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As the format continues to gain traction, here’s our regularly-updated list of upcoming 4K Ultra HD disc releases in the UK.

Sitting alongside our list of upcoming DVD and Blu-ray releases (that you can find here), we’re also keeping a calendar for those who support the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc format. As we learn of new UK releases, we’ll add them to this list.

We have started adding shopping links too. We’d be obliged if you clicked on them, as it really helps us in our quest to make the Film Stories project of magazines, website and podcast profitable. We’re a 100% independent publisher, and we quite like drinking coffee. It’d be lovely to afford some more.

Without further ado, here are the titles we know about…

Out now

28th April: Night Moves

28th April: Russ Meyer’s Up! (100% not the Pixar Up)

28th...

Mix of films including Pearl Harbor and Schindler’s List feature on list compiled by War Movie Theatre podcast

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk has been voted the UK’s favourite second world war film, beating classics such as The Dam Busters and The Bridge on the River Kwai.

The 2017 film, starring Harry Styles, Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan, portrays the 1940 evacuation of more than 330,000 Allied troops from the French coast.

Dunkirk (2017)

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The Great Escape (1963)

The Dam Busters (1955)

Battle of Britain (1969)

The Longest Day (1962)

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Schindler’s List (1993)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)...

When Richard Attenborough first read Louis Fischer’s biography of Indian activist and attorney Mahatma Gandhi in the early 1960s, he was around 20 years into an acting career that included work with David Lean (“In Which We Serve”), Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (“A Matter of Life and Death”), and John Sturges (“The Great Escape”). Attenborough hadn’t directed anything himself at that point, but discovering Gandhi’s story gave him the desire to mount a biopic on the epic scale of his mentors.

It would take Attenborough another couple of decades to find the necessary funding, but when he finally made “Gandhi” in 1982, it was worth the wait, both for him and for audiences worldwide. A literate three-hour drama for adults that was, amazingly, a box-office blockbuster as well as an awards behemoth, “Gandhi” was one of those rare films that seemed to please just about everybody.

That must...

From producer-director Jeong Jong-yeon, The Devil’s Plan brings together 12 savvy contestants to face off in mind-bending games of wit and strategy to determine who’s the brainiest of them all. They need to be cunning, they need to create alliances, they might even need to backstab — and they’re all stuck together 24/7 without their phones. Think Survivor, but it’s a chess game that takes place in a house with bedrooms that double as jail cells. Oh, and an anonymous masked man with a creepy pixelated face hosts the show.

Read on to find out which smarty-pants made it onto the show — yes, there was an entrance exam — and what the game’s all about.

Stream it now on Netflix.

Check it out at the top of this article.

Though their backgrounds vary, every contestant selected to compete in The Devil’s Plan is a...

Emmy-winning actor James Garner always did things a little differently. In an era where Western shootouts were all the rage, Garner brought a touch of light comedy to "Maverick" and redefined what a TV Western could be. When a successful lawsuit ended his involvement in "Maverick," Garner turned to films and defied yet another tradition. It was thought for years that TV actors simply did not cross over into films -- "Why pay to see an actor in a movie while you can stay home and see him for free?" said the smart money in Hollywood. Yet Garner did just that, going on to co-star in hit after hit -- from romantic comedies ("The Thrill of It All") and action classics ("The Great Escape") to wide-screen spectacles ("Grand Prix") and, yes, more Westerns ("Support Your Local Sheriff!").

When Garner did return to television, he enjoyed perhaps his biggest hit ever...

Not every actor can be one of the greats, but they make a memorable impression based on how filmmakers play to their strengths. Charles Bronson is one of those actors. He didn't exactly break the mold as an expressive actor, but there's a flexibility in his stoicism that could present a two-way mirror depending on the kind of character he was playing. Legends like Sergio Leone ("Once Upon a Time in the West") and John Sturges ("The Great Escape") knew as much.

If there's one film that defines the definitive Bronson look and feel, it's Michael Winnerman's revenge fantasy "Death Wish." Paul Kersey is an architect turned nighttime vigilante who vows to clean up the streets after his wife is murdered and his daughter is sexually assaulted during a home invasion. Not much changes when it comes to Bronson's performance across the increasingly ridiculous five film series, as the character's quiet bloodthirst remains fairly consistent.

