For us 90s kids, Dick Tracy was an interesting monster of a movie. It seemed to take a lot of cues from Tim Burton’s Batman, which was released the previous summer, but it definitely had a distinct voice of its own. Dick Tracy was another classic pulp adaptation of an urban enforcer that had very dynamic visuals and an over-the-top rogues gallery. It even sported a score by Danny Elfman, which would have his signature atmospheric sound. The movie would introduce a generation of young audiences to the 1930’s film noir/ detective movie genre. Additionally, the movie brought back Warren Beatty after a three-year absence when his last film, 1987’s Ishtar, was a big flop. Having a star like Beatty in a big-budget franchise like this was an enormous asset for the re-budding intellectual property. And the star power wouldn’t even stop there.
Grab your Tommy guns. It...
Grab your Tommy guns. It...
- 1/21/2024
- by EJ Tangonan
- JoBlo.com
Click here to read the full article.
Albert Brenner, the innovative production designer, art director and five-time Oscar nominee whose work was admired in films from Fail Safe, Bullitt and Point Blank to The Sunshine Boys, The Turning Point and Backdraft, has died. He was 96.
Brenner died Thursday in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced.
The Brooklyn native started his career dressing mannequins for window displays and worked on such TV shows as Car 54, Where Are You? before progressing to a much larger canvas — designing the five-acre New York Street backlot for Paramount in Hollywood after the original was destroyed by fire in August 1983.
Across his 50-plus-year career, Brenner collaborated on eight features with director Garry Marshall, seven with Herbert Ross, five with Peter Hyams, three with Sidney Lumet and two with Robert Mulligan. Comedies, sci-fi flicks, Westerns, period pieces — he did them all.
Of...
Albert Brenner, the innovative production designer, art director and five-time Oscar nominee whose work was admired in films from Fail Safe, Bullitt and Point Blank to The Sunshine Boys, The Turning Point and Backdraft, has died. He was 96.
Brenner died Thursday in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced.
The Brooklyn native started his career dressing mannequins for window displays and worked on such TV shows as Car 54, Where Are You? before progressing to a much larger canvas — designing the five-acre New York Street backlot for Paramount in Hollywood after the original was destroyed by fire in August 1983.
Across his 50-plus-year career, Brenner collaborated on eight features with director Garry Marshall, seven with Herbert Ross, five with Peter Hyams, three with Sidney Lumet and two with Robert Mulligan. Comedies, sci-fi flicks, Westerns, period pieces — he did them all.
Of...
- 12/12/2022
- by Rhett Bartlett
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Two years ago, siblings Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell shared in four Grammy wins for the album “When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” (Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Album) and its single “Bad Guy” (Record of the Year; Song of the Year). Now, they have concurrently earned their first Oscar nominations for co-writing the song “No Time to Die” for the James Bond film of the same name. If they prevail later this month, they will become the fourth brother-sister pair to both be honored by the academy and the first to win for the same film.
The first brother-sister Oscar champs and first sibling winners overall were Douglas Shearer and Norma Shearer. In 1930, he triumphed in the Best Sound category for “The Big House” while she took the Best Actress prize for “The Divorcee.” They were followed by Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore, who respectively...
The first brother-sister Oscar champs and first sibling winners overall were Douglas Shearer and Norma Shearer. In 1930, he triumphed in the Best Sound category for “The Big House” while she took the Best Actress prize for “The Divorcee.” They were followed by Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore, who respectively...
- 3/16/2022
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Warren Beatty’s show is a beautiful, one of a kind epic. Never mind that it is sharply critical of John Reed, an American who was buried in the Kremlin — Hollywood never approached the title subject directly: (whisper) Commies. Beatty’s production idiosyncrasies raised eyebrows but his picture is quite an achievement in filmic storytelling, cleverly accessing a political scene sixty years gone through testimony by notables that lived it. Beatty and Diane Keaton provide the romantic fireworks that make the film commercially viable, amid all the revolutionary fervor and political chaos.
Reds 40th Anniversary
Blu-ray + Digital
Paramount Home Video
1981 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 195 min. / 40th Anniversary Edition / Street Date November 30, 2021 / 17.99
Starring: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosiński, Jack Nicholson, Paul Sorvino, Maureen Stapleton, M. Emmet Walsh, Ian Wolfe, George Plimpton, Dolph Sweet, Ramon Bieri, Gene Hackman, Gerald Hiken, William Daniels, Oleg Kerensky, Shane Rimmer, Jerry Hardin, Jack Kehoe,...
Reds 40th Anniversary
Blu-ray + Digital
Paramount Home Video
1981 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 195 min. / 40th Anniversary Edition / Street Date November 30, 2021 / 17.99
Starring: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosiński, Jack Nicholson, Paul Sorvino, Maureen Stapleton, M. Emmet Walsh, Ian Wolfe, George Plimpton, Dolph Sweet, Ramon Bieri, Gene Hackman, Gerald Hiken, William Daniels, Oleg Kerensky, Shane Rimmer, Jerry Hardin, Jack Kehoe,...
- 12/11/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Baby Doll
Blu ray
Warner Archive
1956 / 1.85:1 / 114 min.
Starring Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach
Cinematography by Boris Kaufman
Directed by Elia Kazan
Depraved, degenerate, and dreadfully funny, the genre known as Southern Gothic blurred the line between humor and horror and helped define the work of artists like William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, and Tennessee Williams. Depending on who you talked to, the experience was either a bracing walk on the wild side or freak show sensationalism. Poetry or not, books like Sanctuary and Reflections in a Golden Eye were catnip to thrill-hungry Hollywood execs who gobbled up the rights and, true to form, removed the raw carnality that made the original stories so… stimulating. That wasn’t the case with Williams’ screenplay for 1957’s Baby Doll—though its Rabelaisian spirit made it one of the most controversial and widely condemned events in movie history, the driving force behind Elia...
Blu ray
Warner Archive
1956 / 1.85:1 / 114 min.
Starring Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach
Cinematography by Boris Kaufman
Directed by Elia Kazan
Depraved, degenerate, and dreadfully funny, the genre known as Southern Gothic blurred the line between humor and horror and helped define the work of artists like William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, and Tennessee Williams. Depending on who you talked to, the experience was either a bracing walk on the wild side or freak show sensationalism. Poetry or not, books like Sanctuary and Reflections in a Golden Eye were catnip to thrill-hungry Hollywood execs who gobbled up the rights and, true to form, removed the raw carnality that made the original stories so… stimulating. That wasn’t the case with Williams’ screenplay for 1957’s Baby Doll—though its Rabelaisian spirit made it one of the most controversial and widely condemned events in movie history, the driving force behind Elia...
- 2/27/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
They swim, they play, and they talk. They love George C. Scott and call him ‘pa.’ Mike Nichols’ paranoid sci-fi classic combines Lassie Go Home and The Manchurian Candidate. It works up a good guys versus bad guys conspiracy storyline — until the message arrives that what the adorable dolphins Fa and Bee really need, along with the rest of the natural planet, is for us greedy, murderous humans to just Go Away. Buck Henry’s screenplay overcomes aquatic clichés and cutesy animal traditions to come up with a crowd-pleasing winner.
The Day of the Dolphin
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date February 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino, Fritz Weaver, Jon Korkes, Edward Herrmann, John Dehner, Severn Darden, Elizabeth Wilson.
Cinematography: William A. Fraker
Film Editor: Sam O’Steen
Production Designer: Richard Sylbert
Original Music: Georges Delerue
Written by Buck...
The Day of the Dolphin
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date February 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino, Fritz Weaver, Jon Korkes, Edward Herrmann, John Dehner, Severn Darden, Elizabeth Wilson.
Cinematography: William A. Fraker
Film Editor: Sam O’Steen
Production Designer: Richard Sylbert
Original Music: Georges Delerue
Written by Buck...
