News

Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese to have a pre-recorded discussion of Raging Bull at the Tribeca Film Festival following the screening. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The 25th anniversary of The Royal Tenenbaums, with stars Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, Danny Glover, and director Wes Anderson in a live-streamed conversation, following the screening; the 25th anniversary of Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s Fargo, with stars Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, and Joel Coen in an in-person conversation; the 30th anniversary of Robert Townsend’s The Five Heartbeats, with stars John Terrell, Tico Wells, Leon Robinson, Harry Lennix, Michael Wright, Hawthorne James, and Townsend in an in-person conversation; plus Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro discussing Raging Bull’s “lasting legacy”, in a pre-recorded conversation following the screening, have all been announced for the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival to take place in outdoor venues across New York City.

The Tribeca Film Festival is adding some splashy talks to its upcoming New York City lineup, which promises to be the first major film festival in the U.S. to return to business as normal after the pandemic.

Director Joel Coen will be joined in conversation with stars Frances McDormand and Steve Buscemi to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Academy Award-winning film “Fargo.” Meanwhile, the 20th anniversary of “The Royal Tenenbaums” will be celebrated with a reunion of director Wes Anderson with stars Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, and Danny Glover. The 30th anniversary of “The Five Heartbeats” will also be marked with stars Robert Townsend, John Terrell, Tico Wells, Leon Robinson, Harry Lennix, Michael Wright, and Hawthorne James.

Tribeca co-founder Robert De Niro will also team up with director Martin Scorsese to discuss creating “Raging Bull.”

The Tribeca Talks: Storytellers slate celebrates groundbreaking creators working across multiple mediums.

facebook

twitter

google+

The sensational, overlooked film scores from the years 1990 to 1999 that really are well worth digging out...

The movies went through tumultuous and exciting changes in the nineties. Quentin Tarantino exploded onto the scene with Reservoir Dogs, Generation X gave rise to slacker marvels like Clerks, and blockbusters like The Matrix put the awe back into special effects.

However, the 90s was also a sensational decade for film music, gifting us classics including the likes of Jurassic Park, Titanic, Total Recall, Braveheart and countless others. But the sheer quality of these soundtrack treasures shouldn’t overshadow those undervalued hidden gems that demonstrate the extraordinary range and versatility of our finest film composers, ones that may have passed you by. So here’s our selection of those incredible works: ranging from the earworming to the unsettling, the melodic to the chaotic, these are the scores that simply demand your attention.

Doctor Who, Star Trek and more: what happened when sci-fi, horror & fantasy heroes have popped up on British daytime TV over the years…

Pre-YouTube, fandom was a hard-earned thing. It took research, dedication and enough patience to hover over the family video player’s ‘record’ button for an entire episode of TV-am in anticipation of six minutes with Sylvester McCoy. Six minutes in which the Seventh Doctor would be polled if he was a cat or dog person and then asked to taste a lemon roulade.

Scarcity bred desire in those days, so we took what we could get from our heroes of yore, even if that meant watching Hammer Horror legend Ingrid Pitt make a chocolate mousse, or the aforementioned McCoy attempt to answer fan questions above the hubbub of a Nottingham swimming pool complex. The collision of geek icons and UK daytime magazine shows was sometimes illuminating, sometimes excruciating,...

Something of his sad freedom

As he rode the tumbril

Should come to me, driving,

Saying the names

Tollund, Grauballe, Nebelgard,

Watching the pointing hands

Of country people,

Not knowing their tongue.

Out here in Jutland

In the old man-killing parishes

I will feel lost,

Unhappy and at home.

—Seamus Heaney, The Tollund Man

It ended, like all journeys do, in Solitude, a long way from any cinema. Solitude—or rather Zolitūde, in Latvian—is a suburb of Riga, four miles as the crow flies from the fancy Scandi-Gothic-Art Nouveau city centre; six miles on foot if the pedestrian avoids diversions. But by the time I reached Solitude on that cold December Saturday afternoon, however, my inadvertent divagations must have pushed the total to the ten-mile mark. I'd looked at maps prior to departing from my hotel, of course but deliberately didn't bring one along (not a fan); I don't...

When director Jan de Bont set about casting the various faces and secondary characters that populated bus #2525 in his 1994 actioner "Speed," it was very important to him that they reflect the multicultural identity of Los Angeles. Not only that, but he wanted there to be a heavy dose of realism in his choices, actors who seemed to be people you could look over on a morning commute and see reading the paper, sipping coffee, gazing out the window and starting their day. On the occasion of the film's 20th anniversary, I thought it would be interesting to track down as many of those actors as possible and tell the story of "Speed" from their perspective. It was a gargantuan task. While a number of them have remained in the industry in some way, many have moved on to other careers. But their individual stories are nevertheless as fascinating as the...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 24 Oct 2013 - 06:46

Another 25 unsung greats come under the spotlight, as we provide our pick of the underappreciated films of 1995...

