Stars (1924), screenwriter Frank Butler wrote that “From every corner of the earth they come and across the Seven Seas – borne on the tireless wings of youthful optimism. Pathetic pilgrims these, struggling on to ultimate disillusion.”

A large part of Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (2022) explores the dark side of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The twenties roared in Hollywood, but there was also something larger at stake for characters in Babylon. Like any audience in front of a film, they were chasing that magic on the screen. They were chasing an idea.

There’s a lot to digest in Damien Chazelle’s overstuffed Hollywood epic, “Babylon.” The story of three disparate movie denziens trying to survive the transition between the silent era and the talkies boasts some stellar performances, but what people might remember after the credits roll is just how wild Chazelle’s hedonistic world is. As he sees it, the silent era of Hollywood is packed to bursting with orgies, dancing, booze, woozy elephants, and a lot of nudity. Oh, and a ton of cocaine.

To many modern-day viewers, cocaine is likely more synonymous with ’80s excess than the supposed glamour of the ’20s. Movies like “Goodfellas” and “Less Than Zero” present cocaine as a party drug of a more contemporary era, so it’s understandable that it would show up in Chazelle’s film, particularly its raucous opening party sequence, as the filmmaker threads historical accuracies with his own special skew.

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When the dizzying trailer for Babylon dropped, its coke-fueled bacchanal of sex, partying, moviemaking and sleaze sold it as The Day of the Locust meets The Wolf of Wall Street. Marketing can be deceptive, but in this case, turns out that’s an accurate taste of what the whopping three hours and change of Damien Chazelle’s poison-pen letter to 1920s and ‘30s Hollywood delivers, with the freewheeling storytelling of Boogie Nights and a sticky dollop of Lynchian creepiness. No doubt plenty of cool kids will eagerly sign up to be pummeled by the film’s crazed excesses, though just as many will find it exhausting and sour. Even its technical virtuosity feels assaultive.

To all the folks who stomped out any chance of Chazelle’s soulful space-travel drama, First Man, finding an audience by whipping up a fake controversy charging that it was unpatriotic,...

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A quartet of top-selling L.A. luxury real estate agents, all known for reality TV appearances, are joining forces. Former Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles stars James Harris and David Parnes of The Agency are linking up with Jon Grauman and Adam Rosenfeld (both seen on the new Netflix show Buying Beverly Hills) to form the new team Bond Collective.

The Bond Collective team — which links Harris and Parnes’ Bond Street Partners team with the Grauman Rosenfeld Group — will encompass more than 50 agents at The Agency. “I’m beyond excited for what the future holds. David and I are extremely grateful for our success over the years, but we truly believe in scaling and growing the team. We have always had a tremendous amount of respect for the Grauman Rosenfeld Group. It’s about growing what will be the top team in America,...

Margot Robbie gets unhinged in Damien Chazelle’s epic “Babylon.”

The Oscar nominee plays self-proclaimed wild child and up-and-coming actress Nellie Laroy in the 1920s-set period piece, which just released a new trailer. Laroy is an amalgam of ’20s stars Clara Bow, Jeanne Eagels, Joan Crawford, and Alma Rubens. With dreams of reaching stardom, Nellie crosses paths with aging icon Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), inspired by John Gilbert, Clark Gable, and Douglas Fairbanks.

Per the official “Babylon” synopsis, Chazelle’s film is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Pitt, Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.”

The ensemble includes Samara Weaving, Li Jun Li, Katherine Waterston, Olivia Wilde,...

The Boston boys are getting the team back together, as Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have announced they are launching a production company, Artists Equity, with the goal of ensuring filmmakers can get more profit from their works. This comes at a time when streaming services have taken a strong command over the entertainment industry.

In a statement to The New York Times, Affleck–who will serve as chief executive–said, “As streamers have proliferated, they have really ended back-end participation, and so this is partly an effort to try to recapture some of that value and share it in a way that’s more equitable.” He also said profits wouldn’t just be going towards marquee names or high-profile directors, but behind-the-scenes figures, like “cinematographers, editors, costume designers and other crucial artists who, in my view, are very underpaid.”

In an additional statement, Matt Damon–who will be chief...

We don’t know where filmmaker James Gunn is at the moment, but we’d like to think he is dancing real groovy-like to some a.m. radio classics based on the news that was just made public. Because the Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad director is joining producer Peter Safran to act as co-chair and co-ceo of DC Studios.