- 3/28/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In his latest book about Hollywood, author Sam Wasson uses interviews and books — such as autobiography “Roman by Polanski” — to craft a novelistic tale about the making of the iconic 1974 movie “Chinatown.” The first chapter, “Justice,” starts off with the romance between actress Sharon Tate and young director Roman Polanski, as he casts her in his 1967 film, “The Fearless Vampire Killers.” Our excerpt (slightly edited for length) is below.
Duty was her pattern. She was a smiler, an actress.
Sharon signed with Ransohoff at nineteen. Dutifully, she faced Hollywood with professional dedication, taking courses in singing, dancing, and acting, the latter with Jeff Corey in the fall of 1963. “An incredibly beautiful girl,” Corey reflected, “but a fragmented personality.” Self-disclosure was a problem, so Corey one day put a stick in her hand and demanded, “Hit me, do something, show emotion!” Beauty was not enough. And she knew she wouldn’t be beautiful forever.
Duty was her pattern. She was a smiler, an actress.
Sharon signed with Ransohoff at nineteen. Dutifully, she faced Hollywood with professional dedication, taking courses in singing, dancing, and acting, the latter with Jeff Corey in the fall of 1963. “An incredibly beautiful girl,” Corey reflected, “but a fragmented personality.” Self-disclosure was a problem, so Corey one day put a stick in her hand and demanded, “Hit me, do something, show emotion!” Beauty was not enough. And she knew she wouldn’t be beautiful forever.
- 2/19/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
In his latest book about Hollywood, author Sam Wasson uses interviews and books — such as autobiography “Roman by Polanski” — to craft a novelistic tale about the making of the iconic 1974 movie “Chinatown.” The first chapter, “Justice,” starts off with the romance between actress Sharon Tate and young director Roman Polanski, as he casts her in his 1967 film, “The Fearless Vampire Killers.” Our excerpt (slightly edited for length) is below.
Duty was her pattern. She was a smiler, an actress.
Sharon signed with Ransohoff at nineteen. Dutifully, she faced Hollywood with professional dedication, taking courses in singing, dancing, and acting, the latter with Jeff Corey in the fall of 1963. “An incredibly beautiful girl,” Corey reflected, “but a fragmented personality.” Self-disclosure was a problem, so Corey one day put a stick in her hand and demanded, “Hit me, do something, show emotion!” Beauty was not enough. And she knew she wouldn’t be beautiful forever.
Duty was her pattern. She was a smiler, an actress.
Sharon signed with Ransohoff at nineteen. Dutifully, she faced Hollywood with professional dedication, taking courses in singing, dancing, and acting, the latter with Jeff Corey in the fall of 1963. “An incredibly beautiful girl,” Corey reflected, “but a fragmented personality.” Self-disclosure was a problem, so Corey one day put a stick in her hand and demanded, “Hit me, do something, show emotion!” Beauty was not enough. And she knew she wouldn’t be beautiful forever.
- 2/19/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
They say you Can’t Go Home Again, but Francis Coppola has pulled a real magic trick — his 1984 gangland musical ended up heavily compromised by outright racism producers that didn’t like the half of the story that favored a black show-biz drama. All the gangster action has been retained in this impressive Encore recut, but with twenty new minutes of performances and backstage intrigues. Gregory and Maurice Hines’ tap dances are extended, and musical numbers have been restored, with the terrific Lonette McKee getting special emphasis. The show was always good, and now it’s much better.
The Cotton Club Encore
Blu-ray + DVD + Digital
Lionsgate
1984-2019 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 139 min. (originally 119) / Street Date December 10, 2019 / 14.99
Starring: Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Gregory Hines, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, Maurice Hines, James Remar, Nicolas Cage, Allen Garfield, Fred Gwynne, Gwen Verdon, Julian Beck, John P. Ryan.
Cinematography: Stephen Goldblatt
Production Designer: Richard Sylbert
Film Editors: Robert Q. Lovett,...
The Cotton Club Encore
Blu-ray + DVD + Digital
Lionsgate
1984-2019 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 139 min. (originally 119) / Street Date December 10, 2019 / 14.99
Starring: Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Gregory Hines, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, Maurice Hines, James Remar, Nicolas Cage, Allen Garfield, Fred Gwynne, Gwen Verdon, Julian Beck, John P. Ryan.
Cinematography: Stephen Goldblatt
Production Designer: Richard Sylbert
Film Editors: Robert Q. Lovett,...
- 12/24/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Francis Ford Coppola, Brett Morgen, actress Ali MacGraw and many more are mourning the Monday death of Robert Evans, the legendary film producer and Paramount Pictures chief in the ’60s and ’70s.
Coppola honored Evans for his contributions to “The Godfather” films when he was at Paramount and for his help as an independent producer on Coppola’s “The Cotton Club” from 1984.
“I remember Bob Evans’ charm, good looks, enthusiasm, style, and sense of humor. He had strong instincts as evidenced by the long list of great films in his career,” Coppola said in a statement to TheWrap. “When I worked with Bob, some of his helpful ideas included suggesting John Marley as Woltz and Sterling Hayden as the Police Captain, and his ultimate realization that ‘The Godfather’ could be 2 hours and 45 minutes in length; also, making a movie out of ‘The Cotton Club’ — casting Richard Gere and Gregory Hines,...
Coppola honored Evans for his contributions to “The Godfather” films when he was at Paramount and for his help as an independent producer on Coppola’s “The Cotton Club” from 1984.
“I remember Bob Evans’ charm, good looks, enthusiasm, style, and sense of humor. He had strong instincts as evidenced by the long list of great films in his career,” Coppola said in a statement to TheWrap. “When I worked with Bob, some of his helpful ideas included suggesting John Marley as Woltz and Sterling Hayden as the Police Captain, and his ultimate realization that ‘The Godfather’ could be 2 hours and 45 minutes in length; also, making a movie out of ‘The Cotton Club’ — casting Richard Gere and Gregory Hines,...
- 10/28/2019
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Francis Ford Coppola remembered his sometime-patron, collaborator and frenemy Robert Evans as a producer with “strong instincts” in an emotional tribute. Evans, the legendary producer and former head of Paramount Pictures, died on Saturday night at the age of 89. He played a crucial role in the creation of such film classics as “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Chinatown” and “Marathon Man.”
At Paramount, he plucked Coppola, then a rising young filmmaker, from semi-obscurity and tasked him with bringing Mario Puzo’s bestseller “The Godfather” to the screen. The two clashed frequently, but they created a beloved film that was also a box office success and Oscar winner. When they collaborated again on 1984’s “The Cotton Club,” it was not as star-crossed. That film was mired in lawsuits, budget over-runs, and competing creative visions. It became an infamous bomb that hurt both men’s careers. On Monday, however, Coppola chose to accentuate the positive aspects of their alliances.
At Paramount, he plucked Coppola, then a rising young filmmaker, from semi-obscurity and tasked him with bringing Mario Puzo’s bestseller “The Godfather” to the screen. The two clashed frequently, but they created a beloved film that was also a box office success and Oscar winner. When they collaborated again on 1984’s “The Cotton Club,” it was not as star-crossed. That film was mired in lawsuits, budget over-runs, and competing creative visions. It became an infamous bomb that hurt both men’s careers. On Monday, however, Coppola chose to accentuate the positive aspects of their alliances.
- 10/28/2019
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Cotton Club” was thought of as an expensive flop after it was released in 1984. Coppola has said that producers forced him to cut footage of Gregory Hines, who was meant to be a male co-lead with Richard Gere, to focus more on the love story between Gere and Diane Lane, and the result felt lifeless and cold.
But Coppola has restored the Hines footage for this new version, which has been dubbed “The Cotton Club Encore,” and it might also be called “The Cotton Club Transformed,” because this cut makes a film that felt like a failure into one of Coppola’s very best pictures. This movie is a feast with all the trimmings, and then some.
