Fight Club, Zodiac, The Social Network, Gone Girl. There's hardly anyone who hasn't seen, let alone heard, all of these movies and the name of the man behind them, David Fincher. From Alien 3 to The Killer with Michael Fassbender, from House of Cards to Love, Death & Robots, Fincher's career is now in its fourth decade and his films have collectively grossed over $2.1 billion. But of course, no matter how original his work, even a director as innovative as Fincher is inspired by the achievements of filmmakers who came before him. Here is a list of 26 films that David Fincher has cited as his favorites.
26 Must-See Movies David Fincher Loves
26. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
25. Chinatown
24. Dr. Strangelove
23. The Godfather Part II
22. Taxi Driver
21. Being There
20. Alien
19. Rear Window
18. Jaws
17. Lawrence of Arabia
16. Zelig
15. Cabaret
14. All That Jazz
13. Paper Moon
12. All the President's Men
11. Citizen Kane
10. 8½
9. The Graduate...
26 Must-See Movies David Fincher Loves
26. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
25. Chinatown
24. Dr. Strangelove
23. The Godfather Part II
22. Taxi Driver
21. Being There
20. Alien
19. Rear Window
18. Jaws
17. Lawrence of Arabia
16. Zelig
15. Cabaret
14. All That Jazz
13. Paper Moon
12. All the President's Men
11. Citizen Kane
10. 8½
9. The Graduate...
- 5/16/2024
- by louise.everitt@startefacts.com (Louise Everitt)
- STartefacts.com
Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep revealed her admiration for actresses who move into production having achieved fame on the big screen in an onstage conversation Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival.
“There are so many women are producing for themselves and I’m so in awe of the ones who have done that. Reese [Witherspoon] and Nicole [Kidman], Natalie Portman. Everybody has their own production company,” she said.
“I have a production company of babies and that’s what I’ve produced, but I didn’t ever want to get phone calls after seven o’clock at night. So, I never did that. I’m in awe of people who do that. There are only so many hours in the day,”’ said Streep, who had highlighted earlier that she was a mother of four, and grandmother of five.
Streep was speaking to a packed Debussy Theatre in Cannes, where she was the...
“There are so many women are producing for themselves and I’m so in awe of the ones who have done that. Reese [Witherspoon] and Nicole [Kidman], Natalie Portman. Everybody has their own production company,” she said.
“I have a production company of babies and that’s what I’ve produced, but I didn’t ever want to get phone calls after seven o’clock at night. So, I never did that. I’m in awe of people who do that. There are only so many hours in the day,”’ said Streep, who had highlighted earlier that she was a mother of four, and grandmother of five.
Streep was speaking to a packed Debussy Theatre in Cannes, where she was the...
- 5/15/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
“The roles are wonderful now, I think, for women, and so many women are producing for themselves,” marveled Meryl Streep at a Cannes Film Festival “rendez-vous” held on Wednesday afternoon, just hours after the legendary actress collected an honorary Palme d’Or at the fest’s opening night ceremony. (She reported that she didn’t go to sleep until 3 a.m.) “I’m so in awe of the ones who have done that — Reese [Witherspoon] and Nicole [Kidman] and Natalie Portman. Everyone has their own production company!” The mother of four and grandmother of five added with a chuckle, “I had a production company: making babies! I didn’t want to get calls after seven o’clock at night, so I didn’t do that.”
During a conversation with French journalist Didier Allouch in front of a packed Théâtre Debussy within the Palais complex, the 74-year-old reflected on not just how opportunities...
During a conversation with French journalist Didier Allouch in front of a packed Théâtre Debussy within the Palais complex, the 74-year-old reflected on not just how opportunities...
- 5/15/2024
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jerry Herman’s musical “Hello, Dolly!” dominated the 18th Tony Awards which took place at the New York Hilton on May 24, 1964. “Hello, Dolly!” entered the ceremony with 11 nominations and walked out with ten awards including best musical, best actress for Carol Channing, original score for Herman and for Gower Champion’s choreography and direction.
Other musicals in contention for multiple awards that year were “High Spirits,” based on Noel Coward’s classic comedy “Blithe Spirit,” “Funny Girl,” which transformed Barbra Streisand into a Broadway superstar, and “110 in the Shade,” based on the straight play “The Rainmaker.”
Bert Lahr, best known as the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz,” won lead actor in a musical for “Foxy,” based on Ben Jonson’s “Volpone.” The musical was not a hit closed after 72 performances. Also nominated in the category was Bob Fosse for a short-lived revival of Rodgers and Hart’s “Pal Joey.
Other musicals in contention for multiple awards that year were “High Spirits,” based on Noel Coward’s classic comedy “Blithe Spirit,” “Funny Girl,” which transformed Barbra Streisand into a Broadway superstar, and “110 in the Shade,” based on the straight play “The Rainmaker.”
Bert Lahr, best known as the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz,” won lead actor in a musical for “Foxy,” based on Ben Jonson’s “Volpone.” The musical was not a hit closed after 72 performances. Also nominated in the category was Bob Fosse for a short-lived revival of Rodgers and Hart’s “Pal Joey.
- 5/15/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Oh, Canada debuting this week on the Croisette is high time to see lesser-seen Schrader on the Criterion Channel, who’ll debut an 11-title series including the likes of Touch, The Canyons, and Patty Hearst, while Old Boyfriends (written with his brother Leonard) and his own “Adventures in Moviegoing” are also programmed. Five films by Jean Grémillon, a rather underappreciated figure of French cinema, will be showing
Series-wise, there’s an appreciation of the synth soundtrack stretching all the way back to 1956’s Forbidden Planet while, naturally, finding its glut of titles in the ’70s and ’80s––Argento and Carpenter, obviously, but also Tarkovsky and Peter Weir. A Prince and restorations of films by Bob Odenkirk, Obayashi, John Greyson, and Jacques Rivette (whose Duelle is a masterpiece of the highest order) make streaming debuts. I Am Cuba, Girlfight, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Dazed and Confused are June’s Criterion Editions.
Series-wise, there’s an appreciation of the synth soundtrack stretching all the way back to 1956’s Forbidden Planet while, naturally, finding its glut of titles in the ’70s and ’80s––Argento and Carpenter, obviously, but also Tarkovsky and Peter Weir. A Prince and restorations of films by Bob Odenkirk, Obayashi, John Greyson, and Jacques Rivette (whose Duelle is a masterpiece of the highest order) make streaming debuts. I Am Cuba, Girlfight, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Dazed and Confused are June’s Criterion Editions.
- 5/14/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Nicole Kidman is the rare actress in the 21st century who, like the stars of Hollywood’s golden years, doesn’t disappear into roles so much as elevate films by her mere presence.
She’s certainly swung big at mainstream blockbusters (think: the “Aquaman” films) that might feel out of her step with her character-driven work elsewhere (like most of the films on the list that follows). But that’s because the Australian icon is unafraid of any role, whether stripping down her post-Oscar, A-lister veneer to film Lars von Trier’s Brechtian “Dogville” in Sweden, slipping into a bathtub with the 10-year-old possible reincarnation of her dead husband in Jonathan Glazer’s “Birth,” or, yes, donning a fake nose to play a suicidal Virginia Woolf for her Oscar-winning turn in “The Hours.”
On April 27 in Los Angeles, Nicole Kidman will receive the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award, joining the ranks of Jane Fonda,...
She’s certainly swung big at mainstream blockbusters (think: the “Aquaman” films) that might feel out of her step with her character-driven work elsewhere (like most of the films on the list that follows). But that’s because the Australian icon is unafraid of any role, whether stripping down her post-Oscar, A-lister veneer to film Lars von Trier’s Brechtian “Dogville” in Sweden, slipping into a bathtub with the 10-year-old possible reincarnation of her dead husband in Jonathan Glazer’s “Birth,” or, yes, donning a fake nose to play a suicidal Virginia Woolf for her Oscar-winning turn in “The Hours.”