Action megastar Jason Statham still looks powerful for a man inching toward 60. And the older he gets, the more worn and lived-in his face becomes, like my therapist’s leather couch. So what if he doesn’t take off his shirt as much anymore? He’s built like a wrestler, but graceful, too, an experienced kickboxer with a trademark, face-smashing spinning back-kick. In A Working Man, the U.K.-born Statham stars as an all-American man’s man with a Cockney accent (he was a Royal Marine long ago, you...

Steve McQueen was the Oscar-nominated performer who helped define the meaning of "cool" in just a handful of movies before his untimely death in 1980 at the age of 50. But how many of those titles remain classics? Let's take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1930, McQueen first came to the attentions of movie audiences with his leading role in the sci-fi B-movie classic "The Blob" (1958). He quickly made a name for himself as an action star thanks to a series of hits through the 1960s and early 1970s, including "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "The Great Escape" (1963), "Bullitt" (1968), "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968), "The Getaway" (1972), and "The Towering Inferno" (1974). Known as "The Kind of Cool," his onscreen persona as a reluctant antihero made him a favorite of both men who wanted to be him and women who wanted to be with him.

His sole Oscar nomination...

Among the various anthology television series of the 1960s, none are better-known or more influential than The Twilight Zone. A mix of science fiction, fantasy and horror, The Twilight Zone was conceived by Rod Serling as a weekly allegory and modern-day morality play. As an anthology, the series became a revolving door for existing stars and up-and-coming actors over its five-season run.

Premiering on October 2, 1959, The Twilight Zone aired for nearly five years and featured numerous actors at various stages of their careers. With 156 episodes, multiple reboots, and the 1983 movie, it's easy to forget some of the famous faces that graced the original series over the years. Most of them appeared on the show before they became famous, and because The Twilight Zone has stood the test of time, those early performances have become delightful Easter eggs for new fans to discover.

Updated on March 20, 2025, by Ajay Aravind: The Twilight Zone...

Throughout its three and a half-decade run, "The Simpsons" has seemingly managed to parody pretty much every aspect of popular culture. From major developments in political history to iconic movie scenes, the show's ability to recreate historic moments was always part of its charm, and "The Simpsons" acted as a way to showcase the animators' talents (at least in the golden age).

The "Raiders of the Lost Ark" parody from the opening of season 3 episode, "Bart's Friend Falls in Love," stands as one of the best examples. The hand-drawn recreation of Indy's escape from the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors, reimagined as Bart escaping his home while being chased by an enraged Homer, was a genuinely impressive demonstration of the animators' abilities, and aside from being funny, proved that the show was being made by true craftsman.

As the show has gone on, the movie parodies have remained a consistent element,...

Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park has become a cult classic in more ways than one. While the series still lives on through Scarlett Johansson’s upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth, the essence of the original series cannot be replicated. Spielberg has also walked away from the franchise, handing the reins to other directors who are trying to imitate the same level of timelessness.

Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park | Credit: Universal Pictures

Fans still find themselves revisiting Spielberg’s 1993 classic, even though the film was released more than three decades ago, just because every aspect of that film is perfect. However, many may not know the true levels of mastery that the director achieved when he was making the film, like him bringing a legend out of retirement just to play a villain.

Richard Attenborough was done with acting before Jurassic Park

Richard Attenborough was one of the most respected and successful members of the film industry.

There is something very nostalgic about some of those big old Hollywood war movies from the 1960s. They may appear to offer a simplistic Boys' Own view of World War II, but my granddad, who served in the Royal Air Force, couldn't get enough of films like "The Great Escape" and "Where Eagles Dare." Perhaps it is because such rousing crowd-pleasers reassured war heroes like him that they were the good guys and could take pride in their victory over the Axis Powers. Stars were queuing up to appear in these adventures, and even Ol' Blue Eyes got in on the action in "Von Ryan's Express," an underrated escape thriller that is a must-see for fans of Old Hollywood.

Apart from establishing himself as one of the most popular musical performers of the 20th Century, Frank Sinatra also had a long and varied acting career. The legendary crooner starred in...

Short stories have always been prime real estate in the world of adaptations. Largely those are relegated to horror anthology TV shows like Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Tales From the Darkside, or the new Creepshow revival but that doesn’t mean exclusively. You can have things like Lawnmower Man, Eight O’Clock in the Morning, or Children of the Corn that are anywhere from 8 to 18 pages and make a whole movie, or in case of Children of the Corn an entire franchise, out of those pages. Today is all about a short story that probably had more legs than you realized. The Fly, written by George Langelaan and published in 1957 would go on to be part of 5 movies. While 3 of those are cash in sequels, one of them is a somewhat slept on late 50s classic while the other is listed at or near the top of any list discussing remakes.

