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Peter Bogdanovich’s 1973 dramedy Paper Moon offers a kind of synthesis of his prior two critical and commercial hits. Set during the Great Depression, the film is attuned, like The Last Picture Show, to the economic precarity that impoverished rural communities face, but it filters its story through the screwball sensibilities of What’s Up, Doc?

A comedy with a perilously bleak side, Paper Moon opens on petty criminal Moses “Moze” Pray (Ryan O’Neal), who makes a living by traveling from town to town posing as a Bible salesman, visiting newly widowed women to hawk a marked-up “special edition” of the good book that their late husbands supposedly ordered for them. Moze’s amorality only deepens when he agrees to take an orphan, Addie (Tatum O’Neal), to an aunt across the Kansas-Missouri state line. Moze quickly uses the child as a sympathetic figure to raise cash, only to be blindsided...

“We should write dangerously,” Mel Brooks told the writers he assembled to create his classic comedy, Blazing Saddles. “That’s what this is all about.”

The writers, including Brooks, Richard Pryor and Andrew Bergman, tried to push the envelope as far as it would stretch. Brooks’ only rule was posted on a wall in large print: First, We Laugh. In his memoir, All About Me!, Brooks recalled the only other guidance he gave to his scribes: “Write anything you want. We will never be heard from again. We will all be in jail for making this movie.” If a joke was bizarre or dirty or socially unacceptable, Brooks was all for it — up to a point.

There was one gag he cut from the final version of Blazing Saddles, deeming it “too far,” according to Far Out Magazine. In a movie full of edgy racial jokes and gross-out scatological humor,...

Pauline Kael once called the gulf between E.T. and Poltergeist a testament to the confounding ability for one man, Steven Spielberg, to produce one enduring masterpiece and one miserable failure in the space of a year—and God forever damn her for not realizing that Poltergeist is, if anything, a more harrowing portrait of the nuclear family on the verge of dissipation, but I digress. Apparently, she hadn’t seen Mel Brooks’s 1974 one-two punch.

Young Frankenstein is so loving and charmingly goofy in spoofing one of Hollywood’s most successful early genres (the Universal monster movies of the 1930s) that it winds up as much a tribute as it is a parody. But Blazing Saddles, a burlesque about a western town standing in the way of the railroad expansion and the Black sheriff sent to discourage its citizens from deserting, is a limp, shapeless mess of a film...

Five decades ago, a rip-roaring spoof Western came to town, with a six-shooter full of gags, a handful of ultra-catchy songs, and a roster of stellar performances to boot. It rode a blazing saddle, it wore a shining star – and it became one of the greatest cinematic comedies of all time. Yes, Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles has turned 50, holding on to its status as one of the funniest films ever made, with sharp satire to complement its pitch-perfect homage to the Western genre. Now, it looks even better than ever, thanks to a new 4K restoration – available to own on 4K Ultra-hd Blu-ray. Gentlemen, please rest your sphincters.

Blazing Saddles arrived in a period of major creativity for Brooks – it landed in February 1974, followed-up before the year was out by his Universal monster spoof Young Frankenstein. And it connected with audiences for all kinds of reasons – not just the barrage...

Mel Brooks, who directed Teri Garr in the iconic 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein, remembered the actor upon her death Tuesday, recalling Garr’s talent and spirit.

“So very sorry to hear about Teri Garr’s passing,” Brooks said in a statement on social media. “She was so talented and so funny. Her humor and lively spirit made the Young Frankenstein set a pleasure to work on. Her ‘German’ accent had us all in stitches! She will be greatly missed.”

Garr was a standout in a film filled with standouts. She played Inga, the German lab assistant to the visiting American Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, played of course by Gene Wilder. As the seemingly ditsy — “seemingly” being the operative word — Inga, Garr employed a rather ersatz German accent, hence Brooks’ quote marks around the word.

Mel Brooks, Teri Garr and Cloris Leachman at the 40th anniversary celebration of ‘Young Frankenstein...