The stunning revelation, which was broken Tuesday afternoon by The Hollywood Reporter, confirms the pair will be reporting directly to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. They also replace former DC Films president Walter Hamada, who exited the company last week.

Not since perhaps the days of Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith founding United Artists in 1919 has an A-list director moved into the position of studio executive. Yet that’s exactly what happened with Gunn, who according to THR began discussing the prospect...

Bloody Disgusting has learned that the Hollywood Forever Cemetery is returning for its 23rd installment of their Day of the Dead Celebration on Saturday, October 29th with two events – “Día de los Muertos” & “Noche de los Muertos” – that will feature cultural performances, live DJ sets from DJ Que Madre and DJ Hamvre, an exhibition from Artist of the Year, Sabino Guisu’s “Zapotec Death Poems”, delicious food & drinks, and more.

This year’s theme is focused on Mayahuel, the Aztec Goddess of Fertility, the Maguey (Agave), and the ruler of the 8th day and the 8th year. She brings us Love, Magic, and Transformation.

Here’s everything you need to know about the two special events…

Día de los Muertos (9:00am – 3:00pm Pst) – a daytime event featuring a children’s plaza and cultural performances, as well as altars, art exhibitions, Aztecs, folkorico dance, traditional dance, children’s plaza,...

The actor will soon be featuring on quarter-dollar coins, an honour that reflects a vital yet difficult career in Hollywood’s golden age

The change in your pocket is about to become a little more glamorous. The international film star and fashion icon Anna May Wong has been named the first Asian American to be featured on US currency. As part of the Women Quarters program, which launched by honouring Maya Angelou earlier this year, Wong’s face will appear on quarters in circulation from Monday.

Wong’s career stretched from silent cinema through the talkies and the golden age of Hollywood, to TV. Her first lead role was in the 1922 Technicolor film The Toll of the Sea, and she went on to appear alongside Douglas Fairbanks and Marlene Dietrich. On the small screen she starred in the first US TV show to have an Asian American lead. She was...

You will now be able to see Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt wreak havoc in “Babylon” even earlier this holiday season.

Damien Chazelle’s old Hollywood epic “Babylon” has officially ditched its previously limited release rollout for a wide release now on December 23.

Originally, “Babylon” was slated for a December 25 limited release, followed by a January 6, 2023 wide release. Instead, the film will open in more than 3,000 theaters nationwide on December 23.

Former “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” co-stars Robbie and Pitt reunite for Chazelle’s star-studded take on the pitfalls of fame and the slow-moving tide of change in the film industry. Set during the transitional period in Hollywood when silent movies gave way to talkies, Robbie stars as aspiring actress Nellie Laroy, who is an amalgam of early “talkies” stars Clara Bow, Jeanne Eagels, John Crawford, and Alma Rubens. With dreams of reaching stardom, Nellie crosses paths with aging...

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Exactly 100 years ago — on Oct. 18, 1922 — Hollywood unrolled what has been cited as the inaugural modern movie premiere and red carpet proceeding. At the opening night of the Egyptian Theatre, heralding the silent film Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, showman Sid Grauman set out to conjure movie magic before the reel ever started rolling.

The red carpet cut through the theater’s 150-by-45-foot forecourt. The Hollywood Daily Citizen gushed that “the flood-lights of filmdom turned the night into brilliance brighter than noonday.…” Vehicles stretched along the street. Onlookers lined the walkway. Camera bulbs flashed. And suddenly Tinseltown had a sparkly new tool in its arsenal of pageantry.

“Everybody from starland was there,” The Los Angeles Times proclaimed. Around 2,000 attendees — including “the greatest of the producers, scenarists, directors, actors, and screen technicians,” per the Daily Citizen — filled the house. Beforehand, the Times stated that Arthur P.

Cynics have tabbed them “The Doomsday Summits.” To believers, however, their mission is to re-energize the Oscars at a moment when award shows in general are in massive retreat.

“The show should represent an exciting battlefield where forces in our culture collide,” suggests a new book titled Oscar Wars: Gold, Sweat and Tears.

While the recent “collisions” have been studies in chaos, the ongoing meetings among the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences leaders, Oscar show producers and ABC/Disney continue to search for the keys to a renaissance. Or at least to survival. Bill Kramer, the new Academy CEO, regards himself as a consensus builder, not a collision builder.

