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Akira Kurosawa Could Have Had A Very Different Directorial Debut By Shae Sennett/July 28, 2022 6:40 pm EST Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa has directed some of the most universally beloved movies of all time, but there was one movie that he wasn’t allowed to make. When he first began writing scripts, the Japanese government was deeply militaristic and aligned with the WWII-era Axis powers. Kurosawa struggled with censors and production companies to get his first few projects funded....

Ana De Armas’ Character In The Gray Man Is More Than Just A Love Interest Netflix By Sandy Schaefer/July 14, 2022 10:37 am EST “The Gray Man” has gone through some wildly different permutations on its way to the big screen. Early on, the film adaptation of Mark Greaney’s 2009 debut novel of the same name was set to be a Brad Pitt vehicle directed by James Gray, years before the duo teamed up for 2019’s “Ad Astra” (tragically depriving us of countless dad jokes about “The Gray Man” and its “Gray” director in the process)....

Ari Aster’s First Cut Of Midsommar Dwarfed The Theatrical Runtime A24 By Witney Seibold/July 29, 2022 8:31 pm EST Ari Aster’s “Midsommar” contains one of the bleakest openings in cinema history. The audience sees, in explicit detail, the tragic deaths of a young woman and her parents by murder/suicide. Dani (Florence Pugh), the young woman’s sister, begins the film in a place of deep emotional aching, an ache that is exacerbated by the brash distance kept by her teetering-on-the-brink-of-being-an-ex boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor)....

Band Of Brothers’ Bastogne Forest Wasn’t Actually A Forest At All HBO By Anya Stanley/Dec. 14, 2022 10:04 pm EST It’s known that HBO’s 10-part miniseries “Band of Brothers” is something of an extension of Steven Spielberg’s celebrated 1998 war film “Saving Private Ryan.” Part of the reverence for the Spielberg-Tom Hanks co-creation comes from an appreciation for the meticulously re-created history, from Belgian villages to liberated concentration camps; the production even shares the filming location of Ellenbrooke Fields with “Saving Private Ryan....

Bette Midler Explains Why First Wives Club 2 Never Got Made Paramount By Jeremy Smith/Oct. 3, 2022 4:25 pm EST Of the seven features Bette Midler made during the 1990s, if there was one movie that seemed destined to be sequelized, it was Hugh Wilson’s “The First Wives Club.” The adaptation of Olivia Goldsmith’s novel about a trio of divorcees who join forces to scheme millions from their philanderous ex-husbands hit the box-office bullseye in the fall of 1996, grossing $105 million at the U....

BioShock Director Francis Lawrence Explains What Drew Him To The Adaptation: ‘It’s One Of The Best Games Ever Created’ 2K Games By Tyler Llewyn Taing/Nov. 14, 2022 7:38 pm EST Have you heard the tale of the video game curse? Every video game adaptation Hollywood greenlights always seems to be fated for failure in some way — a box office bomb, a flurry of unfortunate adaptational choices, or even worse, a fade into cultural obscurity....

Blazing Saddles’ Set Was Mel Brooks And Gene Wilder’s Young Frankenstein Laboratory By Jeremy Smith/Nov. 2, 2022 3:24 pm EST What do you do in your downtime while you’re making a comedy classic? If you’re Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, you start making another! When “Blazing Saddles” went into production in the spring of 1973, Brooks was still largely renowned for his television writing on the legendary “Your Show of Shows” and his “The 2000 Year Old Man” stage routine with Carl Reiner....

Control Trailer First up, Saban has provided us with the exclusive trailer for their forthcoming supernatural sci-fi thriller “Control,” starring Sara Mitich, George Tchortov, and Evie Loiselle. Directed by James Mark, the film will be available in select theaters on September 23, 2022 as well as on demand and digital starting September 27. Here is the official synopsis: A mother locked inside a stark room is tasked by an unknown voice to complete increasingly difficult challenges if she wants to save her daughter’s life....

House Of The Dragon Will ‘Get To The Spectacle’ Of War In Season 2 HBO By Mike Shutt/Oct. 23, 2022 12:06 pm EST For a show that I have had my issues with, one of my favorite elements about “House of the Dragon” is its commitment to generally playing out the drama out in scenes of people talking in rooms. With “Game of Thrones,” my favorite scenes were always the moments of backroom wheeling and dealing between characters who each did not have the most upstanding morality, looking for a way to accrue more power....