If you want consistently massive casts within one genre or period of time, you're probably best off glancing towards the 1950s and 1960s, when there were numerous epic movies, and plenty of those epics went all out with getting massive names attached to them. Films like The Great Escape, Lawrence of Arabia, and How the West Was Won all exemplify the idea of an “all-star cast” very well, but by no means are such casts limited to such a time or genre.

"As long as we're still breathing there is hope." Vertical has unveiled an official trailer for a film titled The World Will Tremble, yet another Holocaust thriller about an "untold true story" from World War II. This recently premiered at the 2025 Miami Jewish Film Festival, and it will be out to watch in March in theaters. The incredible story of how a group of prisoners attempt a seemingly impossible escape from the first Nazi death camp in order to tell people about what was happening. It's about Solomon Weiner (played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen) & Michael Podchlebnik (played by Jeremy Neumark Jones) who attempt a seemingly impossible escape from the first Nazi death camp to give the first eyewitness account of the Holocaust. They were imprisoned at Chełmno (Google Maps), the first of six extermination camps established by the Nazis, located in Poland about 300 miles from Majdanek, the camp seen in Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain.

Exclusive: U.S. sales outfit The Syndicate and financier Rabbits Black have set a strategic partnership heading into the European Film Market in Berlin.

The Syndicate will oversee sales rights moving forward on a slate of Rabbits Black-backed films, including upcoming thriller Midnight, starring Rosario Dawson, Milla Jovovich, and Alexandra Shipp, and the Clark Duke-directed Stranglehold, starring Ashley Benson, Jake Lacey and Ron Perlman.

Midnight, about a blind woman hunted by international criminals, and Stranglehold, about an exotic dancer and Army vet who rob a strip club, are both in post-production. Both were previously on sale with The Great Escape.

Michael Lurie and Jeffrey Giles, co-managers of The Syndicate, will oversee sales operations, while Great Escape’s Nick Donnermeyer will act as an advisor and oversee delivery and transition of the titles from Great Escape to The Syndicate.

We understand there are discussions between The Great Escape and The...

Eric Bana loves a good Steve McQueen movie. During his visit to the Criterion Closet, the Australian actor — known for his performances in Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” and Ang Lee’s “Hulk” — started his selections by praising the work of Anthony Hopkins in Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs,” but quickly shifted gears toward one of McQueen’s first films, the 1958 version of “The Blob.”

“I grew up in a time where these movies weren’t readily accessible, so you’d have to wait for them to come on television,” said Bana. “And if it was a Saturday and ‘The Blob’ came on, it was like, ‘Game on, we are sitting through ‘The Blob.” I’ve probably seen this film 10 times over the course of my life.”

He added, “This is one of Steve McQueen’s early films, but…one of the most ridiculous films of all time.

Few genres have been as reliable throughout the history of cinema as the prison break movie, from The Great Escape, to Escape from Alcatraz, to The Shawshank Redemption. Yet few have felt as authentic as Jacques Becker's Le Trou, translated in English as The Hole. Becker spared no expense in faithfully recreating the 1947 escape attempt at France's La Santé Prison, going so far as to cast one of the real inmates, Roland Barbat, to play himself. Barbat, appearing under the stage name Jean Keraudy, also served as a technical consultant, and he endorses the veracity of everything portrayed in a prologue, telling the audience, "This is my story." Becker's near-documentary approach lends newfound excitement to a tried-and-true genre, and influenced a generation of French filmmakers.

Prison dramas are strange. It’s certainly not my go-to genre when it comes to recommending films or TV shows, and it is definitely not something I gravitate to in my free time. But if I come across one by chance, and if it’s even half-decent, I can assure you that I’ll stick with it all the way to the end. That’s how I came across masterpieces like The Great Escape, Escape from Alcatraz, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Hurricane. I watched Starred Up for Jack O’Connell, Chopper for Eric Bana, Bronson for Tom Hardy, A Prayer Before Dawn for Joe Cole, Gridiron Gang for Dwayne Johnson, The Longest Yard for Adam Sandler, and Brawl in Cell Block 99 for Vince Vaughn. Also, Chicken Run is undoubtedly up there with the greats. Now, when it comes to TV shows, I don’t show the same kind of zeal.

