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It's been 50 years since Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of Jaws swam its way to theaters. Based on the 1974 novel of the same name, the film continues to have a chokehold on pop culture, and its main theme is still recognizable to this day. The movie is so iconic that it's surprising that it hasn't received a modern remake, and maybe that's for the best, according to one of Spielberg's frequent collaborators, David Koepp, who addressed the challenge those people would face if it were to happen.

In an interview, Koepp stated that he would feel bad for anyone who attempted to remake Jaws and warned them to consider something else. He noted that other ocean-adventure films have come out, and he also pointed out that Jaws received three sequels, all of which performed poorly.

“I’d feel terrible for anyone who had to. You can’t come close to it.

Four years after bringing the world the high speed comedy classic Smokey and the Bandit (and three years after their stuntman comedy Hooper and one year after Smokey and the Bandit II), director Hal Needham and star Burt Reynolds teamed up again for another high speed comedy, the goofball ensemble film The Cannonball Run. The film was a big hit, the sixth highest-grossing domestic film of 1981, and it was followed by a pair of less successful sequels, Cannonball Run II (1983) and Speed Zone (1989). Even though the follow-ups aren’t highly regarded, The Cannonball Run is still a well-known title, which is why we’ve been hearing rumblings of a remake for years. Now, industry scooper Jeff Sneider of The InSneider reports that Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan is likely to be the one to finally bring The Cannonball Run back to the screen, as his production company, Bosque Ranch, is developing...

Burt Reynolds achieved feature-film stardom and a large measure of credibility with his powerful dramatic performance in the 1972 thriller film Deliverance. Reynolds’ charm and sex appeal were effectively showcased throughout the rest of the decade in films like Hooper, The Longest Yard, Smokey and the Bandit, and Starting Over, which pleased audiences and critics alike while establishing Reynolds as an immensely likable star who was equally adept at action and comedy.

However, in the early 1980s, the good-old-boy image that led Reynolds to be voted Hollywood’s top box-office draw for a record five consecutive years between 1978 and 1982 reached a point of diminishing returns. His unsuccessful pairing with Clint Eastwood in the 1984 action film City Heat marked a precipice in his career from which he never regained his former star power. In the late 1980s, Reynolds made an ignominious return to television, where his career began in the early 1960s.

ABC is launching a local version of the popular UK Richard Osman quiz show, House of Games, hosted by comedian Claire Hooper. Claire Hooper’s House of Games premieres Monday, April 21 at 6:30 pm on ABC TV and ABC iview. Here’s the Lowdown: The show features four celebrities competing each week in a series of […]

ABC’s Claire Hooper’s House of Games: Trivia Gets a Hilarious Aussie Twist...

Exclusive: Studios and filmmakers are knocking on Verve’s door as the agency is sitting on bloody good IP that they’re looking to take on the town: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Verve has repped the rights for the slasher series created by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel since 2017.

At a time when horror and franchises are really the only surefire bets at the post-Covid and strike-impacted box office, the 51-year-old horror property about a chainsaw-wielding serial killer still has potential to make a killing.

One of the parties, we hear, showing interest in reviving Texas Chainsaw Massacre is filmmaker/scribe Jt Mollner and producer Roy Lee, hot off Strange Darling, their $3 million-grossing, 96% certified Rotten Tomatoes cult hit. If Mollner gets a script together, word is that Glen Powell would like to read it. It’s very early days on this; no contracts or attachments as of yet, and the...

In 1981, Burt Reynolds seemed unstoppable as a leading box-office superstar in America. The laid-back sex symbol of the ‘70s had a string of hit action comedies, often involving fast cars, with movies such as Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, and The Cannonball Run. Though he carried that winning charm in lighter comedies like Starting Over and Semi-Tough, Reynolds surprised his fans when he broke away from his freewheeling Bandit persona to play a hardened Atlanta vice cop in Sharky’s Machine.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has held almost 100 ceremonies, which means people have been screaming that they got it all wrong in various categories since the Calvin Coolidge administration. It's a bit like in sports where people root for their favorites, only that people are arguing over intangible accomplishments rather than touchdowns and what have you.

Once you get used to the way the Oscars work (e.g. they really hate comedy), you realize there is a certain type of film that's likely to be honored, and those certain types of films attract a certain type of actor -- ergo, to a large extent, it's futile to pull for favorites. Arnold Schwarzenegger was long one of the most popular actors on the planet, but he was portrayed by the media as a walking caricature of himself; only now, in his 70s, could he earn a Best Actor...