By studying the traumas of the past, what can they learn about re-shaping the present? Viewership has been plummeting in recent years and telecast revenues (guesses put them at 120 million) are key to the survival of the Academy — its...

In her return to her Spotify podcast, Archetypes, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan Markle takes on one of the most prominent stereotypes of Asian women on screen: The Dragon Lady.

“Movies like Austin Powers and Kill Bill — they presented these caricatures of women of Asian descent as oversexualized or aggressive,” Markle said, referencing the hyper-sexualized characters Fook Yu and Fook Mi in Austin Powers in Goldmember and Lucy Liu’s hyper-violent O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill. She noted that such characterizations go at least as far back as 1924, when Anna May Wong played a scheming Mongol slave opposite Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad.

Markle maintainted that, “This toxic stereotyping of women of Asian descent…this doesn’t just end once the credits roll.”

As a case in point, she introduces sociologist Nancy Wang Yuen who wrote about the Dragon Lady stereotype in her book Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism.

The lush land of 1920s Hollywood is now getting a modern A-lister take thanks to Oscar winner Damien Chazelle.

The “La La Land” director helms highly-anticipated epic “Babylon” starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt as two movie stars at the opposite ends of fame. The film is set for a December 25 limited release and a wide release January 6, 2023, making the feature a buzzed-about Oscars contender.

The period piece focuses on the transitional period in the film industry when silent movies gave way to talkies. While the specific plot details remain under wraps, IndieWire can confirm that Robbie plays aspiring actress Nellie Laroy, who is an amalgam of early “talkies” stars Clara Bow, Jeanne Eagels, John Crawford, and Alma Rubens. Nellie has a “bold, hungry kind of edge to her,” as Chazelle revealed to Vanity Fair.

Meanwhile, Robbie’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” Oscar-winning co-star Pitt plays Jack Conrad,...

Six years after winning an Oscar for "La La Land," Damien Chazelle is returning with yet another ode to the Cty of Angels. According to an exclusive chat with Vanity Fair, this particular project has been a long time coming — Chazelle has been working on the story for his upcoming feature film "Babylon" since he first moved to Los Angeles 15 years ago. When the idea first dawned on him, the plan was "just to do a big, epic, multi-character movie, set in these early days of Los Angeles and Hollywood, when both of these things were coming into what we now think of them as." After years of chipping away at the story, the character and dynamics finally emerged, and later this year, we'll see for ourselves what it all became.

For obvious reasons, it sounds like "Babylon" might share a lot in common with the very successful "La La Land.

It was announced today that acclaimed horror author Peter Straub passed away, an undeniable creative force who completely changed what was possible in the landscape of dark fantasy and horror fiction. Straub wrote with such beautiful world-building detail and rich prose that he often elevated the simplest concepts into full-fledged epics, which is precisely why the Master of Horror himself, Stephen King, collaborated with him on their collaborative masterpiece, "The Talisman."

While King has been the most adapted author of the modern era, Straub has only had two novels brought to life. In 1977, "The Haunting of Julia" was released inspired by his novel "Julia," but the film that should have had studios vying to gain the rights to any and all of Straub's works came in 1981 when Universal adapted his haunting novel "Ghost Story."

Straub published the novel in 1979, which became a national bestseller and helped cement Straub as one of the horror fiction greats.

Peter Straub, a bestselling novelist who co-authored two beloved books with Stephen King, has died at the age of 79.

Straub’s daughter, Emma Straub, also a novelist, confirmed the news Tuesday on her Instagram account.

According to The New York Times, his wife, Susan Straub, said his death was caused by complications from breaking a hip. He died at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Fellow writers and collaborators have been mourning the author’s death on social media, including Neil Gaiman, who was one of the first to express his sadness at Straub’s death.

King, whose latest novel “Fairy Tale” debuts in bookstores Tuesday, wrote: “Working with him was one of the great joys of my creative life.”

Also Read:

Barbara Ehrenreich, Author of ‘Nickel and Dimed,’ Dies at 81

Straub’s first horror novel, “Julia,” was published in 1975 by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. It was adapted into a feature, known as either “Full Circle...

