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Although the upcoming sequel to 1996’s Twister is missing some major names from the original, one cameo had a special significance to original leading man Bill Paxton.

The late Golden Globe nominee’s son James Paxton said his experience on the set of the upcoming sequel Twisters, which premieres July 19, was “an emotional thing” after his father died at age 61 back in 2017.

“It took me a little bit of time to process it, just given the context of my dad and his significance in the original and him not being here,” he explained to Entertainment Weekly. “It’s an emotional thing. It wasn’t something that I could really decide immediately, It took a little time just to process it, just the magnitude of it.”

James said he “wanted to be a conduit” for his dad’s spirit on set “and cheer everyone in this production on to success because I know he would be.

In a stunning turn of events at Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial, a New Mexico judge dismissed the single felony count filed against the actor on Friday and said prosecutors could not bring it again. The shocking decision followed after Baldwin’s defense lawyers filed an emergency motion alleging prosecutors and investigators withheld evidence.

“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled as Baldwin broke down in tears in the Santa Fe courtroom. “Your motion to dismiss with prejudice is granted.

Exclusive: Malcolm McDowell is saddling up with James Paxton, Bernadette Peters and Laura Marano for Adam Rifkin’s Western Last Train to Fortune.

Last Train to Fortune also reteams McDowell with his former wife, Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen, the duo previously starring together in the 1979 sci-fi drama Time After Time and the 1983 Martin Ritt drama Cross Creek.

In the pic, McDowell plays Cecil Peachtree, a stuffed-shirt schoolmaster who misses the last train to Fortune and meets an outlaw named Dooley (Paxton), at which point they strike a deal: The gunslinger will ride the book-loving Cecil to Fortune in exchange for his teacher’s stipend awaiting him. Along the way there are gunfights, jailbreaks and saloon gals, and our mismatched heroes form an unlikely bond. The pic, which is produced by Michael P.J. Gerstein, Paxton, Matt Williams, Rifkin and Brad Wyman (the Oscar-winning Charlize Theron drama Monster) is said to be...

Sigourney Weaver is formidable. Intimidating. When she steps in front of a camera, she instantly becomes the most powerful presence in the scene, even if her character isn't. She projects fierce intelligence, and rightfully seems to disdain every single character in her orbit as less than. She's devoured the daunting likes of Bill Murray, Mel Gibson, and Gene Hackman without breaking a sweat. At 5'11", Weaver towers and struts with Amazonian grace. She's as captivating as she is impenetrable. But then she lets the facade crack, and you realize, even when she's playing an ice queen like Katharine Parker in Mike Nichols' "Working Girl," that these forces of nature are concealing a mess of neuroses.

In a less patriarchal world, Weaver would've been the female equivalent of Harrison Ford. She's a movie star top-to-bottom, but she's long worked against society's view of determined, independent women. There have been films that...

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By Chris Wade

Of all the actors to emerge in the 1970s, there are few, if any, as captivating, unpredictable and exciting as James Woods. He began the decade, and his on screen career for that matter, for legendary director Elia Kazan in The Visitors (1972), and in the next few years established himself as one of American film's most promising young performers. He turned up as villains in such classic TV shows as Kojak and Streets of San Francisco, but he also appeared in some major 70s movies too, such as 1973's The Way We Were, Arthur Penn's Night Movies (1975) and The Gambler (1975). But it was his performance in The Onion Field (1979) which really signalled his arrival, as the sociopathic cop killer Greg Powell. The film, based on Joseph Wambaugh's best-selling non-fiction book, was a critical smash and earned Woods his first wave of acclaim.

Kevin Lewis is the director of “Willys Wonderland” starring Nicolas Cage as The Janitor, which is available today on VOD.

Who is The Janitor? Is he a quiet drifter who stumbles upon a band of murderous, satanic-possessed animatronics? Yes. Is he Nicolas Cage, who is not only one of the most amazing actors, but a wonderful partner to make a movie with? Absolutely yes. Is he G.O. Parsons, who wrote a wholly original script? 100 percent yes. Is he Jeremy Daniel Davis, who worked tirelessly every day for years to see “Willy’s Wonderland” finally get to the finish line? A resounding yes.

Is he the producers who pushed relentlessly hard to see this movie get made? No doubt yes. Is he Emoi, who not only gave Willy a voice that wasn’t written on the page, but also composed a pulse-pounding soundtrack that is the heart and soul of “Willy’s Wonderland?...