The year covered in this week's underrated movie rundown was significant for a number of reasons. It was the year that saw the release of Toy Story - the groundbreaking movie that would cement Pixar's reputation as an animation studio, and set the tempo for CG family movies for the next 18 years and counting. It was the year that saw James Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan for the first time) emerge for GoldenEye after a six-year break. It was also the year of Michael Mann's Heat, Dogme 95, and the moment where Terry Gilliam scored a much-deserved hit with 12 Monkeys.

As ever, we're focusing on a few of the lesser-known films from this particular year, and we've had to think carefully about what's made the cut and what hasn't.

Cinema Retro welcomes our latest columnist, Ernie Magnotta, who will turn his attention to under-rated cinematic gems and guilty pleasures!

By Ernie Magnotta

“If a movie makes you happy, for whatever reason, then it’s a good movie.”

—Big E

There are good movies and there are bad movies. There are also movies that some people say are so bad that they're good. I hear that all the time. I've heard it since I was a kid. I think what they actually mean is that they're not good in the way most people might normally watch and judge a film; Excellent writing, incredible acting, masterful direction, etc.

The way I see it, there's more than one way to enjoy a film. Every movie doesn't have to be a five-star masterpiece like Gone with the Wind. You do not have to judge a film the way you would judge a mainstream...

It's been a quarter of a century since Thomas Harris's cultured cannibal exploded on the thriller scene, winning fictional killers a place in our hearts for ever

Can it really be a whole quarter of a century since Hannibal Lecter took up residence in our cultural landscape with the immortal line, "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti"?

Well, actually, no. It is indeed 25 years since Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs was first published, but that famous quote is from Jonathan Demme's highly rated 1991 movie adaptation of the book; Harris's original line did indeed have the sociopathic psychiatrist chowing down on the offal of a census taker who "tried to quantify me once", but in the original text the cannibalistic serial killer's wine of choice is "a big Amarone". Perhaps chianti was the preferred plonk of Anthony Hopkins, who portrayed...

Our most enduring stories reflect the nocturnal picturehouse of our subconscious

Interviews with the horror novelist James Herbert – and, after his death on Wednesday, obituaries – revealed two crucial autobiographical details: that he was prone to shockingly vivid dreams, and was brought up as a Roman Catholic. Herbert's acknowledgement of nightmares as a contribution to stories that sold 54m copies is striking because any tally of the profits made from popular entertainment over the last two centuries suggests a clear link between the most enduring forms of storytelling and the most frequent features of the nocturnal picturehouse of our subconscious.

If the images created in the heads of sleepers were downloaded, it's likely that the majority of narratives would be: sexual/romantic fulfilment, comic misunderstanding or humiliation, horrifying pursuit and capture, and the continued presence of our beloved dead. And these scenarios best fill the cinema and literature industry tills when...

Two years after the death of scream queen Ingrid Pitt, the Scandinavian beauty who bewitched audiences in such horror classics as The House that Dripped Blood, The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula, a new generation of fans are honouring her memory.

From the Press Release:

Attend the first annual Ingrid Pitt's Queen of Horror Festival in Old Town Hastings, UK, October 26th-28th, 2012.

Ms. Pitt's versatile career spanned from being an author, appearing as the subject of an Oscar-nominated cartoon (Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest ), and narrating tracks for black metal rockers Cradle of Filth. Her iconic status has attracted numerous followers, including the legendary writer James Herbert and actor Johnny Deep.

The festival is a weekend of horror fun in a style that's lacking in the UK horror scene, including such horrors as a Scream Queen competition with the winner heading to New York, masked ball, Ingrid Pitt films with Q&A's,...

The Horror Channel “Movie Of The Month” is Drew Cullingham’s Umbrage: The First Vampire, which is broadcast on Friday 22nd June. The film stars legendary British actor Doug Bradley (Hellraiser) and concerns an unscrupulous antique dealer’s ancient mirror that serves as a portal for shadowy beings to be unleashed into the night with a thirst for blood.

Drew talks about his outstanding directorial debut and his plans for the future….

How did you start in the movie business?

DC: Slowly! There was a time when all the things I take for granted now, all the people (actors and crew) and all the facilities and so on, were a faraway dream. I worked a little in TV, mostly filming food related VTs for live shows, and I cut my teeth bit by bit on a few short films. Of course even then I was begging, borrowing and stealing in...