Jason Statham remade not one, but two movies by Hollywood icon Burt Reynolds - it's just a shame their only collaboration sucked so much. Despite making his name in Guy Ritchie gangster comedies, Statham soon made a dramatic gear shift in his career. The Jason Statham action movie era began in earnest with 2001's Ghosts of Mars, but it was The Transporter that proved his big breakthrough. Like any leading man, he has had his peaks and valleys, but the box office success of The Beekeeper proves Statham is still on top of his game.

He has remade several cult classics in the action genre too. Statham fronted the remake of Charle Bronson's The Mechanic and played the lead in the reboot of the Death Race franchise. One of the earliest remakes young Statham appeared in was Mean Machine, where he played a violent prisoner named Monk who takes part...

Warning! This post contains spoilers for Woman of the Hour.

Woman of the Hour reveals that Sally Field was once a contestant on The Dating Game, making it hard not to wonder who else participated in the TV game show before making it big in Hollywood. In its one-and-a-half-hour runtime, Anna Kendrick's true-story thriller, Woman of the Hour, walks through several murders committed by Rodney Alcala. However, even though it unfolds in several different timelines, its primary focus remains on the serial killer's appearance in The Dating Game and his encounter with Sheryl Bradshaw.

Before Woman of the Hour's Dating Game arc ensues, Sheryl is portrayed as a struggling actress who finds it hard to land auditions and secure her place in Hollywood's competitive world. Her agent eventually tells her about The Dating Game and promises her that her appearance on the game show will pave the way...

1974 was a big year for horror. In April, a young writer named Stephen King published his first novel, Carrie, kicking off five decades of bestselling fiction. In October, Tobe Hooper released The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a chaotic nightmare centering a cannibalistic family in a bone-strewn home.

Both creators would go on to become titans of the genre, but in 1979, they were hungry creators, still cementing their legacy. Five years after releasing their breakthrough masterworks, these visionaries would combine forces to create a seminal text in the vampire sub genre.

Based on King’s second novel, Salem’s Lot is Hooper’s fourth full-length directorial outing, a TV miniseries filled with iconic imagery still influencing the genre to this day. Paul Monash’s screenplay is a relatively straightforward adaptation of King’s sprawling story with a few deviations along the way, but it’s in these changes that each creator’s intentions shine through.

If the 1970s and ’80s represented a golden age of kinetic but grounded stunt work by pioneers like Hal Needham, Buddy Joe Hooker, and Vic Armstrong, the 2020s are proving to be a seminal moment for stunts in television. The urban action that used to be the bread and butter of Walter Hill, Richard Donner, and Peter Hyams has migrated from the big screen (now dominated by more visual effects-oriented set pieces) to network procedurals and streaming series where stunt coordinators have become adept at creating spectacular moments on tight schedules — all while keeping the performers and crew as safe as possible.

Since its 2020 debut, Dick Wolf’s CBS series “FBI: Most Wanted” has consistently showcased some of the best stunt work on television, with expertly choreographed action sequences that are realistic, thrilling, and heavily slanted toward practical effects. Season 5 included some of the show’s most dynamic set pieces to date,...

The Action Scene explores the form, history, and visceral power of action cinema through its set pieces.Clockwise from top left: The Fall Guy, In the Shadows, Kambakkth Ishq, and Hooper.Invoking both the stuntman and the scapegoat, the title of The Fall Guy (2024) pithily encapsulates the film’s plot: after a literally backbreaking high-fall-gone-wrong derails his career, stunt performer Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) resumes the job for a blockbuster project helmed by his ex-girlfriend Jody (Emily Blunt), only to be framed for a murder committed by the actor he doubles (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Indeed, stunt performers have physically “taken the fall” for onscreen stars for most of film history, weathering the scrapes, burns, bruises, and fractures that go into constructing visceral spectacle, but their labors have gone mostly unrecognized by the general public. The Fall Guy presents an ironic inversion: whereas Colt gets in trouble because he is visibly linked...

This article contains massive spoilers for "The Fall Guy."

Stunt work is all about selling an illusion. When the medium of cinema was first invented, it was initially marketed and thought of as something akin to a sideshow attraction, a wondrous magic trick where a series of pictures put next to each other and illuminated in rapid succession gave the illusion of movement. After this initial novelty gave way to artists utilizing the medium to tell stories, the craftspeople making movies realized that the concept of illusion extended to every aspect of filmmaking.

Where theatre was traditionally bound to a stage or perhaps a circus tent, the movies could expand the canvas of what could be done physically — if cameras could capture it, it could be performed. It's no surprise, then, that films saw people like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and others push the boundaries of physicality and feats of derring-do in the cinema.

Hollywood stunt people are a breed apart. They look at a skyscraper, and wonder what floor from which they could plummet onto an airbag. They encounter a ravine, and instantly want to hop astride a motorcycle and jump it. They see a fellow stunt performer get blasted with fire extinguishers after being set ablaze, and think to themselves, "I could've stayed on fire longer than that." They're wild folk, and they can make the kind of movie magic you'll savor for a lifetime.