On April 27 in Los Angeles, Nicole Kidman will receive the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award, joining the ranks of Jane Fonda,...
- 4/26/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
If Criterion24/7 hasn’t completely colonized your attention every time you open the Channel––this is to say: if you’re stronger than me––their May lineup may be of interest. First and foremost I’m happy to see a Michael Roemer triple-feature: his superlative Nothing But a Man, arriving in a Criterion Edition, and the recently rediscovered The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance is Mine, three distinct features that suggest a long-lost voice of American movies. Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Antiwar Trilogy four by Sara Driver, and a wide collection from Ayoka Chenzira fill out the auteurist sets.
Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...
Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...
- 4/17/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Everyone remembers their first time. That is the first time they saw Marlon Brando.
For the late Mike Nichols, seeing Brando on Broadway in 1947 in his seminal turn as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams‘ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” was the catalyst that lead to his career in the arts which saw him become a rare Egot winner. The teenage Nichols and his then girlfriend’s mother were given tickets for the second night of the Elia Kazan-directed production. “There had never been anything like it, I know that by now,” Nichols recalled in a 2010 L.A. Times interview. It was, to this day, the only thing onstage that I had ever seen that was 100% real and 100% poetic. Lucy and I weren’t exactly theater buffs, but we couldn’t get up at the intermission. We were just so stunned. Your heart was pounding. It was a major experience.”
Susan L.
For the late Mike Nichols, seeing Brando on Broadway in 1947 in his seminal turn as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams‘ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” was the catalyst that lead to his career in the arts which saw him become a rare Egot winner. The teenage Nichols and his then girlfriend’s mother were given tickets for the second night of the Elia Kazan-directed production. “There had never been anything like it, I know that by now,” Nichols recalled in a 2010 L.A. Times interview. It was, to this day, the only thing onstage that I had ever seen that was 100% real and 100% poetic. Lucy and I weren’t exactly theater buffs, but we couldn’t get up at the intermission. We were just so stunned. Your heart was pounding. It was a major experience.”
Susan L.
- 4/2/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Sad news for Young and the Restless (Y&R) fans as it has been announced that former alum and actress Jennifer Leak D’Auria passed away recently, after a seven-year fight with a rare neurological condition known as supranuclear palsy. She died on Monday, March 18 in her Jupiter, Florida home at the age of 76.
Young and the Restless Star Jennifer Leak D’Auria’s Acting Legacy
While Jennifer is best known for her Y&r role as Gwen Sherman, she had quite the acting career. She began working at the age of 17 when she shot a Canadian television pilot for a series called Wojeck.
According to Jennifer’s husband, James D’Auria, the film director Mike Nichols was so impressed with her natural talent that he cast her in The Graduate; however, immigration issues kept her from participating in the movie.
She would move to L.A. later on, living at the Hollywood Studio Club,...
Young and the Restless Star Jennifer Leak D’Auria’s Acting Legacy
While Jennifer is best known for her Y&r role as Gwen Sherman, she had quite the acting career. She began working at the age of 17 when she shot a Canadian television pilot for a series called Wojeck.
According to Jennifer’s husband, James D’Auria, the film director Mike Nichols was so impressed with her natural talent that he cast her in The Graduate; however, immigration issues kept her from participating in the movie.
She would move to L.A. later on, living at the Hollywood Studio Club,...
- 3/30/2024
- by Melinda Marsh
- Celebrating The Soaps
Jennifer Leak, the first wife of Tim Matheson who met when they played step-siblings in the 1968 film Yours, Mine and Ours, has died at 76. She died March 18 at her home in Jupiter, Fl.
Leak was dealing with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurological disease, in her final years.
Matheson posted a tribute on Facebook to her.
“It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of Jennifer Leak’s passing. She wasn’t just my screen sister in ‘Yours, Mine and Ours,’ but also my beloved first wife. Jennifer was a remarkable woman, strong, lovely, and incredibly talented. My deepest condolences go out to her husband of 47 years, James D’Auria, and their multitude of friends.”
Yours, Mine and Ours featured Matheson as Mike, the son of Henry Fonda’s Frank Beardsley, while Leak portrayed Colleen, the daughter of Lucille Ball’s Helen North. The movie was about a blended family of 18 children.
Leak was dealing with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurological disease, in her final years.
Matheson posted a tribute on Facebook to her.
“It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of Jennifer Leak’s passing. She wasn’t just my screen sister in ‘Yours, Mine and Ours,’ but also my beloved first wife. Jennifer was a remarkable woman, strong, lovely, and incredibly talented. My deepest condolences go out to her husband of 47 years, James D’Auria, and their multitude of friends.”
Yours, Mine and Ours featured Matheson as Mike, the son of Henry Fonda’s Frank Beardsley, while Leak portrayed Colleen, the daughter of Lucille Ball’s Helen North. The movie was about a blended family of 18 children.
- 3/29/2024
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
April’s an uncommonly strong auteurist month for the Criterion Channel, who will highlight a number of directors––many of whom aren’t often grouped together. Just after we screened House of Tolerance at the Roxy Cinema, Criterion are showing it and Nocturama for a two-film Bertrand Bonello retrospective, starting just four days before The Beast opens. Larger and rarer (but just as French) is the complete Jean Eustache series Janus toured last year. Meanwhile, five William Friedkin films and work from Makoto Shinkai, Lizzie Borden, and Rosine Mbakam are given a highlight.
One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...
One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...
- 3/18/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
SXSW 2024 is in full swing, complete with a new next-to-impossible ticket. The Black Keys continued the promo run they began Thursday afternoon with a keynote Q&a with Rolling Stone‘s Angie Martoccio by heading to Mohawk, a downtown club whose capacity is just a shade smaller than the arenas and festival stages they normally play. Accordingly, many fans got turned away at the door when the fire-code capacity for the Keys’ set of blues covers was reached, well before their midnight start time. But there were tons of other...
- 3/15/2024
- by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Christian Hoard, Angie Martoccio and Simon Vozick-Levinson
- Rollingstone.com
Kurt Russell was born on March 17, 1951, in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks. He started acting at the age of 12 on various television programs. In the 1960s he was signed to a 10-year contract with Walt Disney, which led to his appearance in many of the Disney films of the era. According to the late Robert Osborne of TCM (via Wikipedia), he became the studio’s top star of the 1970s.
Those Disney appearances did typecast Russell a bit and he would be stuck playing many roles that were somewhat wholesome in nature. He would turn that image around when director John Carpenter (fresh from the surprise blockbuster success of “Halloween”) cast him in the lead role of Elvis Presley in a TV movie called “Elvis!” That television film was really the first time Russell was taken seriously as an actor and it earned him an Emmy nomination. Carpenter...
Those Disney appearances did typecast Russell a bit and he would be stuck playing many roles that were somewhat wholesome in nature. He would turn that image around when director John Carpenter (fresh from the surprise blockbuster success of “Halloween”) cast him in the lead role of Elvis Presley in a TV movie called “Elvis!” That television film was really the first time Russell was taken seriously as an actor and it earned him an Emmy nomination. Carpenter...
- 3/9/2024
- by Robert Pius, Misty Holland and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Exclusive: Oscar winning Nomadland producer Peter Spears has optioned Mike Nichols: A Life, the 2021 biography of the director by Mark Harris, for development as a dramatic feature film.
The planned adaptation of the book, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, will not be a cradle-to-grave biography but will focus on a young Nichols as he journeys from Broadway to Hollywood to make his first film, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), depicting his high-stakes collaboration with the film’s two married stars, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Spears will develop the film for his production company, Cor Cordium. His other producing credits include the Oscar-winning Call Me by Your Name (2017), Bones and All (2022), and On Swift Horses, with Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Diego Calva, and Will Poulter, which will open later this year. Harris is also the author of Pictures at a Revolution (2008) and the World War II filmmaking history...