Coppola has a history of revisiting his films and putting out different cuts of them, as in his “Apocalypse Now Redux” and his longer version of “The Outsiders,...
But Coppola has restored the Hines footage for this new version, which has been dubbed “The Cotton Club Encore,” and it might also be called “The Cotton Club Transformed,” because this cut makes a film that felt like a failure into one of Coppola’s very best pictures. This movie is a feast with all the trimmings, and then some.
Coppola has a history of revisiting his films and putting out different cuts of them, as in his “Apocalypse Now Redux” and his longer version of “The Outsiders,...
- 10/2/2019
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
A new cut of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1984 crime drama “The Cotton Club” is set to hit theaters this fall following a bow at the 2019 New York Film Festival. “The Cotton Club” stars Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Gregory Hines, Bob Hoskins, Laurence Fishburne and Nicolas Cage and is set in 1930s Harlem at the legendary jazz venue from which it takes its name. For the initial release, Coppola bent to outside concerns that he edit the film to focus solely on Gere’s character Dixie Dwyer. The Director’s Cut will presumably hew closer to the filmmaker’s original intent, which was to focus just as much on the character played by Gregory Hines, a dancer named Delbert “Sandman” Williams.
The official synopsis for the re-release reads: “In this lavish, 1930s-era drama, Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.
The official synopsis for the re-release reads: “In this lavish, 1930s-era drama, Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.
- 9/12/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Elia Kazan never stopped making great pictures, but much of his output after 1952 was politically defensive in nature. This powerful indictment of American media madness is a genuine classic, but it also points up the need for ‘good folk’ to sometimes betray their associates. The target this time around is the most kill-worthy monster in the history of sardonic satire: Lonesome Rhodes, a faux-populist master manipulator of the pushover public. Kazan and Budd Schulberg’s premise has come to pass in real life, but their silver bullet of truth has lost its power: even when unmasked publicly, some media monsters thrive.
A Face in the Crowd
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 970
1957 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 125 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 23, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick.
Cinematography: Gayne Rescher, Harry Stradling
Art Direction: Paul Sylbert, Richard Sylbert
Film Editor: Gene Milford
Original...
A Face in the Crowd
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 970
1957 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 125 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 23, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick.
Cinematography: Gayne Rescher, Harry Stradling
Art Direction: Paul Sylbert, Richard Sylbert
Film Editor: Gene Milford
Original...
- 4/16/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Beverly Hills 1968 — Sunset Blvd., The Strip, The Bistro, the haze in the Hollywood Hills — where a lowly hairdresser-stud is locked in a crazy lifestyle free-fall while having the time of his life with four beautiful women. Warren Beatty puts a facet of his public personality on display as a world-class ladies’ man who just can’t keep things together.
Shampoo
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 947
1975 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 110 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 18, 2018 / 39.95
Starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Tony Bill, George Furth, Jay Robinson, Carrie Fisher, George Furth, Luana Anders.
Cinematography László Kovács
Production Designer Richard Sylbert
Art Direction W. Stewart Campbell
Film Editor Robert C. Jones
Original Music Paul Simon
Written by Robert Towne and Warren Beatty
Produced by Warren Beatty
Directed by Hal Ashby
Mr. Pettis, banker: “What kind of references do you have?”
George Roundy: “I do Barbara Rush.
Shampoo
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 947
1975 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 110 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 18, 2018 / 39.95
Starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Tony Bill, George Furth, Jay Robinson, Carrie Fisher, George Furth, Luana Anders.
Cinematography László Kovács
Production Designer Richard Sylbert
Art Direction W. Stewart Campbell
Film Editor Robert C. Jones
Original Music Paul Simon
Written by Robert Towne and Warren Beatty
Produced by Warren Beatty
Directed by Hal Ashby
Mr. Pettis, banker: “What kind of references do you have?”
George Roundy: “I do Barbara Rush.
- 10/16/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
"Designing a film is like painting a landscape in a hurricane," said the late, great production designer Richard Sylbert (Shampoo, Chinatown) — and whether one is seeking to weather that creative storm as a production designer, art director or set decorator, a B.A. or Mfa with an emphasis on production design can give a leg up.
Says Longmire production designer and Art Directors Guild production design co-chair Thomas A. Walsh, "While only two schools provide true, pure production design programs" — AFI and Chapman Dodge — many aspirants find their way via theater arts. "There is no ...
Says Longmire production designer and Art Directors Guild production design co-chair Thomas A. Walsh, "While only two schools provide true, pure production design programs" — AFI and Chapman Dodge — many aspirants find their way via theater arts. "There is no ...
- 10/5/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
"Designing a film is like painting a landscape in a hurricane," said the late, great production designer Richard Sylbert (Shampoo, Chinatown) — and whether one is seeking to weather that creative storm as a production designer, art director or set decorator, a B.A. or Mfa with an emphasis on production design can give a leg up.
Says Longmire production designer and Art Directors Guild production design co-chair Thomas A. Walsh, "While only two schools provide true, pure production design programs" — AFI and Chapman Dodge — many aspirants find their way via theater arts. "There is no ...
Says Longmire production designer and Art Directors Guild production design co-chair Thomas A. Walsh, "While only two schools provide true, pure production design programs" — AFI and Chapman Dodge — many aspirants find their way via theater arts. "There is no ...
- 10/5/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
‘The Post’: Director Steven Spielberg Turned His Journalism Thriller into a Film Production Metaphor
The convergence of the micro and macro worlds of politics and journalism in “The Post” most appealed to two-time Oscar-winning production designer Carter (“Lincoln,” “Avatar”). The entry point of Liz Hannah’s script was Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) finding her voice at 54 as the new publisher of The Washington Post with the landmark publication of “The Pentagon Papers” in 1971. Director Steven Spielberg added the social context of journalists having a vital voice in search of the truth with the help of Hannah and scribe Josh Singer (“Spotlight”).
“I think that when Liz grasped the idea of Kay’s rite of passage as a road map for the rest of her life beyond raising children that she was onto something that certainly was significant,” said Carter. “So then, for me, there’s the intimate side of Juliet and Romeo being the Kay Graham and Ben Bradlee [Tom Hanks] platonic love story, where their...
“I think that when Liz grasped the idea of Kay’s rite of passage as a road map for the rest of her life beyond raising children that she was onto something that certainly was significant,” said Carter. “So then, for me, there’s the intimate side of Juliet and Romeo being the Kay Graham and Ben Bradlee [Tom Hanks] platonic love story, where their...
- 12/15/2017
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Joel Schiller, the respected production designer and art director known for his work on such films as Rosemary's Baby, Murphy's Romance and The Muppet Movie, has died. He was 86.
Schiller died Jan. 17 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his friend of 40 years, Al Heintzelman, told The Hollywood Reporter. His death had not been previously reported.
A skilled painter who studied with John Groth and William de Kooning, Schiller served as assistant production designer under the legendary Richard Sylbert on The Graduate (1967), where he created the conceptual fish-bowl environment for Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock.
Schiller then...
Schiller died Jan. 17 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his friend of 40 years, Al Heintzelman, told The Hollywood Reporter. His death had not been previously reported.
A skilled painter who studied with John Groth and William de Kooning, Schiller served as assistant production designer under the legendary Richard Sylbert on The Graduate (1967), where he created the conceptual fish-bowl environment for Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock.
Schiller then...
- 9/19/2017
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Production designer and art director Paul Sylbert, who won an Academy Award for “Heaven Can Wait,” has died. He was 88. Sylbert died Saturday in a hospital near his home in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, producer Hawk Koch announced. Also Read: 'Star Wars' Actor Peter Sumner Dies at 74 In addition to “Heaven Can Wait” (1978), Sylbert also received an Oscar nomination for designing Barbra Streisand’s “The Prince of Tides” (1991). Sylbert had recently served on the faculty of the Film & Media Arts Department at Temple University in Philadelphia. He and his twin brother, the late Richard Sylbert who won Oscars for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?...