Suranne Jones has signed up for the lead role in BBC One's upcoming horror The Secret of Crickley Hall. The three-part drama is based on a novel by James Herbert and focuses on Eve and Gabe, a couple who move to Crickley Hall a year after their son goes missing, only for supernatural events to start taking place. The family are about to move out when Eve hears her missing son and the family begins to try to work out what links the house to their child. The show is due to be set in both 1943 and the present day. Jones has now landed the role of Eve, while Miranda star Tom Ellis will play her husband Gabe. Other stars taking part in the show include Ellis's The Fades co-star Iain De Caestecker, Primeval's Douglas Henshall, Wallander stars David Warner and Sarah (more)...

With a comic book-styled poster, horror comedy short The Code sees a couple's date go badly wrong when they are attacked by flesh-eating zombies.

But an apparent scheduling mishap with a chainsaw killer, a vampire and Bigfoot puts a whole new slant on the night.

Director Mark Blitch's six-minute, blood-slobbering monster mash-up won 11 awards at Houston's Splatterfest including best film, director, screenplay, editing, kill, splatter and special effects; and audience favourite film, story, kill and make-up.

The full video for The Code, starring Tamara Voss, Taylor James Brandt, Todd Terry and Daylon Walton, is embedded below. There's also an official Facebook page.

More gore is being spilled, this time of the Germanic variety, in Marc Rohnstock's Necronos.

Two new promo pictures have been released as a taster for the movie. One is rather gruesomely graphic, even with the already-censored areas blacked out; the other is included below.

After...

A BBC adaptation of James Herbert's best-selling ghost story, The Secret of Crickley Hall, a haunted house chiller, full of scares but underpinned by the moving tales of children and parents separated 70 years apart, is underway.

The three episode drama is to be directed by Joe Ahearne (Apparitions, Doctor Who, This Life) who has also written the script, for BBC Drama Production North, and is set for broadcast around Halloween 2012.

The story is about a family who relocate to a rain-swept house in a Devonshire town called Devil’s Cleave – It turns out that during World War II, the village was decimated by a flood. Crickley Hall was home to a group of poor orphans evacuated from London who lived under the care of the sadistic Augustus Cribben, who terrorised, starved and beat them. The orphans were seemingly washed away by the flood and now their lost spirits haunt the hall,...

He's referred to as "the pope of pimping". Surprisingly enough, I'm not talking about the Dogg Father himself. Fillmore Slim is a famous blues singer and guitarist who was also a "highly renowned pimp" during the 1960s and 70s in San Fancisco. And now, Calvin Broadus, better known as Snoop Dogg, will portray the musician in a biopic being made by Ames Universal and Sri Entertainment that is scheduled for release in late 2012. 

The film, entitled The Legend of Fillmore Slim, will begin filming in March and is currently in the pre-production stage. The script was penned by co-producer Alan Ames and Carole Parker, and will be directed by Hawthorne James.

read more...

Looks like it.s time for a certain rap icon to trade in his gin and juice for some rhythm and blues. According to Deadline, west coast rap legend Snoop Dogg (née Calvin Broadus) is set to star in The Legend of Fillmore Slim. The film is a biopic of blues singer/guitarist Clarence .Fillmore Slim. Sims and is set to be directed by relative unknown Hawthorne James. Well I.ll be heezied for sheezy. Snoop.s attraction to this subject matter may not be readily apparent at first. I mean, why would he want to take part in a biopic of a musician renowned in a genre outside his own? But it turns out that part of Fillmore Slim.s colorful past includes not only blues music, but also a significant amount of pimping. Slim made quite the name for himself in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970 ...

[1] Superstar rapper Snoop Dogg looks to be beefing up his acting resume with two very different new roles. The first is The Legend of Fillmore Slim, a biopic of the blues musician and erstwhile pimp; the second, an untitled family sitcom by Blossom creator Don Reo in which Snoop Dogg will play the father. Talk about range. More details after the jump. First-time feature director Hawthorne James is set to helm The Legend of Fillmore Slim, from a script by Alan Ames and Carole Parker. The film will span several decades in the life of the 77-year-old singer and guitarist, whose real name is Clarence Sims. The story will range "from Slim’s emergence as a musician, to his fascination with the fast life, through his years of incarceration and his redemption," says [2] co-producer Alan Ames. Sims first began working as a musician in the '50s, but stepped away...