The planned adaptation of the book, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, will not be a cradle-to-grave biography but will focus on a young Nichols as he journeys from Broadway to Hollywood to make his first film, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), depicting his high-stakes collaboration with the film’s two married stars, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Spears will develop the film for his production company, Cor Cordium. His other producing credits include the Oscar-winning Call Me by Your Name (2017), Bones and All (2022), and On Swift Horses, with Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Diego Calva, and Will Poulter, which will open later this year. Harris is also the author of Pictures at a Revolution (2008) and the World War II filmmaking history...
- 3/2/2024
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
“I despise auditions,” Marlon Brando barked as he launched into the audition for his role in The Godfather. It was his idea, I reminded him, so he himself had caused his actors angst, not the studio.
Actors’ angst was much in evidence yet again last weekend at the SAG Awards. Brilliant performances were being honored, formidable talent was on display, and Barbra Streisand clearly owned the room.
But the evening had a problematic subtext: The anticipated turnaround in job opportunities hadn’t happened across Hollywood. The epoch of “peak TV” seems to be drifting away, with words like “contraction” echoing in the trade.
To be sure, none of this inhibited SAG honorees from thanking their casting directors for their good picks and even endorsing the Academy’s decision to create a new entity: a casting branch.
Related: Casting Society Sets Its Artios Awards...
Actors’ angst was much in evidence yet again last weekend at the SAG Awards. Brilliant performances were being honored, formidable talent was on display, and Barbra Streisand clearly owned the room.
But the evening had a problematic subtext: The anticipated turnaround in job opportunities hadn’t happened across Hollywood. The epoch of “peak TV” seems to be drifting away, with words like “contraction” echoing in the trade.
To be sure, none of this inhibited SAG honorees from thanking their casting directors for their good picks and even endorsing the Academy’s decision to create a new entity: a casting branch.
Related: Casting Society Sets Its Artios Awards...
- 2/29/2024
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
The 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival came to a close Sunday, but one of its highlights came three days earlier, with the last of the filmmaker tributes that serve as the spine of the fest.
On Thursday evening, inside Santa Barbara’s historic 2000-seat Arlington Theatre, veteran stage and screen actor Jeffrey Wright — who is Oscar-nominated for the first time in his nearly 30-year film career, for his leading performance in Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, a dramedy about race in America — was feted with the fest’s Montecito Award following a deeply engaging career-retrospective conversation with Sbiff executive director and passionate Wright admirer Roger Durling.
Wright, 58, spoke about being raised by his mother and his aunt, and never really even considering acting until he got to Amherst College, where he began to fall in love with the craft (and to abandon the notion of attending law school). He...
On Thursday evening, inside Santa Barbara’s historic 2000-seat Arlington Theatre, veteran stage and screen actor Jeffrey Wright — who is Oscar-nominated for the first time in his nearly 30-year film career, for his leading performance in Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, a dramedy about race in America — was feted with the fest’s Montecito Award following a deeply engaging career-retrospective conversation with Sbiff executive director and passionate Wright admirer Roger Durling.
Wright, 58, spoke about being raised by his mother and his aunt, and never really even considering acting until he got to Amherst College, where he began to fall in love with the craft (and to abandon the notion of attending law school). He...
- 2/19/2024
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
One of the greatest crime movies of all time, "The French Connection" is William Friedkin's gritty drama based on a true story. Gene Hackman stars as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, a no-nonsense, rule-breaking cop who gets caught up investigating a case in which the Italian mob is bringing drugs into America with the help of a French heroin-smuggling syndicate. But this isn't an open-and-shut case. The lawmen are seemingly foiled at every turn, and things end on a shocking, bleak note. It's an amazing movie with one of the best chase sequences ever captured on film. "The French Connection" was released nearly 53 years ago, which means many of its cast members have left us, along with director Friedkin, who died last year. But a few are still around. So here are the only major actors still alive from "The French Connection."
Read more: The 20 Best Detective Movies Ranked
Gene...
Read more: The 20 Best Detective Movies Ranked
Gene...
- 2/17/2024
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
Mike Nichols Made His Movie Directorial Debut with ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ — and Got Fired
Everyone involved with the film adaptation of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” had a lot riding on its success. For star Elizabeth Taylor, this was perhaps her first chance to prove that she could act (certainly the middle-aged Martha was the most demanding role she had ever had). For first-time producer Ernest Lehman, the movie could make or break him as he moved away from writing classics like “North by Northwest” and “Sweet Smell of Success.” And for director Mike Nichols, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” his feature film directorial debut, would either burnish his growing reputation as a boy genius after several smash Broadway hits or prove that he was out of his depth.
The impetus to play things safe must have been strong, and yet none of the film’s major players shied away from choosing the riskier paths. Filming in black-and-white in 1966 was not the indicator of...
The impetus to play things safe must have been strong, and yet none of the film’s major players shied away from choosing the riskier paths. Filming in black-and-white in 1966 was not the indicator of...
- 2/13/2024
- by Mark Peikert
- Indiewire
Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman 10 Years Later: The Actor’s Best Roles, from ‘Twister’ to ‘Doubt’
The worst thing that could have happened to the film community did on February 2, 2014: Philip Seymour Hoffman, the great actor who transcended every project he graced, died alone of a drug overdose in his Manhattan apartment. Everyone remembers where they were when the news broke. His death was a shock to the system of all his collaborators and everyone in the creative community, but he left behind an Oscar-winning, untouchable body of work that, whenever revisited, gives the consistent feeling that he’s still among us.
Though Hoffman won his Academy Award for his etched-in-stone portrayal of a great American writer in “Capote,” Bennett Miller’s film is hardly the best work he ever did. The mid-’90s saw Hoffman begin a too-short of a lifelong collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson, working together on films like “Hard Eight,” “Boogie Nights,” and “Magnolia” before playing a charismatic cult leader who...
Though Hoffman won his Academy Award for his etched-in-stone portrayal of a great American writer in “Capote,” Bennett Miller’s film is hardly the best work he ever did. The mid-’90s saw Hoffman begin a too-short of a lifelong collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson, working together on films like “Hard Eight,” “Boogie Nights,” and “Magnolia” before playing a charismatic cult leader who...
- 2/2/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Just weeks ago, Sir Elton John became the 19th entertainer to win the highly desirable Egot by claiming his first ever Emmy Award. And now, which person is the most likely to be the 20th Egot later this year, in 2025 or beyond? Here is a summary of the 80 people who have the best chance right now.
The most likely duo could be composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (actually meaning a 20th and 21st Egot if they win). They are producers and songwriters for the third season of “Only Murders in the Building,” so they will have a couple of opportunities in September at the Emmys. They first won an Oscar, Tony, and Grammy.
For the 2024 Grammys, nobody is nominated who could become an Egot, so the next possible chance would be 2025. There are a total of 25 people who have won everything needed except a Grammy. They are actress Ellen Burstyn,...
The most likely duo could be composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (actually meaning a 20th and 21st Egot if they win). They are producers and songwriters for the third season of “Only Murders in the Building,” so they will have a couple of opportunities in September at the Emmys. They first won an Oscar, Tony, and Grammy.
For the 2024 Grammys, nobody is nominated who could become an Egot, so the next possible chance would be 2025. There are a total of 25 people who have won everything needed except a Grammy. They are actress Ellen Burstyn,...