For movie lovers, stunt people like Dar Robinson, Vic Armstrong, and Evelyn Finley are as legendary as the stars they doubled. Among casual moviegoers, however, they aren't nearly as appreciated as they should be. So when films like Richard Rush's "The Stunt Man," Hal Needham's "Hooper," or David Leitch's forthcoming "The Fall Guy" (based on the classic 1980s TV series starring Lee Majors) crash into theaters,...

The episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? covering The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Mike Conway, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

The video which you are about to see is an account of a small group of filmmakers in the area of Austin, Texas in the summer of 1973. Their intent was to make a motion picture which was unlike anything ever seen. For them, the idyllic summer shoot became a nightmare from the low budget, sweltering Texas heat, and the treacheries from fraudulent investors. The events of that summer were led to the release of one of the most terrifying films in the annals of cinema history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (watch it Here).

Have you ever had a conversation with friends or even made the occasional Google search on what would be considered the scariest movie of all time?...

Chad Stahelski and then-partner David Leitch came from the area of martial arts and stunt and made their mark choreographing huge stunt sequences and second unit directing for many films before getting the shot at steering a franchise with John Wick. Leitch went his own way and Stahelski remained welded to Keanu Reeves in one of most fascinating director-star relationships that concludes with John Wick: Chapter 4, the final installment of a action-heavy sleeper hit that grew into blockbuster status as each film grew in ambition and box office grosses.

Related Story How ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly’ & ‘Hooper’ Sparked ‘John Wick’ Series Helmer Chad Stahelski’s Rise: The Film That Lit My Fuse Related Story 'John Wick: Chapter 4' Locks & Loads Franchise-Best Thursday Night With $8.9M – Box Office Update Related Story 'John Wick: Chapter 4' Off To Strong Start In Early Overseas Play

The...

A long-held tradition of Jackie Chan movies is that they end with blooper reels. Typically shown during the credits, they were filled with stunts gone wrong and other comedic moments that occurred during the filming process. Blooper reels were attached to several of the actor's biggest hits, including all three Rush Hour films, Shanghai Noon and the sequel, and more.

Of course, Chan's movies aren't the only films to feature blooper reels in the credits, nor were they the first to lean in this direction. But, Chan is among the few actors to make it a trend with their work. In movies Chan starred in during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, there became an expectation to see hilarious outtakes from the films after the story was over. Among the most memorable of these were the blooper reels from the Rush Hour movies, which captured a number of humorous exchanges between Chan and his co-star,...

Donn Cambern, an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated editor and former president of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, died on Wednesday, his family told Mpeg journal CineMontage. He was 93.

The Guild confirmed Cambern’s death in a Facebook post, writing: “Mpeg mourns the loss of Donn Cambern, Ace, an Oscar-nominated editor and former Guild president who passed this week at age 93. Donn edited ‘Easy Rider’ and co-edited ‘Romancing the Stone.’ He was also a tireless advocate and educator who was fondly recalled by friends and colleagues.”

Cambern received four American Cinema Editors nominations for “The Bob Hope Christmas Special” (1968), “The Hindenburg” (1975), “Hooper” (1978) and “Romancing the Stone” (1984). His work on “The Bob Hope Christmas Special” also earned him an Emmy nomination, and “Romancing the Stone” received an Oscar nomination for best film editing. In 2004, Cambern was awarded the American Cinema Editors career achievement award.

Cambern was born in 1929 in Los Angeles. He graduated...

Most people question the intention behind doing a remake; is it for money (always), or so an IP won’t revert back to original ownership (sometimes), or is it to improve on an interesting concept but poor delivery (it’s happened before)? These are the normal scenarios. But then you have a legend like Tobe Hooper, who decides as the middle flick in a three-picture deal with Cannon Films, to do a sincere remake of Invaders from Mars (1986), the 1953 minor cult classic. Why? Because you can tell he genuinely loves the original, and he leaves enough Dr. Pepper fingerprints so you know you’re in Hooper Town.

Released in early June, Invaders lost money and wasn’t a critical success. Surprise! Unfortunately, most Hoopers’ aren’t built for the era they occupy; it’s not often his work was appreciated in his time.

Yet look at what he did in...

“There’s no way, *no* way that you came from *my* loins. Soon as I get home, first thing I’m gonna do is punch yo mamma in da mouth!”

Smokey And The Bandit and Hooper will be screening as part of this Weekend’s ‘FirebirdFest ’21 St Louis’ this weekend at The Skyview Drive-in in Belleville, Il.

