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Big screen Westerns might've been falling out of favor at the U.S. box office in 1965 (thus paving the way for Spaghetti Westerns to become a surprise sensation when Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy rode into movie theaters throughout the course of 1967), but television Westerns were still swaggering their way to strong ratings thanks to "Bonanza," "Gunsmoke," and the hybrid Western/spy/sci-fi series "The Wild Wild West." And with "Rawhide" finally drawing to a close that year (thereby allowing its star Clint Eastwood to become a modern Western star), there was suddenly room for a new, sudsy, ranch-bound saga about scheming landowners and warring heirs.

"The Big Valley" whooped it up for a solid four-season run, running out of steam in 1969 at around the same moment the television Westerns began going the way of classical big screen oaters. Until then, viewers were hooked on the doings at the Barkley Ranch,...

What would "Frasier" be without its supporting cast? Well, now we know. The "Frasier" revival has finally hit Paramount+ with only Kelsey Grammer returning, and the result is something that's neither disappointing nor remarkable. The original sitcom ran for 11 seasons from 1993 to 2004, and featured a cast of beloved characters that helped ground the often insufferably pompous Frasier Crane as he went about trying to build a new life for himself in Seattle.

Whether it was John Mahoney as Frasier's blue collar cop father, Martin, or Peri Gilpin as his straight-talking producer, Roz, the titular shrink always had people around him that helped to highlight his own pretentiousness when he most needed it. David Hyde Pierce as Frasier's Brother Niles would often encourage the ego-driven pomposity, but much like star Kelsey Grammer, the actor brought such a likable quality to the role that Niles remained as endearing as everyone else in the show.

It’s not uncommon for co-stars to have crushes on each other or even enter relationships. Actors spend long hours on set and tend to get pretty close to those they work with. This happened to Lee Majors and Linda Evans, who both starred in The Big Valley. Their characters may have had a brother-sister bond, but Majors and Evans briefly dated in real life.

What was the plot of ‘The Big Valley’?

Running from 1965-1969, The Big Valley was a popular Western. According to IMDb, the series followed the lives of the Barkley family, who resided in Stockton, California, on the Barkley Ranch. Victoria Barkley is the family matriarch, and she has two sons, Jarrod and Nick, and her daughter Audra.

Victoria’s husband, Thomas, died six years before the show’s beginning but is often mentioned, and the family is one of the wealthiest in town. They are...

For as long as American media has existed, so too has the allure of a Western. Stories set in the Wild West play an outsized role in the country’s self-mythology, and one of the genre’s favorite tropes is the duel between two opposing gunfighters. These duels often came down to one simple question: who was the fastest in the West? It turns out that few had the reflexes or mental sharpness of Nick Barkley, a character on the show The Big Valley played by Peter Breck.

Breck was one of many actors who learned to fire their weapons accurately in no time. But who was the quickest? It’s a question without a definitive answer.

Peter Breck played the young hothead in ‘The Big Valley’

The Big Valley took place in Stockton, California, from 1884 to 1888. The show followed the lives of the Barkley family. They were wealthy owners...

A beloved Western drama series that ran on TV for five years, The Big Valley is still fondly remembered by many fans of a certain age. With a star-studded cast, including the iconic actor Barbara Stanwyck in a leading role, The Big Valley is often considered a precursor to shows such as Yellowstone.

Even though the show was only on TV for a few years, which isn’t terribly long compared to other Western dramas like Bonanza, the series made an impact. These days, many fans are discovering The Big Valley for the first time and diving deep into the life stories of some of the show’s cast members. That includes Charles Briles, whose tenure on The Big Valley was short but impactful.

What is ‘The Big Valley’ about?

Go outside in the cold? Nahh…we'd rather watch #TheBigValley today at 10a Et. pic.twitter.com/tTWRnCxhi2

— Insp (@insp...