- 1/29/2024
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Only 19 people have won the awards grand slam known as the Egot. They are (in chronological order of achievement) composer Richard Rodgers, actress Helen Hayes, actress Rita Moreno, actor John Gielgud, actress Audrey Hepburn, composer Marvin Hamlisch, orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, writer/director/composer Mel Brooks, director Mike Nichols, actress Whoopi Goldberg, producer Scott Rudin, composer Robert Lopez, singer and actor John Legend, composer Tim Rice, composer Andrew Lloyd
Webber, composer Alan Menken, actress/producer Jennifer Hudson, actress Viola Davis and composer Elton John.
There are a total of eight people who have won a combination of the Tony, Oscar and Grammy without an Emmy Award. The two living people are featured in this photo gallery because they could still achieve the Egot. They are composer Benj Pasek and composer Justin Paul.
The six deceased people are actor Henry Fonda, composer Oscar Hammerstein, composer Alan Jay Lerner, composer Frank Loesser, composer...
Webber, composer Alan Menken, actress/producer Jennifer Hudson, actress Viola Davis and composer Elton John.
There are a total of eight people who have won a combination of the Tony, Oscar and Grammy without an Emmy Award. The two living people are featured in this photo gallery because they could still achieve the Egot. They are composer Benj Pasek and composer Justin Paul.
The six deceased people are actor Henry Fonda, composer Oscar Hammerstein, composer Alan Jay Lerner, composer Frank Loesser, composer...
- 1/23/2024
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Norman Jewison, a seven-time Academy Award nominee who directed the 1968 Best Picture Oscar winner “In the Heat of the Night” as well as Oscar winners “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Moonstruck” and numerous other iconic films, is dead. He died peacefully on Saturday at his home.
A filmmaking giant in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, Jewison was undeniably one of the most prominent producer-directors never to have won an Oscar – though he was honored with the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award at the Academy Awards in 1999. He was nominated three times for his directing: “In the Heat of the Night” in ’68 (losing to Mike Nichols for “The Graduate”), “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1972 (William Friedkin won for “The French Connection”) and “Moonstruck” in 1988 (won by Bernardo Bertolucci for “The Last Emperor”). He was also nominated for producing a quartet of Best Picture contenders: “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming...
A filmmaking giant in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, Jewison was undeniably one of the most prominent producer-directors never to have won an Oscar – though he was honored with the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award at the Academy Awards in 1999. He was nominated three times for his directing: “In the Heat of the Night” in ’68 (losing to Mike Nichols for “The Graduate”), “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1972 (William Friedkin won for “The French Connection”) and “Moonstruck” in 1988 (won by Bernardo Bertolucci for “The Last Emperor”). He was also nominated for producing a quartet of Best Picture contenders: “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming...
- 1/23/2024
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
Norman Jewison, the multifaceted filmmaker who could direct a racial drama (In the Heat of the Night), stylish thriller (The Thomas Crown Affair), musical (Fiddler on the Roof) or romantic comedy (Moonstruck) with the best of them, has died. He was 97.
Jewison died Saturday at home — his family does not want to specify exactly where — publicist Jeff Sanderson announced.
A seven-time Oscar nominee, Jewison received the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences in 1999.
Known for his ability to coax great performances out of his actors — 12 of his players were nominated for Oscars, while five of his features made the cut for best picture — the most distinguished film director in Canadian history often used conventional genre plots to take on social injustice.
Improbably, he got his start directing musical specials on television.
Jewison earned best director and best picture nominations for Fiddler on the Roof...
Jewison died Saturday at home — his family does not want to specify exactly where — publicist Jeff Sanderson announced.
A seven-time Oscar nominee, Jewison received the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences in 1999.
Known for his ability to coax great performances out of his actors — 12 of his players were nominated for Oscars, while five of his features made the cut for best picture — the most distinguished film director in Canadian history often used conventional genre plots to take on social injustice.
Improbably, he got his start directing musical specials on television.
Jewison earned best director and best picture nominations for Fiddler on the Roof...
- 1/22/2024
- by Mike Barnes and Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It’s finally happened – another legend has achieved Egot status, with Elton John being only the 19th person to attain the much-desired acronym at this evening’s Emmy Awards. Now, I know what some of you are asking yourselves right now – what does Egot mean? It’s the acronym from the toppermost of the poppermost in the entertainment industry, meaning the person who attains Egot status has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award. It was infamously coined by Miami Vice star Phillip Michael Thomas, who, as Emmy Host Anthony Anderson pointed out in his introduction this evening, never won any of the four awards (the closest he got was a Golden Globe nomination). The acronym became more widespread after getting name-checked on 30 Rock. Sadly, John was recovering from a knee operation, so he wasn’t there to accept the award in person.
Elton John’s Emmy this...
Elton John’s Emmy this...
- 1/16/2024
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
Elton John won an Emmy Award on Monday for his 2022 Disney+ special “Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium” – and with the trophy John became the 19th person to achieve an Egot. The terms stands for competitive victories of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards.
Recovering from an knee operation, John was not present at the ceremony to pick up his Emmy. The award was accepted by winning producer Ben Winston, onstage along with John’s husband, producer David Furnish.
But in statement John said, “I am incredibly humbled to be joining the unbelievably talented group of Egot winners tonight. The journey to this moment has been filled with passion, dedication, and the unwavering support of my fans all around the world. Tonight is a testament to the power of the arts and the joy that it brings to all our lives. Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout my career,...
Recovering from an knee operation, John was not present at the ceremony to pick up his Emmy. The award was accepted by winning producer Ben Winston, onstage along with John’s husband, producer David Furnish.
But in statement John said, “I am incredibly humbled to be joining the unbelievably talented group of Egot winners tonight. The journey to this moment has been filled with passion, dedication, and the unwavering support of my fans all around the world. Tonight is a testament to the power of the arts and the joy that it brings to all our lives. Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout my career,...
- 1/16/2024
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
Elton John is the latest member of the Egot club, scoring his first Emmy for best variety special (live).
The 2023 Emmy Awards win for the musician’s Farewell From Dodger Stadium special, which he secured during Monday night’s telecast, joins his Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.
The Disney+ special chronicles the musician’s final North American show as part of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. The tour began in 2018 and was set to end in 2021 but was postponed, like many tours, by the Covid-19 pandemic.
John was recovering from a knee operation and couldn’t attend the show, so producer Ben Winston accepted the award on his behalf. “He’s absolutely fine, but he wanted to send his love and thanks to the Television Academy for this incredible award,” Winston said. “We did know this was going to be historic because it was going to win a man...
The 2023 Emmy Awards win for the musician’s Farewell From Dodger Stadium special, which he secured during Monday night’s telecast, joins his Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.
The Disney+ special chronicles the musician’s final North American show as part of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. The tour began in 2018 and was set to end in 2021 but was postponed, like many tours, by the Covid-19 pandemic.
John was recovering from a knee operation and couldn’t attend the show, so producer Ben Winston accepted the award on his behalf. “He’s absolutely fine, but he wanted to send his love and thanks to the Television Academy for this incredible award,” Winston said. “We did know this was going to be historic because it was going to win a man...
- 1/16/2024
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sir Elton John just won his first Emmy Award on Monday night’s ceremony, making him the 19th person ever to achieve an Egot. His Disney+ program “Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium” was nominated for Best Variety Special (Live) against “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” “The Oscars,” “Super Bowl Lvii Halftime Show” and “75th Annual Tony Awards.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member has also won two Oscars for Best Original Song (“Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” from “The Lion King” in 1994; and I’m Gonna Love Me Again” from “Rocketman” in 2019). He won a Tony Award for the original score of “Aida” in 2000. And he’s a five-time Grammy Award winner for “That’s What Friends Are For” (1987), “Basque” (1992), “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (1995), “Candle in the Wind” (1998) and “Aida” (2001).
SEEElton John songs: 25 greatest hits ranked worst to best
Only 18 people previously have won...