We’re sad to report that Teri Garr, the gifted actress who starred in such classic films as Tootsie, Young Frankenstein, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, has passed away at 79. According to her publicist, Heidi Schaeffer, Garr died of multiple sclerosis after struggling with health issues in recent years. She passed away on Tuesday, leaving a legacy behind that shines like she did on the silver screen.

Garr began her Hollywood journey with minor roles in Elvis Presley movies during the 1960s. She appeared in films like Viva Las Vegas and Roustabout and also in Pajama Party, which starred Annette Funicello, Tommy Kirk, and Elsa Lanchester. Garr appears in various classic TV series, such as Star Trek, Batman, That Girl, Mayberry, It Takes a Thief, Room 222, and more. Regardless of her role, Garr stood out, destined to climb the Hollywood ladder with show-stopping performances in major motion pictures around the corner.

Teri Garr, the Oscar-nominated actress who capitalized on her adorable flightiness in such films as Tootsie and Young Frankenstein before her career was derailed by multiple sclerosis, died Tuesday. She was 79.

Garr, who started out as a background dancer working alongside Elvis Presley in several 1960s party films, died at her home in Los Angeles “surrounded by family and friends,” publicist Heidi Schaeffer told The Hollywood Reporter.

Garr revealed that she had Ms, the chronic, degenerative disease of the nervous system, on Larry King’s CNN show in October 2002, and she survived emergency surgery to treat a brain aneurysm four years later. Her final onscreen appearance came in 2011.

Garr’s career breakthrough came as Gene Wilder’s comely Transylvanian lab assistant in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974). She received her supporting actress Oscar nomination for playing Dustin Hoffman’s insecure actress friend in Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie (1982).

Those films ranked Nos.

Warner Bros. is bringing two cinematic classics to a new physical media transfer this Thanksgiving season. Blu-ray.com has announced the 4K Ultra-High Definition Blu-ray releases of Alfred Hitchcock‘s spy thriller North by Northwest and Mel Brooks‘ irreverent western satire Blazing Saddles. Both releases will be hitting retailers on November 19.

North by Northwest stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, and Leo G. Carroll. The description reads, “Cary Grant stars as an innocent man mistaken for a spy in one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest thrillers. While leaving New York’s Plaza Hotel, advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) has the misfortune of standing just as the name “George Kaplan” is paged–starting a lethal case of mistaken identity and a nonstop game of cat and mouse as he is pursued across North America by espionage agents trying to kill him–and by police who suspect him of murder.

Gene Wilder’s giddy brilliance is backed by a tremendous supporting cast and only a few gags lumber as the film is re-released for its 50th anniversary

Mel Brooks’s outrageously broad and deliriously silly black-and-white comedy, co-written with its neurotically bequiffed star Gene Wilder, is re-released for its 50th anniversary. Their lovingly observed 1974 movie is closer in time to the 1931 James Whale/Boris Karloff classic – whose lab equipment props Brooks actually re-used – than we are now to this film. In some ways it can now be considered not as satire or spoof, but a continuation of the Frankenstein genre, a connoisseur development or theme-variation not so far removed from the Hammer or Warhol riffs, and a whole lot more successful and intuitive than Kenneth Branagh’s deadly serious, deadly dull treatment from 1994 with Robert De Niro as the creature. Interestingly, though Wilder said that Young Frankenstein is based on...

We lost Madeline Kahn, a farceur extraordinaire, far too soon. And her list of film appearances, especially ones that fully showcase her unique comedic talents, is tragically short. But thank goodness for that marvelously mad Mel Brooks for letting her loose in a quartet of some of the most gut-bustingly funny female performances in cinematic history.

Kahn, who passed away at age 57 in 1999, would have celebrated her birthday on September 29. What better way to salute her legacy on the big screen than to recall the two-time Oscar nominee’s 12 greatest movies, ranked from worst to best. Our photo gallery includes “Blazing Saddles,” “What’s Up, Doc?” and “Young Frankenstein.”...

