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Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about filmmakers! Not the films that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today, as a sort of B-Side to our own recent Bruce Willis B-Side episode, we speak to screenwriter Daniel Waters about Hudson Hawk! And much, much, much more!

Daniel and I talk about the overnight success of Heathers getting made, the overnight failure of Hudson Hawk, followed by the complicated reaction to Batman Returns. Oh, and what about the three seashells in Demolition Man?

We also discuss Renny Harlin and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, that incredible Sandra Bullock performance, and his underseen directorial efforts (Happy Campers and Sex and Death 101).

Questions asked and answered include: what happened to all of the individual style in screenplays? Why does everybody save the cat these days? Is there a...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 6 Feb 2014 - 06:08

Our series of lists devoted to underappreciated films brings us to the year 2007, and another 25 overlooked gems...

For some reason, the number three was a common factor in several blockbuster movies of 2007. The third film in the Pirates Of The Caribbean series (At World's End) dominated the box office, Spider-Man 3 marked Sam Raimi's last entry as director in the series, while Mike Myers went for a hat trick of hits with Shrek The Third.

I Am Legend was the third and most financially successful attempt to bring Richard Matheson's classic novel to the big screen, Rush Hour 3 marked Jackie Chan's last action pairing with Chris Tucker, while Zack Snyder's musky sword-swinger 300 was notable for having the number three in the title.

Iffy attempts at numerology aside, 2007 was also a superb for year for movies in general - particularly underappreciated ones,...

After scoring its most successful summer of original programming ever, including the launch of mega-hit Falling Skies, TNT is set to heat up the fall and winter with a terrific lineup of popular and acclaimed original series and a showcase of new original movies. The drama network's slate includes the return of basic cable's top two series of all time, The Closer, starring 2010 Emmy winner Kyra Sedgwick, and Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander; all-new episodes of the hit caper series Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton; and a new season of the critically acclaimed Southland.

TNT has also unveiled the slate for The TNT Mystery Movie Night, a new showcase of contemporary procedural dramas set to launch Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 9 p.m. (Et/Pt). The showcase will kick off with Scott Turow's Innocent, starring Bill Pullman (Independence Day, Torchwood: Miracle Day), Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock, Damages) and Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2,...

TNT has some pretty cool shows on, Falling Skies and Southland are my personal favorites. The Closer is a really enjoyable show as well. The Fall/Winter schedule has been released for the networks lineup. Keep reading for all the details.

Let us know what your favorite show is on TNT?

Official Press Release:

After scoring its most successful summer of original programming ever, including the launch of mega-hit Falling Skies, TNT is set to heat up the fall and winter with a terrific lineup of popular and acclaimed original series and a showcase of new original movies. The drama network’s slate includes the return of basic cable’s top two series of all time, The Closer, starring 2010 Emmy® winner Kyra Sedgwick, and Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander; all-new episodes of the hit caper series Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton; and a new season of the critically acclaimed Southland.

TNT and TBS, which staged their Upfront presentation today in New York, are making bold moves to bolster their remarkably strong foundations in original programming. The networks are developing extensive new lineups of scripted and unscripted series and making a new push into half-hour comedy in partnership with some of the top talents in the industry, from award-winning actors to acclaimed producers, writers and best-selling authors.

This year marks the beginning of production of the final season of the blockbuster hit The Closer, starring Emmy winner Kyra Sedgwick. TNT confirmed today that it has ordered a 10-episode season of Major Crimes, a series set in the Los Angeles Police Department that promises to become television's next great crime drama. The seventh and final season of The Closer will include 15 episodes in 2011 and six in summer 2012, leading into the launch of Major Crimes, starring Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica). McDonnell has been...

TNT and TBS, which staged their Upfront presentation today in New York, are making bold moves to bolster their remarkably strong foundations in original programming. The networks are developing extensive new lineups of scripted and unscripted series and making a new push into half-hour comedy in partnership with some of the top talents in the industry, from award-winning actors to acclaimed producers, writers and best-selling authors.

This year marks the beginning of production of the final season of the blockbuster hit, The Closer, starring Emmy® winner Kyra Sedgwick. TNT confirmed today that it has ordered a 10-episode season of Major Crimes, a series set in the Los Angeles Police Department that promises to become television’s next great crime drama. The seventh and final season of The Closer will include 15 episodes in 2011 and six in summer 2012, leading into the launch of Major Crimes, starring Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica). McDonnell has...