The Big Valley was one of the last prominent TV shows of the Western craze that swept Hollywood for decades. Waning viewer interest in the genre cut the four-season drama short. Yet even with a truncated run, the show launched several Big Valley cast members to stardom and embedded itself in the public consciousness via syndication.

Without The Big Valley, audiences might never have gotten iconic shows like The Six Million Dollar Man. There are actors still working today whose careers benefitted from appearances in the Western series. But are any main cast members from The Big Valley still alive?

The Western series was a big hit in syndication ‘The Big Valley’ cast portrait | Bettmann via Getty Images

The Big Valley was a primetime drama that aired on ABC from Sept. 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969. While each episode wore the traditional Western genre trappings, the plot’s core was the multi-generational family drama of the wealthy Barkleys.

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On July 2, 1946, director-star Orson Welles unveiled noir film The Stranger in Los Angeles. The film went on to earn a nomination in the writing category at the 19th Academy Awards. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review, titled “‘The Stranger’ Will Know High Boxoffice Returns,” is below:

In The Stranger, International Pictures delivers the sixth and final feature for release through Rko-Radio. It is an entertainment of the same high quality that has distinguished previous product by the Leo Spitz-William Goetz organization which will schedule future releases through United World Pictures. Produced by S. P. Eagle and directed by Orson Welles, who with Edward C. Robinson and Loretta Young comprise the trio of stars, boxoffice expectancies are exceptionally strong for this tense and suspenseful melodrama. It starts out on the note of a chase, thoughtfully develops every possible punch, builds legitimate interest in the...

Veteran character actor Richard Herd, best known for portraying Mr. Wilhelm on “Seinfeld,” died on Tuesday at his Los Angeles home of complications from cancer. He was 87.

The Boston native broke into show business as a stage actor in New York. He made his film debut in 1970’s “Hercules in New York.” Herd was hired as Richard Long’s replacement for the part of Watergate burglar James McCord in Alan J. Pakula’s “All the President’s Men.”

Herd’s big-screen credits included “The China Syndrome” (1979) “F.I.S.T.” (1979), “The Onion Field” (1979), “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (1987) and “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” (1997). He portrayed Supreme Commander John in the 1983 NBC miniseries “V” and its sequel; the Klingon L’Kor on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”; Admiral William Noyce on “seaQuest 2032”; and Admiral Owen Paris on “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Star Trek: Renegades.”

Herd made 11 appearances on “Seinfeld” as Mr.

[This Halloween season, we're paying tribute to classic horror cinema by celebrating films released before 1970! Check back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic horror films, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Halloween 2019 special features!]

“Only the ghosts in this house are glad we’re here.” While William Castle didn’t invent the “strangers meeting in a singular location under sinister circumstances” motif that was at the heart of House on Haunted Hill back in 1959, it was Castle’s late ’50s shocker that repopularized it amongst movie fans in America, with the help of his “Emergo” gimmicks, and building on the grand success of Macabre just a year prior.

Castle put out a lot of memorable horror jaunts during his career, and even 60 years since House on Haunted Hill first thrilled audiences with its supernaturally charged mystery, its influence looms over the realm of genre storytelling and is still being felt today. Like many of Castle’s genre efforts, it delivered up immersive thrills and chills, and House became yet another major turning point in Castle’s career as well, cementing his legacy as the...

Edward G. Robinson uncovers another killer, but this time he’s after a Nazi mass murderer, not an insurance salesman. Orson Welles’ most conventional thriller is a masterpiece of style and judgment, with a good sense of time and place – and a lot of expressive shadows. How does this new Blu-ray shape up in comparison to earlier presentations?

The Stranger

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1946 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date August 29, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, Orson Welles, Philip Merivale, Richard Long, Konstantin Shayne, Billy House.