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member has also won two Oscars for Best Original Song (“Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” from “The Lion King” in 1994; and I’m Gonna Love Me Again” from “Rocketman” in 2019). He won a Tony Award for the original score of “Aida” in 2000. And he’s a five-time Grammy Award winner for “That’s What Friends Are For” (1987), “Basque” (1992), “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (1995), “Candle in the Wind” (1998) and “Aida” (2001).
SEEElton John songs: 25 greatest hits ranked worst to best
Only 18 people previously have won...
- 1/16/2024
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
When Nathan Silver’s mother was in her mid-60s, she decided to have a bat mitzvah. As the indie filmmaker started telling people that his mother was embarking on a rite of passage usually reserved for teenagers, a friend urged him to turn her story into a movie. Now, “Between the Temples,” a screwball comedy inspired by mom’s coming-of-age ceremony, will premiere at Sundance, with Carol Kane and Jason Schwartzman playing an elderly bat mitzvah student and a depressed cantor who forge an unlikely bond.
“It’s one from the heart,” says Silver. “It’s a story that touches on many aspects of my life.”
It also gives Kane and Schwartzman, who so often steal scenes in supporting roles, a chance to shine as leads. Signing on required a leap of faith for Kane because Silver’s scripts, which he calls “scriptments” and likens to novellas, aren’t traditional.
“It’s one from the heart,” says Silver. “It’s a story that touches on many aspects of my life.”
It also gives Kane and Schwartzman, who so often steal scenes in supporting roles, a chance to shine as leads. Signing on required a leap of faith for Kane because Silver’s scripts, which he calls “scriptments” and likens to novellas, aren’t traditional.
- 1/12/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
“Satire is a dangerous game In Hollywood,” Billy Wilder once observed. “It invites self-immolation.” Still, the satiric spirit looms large in many of this year’s buzzworthy movies: American Fiction, Poor Things, Saltburn, Air, The Holdovers and even Barbie.
All mobilize satiric weaponry — humor, irony, even ridicule — in advancing their perspectives. The clever corporate barbs in Barbie are soothingly pink-coated, but by contrast the protagonist in American Fiction is a blunt and self-destructive novelist. His work supposedly is not satiric enough nor Black enough for him to register success.
Barbie was heralded at the Golden Globes while American Fiction was snubbed. The latter still earned the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, a SAG Awards Cast nomination and a spot on the AFI’s Top 10 Films of 2023.
If Wilder were around to see this year’s slate, I think he’d admire the seditious scientist in Poor Things,...
All mobilize satiric weaponry — humor, irony, even ridicule — in advancing their perspectives. The clever corporate barbs in Barbie are soothingly pink-coated, but by contrast the protagonist in American Fiction is a blunt and self-destructive novelist. His work supposedly is not satiric enough nor Black enough for him to register success.
Barbie was heralded at the Golden Globes while American Fiction was snubbed. The latter still earned the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, a SAG Awards Cast nomination and a spot on the AFI’s Top 10 Films of 2023.
If Wilder were around to see this year’s slate, I think he’d admire the seditious scientist in Poor Things,...
- 1/12/2024
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Natalie Portman is opening up about New Year’s resolutions, career milestones and her plant-based diet.
The 42-year-old Oscar winner opened up in an interview as part of WSJ. Magazine‘s My Monday Morning series, which is out now.
Natalie spoke about her home life, making May December, her favorite place for alone time, advice from Closer director Mike Nichols and much more.
Click through to find out what Natalie Portman had to say…...
The 42-year-old Oscar winner opened up in an interview as part of WSJ. Magazine‘s My Monday Morning series, which is out now.
Natalie spoke about her home life, making May December, her favorite place for alone time, advice from Closer director Mike Nichols and much more.
Click through to find out what Natalie Portman had to say…...
- 1/8/2024
- by Just Jared
- Just Jared
In 1997, the Screen Actors Guild award for best ensemble in a motion picture was expected to go to a “serious” nominee like The English Patient (which would go on to win the best picture Oscar), Sling Blade or Marvin’s Room (boasting a cast including Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio). But The Birdcage swooped in for a surprise win.
Producer-director Mike Nichols and writer Elaine May had adapted the film from the French stage farce La Cage Aux Folles, moving the story of a gay couple who own a nightclub in Saint-Tropez to Miami, where Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, as Armand and Albert Goldman, become increasingly stressed out when Armand’s son, Val (Dan Futterman), comes to visit with his fiancée (Calista Flockhart) and her ultraconservative parents. The cast is rounded out by Hank Azaria as the Goldmans’ housekeeper, Christine Baranski as Val’s mother and Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest as Republican Sen.
Producer-director Mike Nichols and writer Elaine May had adapted the film from the French stage farce La Cage Aux Folles, moving the story of a gay couple who own a nightclub in Saint-Tropez to Miami, where Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, as Armand and Albert Goldman, become increasingly stressed out when Armand’s son, Val (Dan Futterman), comes to visit with his fiancée (Calista Flockhart) and her ultraconservative parents. The cast is rounded out by Hank Azaria as the Goldmans’ housekeeper, Christine Baranski as Val’s mother and Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest as Republican Sen.
- 12/29/2023
- by Hilton Dresden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As she strolls comfortably toward multiple Oscar nominations for “Barbie,” Greta Gerwig is on track to set several Academy Awards records tied to her age, gender and the movie’s financial success. In terms of more general achievements, perhaps the most impressive one in her reach is becoming the first filmmaker to have all of her initial three solo features contend for Best Picture. Over the past 95 years, many directors have had shots at earning that distinction and a few have come remarkably close, but none of their chances have been quite as strong as hers.
Since Gerwig did not produce her first two independently-directed films – “Lady Bird” (2017) and “Little Women” (2019) – and, per academy rules, cannot officially share in a “Barbie” Best Picture nomination due to her screen credit of “executive producer” (rather than the qualifying “producer” or “produced by”), she does not and will not soon have any bids...
Since Gerwig did not produce her first two independently-directed films – “Lady Bird” (2017) and “Little Women” (2019) – and, per academy rules, cannot officially share in a “Barbie” Best Picture nomination due to her screen credit of “executive producer” (rather than the qualifying “producer” or “produced by”), she does not and will not soon have any bids...
- 12/21/2023
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Catering directly to my interests, the Criterion Channel’s January lineup boasts two of my favorite things: James Gray and cats. In the former case it’s his first five features (itself a terrible reminder he only released five movies in 20 years); the latter shows felines the respect they deserve, from Kuroneko to The Long Goodbye, Tourneur’s Cat People and Mick Garris’ Sleepwalkers. Meanwhile, Ava Gardner, Bertrand Tavernier, Isabel Sandoval, Ken Russell, Juleen Compton, George Harrison’s HandMade Films, and the Sundance Film Festival get retrospectives.
Restorations of Soviet sci-fi trip Ikarie Xb 1, The Unknown, and The Music of Regret stream, as does the recent Plan 75. January’s Criterion Editions are Inside Llewyn Davis, Farewell Amor, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and (most intriguingly) the long-out-of-print The Man Who Fell to Earth, Blu-rays of which go for hundreds of dollars.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
Back By Popular Demand
The Graduate,...
Restorations of Soviet sci-fi trip Ikarie Xb 1, The Unknown, and The Music of Regret stream, as does the recent Plan 75. January’s Criterion Editions are Inside Llewyn Davis, Farewell Amor, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and (most intriguingly) the long-out-of-print The Man Who Fell to Earth, Blu-rays of which go for hundreds of dollars.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
Back By Popular Demand
The Graduate,...