Days of Our Lives (Dool) spoilers for Friday, January 31, indicate some major plot twists as fans head into the weekend.

It’s time to say, “I do” for one Salem couple, while the bride shares a sweet moment with a loved one, and someone is desperate to stop the wedding.

What’s set to unravel during Friday’s show? Time to find out!

Days Of Our Lives Spoilers – Java’s Wedding Day (Sort Of …)

Days spoilers for Friday, January 31, imply that the big day has arrived for Jada Hunter (Elia Cantu) and Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) … well, kind of.

Must Read: Dool Early Week Spoilers February 3-7: Whitley Returns, Kristen’s Discovery, Alex’s Grave Danger

Fans know that the “Rafe” getting ready to say I do is actually Arnold Feniger (Galen Gering), so will Jada end up saying her vows with the wrong man?

No wedding goes off...

Scottish-American actor David McCallum, who passed away in 2023 at age 90, was a fixture of the small screen for over six decades. Despite making his breakout role as international secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the spy drama The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in the 1960s, he was probably most famous to 21st-century audiences as the eccentric but brilliant medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard on the police procedural series NCIS, for which he was a regular cast member for 20 seasons until his death.

But even before either of these TV shows hit the airwaves, McCallum starred in one of the most famous Hollywood films of the 1960s: the World War II prison film The Great Escape. The 1963 movie from director John Sturges is a fictionalized depiction of the real mass escape of dozens of Allied troops from a German Pow camp in 1944. Known for its ensemble cast that includes McCallum,...

We live in an era of streaming services with enough content to satisfy viewers for at least five lifetimes. Unfortunately, the content is spread across different platforms, each requiring monthly fees that can add up to hundreds of dollars if you're not careful.

(In Morpheus's voice) What if we told you there was a free way to watch many of your favorite movies? Well, there is. YouTube comes chock full of blockbuster movies, all available for the same price as a smile. That's right, gratis. Gratuit. Grátis. Kostenlos. In short, free.

Of course, the caveat is you might feel overwhelmed with over 200 films to choose from. Luckily, we've assembled a stellar list of the 15 best movies you can watch on YouTube for free, which should help pare down your Friday night options or, at the very least, help steer you down the right course.

Read more: Here's Why Movie Dialogue...

NCIS almost hit a dead end before it truly took off. And the reason was David McCallum’s Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. Back in the early days, creator Donald Bellisario drew a hard line. McCallum’s casting as the quirky, bowtie-loving medical examiner was so essential that Bellisario threatened to pull the plug entirely if it didn’t happen.

David McCallum in NCIS | Credits: CBS Studios

For a show that became a procedural juggernaut, the stakes couldn’t have been higher. Ducky, after all, was the heartbeat Bellisario refused to compromise on.

No Ducky, no NCIS: How David McCallum’s casting almost sank the show A still from NCIS | Credits: CBS Studios

Back in the early NCIS days, David McCallum’s Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard nearly didn’t make the cut. And creator Donald Bellisario was ready to cancel the entire show if McCallum didn’t get the role.

Prisoner-of-war films have been some of Hollywood's most enduring pictures. Steve McQueen daringly screaming over fences on his motorbike in The Great Escape, Alec Guinness collapsing on the detonator in The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Jack O'Connell delivering a message home in Unbroken to say that he is still alive are some of the most powerful and jaw-dropping moments in war pictures, let alone cinema itself. In 1953, however, the famed writer-director Billy Wilder went in a slightly different direction with his unique Pow film.

In a remarkable career spanning over 60 years, Kurt Russell has just about done it all. He's been a Disney child star, an action hero, a serious dramatic actor, an unabashedly silly comedic lead, and Elvis Presley. Though Russell was never a box office titan on par with contemporaries like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis, he is worshipped as a god by genre fandom for having played such iconic s***kickers as Snake Plissken in "Escape from New York," R.J. MacReady in "The Thing" and Jack Burton in "Big Trouble in Little China." Those last two were flops theatrically, but they've gone from being cult favorites to bona-fide mainstream classics. As a result, Russell, at the age of 73, might be more beloved now than he's ever been.

For Russell fanatics, there's a lively discussion to be had over what his best performance outside of that aforementioned holy trinity of John Carpenter movies might be.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, a prisoner of war is any person captured or interned by a belligerent power during war. In the strictest sense, it is applied only to members of regularly organized armed forces, but by broader definition, it has also included guerrillas, civilians who take up arms against an enemy openly, or noncombatants associated with a military force.