Cinematography: Russell Metty

Production Design: Perry Ferguson

Art Direction: Albert S. D’Agostino

Film Editor: Ernest Nims

Original Music: Bronislau Kaper

Written by Anthony Veiller, Decla Dunning, Victor Trivas

Produced by Sam Spiegel

Directed by Orson Welles

Up pops Olive Films with another Blu-ray of Orson Welles’ impressive The Stranger, for the first time an HD scan...

The first Vincent Price collection from Scream Factory was a pure treasure. When October rolls around, almost nothing puts me in the Halloween mood like a constant stream of Vincent Price films on my TV. Never did I think that Scream could improve upon their original price collection, but when the films that would be included in this new set were announced, I was shocked. The first Vincent Price Collection has some really solid Price films, mostly of a Poe nature, and it was one of the most exciting releases of the year for fans of classic horror. The second set, drops the Poe theme(mostly), and includes some of Price’s most famous, well-regarded films, including a couple of my favorites. The list of films is impressive, and there are extras on most of the films. The packaging is consistent, and equally pleasing to the eyes. Scream Factory’s...

Polly Bergen: 'Desperate Housewives' Emmy nominee; winner for 'The Helen Morgan Story' (photo: Felicity Huffman, Doug Savant, and Polly Bergen in 'Desperate Housewives') (See previous article: "Polly Bergen: Actress on Richard Nixon 'Enemies List'.") Polly Bergen began her lengthy — and to some extent prestigious — television career in 1950, making sporadic appearances in anthology series. She won an Emmy for Best Actress in a Single Performance – Lead or Supporting — beating Julie Andrews, Helen Hayes, Teresa Wright, and Piper Laurie — for playing troubled torch singer Helen Morgan (Show Boat) in the 1957 Playhouse 90 episode "The Helen Morgan Story," featuring veteran Sylvia Sidney as Morgan's mother. Curiously, Bergen's retelling of Helen Morgan's story was broadcast the same year that Ann Blyth starred in Michael Curtiz's Morgan biopic. Also titled The Helen Morgan Story, the film focused on the relationship between the singer and a...

Claudette Colbert movies on Turner Classic Movies: From ‘The Smiling Lieutenant’ to TCM premiere ‘Skylark’ (photo: Claudette Colbert and Maurice Chevalier in ‘The Smiling Lieutenant’) Claudette Colbert, the studio era’s perky, independent-minded — and French-born — "all-American" girlfriend (and later all-American wife and mother), is Turner Classic Movies’ star of the day today, August 18, 2014, as TCM continues with its "Summer Under the Stars" film series. Colbert, a surprise Best Actress Academy Award winner for Frank Capra’s 1934 comedy It Happened One Night, was one Paramount’s biggest box office draws for more than decade and Hollywood’s top-paid female star of 1938, with reported earnings of $426,944 — or about $7.21 million in 2014 dollars. (See also: TCM’s Claudette Colbert day in 2011.) Right now, TCM is showing Ernst Lubitsch’s light (but ultimately bittersweet) romantic comedy-musical The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), a Best Picture Academy Award nominee starring Maurice Chevalier as a French-accented Central European lieutenant in...

The first Vincent Price collection that was released by Scream Factory is a thing of beauty. It was announced recently that they would bringing us a second collection of Vincent Price films on Blu-ray, and I couldn’t be any more excited about it than I already am. Well, maybe I can be, because Scream Factory just released the full details of the set, and it’s going to be a good one. Check out the press release below, and please click here to pre-order your own copy of this collection, which streets on October 21. Man, October is really upon us, isn’t it?

The Vincent Price Collection II

Featuring The First-ever Blu-ray™ Presentation Of

The House On Haunted Hill (1959), The Return Of The Fly (1959),

The Comedy Of Terrors (1963), The Raven (1963),

The Last Man On Earth (1964), The Tomb Of Ligeia (1964),

And Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)

In Stores Everywhere On October...