Directed by Kevin Lewis, from a script by G.O. Parsons, this defiantly out-of-the-box and in some ways rather cunning grunge horror film, set from dusk till dawn inside a run-down family fun center, is a tongue-in-cheek thriller that knows how preposterous it is.

The monsters, you see, are the kiddie palace’s resident menagerie of towering animatronic mascots. They’re possessed by evil spirits, and they’ll tear your head off. But even as that sounds like the stuff of overripe horror parody, “Willy’s Wonderland,” taking its cue from films like “Leprechaun,” “Two Thousand Maniacs,” and Tobe Hooper’s “The Funhouse”, treats its homicidal-furry-mascot premise as if it were a pre-ironic ’80s hack-’em-up. The movie is a canny ghoulie potboiler that whisks you along. And that, in no small part, is because of the other arresting creature at its center.

I’m talking about Nicolas Cage. I hadn’t seen a scuzzy,...

There are few shows born in the 21st century as hilarious and underappreciated as Scrubs, a show that for eight seasons made fans laugh, cry, and crave an Eagle. The show had a terrific cast to partner up with the genius writing of the show, and they were all unbelievably funny, but few were more so than Neil Flynn as the Janitor.

Related: Scrubs: 5 Times We Felt Bad For The Janitor (& 5 Times We Hated Him)

As fans of the excellent Fake Doctors, Real Friends With Zach + Donald podcast can attest, Flynn was so funny that a lot of the time of his lines were improvised, and on top of continuously being hilarious, there are a variety of ways the Janitor got better and better.

UK, Germany, Australia enter twisted amusement park.

Foresight Unlimited has announced during the Cannes virtual market it has closed the bulk of international sales on Nicolas Cage genre feature Willy’s Wonderland.

Rights have gone in the UK (Signature Entertainment), Germany and Benelux (Splendid), Australia (Madman), Latin America (CDC), Cis (Central Partnership), Canada (Vvs), Italy (Eagle Pictures), Scandinavia (Sf Studios), and Middle East (Salim Ramia).

Deals also closed in Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Poland (M2), Hong Kong (Pegasus), Taiwan (MovieCloud), Thailand (Sahamongkol), Philippines (Pioneer), Vietnam (Rapture Lions), India and Singapore (Viswass), Bulgaria and former Yugoslavia (Fifth Element/Blitz), Iceland (Myndform), and...

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary release of Alien, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will be releasing a first-ever 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray & Digital Download and SteelBook editions 22nd April. We have a copy of the 4k Blu-Ray and Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report hardback book from Titan Books up for grabs!

In the film that birthed the wildly successful Alien franchise, the crew of the deep space tug Nostromo awaken from stasis during a voyage home to Earth when their ship’s computer detects what is believed to be an alien distress signal coming from the desolate nearby moon, Lv-426. While investigating, one of the crew, Kane (John Hurt), is attacked by an alien creature that latches to his face and he is rushed back to the Nostromo to receive medical treatment. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the ship’s warrant officer, advises against Kane’s return due to quarantine regulations – but her...

Exclusive: The CW’s The Lost Boys pilot has cast most of its leads. Former Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey and Kingdom alum Kiele Sanchez have been tapped for two of the three central characters, with Medalion Rahimi (Still Star-Crossed) and Dakota Shapiro (Valley of the Boom) also landing lead roles in the series adaptation of the iconic 1987 Warner Bros horror comedy movie.

Catherine Hardwicke is set to direct the pilot, from Warner Bros TV, Spondoolie Prods and Gulfstream TV, in a return to the vampire genre after helming the first movie in the Twilight saga.

Written by Heather Mitchell, The Lost Boys is set in sunny seaside Santa Carla, home to a beautiful boardwalk, all the cotton candy you can eat…and a secret underworld of vampires. After the sudden death of their father, brothers Michael (Posey) and Sam Emerson move to Santa Carla with their mother, Lucy (Sanchez...

Berlin — The international boom in prestige TV has put a spotlight on the industry’s top writing talents, yet many screenwriters still struggle to break out of the writers’ room and into the business.

At a packed afternoon session on day two of the Berlinale’s Drama Series Days, Adi Hasak and Anna Winger (“Deutschland 83/86”) discussed starting their own businesses, collaborating with studios, networks, and streaming services, and keeping control of their IP as they develop projects from scratch to screen.

“The whole idea of showrunning…is very different from just writing it,” said Winger. “There are so many parts to it: How to make something, how to make it with the budget that you have, how to make it with the people you’re working with, how to take something that’s in your head and execute it

She continued: “It really takes a village to make a TV show.