It’s a whole weekend of Firebird fun. Here’s the Schedule for FirebirdFest ’21 St Louis:

Friday May 21

11:00 Am – 5:00 PMFirebirdFest 2021 Kickoff “Meet and Greet” Car Show #1

Food truck/Live DJ/Prizes/Photo Booth/2nd Gen Graveyard Vendor!

Gateway Classic Cars Museum

1237 Central Park Drive O’Fallon, Illinois 62269

(4:00 Pm – 5:00 Pm) Announcement And Photos Of Legacy Cruise Selections (Option To Grab Local Fast Food Before We Depart Or Eat At Drive-in Full Concession Stand)

​​5:45 Pm Depart For Skyview Drive-in​

6:00 Pm – 10:00 Pm (Local news filming our arrival at 6 Pm...

Chicago – In one of Jan-Michael Vincent’s most recent photos, taken in 2016 by photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com, the ex-heart throb actor is revealed as a man who lived his life hard to the end. Vincent died last month in Asheville, North Carolina, on February 10th, 2019. He was 73.

Jan-Michael Vincent was born in Denver, and after high school in Washington state he bounced around with three years of college and a stint in the California National Guard. In 1966, he began to audition, and his rugged good looks landed him in a Robert Conrad film “The Bandits” (1967). After doing several TV and movie bit parts, he scored in the early 1970s with high profile roles in “Going Home” (1970), “The Mechanic” (1972) and in Walt Disney’s “The World’s Greatest Athlete” (1973) as the title character.

Jan-Michael Vincent in 2016

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

The hits continued...

Fans of Burt Reynolds have the chance to own a piece of movie history with the late actor’s incredible car collection heading to the famed Barrett-Jackson auction in Las Vegas later this month.

The actor, who died earlier this month at the age of 82, left behind some iconic film memorabilia in the form of replicas of the cars he drove during some of his most famous films.

While the studios kept the originals — or they did not make it out in one piece after shooting — the actor told Barrett-Jackson Auction’s website, prior to his death, that he had...

Sally Field’s upcoming memoir, “In Pieces,” won’t be read by her former lover and co-star Burt Reynolds and, for that, the actress is grateful, she told The New York Times.

“This would hurt him,” Field said in an interview published Tuesday, following Reynolds’ death last week at the age of 82. “I felt glad that he wasn’t going to read it, he wasn’t going to be asked about it, and he wasn’t going to have to defend himself or lash out, which he probably would have. I did not want to hurt him any further.”

Field starred with Reynolds in movies like “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Hooper,” and off screen the pair had a romantic relationship that, she told the Times, was “confusing and complicated, and not without loving and caring, but really complicated and hurtful to me.”

Also Read: When Burt Reynolds Complained About...

So heartbreaking. Burt Reynolds tragically died after going into cardiac arrest at age 82 on Thursday, Sept. 6, and now, his ex-girlfriend Sally Field has shared her reaction to his untimely death. "There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away," Sally said in a statement to People. "They stay alive, even forty years later. My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy." (Photo Credit: Getty Images) Sally and Burt previously started dating in the late 1970s after co-starring in several movies, including Smokey and the Bandit, The End, Hooper, and Smokey and the Bandit II. However, they split after five years together and went on to marry other people. Burt was married to actress Loni Anderson from 1988 to 1994 and Sally was hitched to Alan Greisman from 1984 until 1993. So, why did they split?...

Burt Reynolds was a guy’s guy, a ladies’ man, the ruggedly handsome alpha male of the entertainment world, who always seemed to be having a good time – whether cracking jokes on TV talk shows with pals like Dom DeLuise or saucily posing nude as a centerfold in “Cosmopolitan” magazine — except maybe when he broke his leg during that ill-fated canoe outing in 1972’s “Deliverance,” his breakout film role. According to his reps on Thursday, the actor is dead at age 82 in his adopted home of Jupiter, Florida.

With a thicket of hair, a dapper mustache and a twinkle in his eye, he often came across as a good ol’ Southern boy in such films as “Smokey and the Bandit,” “W,W. and the Dixie Dancekings” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” while claiming to be from Georgia. But he was born in Lansing, Michigan, although he would eventually end up in Riviera Beach,...

Sally Field remembered her late ex-boyfriend and co-star Burt Reynolds with a statement on Thursday.

“There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away,” Field said. “They stay alive, even 40 years later. My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy.”

Reynolds died at the age of 82 in Jupiter, Fla., on Thursday. He and Field met while filming “Smokey and the Bandit” in 1977, with Reynolds portraying Bo “Bandit” Darville and Field playing the runaway bride Carrie. Reynolds and Field began dating that year and were a couple for five years.

Burt Reynolds’ Life and Career in Photos

Reynolds and Field were co-stars in the 1978 films “Hooper” and “The End” and reprised their roles in the 1980 sequel “Smokey and the Bandit II.”