Prisoner of War films have consistently been a popular and acclaimed subgenre of war movies. In the 1950s and 1960s, Hollywood prisoner-of-war movies reached the apex of their popularity thanks to films such as Stalag 17, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and The Great Escape. Japanese auteurs such as Masaki Kobayashi and Nagisa Ōshima directed The Human Condition and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, two iconic works within the prisoner-of-war genre. French filmmakers Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson made significant contributions to the prisoner-of-war genre through their films The Grand Illusion...

With a 200-minute running time, Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” (A24) isn’t unique among wide-release English-language films. In fact, it’s somewhat shorter than some major releases in recent decades.

There’s no standard for intermissions, which can vary between presentations, technical issues, or even elevating a film’s prestige. “The Brutalist” qualifies on all counts, but its intermission could herald a comeback: Audience habits have changed, and directors would love to use them to defend longer movies.

“The Brutalist” becomes 215 minutes start to finish with its precisely timed 15-minute break. Without it, it would be nine minutes shorter than “The Irishman”; about the same as “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” “The Godfather Part II,” and George Stevens’ 1956 “Giant”; and about five minutes longer than “Schindler’s List” and “Titanic.” All were released without intermissions. Among major titles, “Gone with the Wind” is still the longest...

The prison escape subgenre, producing classics such as The Great Escape and The Shawshank Redemption, is one of the most consistently enjoyable subjects in film. On the flip side, the films of Robert Bresson are not for the faint of heart and are the opposite of widely accessible, easy watches. Something had to give when Bresson, in 1956, brought his minimalist style and bleak tone to such a gripping genre, but what we received was a riveting and deeply probing film that perfectly straddles the line between entertainment and artful expression. A Man Escaped, one of Bresson's finest works, is the gateway film for newcomers looking to dive into the filmography of the renowned French director. Not only did Bresson craft the quintessential prisoner-of-war escape movie, but he also redefined procedural filmmaking and the poetic beauty and horror of an individual seeking freedom.

Despite what plenty of Seo-chasing articles may try to tell you, there is no single perfect post-Thanksgiving meal movie that will suit every household. From those families diving deep into a shared tryptophan haze to those less traditional celebrants whose meals and festivities don’t look a thing like a Charlie Brown TV special,...

The 1960s proved to be an incredible time period for cinema, with the decade producing some of the most acclaimed and widely celebrated films ever made, regardless of genre. From seminal spaghetti Western outings in the vein of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and nerve-jangling horrors like Psycho all the way to mind-bending science fiction offerings such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, the decade played host to a number of iconic and culturally influential movies that have stood the test of time to earn status as undisputed cinematic classics.

War movies were decidedly not exempt from this status quo, an unsurprising state of affairs given the social climate of the 1960s. The decade witnessed the debuts of several wildly successful and influential war films, many of which are widely regarded as some of the best war movies of all time. Producing an immersive snapshot of armed conflict that...

Prime Video’s November programming will dip its toe into Christmas and other holiday offerings such as The Holiday (2006) starring Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and Jack Black. The streamer will also add some films with sequels arriving in theaters this month, like Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) and Ridley Scott’s 1992 film Gladiator.

For the full list of Prime Video programming in November 2024, see below.

Related: New On Netflix For November 2024: Movies, TV Shows and More

Nov. 1

Movies:

12 Days of Christmas Eve (2004) 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up (1995) 50 To 1 (2014) A Knight’s Tale (2001) Absolute Deception (2013) Across The Universe (2007) Agent Cody Banks (2003) Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004) Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) Airplane! (1980) All Saints (2017) Almost Christmas (2016) Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid (2004) Anger Management (2003) Apache (1954) Bad Company (2002) Battlefield Earth (2000) Battleship (2012) Big Night (1996) Blizzard (2003) Blown Away (1993) Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004) Boomerang (1992) Bucky Larson Born To Be A Star (2011) Carrie...

Quentin Tarantino, best known for his supporting turn in "Destiny Turns on the Radio," has never been shy about his taste in movies. Tarantino has long been drawn to aggressively masculine genre films, Westerns, war pictures, martial arts films, and anything one might have seen at a run-down grindhouse theater in 1977. He also likes very terse, tense movies, and has listed Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver," William Friedkin's "Sorcerer," and Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" as his favorites. He's likewise admitted to having fond feelings for "The Great Escape" (who doesn't?) and thinks very highly of Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk." It's easy to guess that he similarly loves "Rio Bravo" and "Apocalypse Now," and he often recommends the Sonny Chiba vehicle "The Street Fighter" from 1974.