While he may not be as well-known today as Alfred Hitchcock or Billy Wilder, director Nicholas Ray had a fantastic run during the '50s working across a range of genres from film noir ("In a Lonely Place") to war saga ("Flying Leathernecks"), coming-of-age teen angst ("Rebel Without a Cause") to westerns, the strangest of which is undoubtedly "Johnny Guitar." Shot in gaudy Trucolor, it stands apart from other studio westerns of the day, maybe because it isn't really a western at all -- It's more like a twisted gothic psychodrama that just happens to be set in the Old West.

Although the title refers to Sterling Hayden's nonchalant protagonist, Mr. Guitar takes a back seat for much of the movie, just one of many of Ray's subversive twists to the standard western formula. Instead, the main focus is the bitter rivalry between Vienna (Joan Crawford), a steely saloon keeper,...

Anne Heche has been interred at Hollywood Forever cemetery, the final resting place for scores of Hollywood legends that still serves as a public gathering place and cultural center.

Heche’s remains were cremated, and were placed in a vault near the cemetery’s lake at the Garden of Legends, multiple sources tell TheWrap. Nearby are the final resting places of Mickey Rooney, Burt Reynolds and Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who was killed when Alec Baldwin accidentally fired a live round on the set of “Rust.”

Hollywood Forever was founded in 1899 and is one of the oldest cemeteries in the Los Angeles area. Stars of old, like Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks, are buried near more modern figures, like “Star Trek” Anton Yelchin.

The cemetery is home to a popular summer movie-screening series and other cultural events throughout the year.

Also Read:

Anne Heche Crash: Neighbors Tried to Rescue Actress...

Commissions

“The Freedom Orchestra” (working title), a documentary film presented by Clive Myrie, will tell the story of Ukraine’s newly formed Freedom Orchestra. In the midst of the ongoing war with Russia, 75 of Ukraine’s noted musicians have come together to bring a message of defiance and hope. Some of their family members are on the frontlines, and many have fled Ukraine since the war began.

Myrie follows the stories of the musicians from rehearsing, often alone, in Ukraine, to coming together for their first rehearsal as an orchestra in Warsaw for their inaugural concert — ahead of a tour of Europe and the U.S., including a performance at the BBC Proms on July 31.

Myrie said: “There has always been a cultural frontline in this war and I wanted to reflect that struggle. This documentary, I hope, shines a light on Ukraine’s artistic achievements as well as creative spirit,...

The film has been restored by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

A restoration of Henry King’s silent film Stella Dallas from 1925 has been announced as the pre-opening film to this year’s Venice Film Festival (August 31 - September 10).

This film will play at the Sala Darsena on August 30. It is the first time Venice will screen a film before the festival officially starts.

Stella Dallas has been restored in a 4k digital version by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Film Foundation chaired by Martin Scorsese. The screening will be accompanied by a...

James Whale escapes Frankenstein’s lab for a jaunt in the jungle with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Bennett, all in search of Incan treasures in South America. The supporting cast included George Sanders and Vincent Price, who called it “one of the funniest films ever shot.” The actors may have struggled to keep a straight face but the movie is really something to look at, including an elaborate Mayan temple that found better use in 1940’s The Mummy’s Hand.

The post Green Hell appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

A number of academics and film historians have written about the genesis of Japanese cinema and its progression through the 20th century, with Donald Richie, Aaron Gerow, Isolde Standish being some of the most renowned. Daisuke Miyao, however, who seems to have studied everything his predecessors had written before him, deals with the particular subject through a rather unique approach, by focusing on the ways of implementing light and shadows on film highlighting its progress. The result, as Earl Jackson who suggested the book mentioned, is truly magnificent

on Amazon

To refer to the huge amount of info presented on the 281, small font pages of the book would be truly futile, so instead I am going to focus on some key events of the story Miyao shares here, and the ways he implemented them in order to unfold it as artfully as possible. As such, the story...

Sheila Benson, who was chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times from 1981-1991, died February 23 in Seattle. She was 91.

A gregarious enthusiast who always hoped for the best when the lights went down, Benson came from a family with strong ties to the film industry. She was born in New York City, where her father, Dwight Franklin, created dioramas for the American Museum of Natural History before heading for Hollywood in the mid-1920s to work on the Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckler The Black Pirate. For the next 25 years, Franklin worked in various capacities on many films, notably handling costumes on several major Cecil B. DeMille productions.