- 11/24/2016
- by Umberto Gonzalez
- The Wrap
Paul Sylbert, the famed production designer and art director who worked on the best picture Oscar winners One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Kramer vs. Kramer and won an Academy Award for Heaven Can Wait, has died. He was 88.
Sylbert died Saturday in a hospital near his home in Jenkintown, Pa., producer Hawk Koch announced. Recently, Sylbert had served on the faculty of the Film & Media Arts Department at Temple University in Philadelphia.
He and his twin brother, the late Richard Sylbert (he won Oscars for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Dick Tracy), were two of the...
Sylbert died Saturday in a hospital near his home in Jenkintown, Pa., producer Hawk Koch announced. Recently, Sylbert had served on the faculty of the Film & Media Arts Department at Temple University in Philadelphia.
He and his twin brother, the late Richard Sylbert (he won Oscars for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Dick Tracy), were two of the...
- 11/24/2016
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Is this Rod Serling's best teleplay ever? Van Heflin, Everett Sloane and Ed Begley are at the center of a business power squeeze. Is it all about staying competitive, or is it corporate murder? With terrific early performances from Elizabeth Wilson and Beatrice Straight. Patterns Blu-ray The Film Detective 1956 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 83 min. / Street Date September 27, 2016 / 14.99 Starring Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley, Beatrice Straight, Elizabeth Wilson, Joanna Roos, Valerie Cossart, Eleni Kiamos, Ronnie Welsh, Shirley Standlee, Andrew Duggan, Jack Livesy, John Seymour, James Kelly, John Shelly, Victor Harrison, Sally Gracie, Sally Chamberlin, Edward Binns, Lauren Bacall, Ethel Britton, Michael Dreyfuss, Elaine Kaye, Adrienne Moore. Cinematography Boris Kaufman Film Editors Dave Kummis, Carl Lerner Art Direction Richard Sylbert Assistant Director Charles Maguire Written by Rod Serling Produced by Michael Myerberg Directed by Fielder Cook
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Let me roll off the titles of some 'fifties 'organization...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Let me roll off the titles of some 'fifties 'organization...
- 9/20/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“You are cordially invited to George and Martha’s for an evening of fun and games”
Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966) screens this Friday through Sunday (July 15th-17th) at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood, Webster Groves, Mo 63119). The film begins each evening at 8:00.
Director Mike Nichol’s Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? a famous and shocking black comedy from 1966, is based on Edward Albee’s scandalous play of the same name. First performed in New York in October of 1962, it captured the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Tony Award for the 1962-63 season.
We are introduced to George (Richard Burton), a middle-aged history professor, and his acerbic wife, Martha (Elizabeth Taylor).The movie presents an all-night drinking bout of the couple, joined by a vacuous biology professor, Nick (George Seagal), and his wife, Honey (Sandy Dennis).Through the verbal torturing of one another,...
Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966) screens this Friday through Sunday (July 15th-17th) at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood, Webster Groves, Mo 63119). The film begins each evening at 8:00.
Director Mike Nichol’s Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? a famous and shocking black comedy from 1966, is based on Edward Albee’s scandalous play of the same name. First performed in New York in October of 1962, it captured the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Tony Award for the 1962-63 season.
We are introduced to George (Richard Burton), a middle-aged history professor, and his acerbic wife, Martha (Elizabeth Taylor).The movie presents an all-night drinking bout of the couple, joined by a vacuous biology professor, Nick (George Seagal), and his wife, Honey (Sandy Dennis).Through the verbal torturing of one another,...
- 7/11/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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The Dick Tracy movie was a defining summer blockbuster, yet somehow never got a sequel. Here's why...
Make no mistake, the 1990 Dick Tracy movie was intended to be the next Batman. That's amusing when you consider how much of a debt Batman comics owed the grotesque rogues' gallery of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy comic strips. But from a box-office perspective, this is where things stood as we headed into the summer of 1990. And as surely as Batman launched a franchise that has continued (in some form or another) for 25-plus years, so too did Disney have ambitions for Dick Tracy 2.
Just as Bat-merchandise had begun to flood shelves in early spring of 1989, so did Dick Tracy trading cards, bubble gum, a remarkably ugly (but strangely appealing) line of action figures from Playmates (who ruled the world at that moment with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license), making-of books, and (best of all) new reprints of the original daily and Sunday comic strips. That's a fairly optimistic program of licensing, and that doesn't even include the T-shirts, bath towels, and other novelties that followed.
The Batman similarities even extended to the minimalist movie posters, which featured an outline of Warren Beatty in primary-coloured profile, or speaking into a two-way wrist radio promising "I'm on my way." Disney's marketing department perhaps overestimated the recognisability and mass market appeal of the character, who hadn't been seen in live-action since the mid-50s, and who last actually made it to television in any form as part of a poorly-animated (and horrifically racist) Saturday morning cartoon in the '60s. Batman, on the other hand, was still an indelible pop culture icon, thanks in no small part to the inescapable presence of the Adam West TV series in syndication throughout the decade.
After Tim Burton's star-studded Batman dominated the summer of 1989 with a $250 million American haul (over $400 million worldwide), and since Dick Tracy had similar elements (top drawer celebrities in ridiculous makeup, remarkable set design, the biggest pop star of the era providing a soundtrack), studio expectations were probably stratospheric. Instead, Dick Tracy finished its theatrical run with a far more modest $162 million worldwide. While still a hefty profit over the film's $47 million budget, those certainly weren't Batman numbers, and brightly colored Dick Tracy merchandise stayed on shelves well past its Christmas 1990 sell by date.
Batmania, this wasn't. In the aftermath of the film's box office, Disney's Jeffrey Katzenberg would pen his infamous 1991 memo (which in turn inspired the film Jerry Maguire, many years later).
Dick Tracy did, however, manage to win three Oscars (two more than Batman), well-deserved ones for makeup and art direction, and a less surefire one for the Stephen Sondheim-penned and Madonna sung 'I Always Get My Man'. Even that is less puzzling than the Best Supporting Actor nomination for Al Pacino, whose slide into shouty, slouchy self-parody can perhaps be traced directly to his role as Alphonse 'Big Boy' Caprice in this film.
Dick Tracy received a somewhat less enthusiastic critical reception as well, and it's easy to see why. Despite Richard Sylbert's eye-popping and perfectly comic strip visuals, the film is remarkably thin on story, full of lifeless characters painted broadly even by blockbuster standards, and makes little use of the world's most enduring creations, the villains, virtually all of whom end up full of lead or otherwise dispatched by the film's end.
With all of the above in mind, it's almost no wonder that Dick Tracy 2 was an impossibility. Setting aside the fact that the novelty of seeing so many of the iconic villains on screen at once (William Forsythe's Flattop was a particularly memorable creation), trying to duplicate the almost absurd parade of talent on display under the makeup (including Dustin Hoffman as well as gangster movie luminaries James Caan and Paul Sorvino) for a sequel would have been a fool's errand.
But it's nothing so simple as story or economics that have kept Dick Tracy in the pen. After all, Hollywood has mounted franchise attempts no less Quixotic for lesser films, and it's surprising that there hasn't been any reboot traction for the property, either. That's because, as usual, you can blame lawyers.
Warren Beatty first acquired the rights to Dick Tracy from comic strip publishers Tribune Media in 1985. At some point, these rights were supposed to revert to Tribune if no new Tracy projects were forthcoming from Beatty, as long as they requested them via some legal gymnastics and a two-year notification process (that window would allow Warren Beatty enough time to make another Dick Tracy movie before handing the character over).