- 12/12/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The episode of The Test of Time covering Exorcist II: The Heretic was Written by Andrew Hatfield, Narrated by Niki Minter, Edited by Mike Conway, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
Here at Test of Time, the whole idea of the show is to look at a classic, either objectively through critical praise, box office revenue, or even things like reputation or cult classic status. The three of us, writer Andrew, narrator Niki, and editor Mike like to discuss what we think about whatever the movie is and have fun with it. Shouldn’t this be able to work in reverse though? What about a movie that is seen as bad? Shouldn’t it be looked at through a different lens via time and what we know now? Maybe a bad movie stays a bad movie but what if a reappraisal alters the opinion?...
Here at Test of Time, the whole idea of the show is to look at a classic, either objectively through critical praise, box office revenue, or even things like reputation or cult classic status. The three of us, writer Andrew, narrator Niki, and editor Mike like to discuss what we think about whatever the movie is and have fun with it. Shouldn’t this be able to work in reverse though? What about a movie that is seen as bad? Shouldn’t it be looked at through a different lens via time and what we know now? Maybe a bad movie stays a bad movie but what if a reappraisal alters the opinion?...
- 11/28/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
When Barbra Streisand’s “Yentl” opened on Nov. 18, 1983, directing was very much a man’s world. In the 1970s, there had been a few inroads for women. Italian director Lina Wertmuller was nominated for best director for 1976’s “Seven Beauties” Stateside, actress Barbara Loden, who was married to Oscar-winning director Elia Kazan, wrote, directed and starred in the acclaimed 1970 indie drama “Wanda,” which won best foreign film at the Venice Film Festival. She never followed up with another movie and died of breast cancer in 1980.
There was also Joan Micklin Silver (“Hester Street”), Claudia Weill (“Girlfriends”), Martha Coolidge (“Not a Pretty Picture”), Joan Tewkesbury (“Old Boyfriends”) and Joan Darling (“First Love”). But those filmmakers ran into brick walls when they tried to set up projects with the major studios. The late Silver told Vanity Fair in 2021 that a studio executive didn’t mince his word: “Feature films are expensive to make and expensive to market,...
There was also Joan Micklin Silver (“Hester Street”), Claudia Weill (“Girlfriends”), Martha Coolidge (“Not a Pretty Picture”), Joan Tewkesbury (“Old Boyfriends”) and Joan Darling (“First Love”). But those filmmakers ran into brick walls when they tried to set up projects with the major studios. The late Silver told Vanity Fair in 2021 that a studio executive didn’t mince his word: “Feature films are expensive to make and expensive to market,...
- 11/19/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
“Just think,” Sir Lancelot (Taran Killam) muses as he celebrates his gay wedding at the end of Monty Python’s Spamalot. “In a thousand-and-eighteen years time, this will still be controversial.” Killam puts special emphasis on the “eighteen,” an addition to the script that nods to the supposed ways in which Spamalot remains relevant nearly two decades after the Tony-winning musical adaptation of Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam’s 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail tore up the 2004-2005 Broadway season.
The construction of the joke suggests that not much has changed—either for good or ill—in the past decades. That’s hardly true, because when Hank Azaria delivered the punchline in 2005, gay marriage wouldn’t be legalized in New York State for another six years. It’s surprising how much of Spamalot’s humor, especially the gay jokes, now feels rooted in an earlier time. Even peppered...
The construction of the joke suggests that not much has changed—either for good or ill—in the past decades. That’s hardly true, because when Hank Azaria delivered the punchline in 2005, gay marriage wouldn’t be legalized in New York State for another six years. It’s surprising how much of Spamalot’s humor, especially the gay jokes, now feels rooted in an earlier time. Even peppered...
- 11/17/2023
- by Dan Rubins
- Slant Magazine
“Nyad” is the real-life story of Diana Nyad (Annette Bening), a world class swimmer who decided, at age 60, that she wanted to do something that had previously seemed impossible after she’d tried it when she was younger and was unsuccessful – to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage.
With her coach and former romantic partner Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster) at her side, she made several more attempts, battling box jellyfish, turbulent storms and constant naysayers. Somehow insurmountable feels like too mild a word to describe what she was attempting.
And it feels like filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin were keenly equipped to capture her story. The team, who are also married in real life, are Oscar-winners for their documentary “Free Solo” and have helmed several more movies about human beings pushing themselves to the brink (like “The Rescue” and “Return to Space”). Nyad’s story,...
With her coach and former romantic partner Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster) at her side, she made several more attempts, battling box jellyfish, turbulent storms and constant naysayers. Somehow insurmountable feels like too mild a word to describe what she was attempting.
And it feels like filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin were keenly equipped to capture her story. The team, who are also married in real life, are Oscar-winners for their documentary “Free Solo” and have helmed several more movies about human beings pushing themselves to the brink (like “The Rescue” and “Return to Space”). Nyad’s story,...
- 11/7/2023
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
The angriest filmmaking fights that I’ve witnessed over the years have not been about cost or cast; they were about length. The movies were too long but so were the fights.
I re-lived some of them this week when I saw Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s is a big success with audiences at 3 hours and 26 minutes. That’s about an hour longer than Napoleon, Ridley Scott’s epic that opens next month, and half an hour longer than Oppenheimer.
My confession: I start getting twitchy when movies lunge pass the two-hour mark — an attention deficit problem that supposedly affects Gen Z more than geriatrics. I’ve been influenced by filmmakers like Hal Ashby, who started as an editor and believed that “films should tell their story and move on” (I worked with him on Harold & Maude and Being There).
Given my twitchiness, I suspected...
I re-lived some of them this week when I saw Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s is a big success with audiences at 3 hours and 26 minutes. That’s about an hour longer than Napoleon, Ridley Scott’s epic that opens next month, and half an hour longer than Oppenheimer.
My confession: I start getting twitchy when movies lunge pass the two-hour mark — an attention deficit problem that supposedly affects Gen Z more than geriatrics. I’ve been influenced by filmmakers like Hal Ashby, who started as an editor and believed that “films should tell their story and move on” (I worked with him on Harold & Maude and Being There).
Given my twitchiness, I suspected...
- 10/26/2023
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Taran Killam, the former Saturday Night Live player and Hamilton cast member, will play Lancelot in the Broadway revival of Monty Python’s Spamalot, with Alex Brightman taking over the role in January following Killam’s limited engagement.
The casting rounds out the principal roles for the production, which begins previews at the St. James Theatre on Tuesday, Oct. 31, with an official opening on Thursday, November 16. Killam will play Lancelot from the first preview until January 7.
Brightman, who’ll take over the role on January 9, played Lancelot at the Kennedy Center staging earlier this year, but is currently starring in Broadway’s The Shark Is Broken, which closes Nov. 19.
The new Lancelots join a Spamalot cast that includes James Monroe Iglehart as King Arthur, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as the Lady of the Lake, Michael Urie as Sir Robin, Christopher Fitzgerald as Patsy, Ethan Slater as the Historian/Prince Herbert, Jimmy Smagula as Sir Bedevere,...
The casting rounds out the principal roles for the production, which begins previews at the St. James Theatre on Tuesday, Oct. 31, with an official opening on Thursday, November 16. Killam will play Lancelot from the first preview until January 7.
Brightman, who’ll take over the role on January 9, played Lancelot at the Kennedy Center staging earlier this year, but is currently starring in Broadway’s The Shark Is Broken, which closes Nov. 19.
The new Lancelots join a Spamalot cast that includes James Monroe Iglehart as King Arthur, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as the Lady of the Lake, Michael Urie as Sir Robin, Christopher Fitzgerald as Patsy, Ethan Slater as the Historian/Prince Herbert, Jimmy Smagula as Sir Bedevere,...
- 9/26/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Major film and TV productions are currently on hold due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, but the New York theater scene is still as active as ever. A new Broadway season is upon us, and there are five musicals set to open this fall. Will they contend at next year’s Tony Awards? Below, we give you a preview of the plot of each musical as well as the awards history of its author, cast and creative teams, plus the opening and (where applicable) closing dates.