Reynolds said in a 2016 interview that the split...

Burt Reynolds, a top Hollywood star of the 1970s whose hits ranged from such classic, easy-going drive-in fare as Smokey and the Bandit to the intense, hunted-men drama Deliverance, died today at the Jupiter Medical Center in Florida. He was 82.

“It is with a broken heart that I said goodbye to my uncle today,” Reynolds’ niece Nancy Lee Hess said in a statement (read it in full below).

With a sly, knowing grin, signature moustache and a unique blend of charm, cool and machismo, Reynolds was a bona fide cultural phenomenon. He became a frequent guest of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, was the first major celebrity nude male centerfold and off-screen romantic partner of such stars as frequent co-star Sally Field and Dinah Shore. Reynolds would achieve a newfound respect among critics and fans alike for the late-career peak in 1997’s Boogie Nights, for which he earned his only Oscar nomination.

Burt Reynolds, one of Hollywood’s most popular leading men during the ’70s and early ’80s in such films as “Deliverance,” “Smokey and the Bandit, “The Longest Yard” and “Semi-Tough,” has died. His rep confirmed that he died Thursday in Jupiter, Fla. He was 82.

He later earned an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor in Paul Thomas Anderson’s ode to skin flicks, “Boogie Nights.” He had been set to appear in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Hollywood.”

Reynolds’ appeal lay in his post-modern macho posture undercut by a wry self-awareness, which he used to good effect in comedies as well as action films. For a period during the ’70s he was the nation’s top box office draw. But after one too many bad movies, his popularity waned. He returned to television, where he’d gotten his start, mostly in Westerns, and produced his own sitcom, “Evening Shade,” which brought him an Emmy.

Tom Rickman, screenwriter of such films as the Burt Reynolds-starrer Hooper and the Oscar-winning Coal Miner's Daughter, died Monday of cancer. He was 78.

Friend and fellow screenwriter Nicholas Meyer confirmed the news Wednesday in a Facebook post, writing, "It is with an exceedingly heavy heart that I report the death of my dear friend and colleague, Tom Rickman, who died Monday after a long and courageous battle with cancer. When I first came to Hollywood (somewhat after the Civil War), Tom was the hottest writer in town. And I hated him. Hated him until I met him. Then I loved ...

Though it's been years since Burt Reynolds and Sally Field called it quits on their five-year Hollywood romance, the 82-year-old actor still hopes he might reconnect with the woman he's called the love of his life sometime in the future. "Burt and Sally ended on a bad note when they split in 1982, but he’d love a visit from her," a friend of Burt's exclusively told Closer Weekly in the magazine's latest issue, on newsstands now. "He would be incredibly touched if she came and they could talk over old times — the good times." (Photo Credit: Getty Images) Lucky for Burt, a long-awaited reunion with Sally, 71, could actually happen. According to his close pal, the Emmy winner is considering a move to La from Tequesta, Fl where he's lived at Valhalla, a Spanish Revival–style mansion on waterfront property, for the past 30 years. Not only would the West Coast bring him physically closer to Sally,...

"When you're famous, everybody wants to screw ya." So sayeth Vic Edwards, the faded screen idol portrayed by Burt Reynolds in Adam Rifkin's The Last Movie Star. This former sex symbol has long since passed the "everybody wants to screw ya" stage, his body forever wracked by too many film stunts and eyebrows perpetually levitated from too many facelifts. He spends much of his time bemoaning the wreckage of his life and career, both of which went off the rails decades ago due to a series of poor decisions.

Los Angeles – When Adam West had a voice role on “The Simpsons,” portraying the Batman – as he had in the iconic TV series from 1966 through 1968 – he remarked, in reference to the rubber muscle costume that the movie actors wore, that his Batman was “All Pure West.” West died on June 9th, 2017, at the age of 88.

His career had three acts – first as a movie/TV contract performer, then as the title character on “Batman” in 1966, and then, after a struggle to go beyond that hero role, as a notable voice actor… most famous as Mayor Adam West on the animated series “Family Guy.” For years, as he was struggling with the inability to get jobs because of his brilliantly weird and cartoonish portrayal of The Dark Knight, he tried to shake the character. But as his career blossomed again, and The Batman took off in movies, he re-engaged with his superhero self,...

Mark Harrison May 19, 2017

From the currently playing Their Finest to the likes of Bowfinger and Boogie Nights, we salute the movies about making movies...

If you haven't caught up yet, Their Finest is currently playing in UK cinemas and it's a gorgeous little love letter to perseverance through storytelling, set against the backdrop of a film production office at the British Ministry of Information during the Second World War. Based on Lissa Evans' novel, Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy play characters whose access to the film industry has been contingent on the global crisis that takes other young men away from such trifling matters, and it's a real joy to watch.