Despite his tastes, however, Tarantino remains cinematically omnivorous, taking in hundreds of movies a year, sussing out the pop...

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The late Richard Attenborough is an unquestioned legend. Largely known for his roles on screen in films like "The Great Escape" and "Miracle on 34th Street," he perhaps doesn't get enough credit for his work as a director. His finest hour came in 1982 when he stepped into the director's chair for "Gandhi." The biopic about the Indian revolutionary Mahatma Gandhi went on to sweep the Academy Awards that year, culminating in a Best Picture win. It's the realization of a dream few filmmakers will ever know. Be that as it may, Attenborough believed a Steven Spielberg classic should have taken home the prize that year.

Released the same year, Spielberg's "E.T." was an acclaimed box office juggernaut and ultimately took in nearly $800 million worldwide. It was also up for Best Picture that year, with Spielberg and Attenborough competing for Best Director.

From 2020 to 2022, Bruce Willis cranked out a huge number of movies, most of them low-budget sci-fi/action films that all went straight-to-video, and usually playing brief, supporting roles. The many films were, by and large, panned by critics and mocked by baffled fans, all of whom wondered by Willis didn't appear to have much on-camera dialogue, or why he wasn't the lead character. In three years, he appeared in 22 movies. 

In March of 2022, it was announced that Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia, a brain condition that affected his ability to speak and comprehend language. Many of the above fans expressed their deepest apologies, and even the Razzies, in a rare show of good taste, retraced Willis' Worst Actor nominations. Willis retired from acting because of his condition. In February 2023, Willis, now 69, was also diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, and he remains in the care of his family. 

Willis, of course,...

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60 years ago this September, Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name stepped on screen for the first time in Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars." It would be a few more years until the low-budget Spaghetti Western made it to America, but the actor's star power and the director's talents were instantly recognizable for early adopters – even if critics took longer to get on board. By the time Leone had released two more Eastwood-led films, rounding out what became known as the Dollars Trilogy, Eastwood's narrowed eyes and steely attitude had become a fundamental image of the movie cowboy.

The Dollars trilogy, which continued with "For A Few Dollars More" and concluded in 1966 with "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," is now celebrated as one of the best on-screen Western sagas of all time. The genre would...

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jeff Pope (“Philomena”) and Xavier Marchand of “Nautilus” producer Moonriver TV are teaming up on “Castle of the Eagles,” a six-episode limited series based on the true story of Allied POWs who staged a daring prison break from a fortified Italian castle during World War II.

The duo will be presenting the project to an industry audience in Rome during the Mia Market, which runs Oct. 14 – 18.

Written by Pope and based on the book of the same name by Mark Felton, “Castle of the Eagles” is produced by Marchand for Moonriver and Pope for his production label Etta Pictures, which is part of ITV Studios. “Harry Potter” star Jason Isaacs, who played Cary Grant in the four-part ITV biopic “Archie” written by Pope, is attached in a lead role.

The series begins in 1943, with war raging across Europe and some two dozen Allied soldiers and officers imprisoned in Castello Vincigliata,...

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As the nation that, for over a year, stood alone against Nazi Germany, British cinema made war especially World War II a cornerstone of its film industry. Considering its centuries of conquest, fighting on the European continent, and an era of military supremacy around the world, the country has a rich history to explore in the war genre. This has been proven consistently through film, from medieval battles to recent conflicts.

British war movies stand out among the best in the genre, aided by the UK's extensive history of military campaigns that overshadow the US' relatively young history. Covering politics, covert missions, captivity, and full-scale invasions, some of Britain's contributions to war cinema are considered among the greatest films of all time. Featuring career-best performances, impressive attention to detail, and unmatched immersion, these movies are key chapters in both film and UK history.

Jason Statham's 2011 action thriller The Mechanic is a remake of a classic Charles Bronson film of the same name and is now one of the most popular movies on Netflix. The Mechanic remains one of Jason Statham's highest-rated movies of his celebrated career and one of Statham's most successful film franchises. The film follows Statham's Arthur Bishop, an elite hitman or "mechanic" who is the best in the business. After Bishop's mentor Harry (Donald Sutherland) is murdered, Bishop goes on a one-man-army mission to avenge his death and make those responsible pay. It's a classic premise for Statham and one of his most immersive movies.