Benson’s mother, Mary C. McCall Jr., studied at Vassar and Trinity College in Dublin, and in 1932 published her first novel, The Goldfish Bowl. The book was bought by Warner Bros and that same year was made into a film called It’s...

Finally, the Daily Dead “Class Of” series has reached my beloved birth year, 1981. For the genre, 1981 signifies an important moment in the history of horror. With the introduction of two slasher icons, Michael Myers in 1978 and Jason Voorhees in 1980; the beginning of the sequel boom that would dominate the rest of the decade was born in 1981 with Halloween 2 and Friday the 13th Part 2. These two sequels are merely the introduction to the rise of slasher cinema for the 80s, with 1981 providing a variety of examples like The Burning, Graduation Day, The Prowler, Funhouse, Happy Birthday to Me, Final Exam, Night School, Student Bodies, and My Bloody Valentine.

1981 also proved the best year in the history of horror for werewolf movies. The iconic American Werewolf in London set the gold standard in practical transformation effects. The Howling is a demonstration of how horror and humor can coexist perfectly. Wolfen...

Kirk Douglas represented the embodiment of Hollywood stardom, but he likely would not have been a fan of Sunday’s Oscar show. Indeed, he might have ended up standing offstage with Quentin Tarantino, both wondering why the ceremonies seem oddly distanced from both Hollywood and its stars.

Tarantino made a downright affectionate movie about Hollywood, but had to watch a Korean filmmaker seize the Best Picture statuette. Quentin and Kirk know that the Oscar show had originally been invented by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Charlie Chaplin to prove that the talent – i.e., stars – still ran the show, not the corporations.

Ninety years later, star vehicles don’t win Oscars. Further, post-Oscar analysts focus less on the winning feature and its star than on whether Netflix’s lavish $100 million awards campaign paid off in sufficient trophies (the streamer won 24 nominations but only two Oscars).

Douglas coveted the awards derby.

When the first Oscar show was scheduled for broadcast 90 years ago, several stars, even Douglas Fairbanks Jr., lined up to host it. Radio was a kind and friendly medium. Today an invitation to host an Oscar is akin to a colonoscopy. And the job of producing one may prove equally uninviting.

There will be no Oscar host this year—no phantom Ricky Gervais. The official rationale is that ratings of last year’s host-less show registered a 12% uptick. The more likely reason is that no one would take the job. Memories of Kevin Hart going down in flames are still too vivid (there was something dicey in his distant social media).

Gilbert Cates, the kindly filmmaker who produced fourteen Oscar shows, liked to create what he called “an atmosphere of celebration.” Today it’s more an atmosphere of combat.

Consider the time bombs littering the landscape: Trumpian tensions preclude banter...

Mark Damon’s Dcr Finance Corp. has signed a deal to provide $65 million in financing for a new version of “Sinbad” with production set to begin in early 2020, Variety has learned exclusively.

Dcr, a media financing fund headed by Damon, Adi Cohen and Jordi Rediu, will unveil details to potential buyers at the American Film Market, which opens Nov. 6 in Santa Monica, Calif.

The funds will be mostly spent in Georgia through partners Len Gibson and Wayne Overstreet, of Go Media. The overall budget is expected to be around $120 million. Enrico Ballarin, whose credits include “Star Wars: Episode II” as a unit manager, will executive produce. “Sinbad” will be directed by Francesco Lucente, who also wrote the screenplay.

Dcr announced a deal in August with Atlanta-based Go Media Productions to join a private placement as a lead investor and provide up to $150 million in exchange for the investment being channeled...

Great news for fans of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert! A Woman Of Affairs (1928) is now available on DVD from Warner Archives. Ordering information can be found Here

Greta Garbo is the “unlucky in love” heroine in this silent-screen adaptation of Michael Arlen’s highly controversial novel The Green Hat. After losing the man of her dreams (John Gilbert) due to the meddling of his disapproving father, Diana Merrick (Garbo) reluctantly weds another admirer (John Mack Brown). These dubious marital beginnings become even more questionable when her new husband takes his own life. Immediately, all eyes turn to Diana, and her free-spirited lifestyle is deemed his unofficial cause of death. Socially chastised, Diana decides to live up to her reputation and ventures on a series of foreign affairs, amorously globe hopping with dignitaries from London to Cairo. This bittersweet tale of love really begins to unfold when Diana is at...