Barbarian director Zach Cregger is set to team up with Sony for a remake of the 1985 classic mystery comedy Clue.

Here’s an interesting story that has emerged this morning regarding Zach Cregger, the director who bought us 2022’s Barbarian, a wild horror that became one of that year’s most talked-about films. The success of Barbarian was enough to earn Cregger a handsome deal with New Line Cinema for whom he will be directing his follow-up film, Weapons.

According to reporting at the time, Cregger’s budget for Weapons is 'double the size of Barbarian's, while he has reportedly scored a string of other concessions such as “a guaranteed greenlight, a guaranteed theatrical release, a controlling interest in a backend pot and Cregger receiving final cut pending a threshold being met during test screenings.’

Given that it’s been dubbed as the Magnolia of horror films, we’re...

Mel Brooks’ classic western comedy Blazing Saddles is getting a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release to mark its 50th anniversary. More here.

Mel Brooks’ much-loved and groundbreaking comedy favourite Blazing Saddles is arriving at its 50th birthday this year. And just as with other anniversary films this year such as North By Northwest and A Nightmare On Elm Street, Warner Bros appears to be pulling out the stops for a posh-looking 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray collector’s set.

The film hasn’t been on the 4K disc format before, so it’s enjoying a 4K remaster for a start. The set will always include a Blu-ray disc too, to carry across previous additional features too.

Then, the 50th anniversary set will come in Steelbook casing, and include an envelope with 10 art cards inside. There’s also a double-sided bookmark, a double-sided retro art card, three double-sided behind the scenes cards,...

Ron Howard has always taken pride in being an eclectic filmmaker — in the last 40 years, he has made movies about mermaids, cocoons, auto factories, astronauts, firefighters, newspapers, beautiful minds, cave rescuers, the Grinch, the Da Vinci Code, the Beatles, and Pavarotti. But at the Toronto Film Festival premiere of his latest movie, “Eden,” he declared that the film stands farther apart from his other work than anything he has ever done. He’s right, though not for the reason he thinks.

“Eden,” which is based on events that unfolded 100 years ago on one of the Galápagós Islands, is a difficult movie to characterize. It’s been labeled as a “thriller,” but I would describe it as a misanthropic survivalist “Robinson Crusoe” meets “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” with deranged footnotes by Friedrich Nietzsche. For Howard, the film sure is different. Yet there’s another word for it — the word is terrible.

A strong case could be made that Mel Brooks co-writing and directing "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles" in the same year (1974) is one of the greatest filmmaking one-two punches of the 20th century. It's hard enough to make a single comedy that becomes a stone cold classic, but for both of them to have such fantastic reputations 50 years later (despite "Blazing Saddles" having some aspects in it that don't age well for modern viewers) makes this achievement downright legendary. Of course, the fact that these movies came out 50 years ago sadly means that most of the actors who starred in these projects are no longer with us.

For "Blazing Saddles," a film that was so controversial even upon its release that Brooks thought he might be killed because of its content, that means we've already lost towering performers like Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Corman, Slim Pickens, the great Madeline Kahn,...

“A fart joke is easy.”

This may be, but executed by Mel Brooks, it can get a crowd going more than anything on view at this summer’s Paris Olympics. So was the case this past weekend at a 50th anniversary screening of his western comedy classic, “Blazing Saddles,” which played at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and was followed by a Q&a with the 98 year-old filmmaker himself. Moderated by Brooksfilms producer Kevin Salter, Brooks dazzled and enraptured the audience with tidbits on the making of the film and stories from his colorful past. One such story involved his hard-to-believe Oscar win for his first film, “The Producers.”

“I didn’t have a speech because Stanley Kubrick was in the same category for ‘2001,’” Brooks said of being nominated for Best Original Screenplay. “There was a brilliant director called Pontecorvo who did ‘The Battle of Algiers,’ a great picture...

You couldn't make "Blazing Saddles" today. 