Deadline is reporting the self-proclaimed Doggfather is set to star in a biopic of legendary pimp and blues guitarist, Fillmore Slim. Producer Alan Ames says of the project, “This film will span decades, from Slim’s emergence as a musician, to his fascination with the fast life, through his years of incarceration and his redemption.”

Slim went on to become the Pope of Pimping, and such parallels to Snoop’s own life are obvious, which might make for a potent bit of casting. Of course, Snoop isn’t the greatest actor, as apparent in Bones but he did show a bit of flair in Training Day. Hawthorne James is tapped to direct, with production gearing up for a March start.

Are you ready for the West Coast Godfather of the Game movie?...

Snoop Dogg will star in the biopic "The Legend of Fillmore Slim" for Ames Universal and Sri Entertainment says Deadline.

Clarence 'Fillmore Slim' Sims is a blues singer and guitarist who was also a well-known pimp in San Francisco during the 60's and 70's. The story spans Slim’s emergence as a musician, to his years of incarceration and eventual redemption.

Alan Ames and Carole Parker co-wrote the screenplay while Ames and Wayne Anderson will produce. Hawthorne James will direct with shooting to kick off in March.

Snoop Dogg will be singing the blues. Ames Universal and Sri Entertainment announced that rapper Snoop Dogg will play blues singer and guitarist Clarence Sims in the biopic “The Legend of Fillmore Slim.” “The film will span decades,” said Alan Ames, a producer on the project. “[It’s] from Slim’s emergence as a musician, to his fascination with the fast life, through his years of incarceration and his redemption.” Fillmore Slim (real name is Clarence Sims) was a highly renowned pimp in San Francisco, and was also referred as “The West Coast Godfather of the Game” and “The Pope of Pimping” during the 1960s and 1970s. The real Sims is now 77-years-old and currently on tour. According to Deadline, Snoop Dogg was approached by Sim’s daughter Rebecca to play her father. Snoop Dogg is another rapper turned actor who has appeared in several television series and several independent movies. He...

Snoop Dogg has teamed with Ames Universal and Sri Entertainment to bring The Legend of Fillmore Slim to the silver screen.

The biopic revolves around the musician, who started pursuing a music career in the 1950s, but was lured away by the pimp game during the 1960s and 1970s. He was a prominent pimp in San Francisco, known by such colorful nicknames as "The West Coast Godfather of the Game" and "The Pope of Pimping." Fillmore Slim eventually returned to music in the 1980s, and is currently touring.

Hawthorne James is set to direct the biopic from a script by Ames Parker and Carole Parker.

Production begins this March.

Snoop Dogg is one of the legends of hip hop, but his movie career has barely registered. When your best role is that of Huggy Bear in a Starsky and Hutch adaptation, that’s to be expected. But that hasn’t deterred the man, and he’s looking to make his return to movies once again; Deadline reports that Snoop has taken the lead role in The Legend of Fillmore Slim. The movie, currently being written by Alan Ames and Carole Parker, will tell the real-life story of Fillmore Slim, who — in addition to being a blues musician — dabbled as a pimp in San Francisco during the ’60s and ’70s. According to Ames, The Legend of Fillmore Slim will “span decades,” covering his music career, pimp life, and redemption after being arrested and thrown into jail. Hawthorne James has signed on to helm, making this his first feature film as a director.

Snoop Dogg has signed on to play Fillmore Slim in an upcoming biopic. Deadline reprots that the rapper will star in The Legend of Fillmore Slim for Ames Universal and Sri Entertainment. Slim's real name is "Clarence Sims– a blues singer and guitarist. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was also a well-known pimp in San Francisco, referred to as “The West Coast Godfather of the Game” and “The Pope of Pimping.” Sims is still touring at the age of 77!

Hawthorne James is set to direct, pre-production is slated to start in December with filming to begin in March.The film is being produced by Alan Ames and Wayne Anderson, and will be exec produced by Shelly Liebowitz. Ames is also writing the screenplay with Carole Parker. The project was spearheaded by Sims’ daughter Rebecca.

Here is what Ames had to say about the project:

“This film will span decades.

Snoop Dogg has reached a deal with Ames Universal and Sri Entertainment to play blues guitarist Fillmore Slim in the biopic The Legend of Fillmore Slim. Slim started pursuing a music career in the 1950s, but was lured away by the pimp game. During the 1960s and 1970s, Slim was a prominent pimp in San Francisco, known by such colorful nicknames as "The West Coast Godfather of the Game" and "The Pope of Pimping." Slim eventually returned to music in the 1980s, and is currently touring at the age of 77. Co-producer Alan Ames tells Deadline: “This film will span decades, from Slim’s emergence as a musician, to his fascination with the fast life, through his years of incarceration and his redemption.” There are clear parallels between the careers (or at least the public images of) Slim and Snoop, aka "Tha Doggfather." I don't know if that will draw a...