Do you appreciate a biopic cataloguing the trials and tribulations of fame: abusive relationships, drugs, exploitation, etc.? Are you a closeted connoisseur (or not-so-closeted) of vintage porn, particularly prime 1970s skin flicks? Whether either or both (they're not mutually exclusive), you're in luck this Friday when the Linda Lovelace biopic "Lovelace" hits theaters. (Check out our Berlin review here.) Starring Amanda Seyfried as the "Deep Throat" actress, "Lovelace" follows her rise to fame, thanks to porn, and fall into drugs, leading to Lovelace's ultimate renunciation of the industry. Along the way, Lovelace makes some now iconic porn films with various co-stars including Harry Reems aka "Dick Long" (Adam Brody), and suffers from emotional, physical and drug abuse at the hands of her manager husband (Peter Sarsgaard). On the less seedy side, Lovelace also gets to rub shoulders with the likes of Hugh Hefner (James Franco) and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Ti Lung is probably one of the most famous faces in old school Kung Fu movies, starring in over 100, Lung shows he can stand the test of time and still be watched by millions all over the world.

Name: 狄龍 (狄龙) / Ti Lung (Di Long)

Also known as: Dik Lung / Dick Long / Tommy Tam

Korean name: 적룡 / Juk Ryong

Real name: 譚富榮 (谭富荣) / Tam Fook Wing (Tan Fu Rong)

Profession: Actor

Birthdate: 1946-Aug-03

Birthplace: Hong Kong

Height: 180cm

Weight: 82kg

Star sign: Leo

Chinese zodiac: Dog

Blood type: B

Born:3 August 1946 (age 66)

Selected Filmography:

1970:The Heroic Ones

1973:Blood Brothers

1978:Swordsman And Enchantress

1984:Opium And The Kung Fu Master

1985:Shanghai 13

1986:A Better Tomorrow

1993:The Bare-footed Kid

1994:Drunken Master 2

Background

He studied Wing Chun under the martial arts master Chu Wan. In 1969, Ti was found by the Shaw Brothers and cast in Return of the One-Armed Swordsman opposite Jimmy Wang Yu,...

DVD Release Date: June 19, 2012

Price: DVD $27.95

Studio: First Run Features

Norman Foster's Millau Viaduct over the Gorges du Tarn in France.

The 2010 documentary film How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? chronicles the life and career of England’s Norman Foster, who rose from a humble working class background to become one of the world’s premiere modern architects.

Directed by Norberto López Amada & Carlos Carcas, the movie was filmed in some ten countries, homing on some of Foster’s most iconic works, including London’s Swiss Re Tower, New York’s Hearst Building, Berlin’s Reichstag, Beijing Airport’s International Terminal and the Millau Viaduct over the Gorges du Tarn in France.

Examining the work of an architect whose quest is to improve the quality of life through design, and his work, the film features insights from Foster himself, as well as artists and notables as Anthony Caro,...

Actor Peter Breck (right, in Shock Corridor), best known for his role as the short-tempered Nick Barkley in the 1960s television series The Big Valley, died Monday, Feb. 6, in Vancouver. Breck, who had been suffering from dementia, was 82. Though mostly a TV actor (Black Saddle, Maverick, The Fall Guy), Breck also appeared in about 20 movies. The most notable among those was probably Samuel Fuller's thriller Shock Corridor (1963), in which he plays a journalist who commits himself to a mental institution in order to solve a murder. Additionally, Breck was featured in Joe Camp's blockbuster Benji (1974), about a stray dog who rescues two kidnapped children. Breck's other features were minor fare. Those included Herbert L. Strock's The Crawling Hand (1963), about the hand of a dead astronaut that spends its time strangling the living, plus Highway 61 (1991), Decoy (1995), Lulu (1996), and Jiminy Glick in Lalawood (2004). Breck is the third The Big Valley...