For one, it's already 12:30, and you haven't eaten lunch yet. Then you said you'd take that pile of old clothes to the Goodwill, and also swing by the pharmacy to pick up your dad's ear medicine. By then, it would already be about 2:30 or 3pm. There just wouldn't be enough time to make "Blazing Saddles." 

When Mel Brooks made "Blazing Saddles" in 1974, however, he had plenty of time. He also had access to a brilliant script, a wonderful cast of comedic geniuses, and a healthy willingness to rip apart every halcyon tradition associated with the American Western. "Blazing Saddles" spoofed Westerns to within an inch of their lives, examining the horrid racism that the genre tends to overlook or even romanticize. 

"Blazing Saddles" is a comedy about racism but never makes light of it, putting all the racism into the mouths of...

Peter Bogdanovich's "Paper Moon" is a rip-roaring road movie with a lot of hijinks and heart, anchored by the incredible performances from real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O'Neal. They play Moses Pray, a two-bit con artist who hoodwinks widows into purchasing Bibles, and Addie Loggins, a precocious nine-year-old with a permanent scowl who claims to be his daughter. With their streetwise charm, they unite to drive across the dusty Midwest, gradually increasing the stakes of their swindles. The sharp, black-and-white cinematography by László Kovács perfectly captures the sparse, unsentimental Depression-era America. But there's also a sweetness to "Paper Moon," especially in the development of Moses and Addie's complex and tenuous father-daughter bond. The film has a certain magic that can only come from the O'Neals' actual relationship, and it's something that makes "Paper Moon" such a joy to watch. Here are the main cast members still with us.

If Tim Curry's going to do anything, it's chew the scenery with such relish that he'll be picking chunks out of his teeth after. His oeuvre is littered with delectably animated, over the top performances, and justly so for an actor who lives and breathes theatricality. Still, if we're talking about the most Tim Curry performance ever ... it would be Dr. Frank N. Furter in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." But Wadsworth, the wily butler in "Clue," wouldn't be all that far behind.

Jonathan Lynn's cult 1985 mystery-comedy, which he both wrote and directed, remains the gold standard for board game movies. Much as "Knives Out" and the wave of whodunnits spawned by Rian Johnson's hit owe a hefty debt to Agatha Christie, they also share a lot of their zany energy and sensibilities with "Clue." The latter may lack the high artistry of Johnson's Benoit Blanc series,...

I recently wrote about the surprise Best Supporting Actress Oscar win by Anna Paquin for 1993’s “The Piano.” At 11 years of age, she became the second youngest competitive Academy Award recipient in history. She remains the last child Oscar champ, though several have since been nominated.

The record for the youngest competitive Oscar victory by a child (someone age 17 or younger) was actually set two decades before the practically hyperventilating Paquin accepted her statuette. And it was in the same category — Best Supporting Actress. Ten-year-old Tatum O’Neal, daughter of the late Ryan O’Neal (a Best Actor nominee for 1970’s “Love Story”), delivered a performance in “Paper Moon” that was loved enough by the academy to bring her the coveted award. The younger O’Neal played Addie Loggins, a child turned con artist who teams up with a man posing as her father during The Great Depression. She was nominated alongside...

Sony Pictures Television and TriStar Pictures have made a deal with Hasbro Entertainment for the film and TV rights for Clue, which could mean that we could get a new movie based on the beloved board game.

“Sony is the perfect partner to adapt a property as culturally impactful and mystery-defining as ‘Clue,’” said Hasbro Heads of Film and TV Zev Foreman and Gabriel Marano. “Nicole Brown, Katherine Pope, and their teams are tremendous creative collaborators and ideal partners to help us figure out after 75 years if it was Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with the candlestick.“

Related Hollywood Trailblazer: Jamie Lee Curtis producing documentary on Halloween producer Debra Hill

Clue was previously adapted in 1985, featuring an ensemble cast that included Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Madeline Kahn, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, and Colleen Camp. Surprisingly, this has been the only Clue movie, but it’s not for lack of trying.