Tribune tried to make this happen in 2002, but for legal reasons that I'm not qualified to understand let alone write about, their claim was rejected after Beatty filed a suit indicating that the proper procedures weren't followed, the two-year window wasn't respected, and he still had plans to make a sequel. The case was resolved in his favour. Since then, Beatty has retained the rights, presumably with the same two-year window in place to allow him to make another movie should Tribune come knocking.
That three-year period, from when Tribune tried to exercise their claim on the Dick Tracy rights to when the suit was resolved, still doesn't account for the decade since then. At the time, Mr. Beatty claimed that Tribune's attempt to get the rights back made progress on his own Dick Tracy sequel "impossible." But considering that Beatty has never been known as the most prolific filmmaker or actor, moving at a deliberate pace with all of his projects, the fact that Dick Tracy 2 never materialised shouldn't surprise anyone.
But there always seem to be plans afoot for more...
Periodically, Warren Beatty makes some noises about his intention to make Dick Tracy 2, although I suspect this is posturing to allow him to hold on to the rights. I did reach out to representatives for Beatty to see if he'd be willing to offer some comment on this, but as of this writing, nobody has responded.
“I’m gonna make another one," Mr. Beatty told a crowd at the Hero Complex Festival in 2011. “I think it’s dumb talking about movies before you make them. I just don’t do it. It gives you the perfect excuse to avoid making them.” This was probably a self-directed jab at the fact that he hasn't made a movie since 2001, but as with many things related to this project, I have to wonder if occasionally expressing a public desire to make Dick Tracy 2 is all that stands between Beatty and another battle with Tribune.
In a strange maneuvre that was simply a required flexing of creative muscle to satisfy some minimum legal requirement, Beatty even donned the yellow overcoat and fedora in 2011 for the Dick Tracy Special. Beatty appears in character as Dick Tracy to give an interview with film critic Leonard Maltin, where he, as Tracy, refers to Warren Beatty...the actor who played him. "He was no Ralph Byrd or even Morgan Conway," Beatty/Tracy cracks, referencing two classic live-action Dicks from the '30s and '40s, "but I have to admit he looked remarkably like me."
No, really. See for yourself:
More recently, Beatty still made some noises about his plans to make Dick Tracy 2. This seems as unlikely now as it did five years ago.
The lawsuit that allowed Beatty to retain control of the Dick Tracy rights may have also scuttled all plans to revive the character in other media. In 2005, Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, along with Bobby Newmyer and Scott Strauss, struck a deal with Tribune to develop a live-action Dick Tracy TV series, which would have brought the famed detective into the present day. More powerful than tommy guns, a team of lawyers put a stop to that before it got off the ground.
Reportedly, these same legal issues even put the brakes on a plan by Powers creators Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming to kick off a new Dick Tracy comic book series (it's tough to imagine a more perfect creative team for that). In other words, the same thing that kept Dick Tracy 2 from happening, has also essentially retired the detective from any and all potential new adventures. So, not only will we never see a sequel to the 1990 film (which is probably for the best), but the prospects of seeing the iconic detective again in any new adventures appear increasingly dim.
However, for those devoted fans of the movie, there are other ways to immerse yourself in the film's continuity, all of which can be considered 'official' extensions of the story...
In the lead up to the film's release, three prestige format comics were released, written by John Francis Moore with wonderful art by the always brilliant Kyle Baker. The first two of these ("Big City Blues" and "Dick Tracy vs. The Underworld") are adventures that take place before the events of the movie, while the third adapts the film. You can usually find the collected edition, Dick Tracy: The Complete True Hearts and Tommy Guns on the cheap at comic conventions.
Dick Tracy: True Hearts and Tommy Guns is absolutely worth your time if you're a fan of the movie or of the character in general. Kyle Baker's art is always a treat, but he captures the larger than life flavour of the movie on these pages as well as the horrific nature of the villains in a way that the sometimes rubbery makeup of the film simply didn't. The over-the-top cartoon violence of the films is a little bloodier and more impactful here, particularly the original tales in the first two chapters. Interestingly enough, these were the first Dick Tracy comics to feature original material to arrive in thirty years, and now, twenty-five years later, they're still the only ones since 1961 (reprints of the comic strips, however, are in good health thanks to Idw Publishing, as are the comic strips themelves...published by Tribune).
For that matter, the Dick Tracy novelisation by Max Allan Collins is also well worth seeking out. Collins, an experienced crime fiction writer who also had the distinct honour of writing Dick Tracy's comic strip adventures for 15 years after creator Chester Gould retired, brought a more authentic voice to the proceedings. Without the over the top visuals of the film, the book feels decidedly more violent (particularly the opening description of the St. Valentine's Day style massacre that begins the movie), and closer to the character's crime solving roots than what got put on screen. Warren Beatty was so impressed with Collins' flourishes that some of the dialogue from the novel was later added to the finished film.Collins also wrote two novels which can be considered 'official' sequels to the films. Dick Tracy Goes to War was published in 1990, within months of the movie's release, and was followed in 1991 by Dick Tracy Meets his Match. Another prose collection, Dick Tracy: The Secret Files was released to cash in on that year's Tracymania and was edited by Collins, but doesn't share any continuity with the film. But in short, if you want some kind of official "Dick Tracy movie universe," start with True Hearts and Tommy Guns and follow straight through with the Collins novels.
It'll have to do...because Dick Tracy is most assuredly not on his way.
This article originally ran on June 15th, 2015. It has been lightly updated with some new information. Movies Feature Mike Cecchini dick tracy 15 Jun 2016 - 16:22 Dick Tracy 2 Warren Beatty...
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The Dick Tracy movie was a defining summer blockbuster, yet somehow never got a sequel. Here's why...
Make no mistake, the 1990 Dick Tracy movie was intended to be the next Batman. That's amusing when you consider how much of a debt Batman comics owed the grotesque rogues' gallery of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy comic strips. But from a box-office perspective, this is where things stood as we headed into the summer of 1990. And as surely as Batman launched a franchise that has continued (in some form or another) for 25-plus years, so too did Disney have ambitions for Dick Tracy 2.
Just as Bat-merchandise had begun to flood shelves in early spring of 1989, so did Dick Tracy trading cards, bubble gum, a remarkably ugly (but strangely appealing) line of action figures from Playmates (who ruled the world at that moment with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license), making-of books, and (best of all) new reprints of the original daily and Sunday comic strips. That's a fairly optimistic program of licensing, and that doesn't even include the T-shirts, bath towels, and other novelties that followed.
The Batman similarities even extended to the minimalist movie posters, which featured an outline of Warren Beatty in primary-coloured profile, or speaking into a two-way wrist radio promising "I'm on my way." Disney's marketing department perhaps overestimated the recognisability and mass market appeal of the character, who hadn't been seen in live-action since the mid-50s, and who last actually made it to television in any form as part of a poorly-animated (and horrifically racist) Saturday morning cartoon in the '60s. Batman, on the other hand, was still an indelible pop culture icon, thanks in no small part to the inescapable presence of the Adam West TV series in syndication throughout the decade.
After Tim Burton's star-studded Batman dominated the summer of 1989 with a $250 million American haul (over $400 million worldwide), and since Dick Tracy had similar elements (top drawer celebrities in ridiculous makeup, remarkable set design, the biggest pop star of the era providing a soundtrack), studio expectations were probably stratospheric. Instead, Dick Tracy finished its theatrical run with a far more modest $162 million worldwide. While still a hefty profit over the film's $47 million budget, those certainly weren't Batman numbers, and brightly colored Dick Tracy merchandise stayed on shelves well past its Christmas 1990 sell by date.
Batmania, this wasn't. In the aftermath of the film's box office, Disney's Jeffrey Katzenberg would pen his infamous 1991 memo (which in turn inspired the film Jerry Maguire, many years later).