Maybe you had a little too much to drink last night. You wake up with a bit of a headache, fully-dressed, in bed with your wife, and you start to get ready for another ordinary day. And then your wife stares at you and screams. The Twilight Zone, Episode #92: "Person or Persons Unknown" (original air date March 23, 1962) The Plot: David Andrew Gurney (Richard Long) wakes up at home with his wife Wilma (Shirley Ballard) one morning, only for her to turn on him and declare that she doesn't know who he is. (His bristling conversation with her leads one to question the nature of the relationship, in any event.) More than a little perturbed, he heads to the bank where he works,...

Werner Herzog's presence in his own films – including the new Cave of Forgotten Dreams – marks him out as a romantic, eager to experience what he's trying to understand

Few film directors seem as directly present in their work as Werner Herzog. Not only does he have an instantly recognisable aesthetic, but unlike most European auteurs of his generation, he has become a familiar face in front of the camera. We are so accustomed to seeing him – playing football with Peruvian indians, arguing with Klaus Kinski, eating his own shoe at Chez Panisse – that we might mistake him for just another "personality", one of the celebrities who parade past at various scales, from cellphone to Times Square, on our screens. Directors are required to be showmen, particularly directors of documentaries, who always have to hustle to finance and screen their work. But Herzog's presence, his insistence on being in the middle of things,...

Our critics pick the season's highlights. From Elisabeth Moss on stage to Adele's new album, these are the dates for your cultural diary

January

5 Film 127 Hours

Danny Boyle's 10th film tells the story of Aron Ralston, played by James Franco who severed his own arm with a penknife to escape after becoming trapped while hiking in Utah.

7 Film The King's Speech

Colin Firth is introverted monarch George VI, battling a debilitating stutter with the aid of an extroverted therapist (Geoffrey Rush). The ensuing friendship is touching – and, when the second world war breaks out, of national importance.

9 Classical Hollywood Rhapsody

The Bbcso and Chorus celebrate Hollywood's golden age. Composers include Korngold, Waxman, Rózsa; films range from The Wizard of Oz to Gone with the Wind. Barbican, London. 9 Jan only.

11 Theatre Twelfth Night

To mark his 80th birthday, Peter Hall returns to the National theatre, which he ran until 1988. He directs his daughter Rebecca,...

After speaking with Lee Majors, TV Guide reports that Stephen Moyer may have to drop out of The Big Valley, the upcoming feature film that's based on the classic 1965 TV show.

It seems that filming for Big Valley has been delayed a couple times and won't start until the end of November in Louisiana. That's about the same time that Moyer is due back in Los Angeles to begin filming the next season of True Blood. Moyer was cast as eldest son Jarrod Barley, the role that Ryan Phillippe was initially reported to have been landed.

Majors will be playing Tom Barkley, the clan's patriarch. In the original series, Tom has been dead for six years before the first episode begins. Following his death, the Barkley Ranch was run by matriarch Victoria Barkley (Barbara Stanwyck), her three sons (Richard Long, Peter Breck,...

Stephen Moyer will co-star in the feature version of the 1960s ABC series "The Big Valley." The Western television series, which ran on ABC from 1965-69, revolved around the Barkley ranching family in the 1870s San Joaquin Valley.Jessica Lange has been cast as Victoria Barkley, the matriarch of the Barkley family. Barbara Stanwyck originated the role on the TV show. Moyer will play the role of the eldest son Jarrod Barkley. Richard Long played the part on the TV show.According to Variety, production starts July 26 in Baton Rouge, La.Daniel Adams is writing and directing the film.Straw Weisman and Steven Brandman are producing. Kate Edelman Johnson, whose late father Louis F. Edelman created the series along with A.I. Bezzerides, is...

British "True Blood" hunk Stephen Moyer has signed on for a pair of film projects - a spy thriller and a TV adaptation reports Heat Vision.

The first is Hyde Park's "The Double" which centers on a retired CIA operative (Richard Gere) forced to partner with a young FBI agent (Topher Grace) to hunt down the killer of a senator in Washington. Moyer would play a Russian spy.

