News

The supernatural horror film The Well will arrive in select theaters on August 9th and On Digital and On Demand on September 3rd, 2024 via Uncork’d Entertainment.

On behalf of her father, a young American art restorer travels to a remote Italian village to bring a medieval painting back to its former glory. There she meets a beautiful but aging duchess and her troubled young daughter who warns her that the painting is cursed and that she must leave before she falls prey to an evil witch who drinks the blood of tourists to achieve eternal life.

Starring Lauren Lavera from Terrifier 2 & 3, The Well is a gothic horror that embraces gore and practical effects. The Well was directed by Italian pop star Federico Zampaglione, who co-wrote the script with Stefano Masi. Starring alongside Lavera is Claudia Gerini, Giovanni Lombardo Radice (City of the Living Dead), Taylor Zaudtke (Sadistic Intentions), Linda Zampaglione...

Evil has new depths in Federico Zampaglione‘s upcoming horror movie The Well, which puts Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3 star Lauren Lavera into another bloody battle for survival.

The Well is arriving in select theaters on August 9 and On Digital and On Demand September 3, 2024 via Uncork’d Entertainment. Exclusively watch the official trailer below.

The Well stars Lauren Lavera (Terrifier 2), as Lisa Gray, a budding art restorer, who travels to a small Italian village to bring a medieval painting back to its former glory, unaware of the danger from an evil curse and a monster born of myth and brutal pain.

Here’s the full official synopsis:

“On behalf of her father, a young American art restorer travels to a remote Italian village to bring a medieval painting back to its former glory. There she meets a beautiful but aging duchess and her troubled young daughter who warns her that the painting...

“Diabolik – Who Are You,” which has its market premiere this week at AFM, following its world premiere at the Rome Film Festival, is the third in a series of adaptations of an Italian comic-book franchise. The books, written by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani, have sold more than 150 million copies.

Kino Lorber has picked up U.S. rights for all three instalments of the stylish crime-comic movies, written and directed by brothers Marco and Antonio Manetti. Beta Cinema is handling world sales for the films. International buyers for the third film so far include Metropolitan Film in France, Spain’s Flins & Piniculas, Plaion Pictures in German-speaking territories, and Discovery Film in the former Yugoslavia. 01 Distribution is releasing the pic in Italy on Nov. 30.

The franchise centers on Diabolik, an ingenious gentleman thief, living in the fictional city of Clerville in the 1960s and 1970s. Luca Marinelli played the master criminal in the first film,...

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Henry Silva, the rugged New York actor who portrayed heavies and heroes of various ethnicities in a career highlighted by turns in A Hatful of Rain, The Manchurian Candidate and Johnny Cool, has died. He was 95.

Silva died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his son Scott Silva told The Hollywood Reporter.

Silva also played the Draconian commander “Killer” Kane in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), just one in a lineup of his bad guys seen in The Tall T (1957), The Bravados (1958), Il Boss (1973), Sharky’s Machine (1981), Above the Law (1988), Dick Tracy (1990) and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999).

“Henry Silva is one of those guys you most likely will recognize even if you don’t know his name,” onetime Crimespree magazine writer Dave Wahlman wrote in 2016. “His face is something straight...

The Italian comedy-drama follows an aspiring punk band whose friendship is put to the test when they get the chance to open for their favourite band.

Screen can exclusively reveal the first trailer Niccolò Falsetti’s debut feature Margins which is playing in Venice Film Festival’s Critics Week (August 31 - September 10).

The Italian comedy drama follows an aspiring punk band whose friendship is put to the test when they get the chance to open for their favourite band and kickstart their careers.

Falsetti co-wrote the screenplay with Tommaso Renzoni and Francesco Turbanti who stars in the film alongside Emanuele Linfatti,...

Munich-based sales agency Beta Cinema has closed sales to several major territories for stylish comic-book adaptation “Diabolik,” which is among the leaders in the race for Italy’s top film awards – the David di Donatello Awards – with 11 nominations. Beta Cinema will kick off presales on the film’s sequels in Cannes.

“Diabolik” has been acquired by buyers in France (Metropolitan), Spain (Flins & Piniculas), and Latin America and Portugal (Sun Distribution Group). All rights have also been sold to Canada (Mongrel Media), South Korea (Contents Gate), Taiwan (Av-Jet International) and the former Yugoslavia (Discovery).

Filming on the two sequels wrapped in March, with Giacomo Gianniotti in the role of the charming master thief Diabolik. Based on the highly popular comic-book series, which has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, the story is again set in the fictional city of Clerville in the 1960s.