Dick Tracy did, however, manage to win three Oscars (two more than Batman), well-deserved ones for makeup and art direction, and a less surefire one for the Stephen Sondheim-penned and Madonna sung 'I Always Get My Man'. Even that is less puzzling than the Best Supporting Actor nomination for Al Pacino, whose slide into shouty, slouchy self-parody can perhaps be traced directly to his role as Alphonse 'Big Boy' Caprice in this film.
Dick Tracy received a somewhat less enthusiastic critical reception as well, and it's easy to see why. Despite Richard Sylbert's eye-popping and perfectly comic strip visuals, the film is remarkably thin on story, full of lifeless characters painted broadly even by blockbuster standards, and makes little use of the world's most enduring creations, the villains, virtually all of whom end up full of lead or otherwise dispatched by the film's end.
With all of the above in mind, it's almost no wonder that Dick Tracy 2 was an impossibility. Setting aside the fact that the novelty of seeing so many of the iconic villains on screen at once (William Forsythe's Flattop was a particularly memorable creation), trying to duplicate the almost absurd parade of talent on display under the makeup (including Dustin Hoffman as well as gangster movie luminaries James Caan and Paul Sorvino) for a sequel would have been a fool's errand.
But it's nothing so simple as story or economics that have kept Dick Tracy in the pen. After all, Hollywood has mounted franchise attempts no less Quixotic for lesser films, and it's surprising that there hasn't been any reboot traction for the property, either. That's because, as usual, you can blame lawyers.
Warren Beatty first acquired the rights to Dick Tracy from comic strip publishers Tribune Media in 1985. At some point, these rights were supposed to revert to Tribune if no new Tracy projects were forthcoming from Beatty, as long as they requested them via some legal gymnastics and a two-year notification process (that window would allow Warren Beatty enough time to make another Dick Tracy movie before handing the character over).
Tribune tried to make this happen in 2002, but for legal reasons that I'm not qualified to understand let alone write about, their claim was rejected after Beatty filed a suit indicating that the proper procedures weren't followed, the two-year window wasn't respected, and he still had plans to make a sequel. The case was resolved in his favour. Since then, Beatty has retained the rights, presumably with the same two-year window in place to allow him to make another movie should Tribune come knocking.
That three-year period, from when Tribune tried to exercise their claim on the Dick Tracy rights to when the suit was resolved, still doesn't account for the decade since then. At the time, Mr. Beatty claimed that Tribune's attempt to get the rights back made progress on his own Dick Tracy sequel "impossible." But considering that Beatty has never been known as the most prolific filmmaker or actor, moving at a deliberate pace with all of his projects, the fact that Dick Tracy 2 never materialised shouldn't surprise anyone.
But there always seem to be plans afoot for more...
Periodically, Warren Beatty makes some noises about his intention to make Dick Tracy 2, although I suspect this is posturing to allow him to hold on to the rights. I did reach out to representatives for Beatty to see if he'd be willing to offer some comment on this, but as of this writing, nobody has responded.
“I’m gonna make another one," Mr. Beatty told a crowd at the Hero Complex Festival in 2011. “I think it’s dumb talking about movies before you make them. I just don’t do it. It gives you the perfect excuse to avoid making them.” This was probably a self-directed jab at the fact that he hasn't made a movie since 2001, but as with many things related to this project, I have to wonder if occasionally expressing a public desire to make Dick Tracy 2 is all that stands between Beatty and another battle with Tribune.
In a strange maneuvre that was simply a required flexing of creative muscle to satisfy some minimum legal requirement, Beatty even donned the yellow overcoat and fedora in 2011 for the Dick Tracy Special. Beatty appears in character as Dick Tracy to give an interview with film critic Leonard Maltin, where he, as Tracy, refers to Warren Beatty...the actor who played him. "He was no Ralph Byrd or even Morgan Conway," Beatty/Tracy cracks, referencing two classic live-action Dicks from the '30s and '40s, "but I have to admit he looked remarkably like me."
No, really. See for yourself:
More recently, Beatty still made some noises about his plans to make Dick Tracy 2. This seems as unlikely now as it did five years ago.
The lawsuit that allowed Beatty to retain control of the Dick Tracy rights may have also scuttled all plans to revive the character in other media. In 2005, Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, along with Bobby Newmyer and Scott Strauss, struck a deal with Tribune to develop a live-action Dick Tracy TV series, which would have brought the famed detective into the present day. More powerful than tommy guns, a team of lawyers put a stop to that before it got off the ground.
Reportedly, these same legal issues even put the brakes on a plan by Powers creators Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming to kick off a new Dick Tracy comic book series (it's tough to imagine a more perfect creative team for that). In other words, the same thing that kept Dick Tracy 2 from happening, has also essentially retired the detective from any and all potential new adventures. So, not only will we never see a sequel to the 1990 film (which is probably for the best), but the prospects of seeing the iconic detective again in any new adventures appear increasingly dim.
However, for those devoted fans of the movie, there are other ways to immerse yourself in the film's continuity, all of which can be considered 'official' extensions of the story...
In the lead up to the film's release, three prestige format comics were released, written by John Francis Moore with wonderful art by the always brilliant Kyle Baker. The first two of these ("Big City Blues" and "Dick Tracy vs. The Underworld") are adventures that take place before the events of the movie, while the third adapts the film. You can usually find the collected edition, Dick Tracy: The Complete True Hearts and Tommy Guns on the cheap at comic conventions.
Dick Tracy: True Hearts and Tommy Guns is absolutely worth your time if you're a fan of the movie or of the character in general. Kyle Baker's art is always a treat, but he captures the larger than life flavour of the movie on these pages as well as the horrific nature of the villains in a way that the sometimes rubbery makeup of the film simply didn't. The over-the-top cartoon violence of the films is a little bloodier and more impactful here, particularly the original tales in the first two chapters. Interestingly enough, these were the first Dick Tracy comics to feature original material to arrive in thirty years, and now, twenty-five years later, they're still the only ones since 1961 (reprints of the comic strips, however, are in good health thanks to Idw Publishing, as are the comic strips themelves...published by Tribune).
For that matter, the Dick Tracy novelisation by Max Allan Collins is also well worth seeking out. Collins, an experienced crime fiction writer who also had the distinct honour of writing Dick Tracy's comic strip adventures for 15 years after creator Chester Gould retired, brought a more authentic voice to the proceedings. Without the over the top visuals of the film, the book feels decidedly more violent (particularly the opening description of the St. Valentine's Day style massacre that begins the movie), and closer to the character's crime solving roots than what got put on screen. Warren Beatty was so impressed with Collins' flourishes that some of the dialogue from the novel was later added to the finished film.Collins also wrote two novels which can be considered 'official' sequels to the films. Dick Tracy Goes to War was published in 1990, within months of the movie's release, and was followed in 1991 by Dick Tracy Meets his Match. Another prose collection, Dick Tracy: The Secret Files was released to cash in on that year's Tracymania and was edited by Collins, but doesn't share any continuity with the film. But in short, if you want some kind of official "Dick Tracy movie universe," start with True Hearts and Tommy Guns and follow straight through with the Collins novels.
It'll have to do...because Dick Tracy is most assuredly not on his way.
This article originally ran on June 15th, 2015. It has been lightly updated with some new information. Movies Feature Mike Cecchini dick tracy 15 Jun 2016 - 16:22 Dick Tracy 2 Warren Beatty...