Melora Walters, Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino, and Gil Bellows are set as leads in Drowning, an indie film written and being directed by Walters. It’s based on Walters’ real-life account of the time her young son decided to join the Army and fight in Iraq. It’s A mother’s worst nightmare, compounded by the fact that he’s then stationed in Mosul for the ‘final battle’. Albert Chi, Rory Rooney, and Sergio Rizzuto are producers on the film and are aiming for a festival release. Executive producer is Steven Swadling.

Julie Ann Emery (Better Call Saul), Karsen Liotta, Kevin Corrigan (Pineapple Express), and James Paxton have been tapped to lead the ensemble cast of the indie comedy Teenage Badass, which is currently filming on location in Phoenix.

Based on a novel published in 1978, "The World According To Garp" was released in 1982, and yet watching the film on the recently-released Blu-ray from Warner Archive, I was struck by how timely and even urgent the material felt, and how much more adult and daring it is than most of the movies released by studios today. Not only do they not make them like this anymore, but I'd offer the opinion that they never really did. How can a film from 1978 have a better handle on the times we're living in right now than most of the films coming out this year? After all, much of John Irving's novel is a direct reaction to the late '70s and what Irving thought of the social landscape at that particular moment. How relevant could it be today, since we've obviously progressed so much since then? You'd be surprised. For those...

There is a bit of a controversy going on over in America (where else?) that besides the Obamacare controversy, Obama gun control controversy, Obama is black controversy, North Korea controversy, the Iraq invasion controversy, Lincoln didn’t win the Oscar controversy, music/video pirating controversy, the immigrant controversy, bank bail out controversy, drone controversy, oil pipeline controversy, Ray-j controversy, baseball doping controversy, legalized marijuana controversy and FBI spying on the internet controversy some people still have the energy to be indignant at Morgan Freeman’s Ama (Ask Me Anything) interview on Reddit recently, claiming that it seems the interview itself was a hoax and that was not the 70 year old award-winning actor but some PR shill pretending to be Morgan Freeman.

Reddit’s Ama format has become quite popular as of late for celebrities to try and reach or get back new fans that have tuned out of the usual...

Netflix has revolutionized the home viewing market for movies with their instant streaming service. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about films of all genres worth holding a spot on your Netflix instant viewing queue. Release dates are subject to change.

Winter’S Bone (2010)

Streaming Available: 07/30/2011

Synopsis: In director Debra Granik’s unflinching noir drama set deep in the Ozarks, resilient teen Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) goes on the trail of her missing, drug-dealing father when his absence jeopardizes the family’s safety. Her deadbeat dad has a key court date pending, and Ree is determined that he show up — despite the objections of the insular Dolly clan. The film earned Oscar and Independent Spirit Award nods for Best Picture and for Lawrence.

Average Netflix Rating: 3.6

Pitch Black (2000)

Streaming Available: 07/31/2011

Synopsis: In director Debra Granik’s unflinching noir drama set deep in the Ozarks, resilient teen Ree...

Eyewitness (Original Release Date: 13 February 1981)

Among the movies I’ve watched so far for the column, Eyewitness is the one most obviously of its era. Where something like The Incredible Shrinking Woman might stake its claim to the early eighties based wholly on eccentricities, Eyewitness nabs an adjacent plot with an endearing effortlessness. That couch you remember from your aunt’s trailer with the heavy wooden arm rests and the burlap-y plaid upholstery is there, as are the hard angles on cars, the idea of home video as a novelty, the pale-red-paint look of movie blood, and, perhaps most importantly, a nearness to the Vietnam War that makes coping with it seem more a given than some form of filmmaker fetishism.

The Vietnam War connection is rolled out bit by bit throughout Eyewitness’s first half, and I found myself wondering if audiences of the time would have been quicker...

Peter Yates, one of cinema’s most versatile directors. has died in London at age 81. Upon graduation from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Yates worked his way up from dubbing assistant to assistant director in the classic films A Taste Of Honey and The Guns Of Navarone. He gained experience as a director on the British produced TV shows The Saint ( starring Roger Moore ) and Danger Man ( re-titled Secret Agent for America and starring Patrick McGoohan. Yates began his feature film directing career with 1963′s Summer Holiday. After two more features Yates traveled to the U.S. where he helmed the action film classic Bullitt starring Steve McQueen. The film is still highly regarded for it’s groundbreaking car chase sequence through the winding streets of San Francisco. For the next few years Yates worked mostly in the states on dramas like John And Mary and The Friends Of Eddie Coyle...