The stylish crime films are written and...

The Venice Film Festival is gearing up to take place as a full-fledged physical event in September with a back-to-normal atmosphere and what could be a high-profile selection of films.

While the Toronto Film Festival, which runs Sept. 9-18, is sticking with a combination of digital and in-person screenings, as is Sundance 2022, Venice’s upcoming Sept. 1-11 edition is on track, barring complications, to run as a completely in-person celebration of cinema with hundreds of journalists and dozens of film delegations expected to make the trek to the Lido from all over the world.

That’s the scenario the fest’s parent org, the Venice Biennale, is looking to pull off for its upcoming Architecture Biennale which has the timely theme of “How Will We Live Together?” and opens in Venice on May 22.

Delegations representing more than 100 Architecture Biennale projects are expected to soon arrive in Venice from 46 countries, along with more than 400 international journalists.

The authors of Love and Bullets are adapting the adventures of the character created by the Giussani sisters for the big screen, with Luca Marinelli leading the cast. Filming began on 30 September for Diabolik, the new film by the Manetti Bros. who are bringing the adventures of the famous Italian comic book hero to the big screen, a fascinating, steely-eyed thief in black tights, created in the 60s by Angela and Luciana Giussani. “The King of Terror” (already adapted for the cinema by Mario Bava back in 1968) will borrow the face of Luca Marinelli and the beautiful Eva Kant that of Miriam Leone, while Valerio Mastandrea will slip into the shoes of Inspector Ginko. The cast also includes a handful of the Manettis’ favoured actors, such as Alessandro Roia (Song’e Napule), Claudia Gerini (Love and Bullets) and Serena Rossi. Written by Michelangelo La...

A comic book about a chameleon-like master thief done as a live-action movie, a reinvention of the Spaghetti Western and a manhunt thriller with a Hollywood A-list cast are among buzz titles by Italian directors in various stages expected to soon be hitting the international festival circuit and, more important, entering the global movie market. Besides a shift toward genre moviemaking, they reflect a more international mindset while remaining firmly rooted in the Italian cinema canon.

“Born To Be Murdered”

Luca Guadagnino is producing this English-language manhunt thriller directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino (“Antonia”), toplining John David Washington and Alicia Vikander as a couple vacationing in Greece who become enmeshed in a tragically violent conspiracy. Pic also boasts “Call Me by Your Name” lenser Sayombhu Mukdeeprom and editor Walter Fasano, as well as Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. In production.

“Bad Days”

Twins Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, who made a...

Love and Bullets (Ammore e malavita) is what non-Italians might call a Mafia musical, though its Naples setting means the warbling criminals onscreen are technically part of the Camorra. Directed by the Manetti Bros. — who style their name like that, with the abbreviated English “Bros.,” even in Italian — this is, for all its longueurs, some ill-advised detours into English and a few tone-deaf jokes, a surprisingly enjoyable package. Indeed, Love and Bullets is this year’s best-received Italian film in the Venice competition so far and with the festival as its launch pad, it should do solid business when...

Bronson’s Loose Again!: On the Set with Charles Bronson is author Paul Talbot’s all-new companion volume to his acclaimed Bronson’s Loose!: The Making of the ‘Death Wish’ Films. His new book reveals more information on the Death Wish series and also details the complex histories behind eighteen other Charles Bronson movies. Documented herein are fascinating tales behind some of the finest Bronson films of the mid-1970s (including Hard Times and From Noon Till Three); his big-budget independent epics Love And Bullets and Cabo Blanco; his lesser-known, underrated dramas Borderline and Act Of Vengeance; his notorious sleaze/action Cannon Films classics of the 80s (including 10 To Midnight, Murphy’S Law and Kinjite: Forbidden Sunjects); the numerous unmade projects he was attached to; and his TV movies of the 90s (including The Sea Wolf). Exhaustively researched, the book features over three dozen exclusive, candid interviews including...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

The good news is that Timeless Video is releasing multiple films in one DVD package. The bad news is that one of these releases, although featuring two highly-watchable leading men, presents two stinkers. Love and Bullets is a 1979 Charles Bronson starrer that Roger Ebert appropriately described at the time as "an assemblyline potboiler". The film initially showed promise. Originally titled Love and Bullets, Charlie, the movie had John Huston as its director. However, Huston left after "creative differences" about the concept of the story and its execution on screen. The absurdity of losing a director as esteemed as Huston might have been understandable if the resulting flick wasn't such a mess. However, one suspects that, whatever the conceptual vision Huston had for the movie may have been, it must have been superior to what ultimately emerged. Stuart Rosenberg, the competent director of Cool Hand Luke took over...

