News

ABC News president Almin Karamehmedovic on Monday revealed a series of promotions in its New York and Washington, D.C. newsrooms.

Jennifer Metz has been named executive producer of special events and news specials planning, and will continue her role as senior producer at World News Tonight. She will lead all prearranged special reports and report to Seni Tienabeso, vice president of ABC News Live, and work closely with Karamehmedovic and World News Tonight executive producer Chris Dinan.

Jennifer Metz ABC/Heidi Gutman John Santucci

ABC/Heidi Gutman

Molly Shaker, who is executive producer of special events, will oversee breaking news special events.

“By dividing responsibilities under Seni’s leadership, Jenn and Molly will ensure we’re always at the top of our game when it comes to both breaking and pre-planned live coverage,” Karamehmedovic wrote in a memo to staffers today.

John Santucci will be senior executive producer and managing editor,...

Lemonade Blessing” (2025) revolves around the geeky teenager archetype we have seen plenty of times in American cinema. Think of Jason Schwartzman’s character from “Rushmore,” who falls in love with his teacher and naively believes that she is his soulmate. He is ready to go to any lengths, even if it means standing up against her partner. Anderson has made a career out of following similarly awkward and oftentimes socially reserved young characters who learn to grow out of their insecurities for love. Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg have played different shades of this exact character, whose social awkwardness often defines them.

Coincidentally, the star of “Lemonade Blessing,” Jake Ryan, comes from the Wes Anderson school of acting. After being in Anderson’s “Asteroid City” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” Ryan returns in a similarly zany comedy-drama as John Santucci, a socially inept teenager in constant crisis mode. He is a child of divorce,...

There’s a sentimental heart to Michael Mann’s films, as much as his fans might not like to hear about it. Run a movie like Heat or Thief alongside the finest crime novels of the same bygone era Mann taps as fuel for his ongoing, elegiac meta-saga on heist men, bag men, and hit men. Run them against key works by Westlake, Chandler, Hammett, or Bezzerides—authors whose heroes and antiheroes are all hard, bad edges. In Mann’s world, sentimentality is front and center, the prize beyond the horizon for the Los Angeles cab driver, the storied Depression-era stickup man, or the Miami vice cop. It’s the reason for some of those mournful stares, those knowing half-smiles that punctuate your Miami Vice, your Public Enemies.

At the same time, these stories may also be that of the sentimental dream being crushed, its embers stubbed out by crippling disappointment.

On Monday, January 20, ABC News will air special coverage of the second inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, led by “World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir from Washington, D.C. As a result, the alphabet network will be preempting its daytime lineup consisting of “The View,” “GMA3: What You Need to Know” and “General Hospital,” an ABC News representative confirmed to Soap Opera Network.

On Wednesday, ABC News announced it will feature comprehensive coverage of Inauguration Day (January 20), starting with a special edition of “Good Morning America” at 7:00 a.m. Et, followed by a day-long special report beginning at 9:00 a.m. Et. Coverage will also be available via ABC News Live, the network’s 24/7 streaming news channel.

The network notes its coverage will include reporting on Trump’s visit to Capitol Hill, the swearing-in ceremony and inaugural address, the signing ceremony in the Oval Office,...

The publication of Heat 2 this week marks writer-director Michael Mann’s debut as a novelist, expands the mythology of perhaps his most beloved film, and becomes the first major release of the publishing imprint he set at William Morrow six years ago.

From the TV series Miami Vice and Crime Story to his feature debut Thief, to the Tom Cruise-Jamie Foxx thriller Collateral and the 1995 Al Pacino-Robert De Niro drama classic Heat, Mann’s crime procedurals are informed by an intimate knowledge of cops and robbers that breathes life and multi-dimensional characters with empathy to go with the violence in lawbreaking.

That is the same thing that Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo did with The Godfather films, David Chase for his The Sopranos series, and Martin Scorsese for Goodfellas and Casino, the other crime high-water marks of the last half century. What is interesting here is the difference in...

Netflix‘s new docuseries The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness aims to restructure a deeply ingrained story. New York City’s most notorious serial murderer wasn’t a serial murderer after all. If David Berkowitz was part of a team of street level satanic power brokers, the entire story is a false narrative.

The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness is an impressive entry in the true crime documentary premiere run at Netflix. It focuses on the work of journalist Maury Terry, whose investigation into the Son of Sam case was criminally sidelined. Terry was convinced that convicted lone serial killer David Berkowitz was part of “a highly motivated and well-organized cult group whose various criminal enterprises included the .44 homicide.”

Terry’s 1987 book The Ultimate Evil: An Investigation of America’s Most Dangerous Satanic Cult, is a must read. But it got lost in the Satanic Panic,...

Update: President Trump took to Twitter on Saturday night to announce that New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will not be quarantined. Earlier today, the president said he was considering the matter and faced pushback from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Trump supporters like Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

….Federal Government. A quarantine will not be necessary. Full details will be released by Cdc tonight. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020

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On Saturday, President Trump’s mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis continued as he blindsided...

On May 17th, 2017, former FBI Director Robert Mueller was named to lead a special Justice Department investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and any ties between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. After nearly two years and hundreds of protestations from the president, that investigation is now officially over.

On Friday, Mueller’s office submitted its final report to the Justice Department. According to the Wall Street Journal, the report was first delivered to the office of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who turned it over to Attorney General William Barr.

Stars: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson, James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Tom Signorelli, Dennis Farina, Nick Nickeas, W.R. Brown, Norm Tobin, John Santucci | Written and Directed by Michael Mann

When it comes to Michael Mann the number of movies he’s directed may not be huge, but the impact that they have has been. With the likes of Manhunter, Heat, and The Last of the Mohicans he created memorable movies that have a definite Mann style. Thief, which gets the Arrow Video treatment with this new Blu-ray release, was his first move into major movie making and a fine example of him at his best.

Thief is the story of Frank (James Caan) a professional safecracker who specialises in diamond jobs. Looking for a way out of the business and living his dream of a normal family life he agrees to do a high paying job for big-time gangster Leo...

Thief

Directed by Michael Mann

Written by Michael Mann

1981, USA

1981 saw the release of Michael Mann’s feature directorial debut Thief. James Caan plays Frank, a professional safecracker whose plan to settle down spirals out-of-control when he becomes indebted to an underworld criminal organization. Thief is a gritty modern film noir that bubbles with Mann’s stylish, atmospheric direction. For a first feature Thief is simply put, a masterpiece. Through Mann’s unique and effective story-telling approach, and Caan’s world-class performance, Thief ranks along side the very best caper flicks.

Frank’s mentor Okla (Willie Nelson) is sitting behind bars desperately trying to get out and Frank’s latest job goes bust when his business partner decides to walk off the ledge of a sky rise. Frank has also spent quite a bit of time in jail but with a new relationship blooming with waitress Jessie (Tuesday Weld) he’s looking to settle down.

The Internet may be taking its toll on print journalism, but war photography is alive and well. Last week, Michael Mann (The Insider, Ali, Heat) and documentary director David Frankham launched a four-part documentary series on HBO called Witness, which follows seasoned war photographers through some of the most dangerous conflict zones on earth. Eros Hoagland, whose father was killed during his own work as a war photographer, takes viewers to Juarez, Mexico, and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro; French photojournalist Veronique de Viguerie, notorious for embedding with the Taliban, leads us through the jungles of South Sudan; and Michael Christopher Brown,...