- 6/15/2016
- Den of Geek
It's the classic paranoid conspiracy that won't go away... and that seems less impossible with every passing year. Laurence Harvey is a remote-controlled assassin, and Frank Sinatra seems to be under a little hypnotic influence himself... or are we just imagining it? John Frankenheimer and George Axelrod concoct a masterpiece from the novel by Richard Condon, a movie about conspiracies, that may be hiding more secrets in plain sight. The Manchurian Candidate Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 803 1962 / B&W / 1:75 widescreen / 126 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 15, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish, John McGiver, Khigh Dhiegh Cinematography Lionel Lindon Production Designer Richard Sylbert Film Editor Ferris Webster Original Music David Amram Written by George Axelrod from the novel by Richard Condon Produced by George Axelrod, John Frankenheimer, Howard W. Koch Directed by John Frankenheimer
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
- 3/22/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
What can you say to such success? Mike Nichols and Buck Henry's sex satire defined 'the generation gap' for the sixties. Dustin Hoffman sprang forward from obscurity and Katharine Ross was the object of California desire. Anne Bancroft's Mrs. Robinson freed the image of the 'complicated woman' from the clutches of the Production Code Stone Age. The broad comedy scores with every joke, and there's a truth beneath all the odd things that ought not to work. The Graduate Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 800 1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 106 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 23, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, Murray Hamilton, Elizabeth Wilson, Buck Henry, Brian Avery, Walter Brooke, Norman Fell, Alice Ghostley, Marion Lorne, Eddra Gale, Richard Dreyfuss, Mike Farrell, Elisabeth Fraser, Donald F. Glut, Elaine May, Lainie Miller, Ben Murphy. Cinematography Robert Surtees Film Editor Sam O'Steen Production Design Richard Sylbert...
- 2/27/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Audubon Society battles plumage poachers in the Everglades, circa 1900. Legendary director Nicholas Ray suffered an on-location meltdown filming this early ecologically sensitive epic, but the finished product is still one of his better pictures. Burl Ives, Christopher Plummer and Chana Eden give top 'Ray' performances. The eccentric supporting cast includes Peter Falk, boxer Two-Ton Tony Galento and none other than the real Gypsy Rose Lee. Wind Across the Everglades DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1958 / Color / 1:85 enhanced widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date October 6 2015, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Burl Ives, Christopher Plummer, Gypsy Rose Lee, George Voskovec, Tony Galento, Howard Smith, Emmett Kelly, Pat Henning, Chana Eden, Curt Conway, Peter Falk, Sammy Renick, Cory Osceola, MacKinlay Kantor, Totch Brown, George Voskovec, Sumner Williams. Cinematography Joseph Brun Film Editor Georges Klotz, Joseph Zigman Art Direction Richard Sylbert Original Music Paul Sawtell & Bert Shefter Written by Budd Schulberg Produced by Stuart Schulberg...
- 1/19/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In the summer of 1990, Warren Beatty’s labor-of-love, Dick Tracy, became a surprise commercial hit, earned acclaim for its visuals and technical artistry, and went on to win a number of high-profile awards. Its cast was bursting with stars and beloved character actors. So why, 25 years on, does it feel so forgotten?
Certainly, director-producer-star Beatty created a visual masterpiece and proved that “style over substance” isn’t always a bad thing. The design team was limited to the seven colors available to comic strip creator Chester Gould, and the movie reproduces that vivid look as faithfully as any live-action film could. From the spectacular flight across the twilit city that appears under the opening credits, it’s clear that Dick Tracy is something different.
Moments later, Gould’s trademark Rogues’ Gallery villains make their first appearance, brought to life by the makeup of John Caglione, Jr. and Doug Drexler, who...
Certainly, director-producer-star Beatty created a visual masterpiece and proved that “style over substance” isn’t always a bad thing. The design team was limited to the seven colors available to comic strip creator Chester Gould, and the movie reproduces that vivid look as faithfully as any live-action film could. From the spectacular flight across the twilit city that appears under the opening credits, it’s clear that Dick Tracy is something different.
Moments later, Gould’s trademark Rogues’ Gallery villains make their first appearance, brought to life by the makeup of John Caglione, Jr. and Doug Drexler, who...
- 12/15/2015
- by M. Robert Grunwald
- SoundOnSight
In the summer of 1990, Warren Beatty’s labor-of-love, Dick Tracy, became a surprise commercial hit, earned acclaim for its visuals and technical artistry, and went on to win a number of high-profile awards. Its cast was bursting with stars and beloved character actors. So why, 25 years on, does it feel so forgotten?
Certainly, director-producer-star Beatty created a visual masterpiece and proved that “style over substance” isn’t always a bad thing. The design team was limited to the seven colors available to comic strip creator Chester Gould, and the movie reproduces that vivid look as faithfully as any live-action film could. From the spectacular flight across the twilit city that appears under the opening credits, it’s clear that Dick Tracy is something different.
Moments later, Gould’s trademark Rogues’ Gallery villains make their first appearance, brought to life by the makeup of John Caglione, Jr. and Doug Drexler, who...
Certainly, director-producer-star Beatty created a visual masterpiece and proved that “style over substance” isn’t always a bad thing. The design team was limited to the seven colors available to comic strip creator Chester Gould, and the movie reproduces that vivid look as faithfully as any live-action film could. From the spectacular flight across the twilit city that appears under the opening credits, it’s clear that Dick Tracy is something different.
Moments later, Gould’s trademark Rogues’ Gallery villains make their first appearance, brought to life by the makeup of John Caglione, Jr. and Doug Drexler, who...
- 12/12/2015
- by M. Robert Grunwald
- SoundOnSight
John Huston sets the bar for director-driven quality filmmaking of the early 1970s. Stacy Keach is a punchy boxing bum who teams up with the ambitious newcomer Jeff Bridges; the glowing discovery is the amazing Susan Tyrell, film history's most convincingly caustic floozy-alcoholic, bar none. Her voice can peel paint, but we love her dearly. Fat City Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date September 8, 2015 / available through the Twilight Time Movies / 20.95 Starring Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell, Candy Clark, Nicholas Colasanto, Art Aragon, Curtis Cokes, Sixto Rodriguez Cinematography Conrad L. Hall Production Designer Richard Sylbert Film Editor Walter Thompson Original Music Kris Kristofferson, Marvin Hamlisch (supervisor) Written by Leonard Gardner from his novel <Produced by John Huston, Ray Stark Directed by John Huston
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
This rewarding show is a fine opportunity to catch up on two great talents, John Huston and Stacy Keach.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
This rewarding show is a fine opportunity to catch up on two great talents, John Huston and Stacy Keach.
- 9/22/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Long before the comic book boom of the 21st Century, Hollywood's handling of heroes drawn from the funny pages was a touch and go enterprise. More at home in the serials era of the 40s and 50s, that iconography leaked out onto the big screen in only drips and drabs, a "Superman" here, a "Batman" there. And indeed, a year after Tim Burton brought the latter to unique Gothic heights in 1989, Warren Beatty brought another flesh and blood crime fighter to the big screen with bold expressionistic strokes. Today, "Dick Tracy" stands out as a hand-crafted wonder. Beatty's team was jammed with talent, and it needed to be, for this was an exercise in placing the viewer in a world only slightly familiar. Its extremes — and there were many — were a direct extension of design techniques and flourishes. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography,...
- 6/15/2015
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
Mike Cecchini Jun 15, 2019
The Dick Tracy movie was a defining summer blockbuster, yet somehow never got a sequel. And it probably never will.
Make no mistake, the 1990 Dick Tracy movie was intended to be the next Batman. That's amusing when you consider how much of a debt Batman comics owed the grotesque rogues' gallery of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy comic strips. But from a box-office perspective, this is where things stood as we headed into the summer of 1990. And just as surely as Batman launched a franchise that has continued (in some form or another) for 30 years, so too did Disney have ambitions for Dick Tracy 2.
Just as Bat-merchandise had begun to flood shelves in early spring of 1989, so did Dick Tracy trading cards, bubble gum, a remarkably ugly (but strangely appealing) line of action figures from Playmates (who ruled the world at that moment with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license), making-of books,...