It looks like Andy Richter will be stepping from behind the podium on Conan to another podium (I am guessing) for a new game show on TBS entitled Pyramid. The show is reportedly a modern-day take on the iconic game show that began asThe $10,000 Pyramid.

I really enjoye watching Men of A Certain Age, and highly recommend it. The new shows don't really catch my interest yet, aside from Pyramid. Check out the full lineup below and share your thoughts on what shows you are most interested in seeing.

TNT scripted series in development

Untitled Kip Koenig/John Wells Productions Project – Set against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, this drama follows a family of cops who uncover the mystical and often crime-ridden world of a small town where things aren’t as they appear. The project comes to TNT from Warner Horizon Television, Kip Koenig (Grey’s Anatomy) and John Wells Productions (Southland,...

Remember how Blossom’s Mayim Bialik was on What Not to Wear before her current gig as Sheldon’s girl-who-is-a-friend on The Big Bang Theory? Let’s hope it works out in a similar manner for The Facts of Life’s Natalie, Mindy Cohn, who will appear on the Tlc show’s season 8 premiere Friday at 9 p.m. Et. Watch a clip below.

At 44, it seems that Cohn — who appeared in the 2007 indie film Sex and Death 101 with Simon Baker and Winona Ryder and has of late been voicing Velma in various Scooby-Doo videos and TV series — buys her clothing two sizes too big.

I'm just not going to let you all forget about the Dune remake you're trying to ignore, which is already set up with director Pierre Morel, who directed last weekend's monstrously awful From Paris with Love. From what I understand, there was a very good script that Peter Berg was working off of when he was attached as director, but they've decided to scrap it, probably on account of it being decent. Studios don't like decent movies -- they like theme park rides with actors that they can convert into 3D. All of which is why some dude named Chase Palmer has been hired to inject Morel's ideas into the existing Josh Zetumer script for Dune, and by new ideas, I mean: Little photo booths that you and your family can get your picture taken at. And don't forget to buy the "I saw Dune and Survived" T-Shirt on the way out the door.

Since 2002's Mr. Deeds (and an incident with shoplifting), Winona Ryder kept herself quietly busy with indie fare like Sex and Death 101 and The Informers — until she played Spock's mother in Star Trek.

Now Ryder has signed on to star in Darren Aronofsky's supernatural thriller Black Swan, according to THR. Set in the world of New York's ballet scene, Black Swan follows a dancer (Natalie Portman) whose rival (Mila Kunis) may be a figment of the her imagination. Ryder will play an older dancer. Barbara Hershey and Vincent Cassell are also joining the cast in unspecified roles.

Black Swan, which starts production in New York at the end of the year, has a script by Aronofsky and Mark Heyman. Fox Searchlight, who distributed Aronofsky's The Wrestler, is negotiating to co-finance and distribute the movie.

Ryder can be seen next in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, which opens...

  It seems like every time Winona Ryder tries to kick start her acting career she makes the wrong choice.  If you were to be kind, you'd recognize Ryder's last good performance in "Girl, Interrupted" a decade ago.  Since then she's suffered because of the notorious shoplifting incident and what was perceived as overly strange behavior.  One lucky role in the box office hit "Mr. Deeds" aside, she's made one bad indie choice after another.  Some of the clunkers include "The Darwin Awards," "The Ten," "Sex and Death 101" and "The Informers," just to name a few.  Now, Ryder appears to...

Renowned horror writer Jack Ketchum brings his chilling cannibal tale from the page to the screen with Director/Producer Andrew van den Houten (Headspace). A series of murderous home invasions in the sleepy seaside town of Dead River, Maine alarms the former sheriff George Peters (Art Hindle, The Brood, Black Christmas). The events are eerily similar to a bloody battle he'd fought with a wild and savage clan a decade ago, which has managed to elude capture and survive by hiding out in forests and caves. When the clan leader (Pollyanna McIntosh, Headspace, Sex and Death 101) discovers a secluded home, she orders her followers to abduct the residents, two women and their young children, to assure the cannibals' survival. But the kidnapped women have survival instincts of their own, and the former sheriff has a score to settle, even if it kills him. MODERNCINÉ (www.moderncine.com [1]) has been...

Mischa Barton's nude scene in British moviemaker Richard Attenborough's romance drama Closing The Ring has been named the flesh-flashing clip of the year.