Scribe Michael Brandt makes his directorial debut on the film which he co-wrote with Derek Haas. Ashok Amritraj, Patrick Aiello and Andrew Deane will produce and shooting kicks off in two weeks in Detroit.

The second is "The Big Valley", a film version of the classic Barbara Stanwyck-led 1960s ABC series. Jessica Lange will take on Stanwyck's role of matriarch of the Barkleys, a family of ranchers in 19th century California.

Moyer will take over Richard Long's role of Jarrod Barkley,...

It was only a matter of time before the insane popularity of HBO’s True Blood earned its cast some big-screen love, and today news broke that Stephen Moyer — the show’s leading vamp, Bill, and real-life fiancé of co-star Anna Paquin — would grace the silver screen in not one, but two upcoming film projects: The adaptation of TV series The Big Valley and the CIA thriller The Double, which marks the directorial debut of screenwriter Michael Brandt (3:10 to Yuma, Wanted).

When the actor begins filming Valley next month, he won’t be too far from his day job...

In the '50s and '60s, TV westerns often dominated the primetime schedules, but by the early '70s, they all seemed go by the wayside. Attempts to revive them haven't been met with much success, save for the Maverick feature film starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, and James Garner.

Now The Big Valley, the western series that launched the careers of Linda Evans and Lee Majors, is going to take a stab at a remake, with Susan Sarandon, Ryan Phillipe, Richard Drefuss, and Bruce Dern in key roles.

The Big Valley originally ran on ABC from 1965 to 1969. Barbara Stanwyck plays a widowed matriarch running a ranch in California. She has three sons and a daughter (Richard Long, Peter Breck, Charles Briles, and Linda Evans). Her late husband's illegitimate son (Lee Majors) joins the clan as the series begins. The family's youngest son,...

Ryan Phillippe was down at South By Southwest last weekend to promote "MacGruber," in which he plays a relatively straight role to Will Forte's MacGyver-like running joke. While chatting MTV's Josh Horowitz up with fellow star Kristen Wiig about the film, Phillippe mentioned another project that he'll soon get started on.

"I think I'm doing a Western in May, with Susan Sarandon, Billy Bob Thornton, Richard Dreyfuss [and] Bruce Dern," he said. "It's called 'The Big Valley,' which was a [television] series in the '60s, and so it's sort of based on that."

Of the director, Phillippe said, "He's a young guy and this is his first film, so you wouldn't know him yet." This is at odds with the movie's IMDb listing, which as Daniel Adams down as the writer and director of "Big Valley." While he's only directed a handful of films, his first was 1989's "A Fool and His Money,...

Susan Sarandon as Victoria Barkley. Sarandon won’t make me forget Barbara Stanwyck, but that would be a great casting coup. I’m talking about a big-screen remake of the 1960s Western series Big Valley, in which Stanwyck played the widow matriarch of the Barkley Ranch in California’s San Joaquin Valley of the 1870s. Her grown children were Richard Long, Peter Breck, and a pre-Dynasty Linda Evans, and there was also a pre-Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors as Big Mama Barkley’s stepson. According to The Hollywood Reporter / Reuters (via Cinematical), Sarandon is "in talks" to play the tough widow who feared nothing. Kate Edelman Johnson, daughter of one of the show’s creator, producer Louis F. Edelman (writer A.I. Bezzerides was [...]...

I'm never quite sure what to make of big screen versions of TV shows. Sometimes they work ('The Brady Bunch,' 'Mission: Impossible'), but more often they don't (too many to list here), because it's as if a show's plot or theme is necessarily great, it's the actors that were in the show and the time when the show aired. You can't recreate that with a big name star and some "nostalgia" factor.

The latest show to get that big screen treatment is 'The Big Valley,' the western that aired on ABC in the mid-60s. It starred Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Long, Linda Evans, and Lee Majors. Kate Edelman Johnson, daughter of show co-creator Louis, is planning to do a movie based on the show and The Hollywood Reporter reports that Sarandon is in talks to play Victoria Barkley, the role Stanwyck played in the show.