By Paul Talbot

The poster screamed: “Most criminals answer to the law. The world’s most savage executioner must answer to Bronson.” Since the late 1960s, Charles Bronson’s name on a marquee was a guarantee of unchained action. When The Evil That Men Do opened in 1984, fans were hit with the expected violence─but this time they were also assaulted with thick layers of sadism, sleaze and depravity. And they loved it.

Born in 1921, Charles Bronson (originally Bunchinsky) was a dirt-poor Pennsylvania coal miner before he was drafted and later used the GI Bill to study acting. After dozens of small roles, he became a popular supporting player in hit films like The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963)─then went overseas to star in European pictures like Farewell, Friend (1967), Once Upon a Time in the West (1967) and Rider on the Rain (1970). Although ignored in the States─where they...

Langfords Picks And Pans

Hollyoaks

When it comes to gay characters, I don’t think any show handles them as nicely as Hollyoaks does. Not only do they tend to be well written and well drawn, they are fully integrated into the show – not simply side characters brought out to support other people’s stories. In fact, in the last couple of years, as in the case with Brendan and Ste and the recently departed Jason, they carry the bulk of the story load. This means that Hollyoaks can have more than one gay character and have each of them in their own story with their own relationships and romances. And this past week was a fine example of that.

As with most stories surrounding Brendan, I’m loving the new plot arc designed to delve into his character and find out what makes him tick. While I have a...

This week’s Wamg Top 10 is having a look at all the on and off-screen couples of Hollywood. The Drew Barrymore/Justin Long romantic-comedy, Going The Distance, comes out next Friday on September 3rd, so we thought we’d give it a go with our list of favorite “Work and Play Couples.” Let us know what you think and who you would put on the list in the comments section below.

Honorable Mention: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

Lucille Ball was a rising star under contract to Rko Studios when she was cast as the female lead in the film version of the Broadway smash Too Many Girls. Prior to the start of filming she was introduced to the young Cuban singer who had taken New York City by storm, Desi Arnaz. Stories from several sources in that Rko office said that sparks flew when they locked eyes on each other.

Super-8 Charles Bronson Movie Madness at the Way Out Club will be held next Tuesday, July 6th from 8pm to Midnight. This will be a major movie event! Super-8 Movie Madness is going to honor the career of Hollywood’s greatest star and we’ll be making history again for as far as I’m aware this is the first Super-8 Charles Bronson festival… like… ever! I will be covering the walls of the Way Out Club with dozens of massive Charles Bronson movie posters and will be displaying busts, figures, and model kits of Charles Bronson all from my personal collection. And best of all, there will be these awesome Super-8 Charles Bronson Movie Madness T-Shirts for sale for only ten bucks!

If you’re not familiar with the madness, here’s a brief rundown: Remember (before video tapes) the Super-8 films they used to sell in the 1950’s...

In Charles Bronson news, two of his westerns, Once Upon A Time In The West and The Magnificent Seven, made this weeks list of Top Ten Westerns here at Wamg, but there’s an outstanding western that Bronson costarred in very early in his career worthy of discussion that most readers are probably unfamiliar with. Drum Beat from 1953 starred Alan Ladd and was based on a true story about a violent Indian uprising in the 187os. It’s an impressive and exciting outdoor adventure but Hollywood studios were churning out hundreds of westerns in the early 50’s so it’s not too surprising that Drum Beat, though so superior to many, hasn’t received its due. The most notable thing about Drum Beat is that it provided Charles Bronson with his real break-through role as an actor. Bronson’s scene-stealing performance as an Indian chief received a lot of attention...

Charles Bronson was the unlikeliest of movie stars. Of all the leading men in the history of Hollywood, Charles Bronson had the least range as an actor. He rarely emoted or even changed his expression, and when he did speak, his voice was a reedy whisper. But Charles Bronson could coast on presence, charisma, and silent brooding menace like no one.s business and he wound up the world’s most bankable movie star throughout most of the 1970’s. Bronson did not rise quickly in the Hollywood ranks. His film debut was in 1951 and he spent the next two decades as a solid character actor with a rugged face, muscular physique and everyman ethnicity that kept him busy in supporting roles as indians, convicts, cowboys, boxers, and gangsters. It wasn’t until he was in his late 40’s, after the international success of Once Upon A Time In The West...