As of October 1, 2024, The Mechanic is available to stream on Netflix. Directed by Simon West and written by Richard Wenk, The Mechanic also features performances by Ben Foster, Tony Goldwyn, and David Leitch. With a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 53%, The Mechanic is not...

Chad McQueen, who followed his father, Steve McQueen, into acting and auto racing and portrayed the bully Dutch in the first two Karate Kid movies, has died. He was 63.

McQueen died Wednesday of organ failure at his ranch in Palm Desert, his friend of 40 years, Arthur Barens, told The Hollywood Reporter. He had been injured in a fall in 2020 and never fully recovered.

In a statement on Instagram, his children Chase and Madison wrote:

“His remarkable journey as a loving father to us, along with his unwavering commitment to our mother, truly exemplified a life filled with love and dedication. His passion for racing not only highlighted his exceptional talent but also served as a way to honor his father’s legacy, a testament to the values instilled in him.

“He passed his passion, knowledge and dedication down to us, and we will continue not only his legacy but our grandfather’s as well.

Chad McQueen, who played Dutch in the first two Karate Kid films, appeared in about two dozen other movies and was the son of screen legend Steve McQueen, has died at 63. He died Wednesday morning at his home in Palm Desert, according to his mother Neile Adams McQueen.

“His remarkable journey as a loving father to us, along with his unwavering commitment to our mother, truly exemplified a life filled with love and dedication,” his children Jeanie, Chase and Madison posted on Instagram. “His passion for racing not only highlighted his exceptional talent, but also served as a way to honor his father’s legacy, a testament to the values instilled in him.”

McQueen was best known for playing Dutch, in The Karate Kid (1984) and The Karate Kid II (1986), part of the original Cobra Kai dojo alongside Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and the sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove). McQueen was...

Chad McQueen, best known for playing Dutch in The Karate Kid and The Karate Kid Part II, has died at the age of 63. He’s also the son of Steve McQueen, the legendary actor who starred in The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Bullitt, and more.

In a statement to Variety, Chad’s wife, Jeanie, and his children, Chase and Madison, said, “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our father, Chad McQueen. His remarkable journey as a loving father to us, along with his unwavering commitment to our mother, truly exemplified a life filled with love and dedication. His passion for racing not only highlighted his exceptional talent but also served as a way to honor his father’s legacy, a testament to the values instilled in him. He passed his passion, knowledge and dedication down to us, and we will continue not only...

Much has been said about Stephen King, the prolific author of dozens of novels, screenplays, teleplays, and even a few comic books and a stage musical. However, less has been said about Stephen King: Pop Culture Influencer. While King's name has become about as prestigious as other writers whose works have stood the test of time like Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe, King is one of the few titans of culture who's been alive while his star rose to such great heights, allowing him to enjoy a level of reputation that other artists only reach posthumously. As such, King has parlayed this fame into being a sort of media guru of sorts; while he's not and has never passed himself off as what we know to be an influencer today, he's regularly offered his opinions and suggestions on the art he enjoys almost as an offshoot of the nonfiction he's...

Courtesy of Eureka Entertainment

by James Cameron-wilson

It’s funny, you think you’ve seen everything that the golden age of Hollywood has to offer, and then along comes a gift-packaged treasure trove of fresh material from over a hundred years ago. Laurel & Hardy: The Silent Years is the culmination of painstaking research, detective work and artistry to bring us fifteen shorts from the Anglo-American comic duo made up of the Lancashire-born Stan Laurel and the Georgia-raised Oliver Hardy who, under the canny hand of the producer Hal Roach, became the most enduring comedy duo of all time. The least likely of partnerships, Laurel was the wimpish cry-baby who got into no end of scrapes alongside Hardy, the fastidious, overweight buffoon with the tight-fitting jackets, both of whom more often than not wore matching bowler hats. Having watched countless documentaries on the silent era, particularly the era of silent comedy,...

Exclusive: Back in the summer of 1995, you were either team Oasis or team Blur. There was no sitting on the fence as the rival Brit bands clashed over which group’s single would top the charts — Blur’s Country House or the Oasis number Roll With It.

A new play heading to London’s West End in 2025 will chart the harshness of the animosity between the two enormously popular so-called Britpop bands, a rivalry so bitter that it burst into the headlines, even the TV news covered it.