The Dick Tracy movie was a defining summer blockbuster, yet somehow never got a sequel. And it probably never will.
Make no mistake, the 1990 Dick Tracy movie was intended to be the next Batman. That's amusing when you consider how much of a debt Batman comics owed the grotesque rogues' gallery of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy comic strips. But from a box-office perspective, this is where things stood as we headed into the summer of 1990. And just as surely as Batman launched a franchise that has continued (in some form or another) for 30 years, so too did Disney have ambitions for Dick Tracy 2.
Just as Bat-merchandise had begun to flood shelves in early spring of 1989, so did Dick Tracy trading cards, bubble gum, a remarkably ugly (but strangely appealing) line of action figures from Playmates (who ruled the world at that moment with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license), making-of books,...
- 6/13/2015
- Den of Geek
A preview of Clothes on Film editor Christopher Laverty’s article on the vibrant costume design of Dick Tracy for Arts Illustrated magazine.
Truly unique, Dick Tracy is as close to a comic strip brought to life as any film before or since. This was director and star Warren Beatty’s goal; not to interpret the comic, but to paint it directly onto a cinematic canvas. He achieved this by embracing the superficial qualities of the painted page, the bright colours, exaggerated structures, madcap caricatures, and placing them front and centre. Dick Tracy is an all knowing pantomime.
The original Dick Tracy comic strip first published in the United States in 1931, to which Beatty was and remains a huge a fan, was drawn using a then characteristic palette of four or five primary colours. Beatty endeavoured to recreate this template for the big screen, although some exceptions were made, particularly with costume design.
Truly unique, Dick Tracy is as close to a comic strip brought to life as any film before or since. This was director and star Warren Beatty’s goal; not to interpret the comic, but to paint it directly onto a cinematic canvas. He achieved this by embracing the superficial qualities of the painted page, the bright colours, exaggerated structures, madcap caricatures, and placing them front and centre. Dick Tracy is an all knowing pantomime.
The original Dick Tracy comic strip first published in the United States in 1931, to which Beatty was and remains a huge a fan, was drawn using a then characteristic palette of four or five primary colours. Beatty endeavoured to recreate this template for the big screen, although some exceptions were made, particularly with costume design.
- 2/27/2015
- by Lord Christopher Laverty
- Clothes on Film
Today, comic book fans may recall Warren Beatty’s adaptation of Dick Tracy as a memorable misfire. When it was released in 1990, it was met with, at best, mixed reviews and while it performed respectably at the box office, missed Walt Disney’s estimates so the hoped for franchise was stillborn. Blame could be squarely placed at Beatty’s feet since he had a strangle hold on the film as its director, producer, and star. It got so crazy that poor Kyle Baker had to use only three approved head shots for the 64-page comics adaptation, which stretched even his considerable skills.
We have a great opportunity to reconsider this film now that Disney is releasing it tomorrow on Blu-ray. One of the things about the production is that Beatty wanted to recreate Chester Gould’s strip as faithfully as possible, which meant he limited the color palette to a mere seven colors,...
We have a great opportunity to reconsider this film now that Disney is releasing it tomorrow on Blu-ray. One of the things about the production is that Beatty wanted to recreate Chester Gould’s strip as faithfully as possible, which meant he limited the color palette to a mere seven colors,...
- 12/10/2012
- by Robert Greenberger
- Comicmix.com
“He died in my arms,” Native American poet my Facebook friend Sharmagne just told me, recalling husband Richard Sylbert's passing on March 23, 2002. Dick Sylbert was the Oscar-winning production designer and art director who won for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf “and “Dick Tracy” and had garnered five nominations. Sharmagne, author of “La Kalima,” produced a star-studded tribute for the late designer. "Bob Evans was in the middle of a press screening for his latest film, "The Kid Stays in the Picture" and took a break to speak. Ed Begley Jr. turned down work to be the...
- 8/15/2011
- by Carole Mallory
- The Wrap
There was some discussion recently on Dan Carlson's review of Toy Story 3 (2010) regarding the role of the critic and the personal preference baggage he or she brings to a film when reviewing it. Film reviews, by their nature as being based on informed opinion, have been and will always be subjective. This is a reflection of the text being analyzed; evaluating a film is not the same as grading a multiple choice test with concrete answers. As film critic Pauline Kael once wrote, "Criticism is an art, not a science, and a critic who follows rules will fail in one of his most important functions: perceiving what is original and important in new work and helping others to see."
Most readers of my criticism here have noted that I tend to be very self-reflexive in my writing and analysis, sometimes to the point of what could be perceived as...
Most readers of my criticism here have noted that I tend to be very self-reflexive in my writing and analysis, sometimes to the point of what could be perceived as...
- 6/22/2010
- by Drew Morton
Euan Ferguson admires an impeccable life of the Hollywood man-god who wanted total control
Headlines over the past few days have focused, predictably, on the fact that Warren Beatty has, according to this long-awaited semi-authorised biography, bedded almost 13,000 women in his life. This temporary outbreak of prurience might, at least, bring the one-time superstar to the attention of young things who've hardly heard of the man whose hits are long behind him. Dick Tracy (1990) made $100m, but there are cogent arguments that he hasn't had a truly popular hit since Heaven Can Wait in 1978. However, the focus on Beatty's sexual exploits do a reductive disservice to the book as a whole.
Peter Biskind, a former executive editor of Premiere magazine and the highly regarded author of 1998's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, one of the best books on Hollywood of the past quarter-century, never quite got official access to Beatty, but never quite didn't.
Headlines over the past few days have focused, predictably, on the fact that Warren Beatty has, according to this long-awaited semi-authorised biography, bedded almost 13,000 women in his life. This temporary outbreak of prurience might, at least, bring the one-time superstar to the attention of young things who've hardly heard of the man whose hits are long behind him. Dick Tracy (1990) made $100m, but there are cogent arguments that he hasn't had a truly popular hit since Heaven Can Wait in 1978. However, the focus on Beatty's sexual exploits do a reductive disservice to the book as a whole.
Peter Biskind, a former executive editor of Premiere magazine and the highly regarded author of 1998's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, one of the best books on Hollywood of the past quarter-century, never quite got official access to Beatty, but never quite didn't.
- 1/10/2010
- by Euan Ferguson
- The Guardian - Film News
Frankfurt, Germany -- Fifty-year production design veteran Paul Sylbert, who won an Academy Award for his work on 1978's "Heaven Can Wait," will receive the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sylbert received an additional Oscar nomination for "The Prince of Tides" (1991). Other credits include "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975), "Kramer Vs. Kramer" (1979) and "Conspiracy Theory" (1997). He wrote and directed the 1971 feature "The Steagle" and TV episodes of "The Defenders" and "The Nurses." In addition, the screenplay for "Nighthawks" (1981) was based on Sylbert's writings.
Sylbert is the identical twin brother of the late Richard Sylbert, an Oscar winner and Adg Lifetime Achievement Award recipient whose credits include "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) and "Dick Tracy" (1990).
The award will be presented at the 13th annual Adg Awards on Feb. 14 at the Beverly Hilton.
Sylbert received an additional Oscar nomination for "The Prince of Tides" (1991). Other credits include "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975), "Kramer Vs. Kramer" (1979) and "Conspiracy Theory" (1997). He wrote and directed the 1971 feature "The Steagle" and TV episodes of "The Defenders" and "The Nurses." In addition, the screenplay for "Nighthawks" (1981) was based on Sylbert's writings.
Sylbert is the identical twin brother of the late Richard Sylbert, an Oscar winner and Adg Lifetime Achievement Award recipient whose credits include "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) and "Dick Tracy" (1990).
The award will be presented at the 13th annual Adg Awards on Feb. 14 at the Beverly Hilton.
- 9/30/2008
- by By Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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