Sony is the latest player that would like to make an accusation. The studio has won the rights to develop a reimagining of the Hasbro board game “Clue,” and the studio intends to bring the murder mystery game to the screen for both film and television.

Hollywood has been trying to remake “Clue,” first adapted in Jonathan Lynn’s cult classic screwball comedy “Clue” from 1985, for years. Most recently, a project was set up at 20th Century Studios, and it had Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman circling to star along with “The Muppets Movie” filmmaker James Bobin directing. In 2022, Oren Uziel (“The Lost City”) stepped up to rewrite the original draft of the script from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (“Deadpool”), but it too went nowhere.

No cast or creative talent is attached at this stage of development. Sony is the only studio developing anything based on “Clue” at this time,...

The film and TV rights for Clue have landed at Sony, with Hasbro Entertainment closing a deal with TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Television to develop adaptations of the classic murder mystery board game.

Clue, the game, has players figure out who is responsible for a murder in a cast of characters that includes Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White and Miss Scarlet. The location of the murder (dining room, kitchen, ballroom, etc.) and weapon (velvet rope, lamp, knife, etc.) also must be deciphered.

The board game was previously adapted into a 1985 comedy that starred Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn and Christopher Lloyd, among others. While the film performed poorly at the box office and debuted to lukewarm reviews, Clue, which was written and directed by Jonathan Lynn, has since reached cult status. Over the years, other versions were in the works, with Ryan Reynolds at one point attached to star...

Comedy actor and writer Gene Wilder is to be celebrated in documentary Remembering Gene Wilder, and here’s the trailer.

To several generations, Gene Wilder will forever be known as the definitive screen version of Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka in 1971 film Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory. To others, he might be best known for his frequent collaborations with comedian Richard Pryor in films like Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Another You.

Going on to forge a career as a writer and director, one of the most underrated comedies of the 1970s, and one that is well worth tracking down if you haven’t had the pleasure, is The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes’ Younger Brother. Wilder’s 1975 directorial debut saw the actor star alongside the powerhouse pairing of Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldmen, both of whom he worked with in Young Frankenstein, the...

With its scathing social satire, raunchy humor and frequent use of the controversial N-word, “Blazing Saddles” got mixed reviews upon its release February 7, 1974. Nonetheless, it galloped to the top of the box office and earned three Oscar nominations, and set new standards for comedy films with its irreverence, spoofs and just plain silliness. Some reviewers did get the joke from the beginning, including Roger Ebert, who awarded it four out of four stars, saying it’s “a crazed grab bag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken.” On its 50th anniversary, we look back at how “Blazing Saddles” has endured as one of the greatest and most beloved comedies of all time.

It all started when Mel Brooks bought the film rights to a story titled “Tex-x” (changed so it wouldn’t be mistaken for an X-rated...

Quentin Tarantino is doubling down on his film criticism, as he not only has his 10th and final feature, The Movie Critic, on the horizon but also has a follow-up to his book Cinema Speculation in the works.

As he revealed on the Pure Cinema Podcast – which frequently promotes goings-on at the Qt-owned New Beverly Cinema – the Cinema Speculation sequel will be his next book. While Tarantino didn’t provide any details as far as when Cinema Speculation II: Electric Boogaloo will hit shelves, he did mention one title he would be covering: Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc? On that movie and its cast dynamics, Tarantino said, “I am a big fan of everybody in this movie, but I’m a particularly big fan of Ryan O’Neal’s job as Howard Bannister. I think it’s one of the great straight-man comedy roles. I think he’s really,...

As he's said frequently over the last few years, Quentin Tarantino is retiring from filmmaking. He has one more movie in the works — "The Film Critic" — and then he's apparently hanging it up. But that doesn't mean the acclaimed filmmaker is going to stop working entirely. For one thing, Tarantino has recently gotten into the book-writing game. He wrote a novelization of his most recent flick, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," and then followed that up with "Cinema Speculation," a collection of essays about several notable American films from the 1970s. The book was full of nerdy insights, and while I didn't agree with everything said — at one point, Tarantino calls Peter Yates' masterful "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" "overrated" — I loved pouring over Tarantino's thoughts on classic (and not-so-classic) films.