Barton's big reveal beat Aussie model/actress' Sophie Monk's nude scene in Sex + Death 101.

Heather Graham's bare-all moment in Adrift in Manhattan rounds out the top three on blogger MrSkin.com's sexy list.

But none of the films land on the blogger's all-time top 20 list, which is topped by Phoebe Cates' swimming pool scene in Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

Also making the 2008 list are newlywed Asia Argento (The Last Mistress), Neve Campbell (I Really Hate My Job) and Anna Faris (The House Bunny).

Sophie Monk is aiming to break some hearts.

The Sex and Death 101 actress has signed on to star in the indie comedy Hardbreakers, which revolves around two hot single girls who navigate the Los Angeles dating scene.

Monk will play Lindsay Greene, an outgoing, fun and crazy 25-year-old who has been with a lot of guys.

Newcomer Leah Sturgis wrote the screenplay and will direct.

Robert Latham (The Anarchist Cookbook) is producing with Rock Galotti, whose spent the past 20 years as a weapons coordinator on such big ticket action films as Transformers and Mission: Impossible II.

Monk (Date Movie) is repped by APA and Ziffren Brittenham.

Daniel Brühl and Marion Cotillard won the audience prizes for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively at the Seattle Film Festival in Washington this past weekend. Bruhl was honored for his role in Salvador, while Cotillard's performance as singer Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose was celebrated. Elsewhere, the audience awards for Best Film went to Outsourced, directed by John Jeffcoat, while Best Director went to Daniel Waters for Sex And Death 101. Among the juried awards were the Grand Jury Prize for Best New American Film, which was won by Jeff Nichols' Shotgun Stories.

Daryn Okada has been elected president of the American Society of Cinematographers. Okada replaces outgoing president Richard Crudo, who has served three consecutive terms. Okada is shooting Sex and Death 101 starring Winona Ryder for Cary Brokaw's Avenue Pictures. His cinematography credits include Buena Vista Pictures' Stick It, DreamWorks' Just Like Heaven and Paramount Pictures' Mean Girls.

Daryn Okada has been elected president of the American Society of Cinematographers. Okada replaces outgoing president Richard Crudo, who has served three consecutive terms. Okada is shooting Sex and Death 101 starring Winona Ryder for Cary Brokaw's Avenue Pictures. His cinematography credits include Buena Vista Pictures' Stick It, DreamWorks' Just Like Heaven and Paramount Pictures' Mean Girls.

Winona Ryder is reuniting with Daniel Waters, who wrote Heathers and helped establish Ryder as the edgy "it" girl for Generation X. Ryder has signed on to star as a feminist vigilante who becomes an urban folk hero in Sex and Death 101, which Waters wrote and is directing. The story follows a man (Simon Baker) whose life is upended by a mysterious e-mail containing the 101 names of every woman he has had sex with and, eerily, every woman he will have sex with in the future. He is stopped in his tracks when he meets Ryder, a femme fatale who targets men guilty of sex crimes against women.

Winona Ryder is reuniting with Daniel Waters, who wrote Heathers and helped establish Ryder as the edgy "it" girl for Generation X. Ryder has signed on to star as a feminist vigilante who becomes an urban folk hero in Sex and Death 101, which Waters wrote and is directing. The story follows a man (Simon Baker) whose life is upended by a mysterious e-mail containing the 101 names of every woman he has had sex with and, eerily, every woman he will have sex with in the future. He is stopped in his tracks when he meets Ryder, a femme fatale who targets men guilty of sex crimes against women.

Simon Baker will star in Sex and Death 101, Daniel Waters' dark comedy being produced by Cary Brokaw's Avenue Pictures and Sandbar Pictures. The story follows a man (Baker) whose life is upended by a mysterious e-mail containing the names of every woman he has had sex with and, eerily, every woman he will have sex with in the future. Waters, who wrote Heathers and Batman Returns, penned the script and is directing. Avenue and Sandbar are financing. Brokaw is producing with Sandbar's Lizzie Friedman and Greg Little. Avenue exec vp Aaron Craig Geller, who brought in the project, is serving as executive producer. A mid-May shoot in Vancouver is being targeted. Baker, repped by ICM and Untitled, last starred in the romantic comedy Something New, George A. Romero's Land of the Dead and in CBS' The Guardian. He next appears in The Devil Wears Prada.