With CBS Films working on a feature film version of Gunsmoke, it seems Hollywood has classic '60s TV Westerns squarely in its crosshairs.

The latest Western that's headed for the big screen is The Big Valley, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the 1965-69 series that starred Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Long, Peter Breck, Lee Majors and Linda Evans.

According to the trade, Susan Sarandon is in talks to play the role of Victoria Barkley, the character originated by Stanwyck in the ABC television series.

Stanwyck's Victoria Barkley was the matriarch of a ranching family in California's San Joaquin Valley during the 1870s. Together with her three sons — one of whom was illegitimate — and her daughter, Victoria Barkley ran the ranch, assisted those in need, and often found herself embroiled in controversy of one kind or another.

Guest stars on the series included Charles Bronson, Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Dennis Hopper,...

Celebrated British playwright Tom Stoppard has been awarded Japan's top arts prize, taking home a cheque worth $158,000 (£105,335).

The star was named among five recipients of the Praemium Imperiale, alongside Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel and fellow Brits Zaha Hadid, an architect, and sculptor Richard Long.

The prestigious accolade, which is supported by the country's imperial family, is one of the most lucrative honours in the arts world.

Stoppard is known for his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, as well as movie screenplays for films like the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love.

He will be presented with the award by Prince Hitachi, brother of Japan's Emperor Akihito, in a ceremony in Tokyo on 22 October.

.The Big Valley. is headed to a much bigger screen.According to Variety, the 1960s television Western that starred Barbara Stanwyck is being adapted into an independent feature by Kate Edelman Johnson and Daniel Adams through their Panther Entertainment banner.Adams will direct the film from his own script, whose storyline was developed with series creators Louis F. Edelman and A.I. Bezzerides. Plot borrows elements from the show.s pilot and several episodes.Roles have not yet been cast.In the show, Stanwyck played the widowed matriarch of the wealthy Barkley family living in 19th-century Stockton, Calif.The series, which ran from 1964-69 on ABC, also starred Richard Long, Peter Breck and Charles Briles, and launched the careers of Linda Evans and Lee Majors.Pre-production on .The...

Kate Edelman Johnson is planning a return to "The Big Valley."

The producer is spinning a feature film out of the 1960s TV show co-created by her father, producer Louis F. Edelman, and writer A.I. Bezzerides. The Western series, which ran on ABC from 1965-69, starred Barbara Stanwyck as the matriarch of a ranching clan in the 1870s San Joaquin Valley. Lee Majors, Richard Long and Linda Evans were among the regulars.

Daniel Adams ("The Golden Boys") has written the screenplay and will direct. Johnson and Adams' Panther Entertainment will produce, with an April start date planned for principal photography in Michigan and New Mexico.

Brian and Ethan Gilmore of Capitoline Global Finance, Anthony Gudas of Tax Credit Finance and Scot Butcher are financing.

Edelman produced such films as "White Heat" (1949) and "You Were Never Lovelier" (1942) as well as such TV series as "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" and "The Danny Thomas Show.

"What took you so long?" asks Clint Eastwood, jesting when we tell him this interview will be printed in Back Stage, which has never spoken to him until now. He appeared on the cover in 2003 when the Screen Actors Guild honored him with a Life Achievement Award, but a SAG representative said at the time that he wasn't available to be interviewed. Eastwood looks stricken when he hears this and apologetically explains that the request never got to him. Perhaps that's because although he's one of the most respected filmmakers and actors working today, he prefers not to have a personal publicist. He is a man of seeming practicality and probable frugality. Anyone who works with him will tell you he "takes the B.S. out of filmmaking," as his longtime production designer, the late Henry Bumstead, so bluntly put it. In fact, Eastwood drove himself to our interview. The...