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A Bridge Too Far (1977) More at IMDbPro »

7 items from 2013

11 June 2013 5:01 PM, PDT | ScreenDaily | See recent ScreenDaily news »

Sir Ben Kingsley and Lord Puttnam among those to honour the veteran British actor-director at the launch of a young filmmakers fund created in his name.

The Lord Attenborough Nfts Charitable fund aims to raise £1m ($1.55m) over two years to “enable talented young people to achieve their ambition as successful filmmakers through world class educational experiences”.

It will go towards offering more film-making scholarships to young people from different backgrounds and improving teaching facilities at the Nfts.

The gala dinner, which was hosted by Stephen Fry at Old Billingsgate in London last night (June 11), was introduced by Lord Attenborough’s son, theatre director Michael Attenborough, in place of his father, who was unable to attend.

Michael Attenborough said: “It was thanks to a Leverhulme scholarship to Rada at the age of 17, that my father was able to go on to enjoy a career that included acting in, producing and directing more than 70 Oscar and BAFTA winning »

- sarah.cooper@screendaily.com (Sarah Cooper)

9 May 2013 5:06 AM, PDT | EmpireOnline | See recent EmpireOnline news »

Those distant cheers and strange scraping sounds you can hear are Harry Hill's army of fans celebrating news that the big-shoed bad boy is coming to the big screen. Oh, and the scraping? That's the badger kingdom logging on for tickets. The Harry Hill Movie, which promises to bring "his madcap comedy world to the big screen", kicks off on May 8 with eight weeks' worth of shooting around the UK. The plot will be fuelled by Hill's sick hamster. The NHS-spec'ed japster must get his pet to a vet in Blackpool before the clock winds down on his bewhiskered buddy - presumably forcing someone to operate at gunpoint a la James Caan in A Bridge Too Far when he gets there. Okay, perhaps not, but the roadtrip will definitely be complicated by the presence of Hill's gas-guzzling granny (Julie Walters, surely too young to play his granny) and the »

22 April 2013 1:00 PM, PDT | FEARnet | See recent FEARnet news »

‘Cursed productions’ are not exclusive to horror pictures. But, it’s typically horror films that garner the most attention for tumultuous circumstances surrounding their filming. At one point, people seemed to like the idea of those involved with horror movies being condemned for their participation in the devil’s work. But, these days, many people would, attribute a cursed production to nothing more than bad luck, negligence, unfortunate circumstances, or a combination of the above factors. Films from The Wizard of Oz to Superman have spawned rumors of a curse associated with their production. But, a lot of people argue that there is a slightly less fantastical explanation for films that endured a particularly turbulent shoot. 

Despite the fact that people try to tell us that there is no such thing as a ‘cursed production’, we thought it would be interesting to reminisce on some of the most notorious ‘cursed productions’. As a disclaimer, »

- Tyler Doupe

18 April 2013 12:59 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

James Coburn and Maximilian Schell star as Wehrmacht officers battling each other in this slow-moving second world war film

Cross of Iron (1977)

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Entertainment grade: C+

History grade: B+

The German invasion of the Soviet Union during the second world war began in 1941. By 1943, troops were in retreat, and the tide of the war had begun to turn against Adolf Hitler.

People

Troops of the Wehrmacht 17th Army have retreated across the Taman peninsula to the Kuban bridgehead. Indestructible platoon leader Sergeant Steiner (James Coburn) is stuck serving under Captain Stransky (Maximilian Schell), an oily Prussian aristocrat who has transferred to the Eastern front with the explicit intention of winning the distinction of the Iron Cross. Steiner couldn't give a hoot for Iron Crosses, and he actively dislikes oily Prussian aristocrats. These characters are fictional, though some sources suggest Steiner may have been inspired by real-life Feldwebel (Sergeant) Johann Schwerdfeger. »

- Alex von Tunzelmann

15 February 2013 1:23 PM, PST | The Hollywood Interview | See recent The Hollywood Interview news »

My First R-rated Movie Or…

How I Became The 007 Of Covert Forbidden Film Viewing

By Alex Simon

For those of us who grew up in the suburbs in the pre-home video, pre-Internet and pre-cable TV 1970s and early ‘80s, there were few dangerous pleasures as heady as sneaking into an R-rated movie at the local multiplex. The multiplex cinema was a ‘70s phenomenon that made regulating children’s viewing habits infinitely more difficult than the old days of stand-alone, single screen theaters. Ironically, the new freedom that filmmakers enjoyed with the advent of the MPAA rating system in late 1968 was almost in perfect synch with the rise of multi-screen cinemas. Some things do happen for a reason.

You never forget your first...

My first R-rated film was during Thanksgiving of 1976. We were visiting my dad’s family in Birmingham, Alabama and the men adjourned after dinner to go see Two Minute Warning, »

- The Hollywood Interview.com

11 February 2013 4:00 AM, PST | The Guardian - TV News | See recent The Guardian - TV News news »

The stand-up comedian and TV historian on his televisual habits, from Mad Men to The Six Million Dollar Man

Unmissable show?

At the moment I'm waiting for Mad Men to start again. It's brilliantly written and acted, but also peculiar. Why on earth would you make a thing about an advertising agency in the 60s? I've got a friend who says, "Why do you watch that, absolutely fucking nothing happens for weeks!" But that's what's brilliant about it. The Thick Of It hit so many marks. The characters are brilliantly portrayed and it's full of jokes. A lot of the BBC's history output is really good, especially the programmes by David Reynolds. Horrible Histories is an incredible achievement because I can watch it with my kids and enjoy it just as much as them; it's not like having to watch Hannah Montana.

Box set?

I've just started The Walking Dead from the beginning, »

- Sam Richards

3 January 2013 10:36 AM, PST | Hollywoodnews.com | See recent Hollywoodnews.com news »

Throughout the 70s and 80s, Hopkins would continue to gain success in multiple television movies and series, and starred in several films including A Bridge Too Far (1977) and The Elephant Man (1980). Throughout the 90s, however, Hopkins evolved into one of our greatest stars of the big screen, beginning with his Academy Award winning performance as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991; a role that he would later reprise twice in Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002)). A few of his best films of the 90s include Howard’s End (1992), Dracula (1992), Chaplin (1992), The Remains of the Day (1993; for which he received his 2nd Oscar nomination), Legends of the Fall (1994), Nixon (1995; for which he received his 3rd Oscar nomination), and Amistad (1997; for which he received his 4th, and most recent, Oscar nomination). Hopkins was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993 for services to the arts. Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins was born December 31st, »

- mjblog@hollywoodnews.com (Mark Johnson)

7 items from 2013