“Merrily We Roll Along”
The first Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1981 musical adaptation of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart‘s 1934 play spans three decades in the entertainment industry and charts the relationship between composer Franklin Shepard and his two friends — writer Mary and lyricist and playwright Charley. The original production directed by Hal Prince only ran for 16 performances,...
“Merrily We Roll Along”
The first Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1981 musical adaptation of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart‘s 1934 play spans three decades in the entertainment industry and charts the relationship between composer Franklin Shepard and his two friends — writer Mary and lyricist and playwright Charley. The original production directed by Hal Prince only ran for 16 performances,...
- 9/20/2023
- by Jeffrey Kare
- Gold Derby
Michael McGrath, the veteran stage actor who received a Tony Award for his performance in the musical Nice Work If You Can Get It, has died. He was 65.
McGrath died unexpectedly in his sleep Thursday at his home in Bloomfield, New Jersey, his publicist told The Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death has been determined.
A regular in Broadway and off-Broadway musicals and musical comedy productions, McGrath had starring turns in Plaza Suite, Tootsie, Memphis, Born Yesterday and Wonderful Town. He was also the first actor to play Patsy, King Arthur’s long-suffering sidekick, in Spamalot, which earned him his first Tony nomination.
“Very saddened to hear that Michael McGrath, our first and most beloved Patsy in Spamalot, has passed away,” Idle wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Warm hugs to all the Spamalot family and very happy memories of a lovely man.”
McGrath was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Sept.
McGrath died unexpectedly in his sleep Thursday at his home in Bloomfield, New Jersey, his publicist told The Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death has been determined.
A regular in Broadway and off-Broadway musicals and musical comedy productions, McGrath had starring turns in Plaza Suite, Tootsie, Memphis, Born Yesterday and Wonderful Town. He was also the first actor to play Patsy, King Arthur’s long-suffering sidekick, in Spamalot, which earned him his first Tony nomination.
“Very saddened to hear that Michael McGrath, our first and most beloved Patsy in Spamalot, has passed away,” Idle wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Warm hugs to all the Spamalot family and very happy memories of a lovely man.”
McGrath was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Sept.
- 9/15/2023
- by Abid Rahman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi premiered their latest movie, Nyad, at the Telluride Film Festival on Friday. The Netflix film, which stars Annette Bening as long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad and Jodie Foster as her coach, Bonnie Stoll, is the first narrative film from the married couple of co-directors, who won an Academy Award for their 2018 documentary Free Solo, about rock climber Alex Honnold, and also made the docs The Rescue in 2021 and Wild Life in 2023.
Chin and Vasarhelyi spoke with THR about working with actors vs. athletes, grappling with Nyad’s complex history, which included exaggerating some claims earlier in her career, and rolling out their film in the midst of Hollywood’s dual strikes. Nyad will also screen at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 12, before hitting theaters Oct. 20 and hitting Netflix’s streaming service Nov. 3.
Were you actively looking to make a narrative film?
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi...
Chin and Vasarhelyi spoke with THR about working with actors vs. athletes, grappling with Nyad’s complex history, which included exaggerating some claims earlier in her career, and rolling out their film in the midst of Hollywood’s dual strikes. Nyad will also screen at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 12, before hitting theaters Oct. 20 and hitting Netflix’s streaming service Nov. 3.
Were you actively looking to make a narrative film?
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi...
- 9/3/2023
- by Rebecca Keegan
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“The Holdovers,” director Alexander Payne’s first film since his 2017 flop “Downsizing,” scored strong reviews as a return to form for the two-time Oscar winner following its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on Thursday.
“We’ve all seen our share of stories about inspirational teachers. ‘The Holdovers’ is dedicated to the opposite sort: a hard-ass named Paul Hunham whom everyone hates,” Variety critic Peter Debruge wrote in his positive notice. “The feeling is mutual, as Mr. Hunham considers most of the kids enrolled at Barton Academy to be entitled little monsters, and the administration to be even more corrupt. Judging by the evidence director Alexander Payne provides, Mr. Hunham’s not wrong. But he is uncharitable, and on that count, the movie couldn’t be more different: It’s a generous drama about three wounded souls stranded at Barton over Christmas break, during which this coldhearted private school...
“We’ve all seen our share of stories about inspirational teachers. ‘The Holdovers’ is dedicated to the opposite sort: a hard-ass named Paul Hunham whom everyone hates,” Variety critic Peter Debruge wrote in his positive notice. “The feeling is mutual, as Mr. Hunham considers most of the kids enrolled at Barton Academy to be entitled little monsters, and the administration to be even more corrupt. Judging by the evidence director Alexander Payne provides, Mr. Hunham’s not wrong. But he is uncharitable, and on that count, the movie couldn’t be more different: It’s a generous drama about three wounded souls stranded at Barton over Christmas break, during which this coldhearted private school...
- 9/1/2023
- by Christopher Rosen
- Gold Derby
The Wolf episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? was Written and Narrated by Adam Walton, Edited by Juan Jimenez, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
If anybody ever had the acting chops in the 90s to convincingly play a publisher who gets bitten by a werewolf and then slowly starts to become one himself, it’s Jack Nicholson. This must have been exactly what producers Douglas Wick and Neal A. Machlis were thinking when casting their 1994 romantic horror movie and who better than the guy that convincingly played unhinged characters previously in both One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shining? His past work as an actor was already impressive enough and his distinctive features and natural charm meant that he was perfect for the role. The movie sits snugly in the ‘so bad it’s actually pretty good...
If anybody ever had the acting chops in the 90s to convincingly play a publisher who gets bitten by a werewolf and then slowly starts to become one himself, it’s Jack Nicholson. This must have been exactly what producers Douglas Wick and Neal A. Machlis were thinking when casting their 1994 romantic horror movie and who better than the guy that convincingly played unhinged characters previously in both One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shining? His past work as an actor was already impressive enough and his distinctive features and natural charm meant that he was perfect for the role. The movie sits snugly in the ‘so bad it’s actually pretty good...
- 8/25/2023
- by Adam Walton
- JoBlo.com
With festivals beckoning and box office wobbling, this obnoxious question looms ever larger: What’s next?
The strikes will end and a new season will begin but where’s that next cycle of movies and streaming content that represent groundbreaking ideas? Where will they come from?
A quick survey of past groundbreakers poses some answers, all of them disturbing.
Breakthrough movies of years past have represented the unpredictable product of corporate guile (The Avengers), artistic monomania (Avatar) or accidents of history (Barbie).
Some hits invaded the zeitgeist because they were relentlessly defiant (Midnight Cowboy) or simply inevitable (Harry Potter). Ironically, some of Hollywood’s most culturally ambitious movies were distributed at moments when films were being largely ignored by the filmgoing public – Doctor Zhivago (1965) or Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
Cinema, as with every form of pop culture, has gone through cycles of bold innovation as well as pervasive failure. Hollywood, circa the early 1960s,...
The strikes will end and a new season will begin but where’s that next cycle of movies and streaming content that represent groundbreaking ideas? Where will they come from?
A quick survey of past groundbreakers poses some answers, all of them disturbing.
Breakthrough movies of years past have represented the unpredictable product of corporate guile (The Avengers), artistic monomania (Avatar) or accidents of history (Barbie).
Some hits invaded the zeitgeist because they were relentlessly defiant (Midnight Cowboy) or simply inevitable (Harry Potter). Ironically, some of Hollywood’s most culturally ambitious movies were distributed at moments when films were being largely ignored by the filmgoing public – Doctor Zhivago (1965) or Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
Cinema, as with every form of pop culture, has gone through cycles of bold innovation as well as pervasive failure. Hollywood, circa the early 1960s,...