It Took Three Separate Actors To Bring Psycho’s Norma Bates To Life Paramount Pictures By Devin Meenan/Nov. 30, 2022 7:58 pm EST Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates is one of the most famous villains in horror cinema — or is he? After all, technically it was his mother Norma who murdered Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), Arbogast (Martin Balsam), and other offscreen victims. Or rather, it was the version of his mother who lived in Norman’s head....

Kevin Bacon Didn’t Have High Hopes For Tremors Until His First Day On Set Universal By Drew Tinnin/Oct. 24, 2022 3:52 pm EST The phenomenal success of “Footloose” launched Kevin Bacon into newfound stardom and recognition when it danced its way into theaters in February of 1984. Bacon had already appeared in “Friday the 13th” and Barry Levinson’s coming-of-age classic “Diner,” but the role of Ren McCormack essentially made the young heartthrob a household name....

M3GAN Trailer: Sugar And Spice And A Dancing Killer Robot Universal Pictures By Danielle Ryan/Dec. 7, 2022 11:55 am EST Every once in a while, a totally gonzo movie comes along that helps audiences remember the weird and wild joys possible in cinema. The 2021 film “Malignant” did just that, with a totally bonkers third act that took everyone by surprise. Now, from the writer of “Malignant” and the director of one of the best independent horror-comedies ever, “Housebound,” comes “M3GAN,” about a doll-like robot created for the express purpose of protecting its primary user — in this case, a little girl named Cady (Violet McGraw)....

Matthew Weiner Was Very Meticulous About Casting Mad Men’s Extras AMC By Michael Boyle/Aug. 19, 2022 9:26 pm EST Although “Mad Men” was a show that paid a lot of attention to detail, it did mess up on occasion. For instance, the writing on the sign on the Sterling Cooper building in the early seasons is in the Gil Sans font, a font that was not in popular use until the seventies!...

Melissa McBride’s Big The Mist Monologue Left The Cast And Crew Astonished [Exclusive] Dimension Films By BJ Colangelo/Nov. 21, 2022 4:30 pm EST In 2010, Melissa McBride joined the cast of the recently-concluded zombie series, “The Walking Dead,” developed and executive-produced by Frank Darabont. The post-apocalyptic show went on to be one of the most popular and financially successful TV series in history, and even inspired a spin-off series starring McBride and co-star Norman Reedus where the two would reprise their roles as Carol Peletier and Daryl Dixon....

‘Completely straight and completely committed’ Disney During this year’s D23 Expo, there was a panel to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “The Muppet Christmas Carol,” which also announced that the full, uncut film will finally be released this December on Disney+. Dalin Rowell of /Film attended the panel where director Brian Henson talked about the earliest conversation he had with Michael Caine about Scrooge, and even then, Caine knew exactly how to play the part:...

One Of The Lord Of The Rings’ Signature Special Effects Left An Impression On Cate Blanchett New Line Cinema By Sandy Schaefer/Oct. 28, 2022 12:34 pm EST History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years (give or take 2,479 years), nerds like us refused to shut up about all the cinematic wizardry Peter Jackson and his production team employed to bring Middle-earth to life in their “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy....

Remembering Paul Sorvino’s Guest Role On Star Trek: The Next Generation Paramount By Witney Seibold/July 25, 2022 4:41 pm EST Actor Paul Sorvino passed away at the age of 83 on July 25, 2022. His outsize personality and “tough guy” features saw him playing many characters with nicknames in quotation marks: “Hips” in “The Gambler,” “Big Joe” in “Angel and Big Joe,” “Chubby” De Coco in “Bloodbrothers,” “Jazz” Maffie in “The Brinks Job,” “Lips” Manliss in “Dick Tracy....

The Last Jedi was always meant to be about the myth of Star Wars Lucasfilm While promoting the upcoming release of “Glass Onion” for Empire, Johnson reflected on the legacy of “The Last Jedi.” Over five years detached from the film’s theatrical release, he still considers himself very proud of the finished result, as he should be. “When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball,” says Johnson....

Robert Aramayo Turned To Obscure Lord Of The Rings Lore To Prepare For The Rings Of Power Prime Video By Rafael Motamayor/Sept. 22, 2022 4:21 pm EST “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is expanding what we thought we knew about Middle-earth. The TV adaptation of the appendices for “The Lord of the Rings” is telling an epic story of loss, corruption, fear, and the rise of evil on the land....

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) MGM It goes without saying that Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” is one of the greatest achievements in cinematic history. It’s one of the few classic films that is as awe-inspiring today as it was during its initial release. One of the best things about the movie is its ambiguity. Over five decades have passed since the film was first screened, and sci-fi fans are still debating what the monolith, the Star Child, and the Star Gate represent....