Among other things, the film got us thinking about other films about making films. We're not talking about documentaries, even though Hearts Of Darkness, the documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now, may be the greatest film about...

He starred opposite Charles Bronson in The Mechanic in 1972 (see where that falls on my list of best Bronson movies Here) and he played the title role in Disney’s The World’S Greatest Athlete the next year. Jan-Michael Vincent went on to star in a string of modest hits in the ‘70s – Baby Blue Marine, Buster And Billie, Defiance, Vigilante Force and my favorite – White Line Fever. He was in Bite The Bullet with Gene Hackman in 1975 and costarred with Burt Reynolds in Hooper in 1978. Jan-Michael Vincent has been somewhat forgotten over the last couple of decades, but now author David Grove has written a book about the actor; Jan-Michael Vincent Edge of Greatness

With his chiseled features, effortless screen presence, otherworldly vitality, striking blue eyes, Jan-Michael Vincent seemed destined for superstardom. However, the real Jan-Michael Vincent was a reluctant sex symbol plagued by doubt and low self-confidence, a perpetual misfit doomed to alcoholism.

2013 TCM Classic Film Festival at Tcl Chinese Theatre on Apr 27, 2013 in Los Angeles, CA.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) announced today that renowned actor Burt Reynolds is set to attend the 2016 TCM Classic Film Festival, taking place in Hollywood April 28 – May 1, to participate in a sit-down interview about his life and career. In addition to the interview, Reynolds will be on-hand to introduce a screening of The Longest Yard (1974), for which he received a Golden Globe® nomination for Best Actor. The interview will be taped Saturday, April 30 in front of a live audience of festival pass holders at The Ricardo Montalbán Theatre.

“For more than five decades, Burt Reynolds has been both a superstar and a force to be reckoned with on screens around the globe, having ranked among the top ten box office attractions in the world on 13 different occasions,” said TCM host Robert Osborne. “He is one of the...

(This is the first in an occasional series in which I remember some of the best double features I’ve been lucky enough to see projected in a theater.)

The New Beverly Cinema, the oldest surviving revival theater in Los Angeles, has this week dished up a time-capsule glimpse into America’s popular obsession with Cb, or citizen’s band, radio and the largely mythological outlaw trucker culture through which it crackled. If you’re of a certain age (mine), and you ever cruised around town or down the highway jabbering to friends and strangers on an open channel frequency (I did—my handle was The Godfather!), given the opportunity I don’t see how you could possibly resist the chance to see the ultimate trucker-cb action-comedy pairing, Hal Needham’s Smokey and the Bandit and Sam Peckinpah’s Convoy. (I couldn’t!) As of this writing, the morning of...

M'lynn. Gidget. Norma Rae. The Flying Nun. Sybil. Edna Spalding. Mary Todd Lincoln. Mrs Gump. We know her by many names but the one we'll always love best is "Sally Field," perfectly stage-name appropriate for instant recall and audience adoration... and also her real name since birth.

Though she's been famous for literally half a century (!) she hasn't always been properly appreciated... a common fate for stars whose work looks effortless and who excel in "light" genres like dramedies and romantic comedies. But we like her. We really really like her. Don't you?

Her biggest hits: Forrest Gump, Mrs Doubtfire, Hooper, Lincoln, Steel Magnolias, and literally every film she made with Burt Reynolds from 1977-1980 -- audiences couldn't get enough of them together back then. Most frequent co-stars: Burt Reynolds (4), Jeff Bridges, Michael Caine, Dom de Luise, Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, and Tommy Lee Jones (2). Awards haul: 3 Emmys, 2 Oscars, 1 SAG,...

James Best, who played the memorable Sherrif Roscoe P. Coltrane on the hit TV series The Dukes of Hazzard, passed away yesterday at the age of 88 from complications of pneumonia. The actor played Roscoe P. Coltrane, the longtime rival to the Duke brothers, on all seven seasons of The Dukes of Hazzard, which ran from 1979 to 1985.

The actor was raised in Indiana and ended up moving to New York after serving in World War II. He found work as a fashion model which lead to him being discoverd by a casting agent. He became a contract player for Universal Pictures. He appeared in a number of films throughout the 1950s such as Winchester '73 alongside James Stewart and The Cimarron Kid with Audie Murphy. He ended up working in both TV and film throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, appearing in notable episodes of The Twilight Zone, Wagon Train and Have Gun - Will Travel,...