- 8/24/2023
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)
"I love horror movies because people who make horror movies are still ostracized a bit in Hollywood. Like, we're thought of as lesser." This was said by ridiculously successful filmmaker Jason Blum, the head of Blumhouse Productions, earlier this year to IGN. The man, largely through low-budget horror movies, has amassed mega-franchises and more than $5 billion at the box office, including the Oscar-winning "Get Out." Yet, in the year 2023, even he feels that horror is still viewed as inferior in the business. Just imagine how it looked 50 years ago. That's what director William Friedkin was facing when he made "The Exorcist."
Friedkin, who passed away earlier this week at 87, was at the helm of what remains arguably the most beloved and --...
"I love horror movies because people who make horror movies are still ostracized a bit in Hollywood. Like, we're thought of as lesser." This was said by ridiculously successful filmmaker Jason Blum, the head of Blumhouse Productions, earlier this year to IGN. The man, largely through low-budget horror movies, has amassed mega-franchises and more than $5 billion at the box office, including the Oscar-winning "Get Out." Yet, in the year 2023, even he feels that horror is still viewed as inferior in the business. Just imagine how it looked 50 years ago. That's what director William Friedkin was facing when he made "The Exorcist."
Friedkin, who passed away earlier this week at 87, was at the helm of what remains arguably the most beloved and --...
- 8/13/2023
- by Ryan Scott
- Slash Film
Ariana Grande’s new beau Ethan Slater is working on a new project.
It was announced on Wednesday that Slater — who stars in the movie adaptation of “Wicked” as Boq alongside Grande’s Glinda — is heading to Broadway for the upcoming Spamalot revival.
Slater is taking on the dual role of The Historian/Prince Herbert.
The show also revealed Christopher Fitzgerald will star as Patsy, James Monroe Iglehart as King Arthur, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as the Lady of the Lake, Jimmy Smagula as Sir Bedevere, Michael Urie as Sir Robin and Nik Walker as Sir Galahad.
The role of Sir Lancelot will be revealed at a later date.
Read More: Ariana Grande Reportedly Giving Ethan Slater ‘Space To Work Things Out’ With Estranged Wife Lilly Jay
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Monty Python’s Spamalot (@spamalotbway)
Slater previously made his Broadway debut as SpongeBob in SpongeBob...
It was announced on Wednesday that Slater — who stars in the movie adaptation of “Wicked” as Boq alongside Grande’s Glinda — is heading to Broadway for the upcoming Spamalot revival.
Slater is taking on the dual role of The Historian/Prince Herbert.
The show also revealed Christopher Fitzgerald will star as Patsy, James Monroe Iglehart as King Arthur, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as the Lady of the Lake, Jimmy Smagula as Sir Bedevere, Michael Urie as Sir Robin and Nik Walker as Sir Galahad.
The role of Sir Lancelot will be revealed at a later date.
Read More: Ariana Grande Reportedly Giving Ethan Slater ‘Space To Work Things Out’ With Estranged Wife Lilly Jay
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Monty Python’s Spamalot (@spamalotbway)
Slater previously made his Broadway debut as SpongeBob in SpongeBob...
- 8/9/2023
- by Becca Longmire
- ET Canada
Arthur “Artie” R. Schmidt, who won Oscars for editing Robert Zemeckis films “Forrest Gump” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” died Saturday at his home in Santa Barbara. He was 86.
Schmidt and Zemeckis were longtime collaborators, having worked on a total of ten films together, including “Forrest Gump” (1994), the “Back to the Future” trilogy (1985-1990), “Cast Away” (2000), and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988). Other prominent films Schmidt worked on include “Jaws 2” (1978), “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1980), for which he was Oscar-nommed; “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992), “Death Becomes Her” (1992), “Addams Family Values” (1993) and “Contact” (1997). He was also brought on to help with “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003) in the midst of its production.
Additionally, Schmidt collaborated with director Mike Nichols on three films: “The Fortune” (1975) “The Birdcage” (1996), and “Primary Colors” (1998). He also took on the challenge of editing a film that combines both animation and live-action: “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Schmidt and Zemeckis were longtime collaborators, having worked on a total of ten films together, including “Forrest Gump” (1994), the “Back to the Future” trilogy (1985-1990), “Cast Away” (2000), and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988). Other prominent films Schmidt worked on include “Jaws 2” (1978), “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1980), for which he was Oscar-nommed; “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992), “Death Becomes Her” (1992), “Addams Family Values” (1993) and “Contact” (1997). He was also brought on to help with “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003) in the midst of its production.
Additionally, Schmidt collaborated with director Mike Nichols on three films: “The Fortune” (1975) “The Birdcage” (1996), and “Primary Colors” (1998). He also took on the challenge of editing a film that combines both animation and live-action: “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- 8/7/2023
- by Jaden Thompson
- Variety Film + TV
William Friedkin was, simply put, a legend.
His technical prowess, mastery of tone and commitment to storytelling were unparalleled. And so was his willingness to push the boundaries of what was acceptable. It wasn’t that he was merely challenging good taste; it was that he wanted to go beyond what had come before. And sometimes that made people very uncomfortable. Friedkin’s career is largely defined by this kind of artful provocation, and it makes his passing — especially in the current age of pre-packaged, vacuum-sealed mass entertainment — all the more devastating. We didn’t just lose one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation; we lost an outspoken advocate for the kind of movies they just don’t make anymore.
Thankfully, Friedkin left behind a bounty of modern classics – movies that become richer, more rewarding, and, yes, more provocative, the more times you watch them. Here are seven of his most essential,...
His technical prowess, mastery of tone and commitment to storytelling were unparalleled. And so was his willingness to push the boundaries of what was acceptable. It wasn’t that he was merely challenging good taste; it was that he wanted to go beyond what had come before. And sometimes that made people very uncomfortable. Friedkin’s career is largely defined by this kind of artful provocation, and it makes his passing — especially in the current age of pre-packaged, vacuum-sealed mass entertainment — all the more devastating. We didn’t just lose one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation; we lost an outspoken advocate for the kind of movies they just don’t make anymore.
Thankfully, Friedkin left behind a bounty of modern classics – movies that become richer, more rewarding, and, yes, more provocative, the more times you watch them. Here are seven of his most essential,...
- 8/7/2023
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
Robert Schmidt, the film editor whose decades-long collaboration with director Robert Zemeckis on classics such as Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cast Away, Contact and all three Back to the Future films won him two Oscars, has died, Deadline has confirmed. He was 86.
Schmidt’s two Best Film Editing Oscars came for Roger Rabbit (1988) and Forrest Gump (1994). His other collaborations with Zemeckis included Death Becomes Her (1992) and What Lies Beneath (2000).
“Arthur Schmidt was incredibly talented and a joy to work with,” Zemeckis said in a statement to Deadline. “He was a true gentleman and I am honored to have known him and to have created what we did together.”
Schmidt had a distinguished career beyond that artistic partnership.
He edited films directed by Michael Mann, Taylor Hackford, Michael Apted, Mike Nichols, Barry Sonnenfeld and many others.
In addition to his Oscars, Schmidt won Ace Eddies for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl...
Schmidt’s two Best Film Editing Oscars came for Roger Rabbit (1988) and Forrest Gump (1994). His other collaborations with Zemeckis included Death Becomes Her (1992) and What Lies Beneath (2000).
“Arthur Schmidt was incredibly talented and a joy to work with,” Zemeckis said in a statement to Deadline. “He was a true gentleman and I am honored to have known him and to have created what we did together.”
Schmidt had a distinguished career beyond that artistic partnership.
He edited films directed by Michael Mann, Taylor Hackford, Michael Apted, Mike Nichols, Barry Sonnenfeld and many others.
In addition to his Oscars, Schmidt won Ace Eddies for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl...
- 8/7/2023
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
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