News of the show, appropriately titled The Battle by humorist and writer John Niven, a former indie rocker and one-time A&r man, comes as Gallagher brothers Liam and Noel have buried their own feud to launch a huge Oasis tour in 2025 after 15 years apart.

Producer Simon Friend, of Simon Friend Entertainment, tells us that he commissioned Niven nine months ago to...

1963's The Great Escape tells the tale of a daring escape of POWs from Germany's Stalag Luft III in the days of the Second World War. "Daring" only barely describes the covert planning and execution of their plan which, unknown by the German guards, involved slowly building an escape tunnel underground. It allowed for 76 prisoners to escape, only for 73 to be recaptured. It purports to be based on a true story, and despite the seemingly impossible odds that it could have been, it is. But as with any film that is based on a real-life event, accuracy is sacrificed at times in favor of entertainment, and The Great Escape is no exception.

Farewell to the great Martin Phillipps, the New Zealand indie-rock pioneer of the Chills. He was one of the most brilliant songwriters of his era, with a string of Eighties and Nineties guitar classics: “Pink Frost,” “I Love My Leather Jacket,” “Heavenly Pop Hit,” “The Great Escape,” so many more. Phillipps had battled liver disease for years and recently entered a Dunedin hospital, but his unexpected death, at only 61, is a real loss. His tunes were full of alienation and misery, yet with his own distinct touch of human warmth.

Throughout his career, Steven Spielberg has earned himself a whopping 22 Oscar nods, of which he scored 3 wins, 1 for Saving Private Ryan and 2 for Schindler’s List. Most fans would agree that 3 wins don’t do the director justice, as he is one of the best, responsible for shaping the blockbuster landscape, and is arguably one of the most versatile filmmakers of all time.

But the two losses that stand out the most, which most believe should’ve gone to Spielberg remains Saving Private Ryan and E.T., and the director that beat him agrees with the latter.

Richard Attenborough Felt Steven Spielberg Should’ve Nabbed the Victory That Night E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | Universal Pictures

11 years before taking the World and the Academy by storm, following the release of his most important work, Schindler’s List, Spielberg competed with Richard Attenborough at the Oscars. With Attenborough’s Gandhi leading the...

The UK’s Hurricane Films has joined as co-producer Natalia Koryncka-Gruz’s comedy drama Miss Kebab, the big winner at this Polish Days ,held in Wroclaw during the New Horizons International Film Festival this week.

Miss Kebab won the inaugural Wroclaw Feature Film Studio Award for production and postproduction services worth Pln 100,000.

Based on a true story about a Polish female teacher working in the UK with children from immigrant families, the screenplay was written by Koryncka-Gruz with Kamila Czul, the author of the eponymous novel published in Poland in 2018.

The €2m English-language production is being produced by Koryncka-Gruz through...

Elmer Bernstein is one of the greatest composers in the history of film scoring. He broke in writing music for Z-grade schlock like "Cat-Women of the Moon" and "Robot Monster" (forever in the conversation for The Worst Movie Ever Made) and quickly hit the A-list with his scores for "The Man with the Golden Arm," "The Ten Commandments," and "Some Came Running." In a career that spanned over 50 years, he dabbled in every imaginable genre, earning 14 Academy Award nominations (winning only one) without ever overtly repeating himself (a hazard for many movie composers).

How versatile was Elmer Bernstein? He could rouse us with his plucky theme for "The Great Escape," break our hearts with his soaring "To Kill a Mockingbird" score, and find classical grandeur in the frat-boy hijinks of "National Lampoon's Animal House."

He scored Martin Scorsese's luscious "The Age of Innocence" and two ludicrous "Billy Jack" movies.

The horrors, thrills, and acts of bravery seen in World War II have constantly and consistently been a rich source of inspiration for writers and directors since VJ Day. Some of the most unforgettable cinematic images of our time, such as the girl with the red coat in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, Steve McQueen hopping over fences on his bike in The Great Escape, and Brad Pitt telling his subordinates about Jim Bridges and Apaches in Inglourious Basterds, have come from the largest global conflict on record. Some films have been able to seep into the public conscience and set box-office records and gather a host of awards nominations, all of which are justified. Some equally astounding films, however, just never managed to crack the zeitgeist and grip the public's imagination. One such film, one of the most thrilling and intense war films going, is John Frankenheimer's 1964 film The Train starring Burt Lancaster,...