Welcome back to This Week In Discs! If you see something you like, click on the title to buy it from Amazon. Hooper Sonny Hooper (Burt Reynolds) is the world’s greatest living stuntman, but his age is catching up with him as evidenced by the bevy of aches and pains his body is feeling these days. His long-suffering girlfriend (Sally Field) sees it as a sign that he should exit the business, but when a young upstart (Jan-Michael Vincent) threatens to outshine Hooper onscreen the veteran is forced to up his game if he wants to compete. I stand by the belief that ’70s Burt Reynolds is the best Burt Reynolds, and this light-hearted comedic romp is a prime example. Powered by a goofy mentality and Reynolds’ charisma, the movie entertains despite featuring the slightest of plots and an absolutely terrible stance on drunk driving. (It’s all for it.) The...

Honorary Oscars 2014: Hayao Miyazaki, Jean-Claude Carrière, and Maureen O’Hara; Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award goes to Harry Belafonte One good thing about the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards — an expedient way to remove the time-consuming presentation of the (nearly) annual Honorary Oscar from the TV ratings-obsessed, increasingly youth-oriented Oscar show — is that each year up to four individuals can be named Honorary Oscar recipients, thus giving a better chance for the Academy to honor film industry veterans while they’re still on Planet Earth. (See at the bottom of this post a partial list of those who have gone to the Great Beyond, without having ever received a single Oscar statuette.) In 2014, the Academy’s Board of Governors has selected a formidable trio of honorees: Japanese artist and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, 73; French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, 82; and Irish-born Hollywood actress Maureen O’Hara,...

There's just days to go before Ellen DeGeneres hosts the biggest event in the movie world's calendar - the 86th annual Academy Awards.

This year's nominees include newcomers Lupita Nyong'o and Barkhad Abdi, who are recognised for their supporting breakthrough performances in 12 Years a Slave and Captain Phillips respectively.

Ahead of Sunday's (March 2) glittering ceremony at Hollywood's Kodak Theater, we reminisce upon other breakthrough roles from some of the youngest Oscar-nominated stars in history - and what they've gone on to do since - below:

Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon

Tatum O'Neal became the youngest Oscar winner in history, picking up the Best Supporting Actress trophy at the tender age of 10 for her role as strong-willed tomboy Addie in Paper Moon (1973), in which she appeared opposite her father Ryan O'Neal.

The actress went on to appear in successful movies such as The Bad News Bears Nickelodeon with Burt Reynolds, and...

There's just days to go before Ellen DeGeneres hosts the biggest event in the movie world's calendar - the 86th annual Academy Awards.

This year's nominees include newcomers Lupita Nyong'o and Barkhad Abdi, who are recognised for their supporting breakthrough performances in 12 Years a Slave and Captain Phillips respectively.

Ahead of Sunday's (March 2) glittering ceremony at Hollywood's Kodak Theater, we reminisce upon other breakthrough roles from some of the youngest Oscar-nominated stars in history - and what they've gone on to do since - below:

Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon

Tatum O'Neal became the youngest Oscar winner in history, picking up the Best Supporting Actress trophy at the tender age of 10 for her role as strong-willed tomboy Addie in Paper Moon (1973), in which she appeared opposite her father Ryan O'Neal.

The actress went on to appear in successful movies such as The Bad News Bears Nickelodeon with Burt Reynolds, and...

With the news that the African Queen has become a tourist boat on the Nile, we look at other screen boats that have captured film fans' imaginations

Boats and films go together like the seaside and scampi. There's the 320-tonne steamboat in Fitzcarraldo that Werner Herzog famously had the film's extras cart over a hill to get it from one tributary of the Amazon to another. Then there's Kevin Costner's trusty trimaran in Waterworld, the U-96 of Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot, Forrest Gump's shrimping vessel, and Jenny and One-Eyed Willy's ship, The Inferno, which the truffle-shuffling gang come across in The Goonies. This year, we'll be popping our life-jackets on again in readiness for another boat film, Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic Noah.

With the original African Queen now reincarnated as a tourist boat on the river Nile, we decided to take a look at what other...

Needham in 1980.

Stuntman-turned-director Hal Needham has died from unspecified causes at age 82. Needham had a long history as one of the best stuntmen in feature films and television before he moved into directing movies. Needham's films were hardly the stuff of art house theaters. He specialized in testosterone-packed action sequences designed to appeal squarely at male audiences. Along the way, he was also credited with developing methods that reduced the risk for the many stuntmen who populated his films. Needham made his directorial debut in 1977 with Smokey and the Bandit starring his old friend Burt Reynolds. Critics scoffed at the cornball humor and endless car stunts and the film laid an egg in urban play dates. However, it resonated with its intended audiences in rural areas and eventually the grosses brought to blockbuster status. The movie not only cemented Reynolds as a genuine superstar but gave new life to the...