British director of Summer Holiday, Breaking Away and Steve McQueen film Bullitt has died after long illness

Peter Yates, the four-time Oscar-nominated British director of Bullitt, Breaking Away and The Dresser, has died in London after a long illness. He was 82.

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art whose first film as a director was the lightweight Cliff Richard and the Shadows vehicle Summer Holiday, Yates made his name with the action-packed 1967 crime thriller Robbery, a dramatisation of the great train robbery. Hollywood beckoned, and Yates's first Us effort, Bullitt, featured the first car chase in the modern style, with star Steve McQueen himself taking the wheel for a large part of a bravura extended sequence in which his Ford Mustang slaloms and chicanes through the streets of San Francisco.

Academy recognition came later in Yates's career with the 1979 coming-of-age tale Breaking Away. The comedy about four working-class...

Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical

There's just something about the "old guard" UK film directors that makes them so memorable. A filmmaker like Peter Yates might not be mentioned all that much these days, but to a certain generation of film fanatics his was always known as a reliable name. That's not to say that all his films were classics, but even on the lighter or even sillier projects, there was a competence and confidence that most British filmmakers exhibit. Call it work ethic or class, but Peter Yates was one of those guys. The 81-year-old passed away over the weekend in his native London.

Oscar-nominated twice as a director (for the excellent 'Breaking Away' and the unfairly forgotten 'The Dresser') and then once again as a producer on both films, Mr. Yates had a colorful career of hits and misses, but one never got the...

Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical

There's just something about the "old guard" UK film directors that makes them so memorable. A filmmaker like Peter Yates might not be mentioned all that much these days, but to a certain generation of film fanatics his was always known as a reliable name. That's not to say that all his films were classics, but even on the lighter or even sillier projects, there was a competence and confidence that most British filmmakers exhibit. Call it work ethic or class, but Peter Yates was one of those guys. The 81-year-old passed away over the weekend in his native London.

Oscar-nominated twice as a director (for the excellent 'Breaking Away' and the unfairly forgotten 'The Dresser') and then once again as a producer on both films, Mr. Yates had a colorful career of hits and misses, but one never got the...

Four time Oscar-nominated British director Peter Yates has passed away at the age of 82. Deadline [1] reports that he died in London after a long illness. Yates is probably best known for the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt, the 1983 Oscar-nominated drama The Dresser, the 1983 cult fantasy film Krull, the 1977 horror/thriller The Deep, and the 1979 sports drama Breaking Away. His filmography also includes Curtain Call, The Run of the Country, Roommates, Year of the Comet, An Innocent Man, The House on Carroll Street, Suspect, Eleni, The Dresser, Eyewitness, Mother Jugs & Speed, For Pete's Sake, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Hot Rock, Murphy's War and John and Mary, and Robbery. I've included trailers for some of these films after the jump. Please feel free to post in remembrance of Yates (and the movies he directed) in the comments below. Bullitt Krull Breaking Away The Deep The Dresser The Hot Rock [1] http://www.

Deadline has learned that English film director and producer and 4-time Oscar nominee Peter Yates -- who helmed such celebrated and dissimilar films as Bullitt, The Friends Of Eddie Coyle, Breaking Away, Suspect, and The Dresser -- has passed away in London after a long illness. He was 82. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he was a stage actor before working as an assistant director for Tony Richardson. Yates' feature directorial debut was the early 1960s low-budget Summer Holiday (1963) with Cliff Richard And The Shadows. He soon graduated to the 1967 crime thriller Robbery, a fictionalized version of Britain's The Great Train Robbery. It was a short jump to his first American film, Bullitt (1968), starring Steve McQueen in one of the definitive cop movies of all time thanks to that car chase through the streets of San Francisco. Other films he directed included John and Mary (1969), Murphy's War...

As he most recently proved in a charming video interview with Steve, few are more deserving of a lifetime achievement award than Morgan Freeman. The American Film Institute wised up to that axiom, and will present the Oscar winner with the 39th AFI Life Achievement Award. Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees Sir Howard Stringer eloquently sums up the impact of Freeman’s career:

“Across decades, whether playing a prisoner, a president or God, he embodies a calm authority that demands respect for the character and for the art form. His gifts to the cultural record are also underscored by his unmistakable voice that echoes through the hearts and minds of movie lovers around the world.”

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The gala tribute takes place on June 9, 2011, and will air later that month on TV Land. Hit the jump for the official announcement.

Morgan Freeman To Receive 39th AFI Life Achievement Award...