If you, like me, enjoyed the book, here's some good news: Tarantino is working on a sequel! The...

While we expect to soon hear some casting news on Quentin Tarantino’s final feature The Movie Critic ahead of a shoot later this year, the small details being doled-out will have to suffice. In the meantime, he joined the latest episode of the Pure Cinema Podcast to promote a forthcoming all-film Ib Technicolor Fest taking place at his newly acquired Vista Theatre in LA. As part of this discussion, he shared the notable update that he plans to write Cinema Speculation Vol. Two, a sequel to his 2022 book of film analysis. He confirmed the book will feature his insights on Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 comedy classic What’s Up, Doc?, and shared a tease. The director also shared quite an interesting take on Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

Speaking about Bogdanovich’s hilarious comedy, which he says “was made for I.B. Technicolor” and is “as close to [Frank] Tashlin as you are going to get,...

When Nathan Silver’s mother was in her mid-60s, she decided to have a bat mitzvah. As the indie filmmaker started telling people that his mother was embarking on a rite of passage usually reserved for teenagers, a friend urged him to turn her story into a movie. Now, “Between the Temples,” a screwball comedy inspired by mom’s coming-of-age ceremony, will premiere at Sundance, with Carol Kane and Jason Schwartzman playing an elderly bat mitzvah student and a depressed cantor who forge an unlikely bond.

“It’s one from the heart,” says Silver. “It’s a story that touches on many aspects of my life.”

It also gives Kane and Schwartzman, who so often steal scenes in supporting roles, a chance to shine as leads. Signing on required a leap of faith for Kane because Silver’s scripts, which he calls “scriptments” and likens to novellas, aren’t traditional.

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

My Bloody Valentine Figure from Neca

Neca has added another horror icon to its ultimate action figure line: My Bloody Valentine’s killer miner, Harry Warden. It costs $36.99.

The 7″ scale toy comes with a pick axe, nailer, knife, and candy box with a heart inside. It’s packaged in a window box with opening flap.

Clue 4K Uhd from Shout Select

Clue will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on December 12 via Shout Select. The 1985 murder-mystery comedy has been newly remastered in 4K from the original camera negative.

Jonathan Lynn writes and directs, based on the board game of the same name. Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull,...

A cult favorite since its release, the comedy caper Clue will make its 4K Uhd debut as a two-disc Collector’s Edition 4K Uhd+Blu-ray set December 12, 2023 from Shout! Studios. Featuring an all-star cast of comedy legends including Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show), Madeline Kahn (Blazing Saddles), Michael McKean (This is Spinal Tap) and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Clue boasts a new 4K scan of the original camera negative as well as variety of new bonus features, including an interview with writer/director Jonathan Lynn, an interview with associate producer Jeffrey Chernov, and much more! In addition to the new bonus features, the release offers viewers the option to watch ... Read more...

(Welcome to Best Action Scene Ever, a column dedicated to breaking down the best, most effective action sequences throughout the genre. In this edition, we give some well-deserved flowers to one of the greatest screwball comedies ever made, "What's Up, Doc?," and its comedic masterclass of a climactic chase sequence.)

At this point, many of the movies and shows covered in this column have shared a number of things in common. Each entry is commonly considered among the finest action scenes ever filmed. They all have something to teach us about the myriad of ways to properly communicate character through action. But, admittedly, the vast majority of choices have also resided more or less within the same tone and genre. That's why this latest entry serves as a much-needed reminder to upend our narrow assumptions of what constitutes the best action and broaden our horizons.

"What's Up, Doc?" may not...

Clockwork from top left: Clue (Screenshot: Paramount Pictures/Youtube), Death On The Nile (Screenshot: 20th Century Studios/YouTube), Gosford Park (Screenshot: Focus Features/YouTube), Bad Times At The El Royale (Screenshot: 20th Century Studios/YouTube)

This weekend sees the release of A Haunting In Venice, director Kenneth Branagh’s third...