Horror fans everywhere should recognize the name “Leslie Simpson” from such favorites as Dog Soldiers, where he played Pvt. Terry Milburn, The Descent where he played one of the horrific Crawlers and Doomsday where he was Carpenter, one of the soldiers that were to escort heroine Eden Sinclair into the “Hot Zone”.

Well, forget about those excellent performances because Simpson has gone one Much better in his role as The Lone Man in writer/director Ad Barker’s A Reckoning (aka Straw Man). Whether the film is post-apocalyptic or the tale of a man who has taken himself out of society or simply the story of a man going insane, Simpson’s performance is nothing short of breath-taking. And the sad thing is is that so very few people have seen this film, to date. Hopefully That oversight is being corrected and quickly because A Reckoning Needs to be seen.

Effective horror films these days are harder and harder to come by, and it all depends on what you want from the genre.

In Insidious, Saw and Paranormal Activity creators Wan and Whannell appear to have collected together all their favourite horror elements from scary classics – namely Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror and The Shining – but not forgotten to add a good dose of humour, with nods to Beetlejuice and even Ghostbusters. It’s a strange but fixating mish-mash of ghoulish behaviour, but it’s also one of the most effective, jump-out-of-your-skin and hilarious creations out in recent years.

At first Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) can’t understand why things move around in her new home, or why the baby monitor starts whispering evil nothings to her. Then her adventurous son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), ventures up into the creepy old attic, falls off a rickety old ladder, and doesn’t wake up the next morning.

Michael Stipe has invited renaissance-actor James Franco and English filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood to join him on a list of guest directors who will create a series of short films to accompany each track on upcoming R.E.M. album Collapse Into Now. The record can be found now streaming at NPR; it will be released officially on March 8.

Stipe, who like most recording artists is trying to revive the album as a viable format, conceived of the Collapse Into Now Film Project as a way to help resuscitate the neglected art of the long player. "It was really fun for me to curate, working with all these different artists, and seeing how they interpreted the songs," Stipe told NME. "The thing that was surprising is how much they interlockingly work, like an album."

The videos for the projects will be released through various web and network outlets of the course of the next several weeks.

This was actually produced in 2008, but is only now getting a release on DVD, so it’s been sitting around for a couple of years for whatever reason. It was never released in theatres. It’s called The Stick Up Kids – a title that’s new to me. Has anyone laid eyes on it previously? I’m guessing it played at a festival or two.

The story goes… Four friends who grew up together on the streets of Harlem will do whatever it takes – from armed robberies to elaborate con games, to get what they want. But for how long? One slumlord is determined to take over the neighborhood, and he’s not about to let some kids get in his way. The crew’s only hope to survive? A scam that’s more twisted and dangerous than anything they’ve pulled off yet.

From the trailer below, it doesn’t look too shabby.

There’s no need to explain one’s excitement over Martin Scorcese’s Shutter Island (starring Leonardo DiCaprio), which opens this Friday. It’s Marty f’n Scorcese, after all, dabbling in psychological terror for the first time since 1991’s Cape Fear remake. If the film’s credits weren’t enough, both of its trailers are knockouts. If Shutter Island doesn’t open at number one this weekend, I’ll be stunned.

“Stunned” is also the reaction I’m hoping the film itself triggers. The catch on this end, though, is that Shutter Island is something of a cinematic Holy Grail for me, thanks to my intense adoration for Dennis Lehane’s original novel. The Boston-based author’s book, first published in 2003, kicked my ass into a quick submission two years ago, when I first read the thing in a one ferocious six-hour sitting. Devoured it, actually. Became invested to...

Halloween is a time quite custom designed for tricks, treats and terror. In the world of cinema, there is no film as notoriously terrifying as William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. As a special treat to Orange Film Club members, the tree-lined depths of Tower Hamlets Cemetery came alive tonight with clergy, fog, spirits and curious lights – all leading the way to a cinema screen in a clearing. The eyes and ears of HeyUGuys were there in the dark, peering down the spooky paths, heart jumping in our dry throat waiting for something to go bump in the night. And what a night it was!

Before the screening we spoke with Empire Magazine’s horror expert, Mr Kim Newman*, who echoed our awe over the astonishing location. Kim had no hesitation in accepting Orange’s invite to come along and introduce the audience to their evening’s entertainment:

“I had many...