Hollywood stuntman and film director who scored huge successes with Smokey and the Bandit and The Cannonball Run

Upset by the critical response to his work, the stuntman turned film director Hal Needham, who has died aged 82, took out advertisements in Variety and other trade papers. They featured quotes from negative reviews for his movies including Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and The Cannonball Run (1981), alongside a wheelbarrow overflowing with dollar bills.

Needham made a point. His rumbustious 1977 directorial debut had grossed over $100m – an enormous return on its modest budget. He was still milking that particular creation some 20 years later, producing and directing a series of television movies, including Bandit Goes Country and Beauty and the Bandit.

These and other films, many of which starred Burt Reynolds, were seen by an audience of hundreds of millions worldwide, yet few reference books acknowledged his 45-year-long career — an unjustified omission, if only...

Yesterday, Hollywood Reporter posted that legendary stunt man and stuntfilm-director Hal Needham has died from cancer, aged 82. Quite possibly the most famous all-round stunt man ever in the history of Hollywood, Hal Needham had a decades long career as a stunt double (and later stunt-coordinator) in the 50s, 60 and 70s. In 1976 he decided to have some fun and direct his friend Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit, based on an idea they had both developed. It was a huge financial success and the stunt-based comedy made car stunts almost a genre in itself. Not one to shy away from a successful formula, Hal Needham made a number of similar films like Hooper and The Cannonball Run, and a bunch of sequels....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Stuntman and Burt Reynolds director Hal Needham dead at 82: Received Honorary Oscar in November 2012 Veteran stuntman and stunt coordinator Hal Needham, whose stunt-work movie credits ranged from John Ford Westerns to Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, and who directed a handful of popular action comedies starring Burt Reynolds, died today, October 25, 2013, in Los Angeles. Needham, who had been suffering from cancer, was 82. (See also: "Stunt Worker Hal Needham: Honorary Oscar 2012".) Born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 6, 1931, Hal Needham began his long Hollywood stuntman career in the mid-’50s. A former tree trimmer and paratrooper, and a motorcycle and car racer, Needham performed stunts in both big-screen and small-screen Westerns, such as John Ford’s 1962 classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, starring John Wayne and James Stewart; the all-star 1963 Best Picture Academy Award nominee How the West Was Won; and the television series Have Gun - Will Travel, doubling for star Richard Boone.

He wrecked hundreds of cars, fell from tall buildings, got blown up and was dragged by horses. As a stuntman, he broke 56 bones, including his back twice! Memphis-born Hal Needham revolutionized the art of the stuntman in films such as How The West Was Won, Stagecoach (1966), Hellfighters, Little Big Man, and hundreds of TV shows. He was a regular stunt double for Burt Reynolds and began his movie directing career with Burt as his lead in Smokey And The Bandit, the second highest-grossing film of 1977 next to Star Wars. He would direct Reynolds in four more films including Stroker Ace, Cannonball Run, and Hooper, which was not a tribute to just stuntmen in general, but to Needham’s hero Jock Mahoney , considered the greatest stuntman in Hollywood (and the stepfather of Hooper co-star Sally Field). Needham’s Megaforce (1982) is an ‘80s time capsule kitsch masterpiece and the delirious The Villain...

Long before director Tom Hooper decided to capture every stutter, breath, and shaky note on-set in last year's musical adaptation of “Les Miserables,” the 1975 Burt Reynolds-starrer “At Long Last Love” captured the same immediacy just as well, but garnered none of Hooper's acclaim. The film was a flop both critically and financially, and -- alongside two other such failures -- sidelined its helmer, Peter Bogdanovich, for a spell. But with the musical now experiencing a re-release on Blu-ray, the legendary director spoke recently about the unexpected occasion, and much more. Aside from the on-set soundtrack (maintained by tiny earpieces in the actors' ears), “At Long Last Love” also beat “De-Lovely” to the Cole Porter punch, featuring 18 songs by the prolific composer throughout. And during a recent conversation on Kcrw's The Business, Bogdanovich recounted how the film re-entered his life. “Somebody called me and said 'At Long Last Love' is.

Recent hot cinema topics such as the portrayal of the Mandarin character in Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 and speculations about what classic Star Trek villain Benedict Cumberbatch’s character in J.J Abrams’ Star Trek: Into Darkness was modeled after leading up to the film’s release, among others, underline the importance of great villains in genre cinema.

Creating a great cinematic villain is a difficult goal that makes for an incredibly rewarding and memorable viewer experience when it is achieved.

We’ll now take a look at the greatest film villains. Other writing on this subject tends to be a bit unfocused, as “greatest villain” articles tend to mix live-action human villains with animated characters and even animals. Many of these articles also lack a cohesive quality as they attempt to cover too much ground at once by spanning all of film history.

This article focuses on the 1970’s,...