Films by Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille, and Buster Keaton are among the “hundreds of thousands” of books, musical scores, and motion pictures that will enter the public domain on January 1, according to The Atlantic. All of the works were first made available to audiences in 1923, four years before the introduction of talkies. Due to changed copyright laws, this will be the largest collection of material to lose its copyright protections since 1998.

Artists looking to incorporate black-and-white era throwbacks into their modern creations will have lots of new options. The Atlantic consulted unpublished research from Duke University School of Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which shared with IndieWire a list of 35 films that will soon become available to all.

“Our list is therefore only a partial one; many more works are entering the public domain as well, but the relevant information to confirm this may...

Ronald Colman: Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in two major 1930s classics Updated: Turner Classic Movies' July 2017 Star of the Month is Ronald Colman, one of the finest performers of the studio era. On Thursday night, TCM presented five Colman star vehicles that should be popping up again in the not-too-distant future: A Tale of Two Cities, The Prisoner of Zenda, Kismet, Lucky Partners, and My Life with Caroline. The first two movies are among not only Colman's best, but also among Hollywood's best during its so-called Golden Age. Based on Charles Dickens' classic novel, Jack Conway's Academy Award-nominated A Tale of Two Cities (1936) is a rare Hollywood production indeed: it manages to effectively condense its sprawling source, it boasts first-rate production values, and it features a phenomenal central performance. Ah, it also shows its star without his trademark mustache – about as famous at the time as Clark Gable's. Perhaps...

Frances Dee movies: From 'An American Tragedy' to 'Four Faces West' Frances Dee began her film career at the dawn of the sound era, going from extra to leading lady within a matter of months. Her rapid ascencion came about thanks to Maurice Chevalier, who got her as his romantic interested in Ludwig Berger's 1930 romantic comedy Playboy of Paris. Despite her dark(-haired) good looks and pleasant personality, Dee's Hollywood career never quite progressed to major – or even moderate – stardom. But she was to remain a busy leading lady for about 15 years. Tonight, Turner Classic Movies is showing seven Frances Dee films, ranging from heavy dramas to Westerns. Unfortunately missing is one of Dee's most curious efforts, the raunchy pre-Coder Blood Money, which possibly features her most unusual – and most effective – performance. Having said that, William A. Wellman's Love Is a Racket is a worthwhile subsitute, though the...

Ghost Story is a film I spent a lot of time watching as a child, but you don’t really hear folks talk about it too often anymore, unfortunately. A film driven by atmosphere and a quiet sense of foreboding dread, Ghost Story is the hauntingly provocative adaptation of Peter Straub’s supernaturally-charged novel that proves that even though you may think you are done with the past, the past isn’t always necessarily done with you.

It’s a film that has for the most part aged well, despite the fact that director John Irvin practically wastes the talents of Ghost Story’s main ensemble, while the script from the usually solid Lawrence D. Cohen (Carrie) is just a tonal mess from start to finish. Despite all that though, Ghost Story—much like its otherworldly antagonist—has this weirdly hypnotic power to it, drawing you in despite its flaws...

Stars: Craig Wasson, Alice Krige, Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Houseman, Patricia Neal, Jacqueline Brookes, Miguel Fernandes, Lance Holcomb, Brad Sullivan | Written by Lawrence D. Cohen | Directed by John Irvin

Four elderly gentlemen form The Chowder Society, a group in which they meet up to smoke cigars and tell chilling ghost stories in an attempt to scare each other. Hiding from a dark secret of their past, they use their stories to push it from their memories. When one of the member’s sons dies in strange circumstances though, it seems that their past transgressions have come back to haunt them in a soul that refuses to let go of her vengeance.

Ghost Story is based on Peter Straub’s novel, and we get to hear plenty from the author on this Blu-ray release. This gives a good insight into an eighties movie that feels very original.

'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...

Maureen O'Hara: Queen of Technicolor. Maureen O'Hara movies: TCM tribute Veteran actress and Honorary Oscar recipient Maureen O'Hara, who died at age 95 on Oct. 24, '15, in Boise, Idaho, will be remembered by Turner Classic Movies with a 24-hour film tribute on Friday, Nov. 20. At one point known as “The Queen of Technicolor” – alongside “Eastern” star Maria Montez – the red-headed O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons on Aug. 17, 1920, in Ranelagh, County Dublin) was featured in more than 50 movies from 1938 to 1971 – in addition to one brief 1991 comeback (Chris Columbus' Only the Lonely). Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne Setting any hint of modesty aside, Maureen O'Hara wrote in her 2004 autobiography (with John Nicoletti), 'Tis Herself, that “I was the only leading lady big enough and tough enough for John Wayne.” Wayne, for his part, once said (as quoted in 'Tis Herself): There's only one woman who has been my friend over the...

