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Mel Novak, the great movie villain known for his slick turns as the sniper Stick in Bruce Lee’s Game of Death, the gangster Blue Eyes in Jim Kelly’s Black Belt Jones and the informant Tony Montoya in Chuck Norris’ An Eye for an Eye, has died. He was 90.

Novak died Wednesday of natural causes at a hospice facility in Granada Hills, his daughter Nikol Conant told The Hollywood Reporter.

In a career that spanned seven decades, the charismatic Novak did lots of his own stunts, as in The Ultimate Warrior (1975), starring Yul Brynner and Max von Sydow. That was one of the four films he made with Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse.

In his death scene for that post-apocalyptic adventure, “They covered me with peanut butter and sunflower seeds and then put 40 live rats on me,” Novak recalled in a 2018 interview. “I told their trainer, ‘If one of them bites me,...

Last year, Charles Band’s company Full Moon announced that they were launching a new production label called Pulp Noir, which would focus on “edgier, weirder, darker horror and dark fantasy films.” Two Pulp Noir movies, Quadrant and Death Streamer, have since made their way through production – and while those movies were initially released in color, all of the Pulp Noir movies will also get black & white “noir” releases, so there are both color and black & white versions of Quadrant and Death Streamer available on the Full Moon Features streaming service. While we wait for more Pulp Noir movies to be made, Band has started going through the Full Moon library to give some of their older films the black & white / noir treatment. This noir series, which is expected to consist of at least a dozen films, got started with a black & white version of the 1984 sci-fi thriller Christmas classic Trancers.

‘Onward’ (Photo credit: Disney).

In his 63 years as a film programmer, Bob Parr had never experienced anything like the current crisis as ticket sales flatlined across the country over the past few weeks.

“All exhibitors and distributors are losing a lot of money,” the Wallis Cinemas consultant told If on Sunday. “Many cinemas have closed because there are no patrons.

“Many small exhibitors make their living in school holidays and barely break even except for blockbusters during the remaining time. They are in the business because they love it.”

Later that day the Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced all cinemas and entertainment venues, registered and licensed clubs, hotels, pubs, casinos and nightclubs will close today.

Exhibitors and distributors had been steeling themselves for that decision after cinemas were shuttered in the Us, the UK and myriad other markets.

Now facing zero cash flow, they have to lay off permanent and casual staff,...

They may not be household names like their A-list colleagues, but the actors on this list have appeared in some of our all-time favourite geek movies...

Some actors dabble in sci-fi; others dip their toe into fantasy; some may even make an appearance in the odd horror film - all before returning to the safety of the genres in which they feel more comfortable - perhaps a nice, award-chasing period drama, or a well-paid romantic comedy.

A-listers may see the geeky films that we on this site enjoy and celebrate as fun little side-projects, but there are actors out there who commit full-time to these types of movies. It is high time, therefore, that we credited these individuals with the recognition they deserve.

Besides the stipulation that, in order to be included, an actor had to still be alive and working today, there were no strict criteria that had to...