From the AP:

Maureen O’Hara, the flame-haired Irish movie star who appeared in classics ranging from the grim “How Green Was My Valley” to the uplifting “Miracle on 34th Street” and bantered unforgettably with John Wayne in several films. She was 95.

O’Hara died in her sleep at her home in Boise, Idaho, said Johnny Nicoletti, her longtime manager.

O’Hara received an Honorary Award at the 2014 Governors Awards.

“She passed peacefully surrounded by her loving family as they celebrated her life listening to music from her favorite movie, ‘The Quiet Man,'” said a statement from her family.

“As an actress, Maureen O’Hara brought unyielding strength and sudden sensitivity to every role she played. Her characters were feisty and fearless, just as she was in real life. She was also proudly Irish and spent her entire lifetime sharing her heritage and the wonderful culture of the Emerald Isle with the world,...

Are the literary works of Peter Straub set for a Hollywood comeback? While the acclaimed horror author (and sometime collaborator of Stephen King) hasn't had an adaptation of one of his books hit the screen since 1981's "Ghost Story" starring Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., HitFix has learned exclusively that Straub's 1999 novel "Mr. X" has been optioned for a possible feature film treatment by director Josh Boone's Mid-World Productions banner. Boone, who helmed last year's smash hit "The Fault in Our Stars" is also set to write and direct "New Mutants," a new "X-Men" franchise for Fox, and Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" for Universal. "Mr. X" centers on Ned Dunstan, a man who returns to his hometown on the eve of his 35th birthday to discover the terrifying source of the precognitive visions he's been haunted by since childhood. The film will be produced by Mid-World Productions,...

Greta Garbo movie 'The Kiss.' Greta Garbo movies on TCM Greta Garbo, a rarity among silent era movie stars, is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” performer today, Aug. 26, '15. Now, why would Garbo be considered a silent era rarity? Well, certainly not because she easily made the transition to sound, remaining a major star for another decade. Think Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, William Powell, Fay Wray, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore, Warner Baxter, Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett, etc. And so much for all the stories about actors with foreign accents being unable to maintain their Hollywood stardom following the advent of sound motion pictures. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star, Garbo was no major exception to the supposed rule. Mexican Ramon Novarro, another MGM star, also made an easy transition to sound, and so did fellow Mexicans Lupe Velez and Dolores del Rio, in addition to the very British...

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. ca. 1935. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was never as popular as his father, silent film superstar Douglas Fairbanks, who starred in one action-adventure blockbuster after another in the 1920s (The Mark of Zorro, Robin Hood, The Thief of Bagdad) and whose stardom dates back to the mid-1910s, when Fairbanks toplined a series of light, modern-day comedies in which he was cast as the embodiment of the enterprising, 20th century “all-American.” What this particular go-getter got was screen queen Mary Pickford as his wife and United Artists as his studio, which he co-founded with Pickford, D.W. Griffith, and Charles Chaplin. Now, although Jr. never had the following of Sr., he did enjoy a solid two-decade-plus movie career. In fact, he was one of the few children of major film stars – e.g., Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Angelina Jolie, Michael Douglas, Jamie Lee Curtis – who had successful film careers of their own.

Teresa Wright-Samuel Goldwyn association comes to a nasty end (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock Heroine in His Favorite Film.") Whether or not because she was aware that Enchantment wasn't going to be the hit she needed – or perhaps some other disagreement with Samuel Goldwyn or personal issue with husband Niven Busch – Teresa Wright, claiming illness, refused to go to New York City to promote the film. (Top image: Teresa Wright in a publicity shot for The Men.) Goldwyn had previously announced that Wright, whose contract still had another four and half years to run, was to star in a film version of J.D. Salinger's 1948 short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut." Instead, he unceremoniously – and quite publicly – fired her.[1] The Goldwyn organization issued a statement, explaining that besides refusing the assignment to travel to New York to help generate pre-opening publicity for Enchantment,...