The murder-mystery renaissance really is in full effect right now. The likes of Only Murders In The Building, Poker Face, and Apple TV’s The Afterparty have been making armchair detectives of us all on the telly side of things, but it’s the big screen sleuthing boom that’s had genre fans flocking to the multiplexes with their magnifying glasses and (presumably) deerstalkers most recently. With whodunnits as wildly varied as Park Chan-wook’s sensual Decision To Leave, the superbly silly See How They Run, Rian Johnson_ – which leans hard into the ‘D’ of DC Comics – on offer, it’s not exactly hard to see why, either.

Now, as we prepare to take enough champagne to fill the, erm, canals of Venice with us to see Kenneth Branagh_, we at Empire HQ have put our tan raincoats on and launched an investigation into the very best the genre has to offer.

Paramount+ is starting September with a bang with hundreds of new film titles joining its library, from comedies like “Blazing Saddles” and “The Big Lebowski,” to award-winning dramas like “Schindler's List” and “Forrest Gump” and sci-fi thrillers like “Terminator 2” and “Annihilation.”

But the streamer isn’t stopping there, with even more TV series (including Paramount+ originals and exclusives) and sports available throughout the month on the Paramount+ Essential plan and even more titles on the Paramount+ with Showtime.

Check out The Streamable’s picks for the top five titles arriving to the streamer this month!

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What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Paramount+ in September 2023? “Blazing Saddles” | Friday, Sept. 1

Return to Rock Ridge with Mel Brooks’ fourth-wall-breaking classic that will leave you anything but tired. The satirical Western-black comedy follows...

Now streaming on Screambox is the fan-made documentary focusing on the 80’s cult classic, Clue: The Movie.

In the spirit of The Shark Is Still Working (Jaws) and Back In Time (Back to the Future), Who Done It: The Clue Documentary is lensed by filmmaker fans who want to know the entire story of the production.

The doc features interviews with writer/director Jonathan Lynn and cast members Colleen Camp (Yvette), Michael McKean (Mr. Green), Lesley Ann Warren (Miss Scarlet), and Lee Ving (Mr. Boddy), among others.

“Clue is one of the most enjoyable, quotable and rewatchable films of the past 35 years,” director Jeff C. Smith originally stated when the project was announced. “When I couldn’t find the answers to questions I have always wondered (like who came up with Madeline Kahn’s amazing ‘Flames on the side of my face’ speech), I decided to go find out for myself.

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most influential and distinctive filmmakers of our time. His movies are known for their stylish violence, witty dialogue, eclectic soundtracks, and homages to various genres and eras of cinema. He has also been vocal about his admiration for other filmmakers and their works, often citing them as inspirations or influences for his own projects.

In a recent interview, Tarantino revealed his list of seven perfect movies that he considers flawless and masterful in every aspect. He said that these movies are “the ones that I go, ‘Ok, this is as good as a movie can get.’ And I don’t think I can do any better than that.”

CineArticles decided to rank these seven perfect movies according to their own criteria and preferences. Here is their list, from the least to the most perfect movie picked by Tarantino:

7. The Wild Bunch (1969) The Wild Bunch...

Norman Steinberg, the Emmy-winning screenwriter who teamed with Mel Brooks on Blazing Saddles and My Favorite Year and wrote for the Michael Keaton-starring Mr. Mom and Johnny Dangerously, has died. He was 83.

Steinberg died March 15 at his Hudson Valley home in upstate New York, his family announced.

Steinberg also wrote Yes, Giorgio (1982), starring Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti in his feature acting debut, and co-wrote Funny About Love (1990), directed by Leonard Nimoy and starring Gene Wilder and Christine Lahti.

The Brooklyn native and former lawyer won his Emmy very early in his career, for his work on a Flip Wilson variety show.

His TV résumé also included developing Marlo Thomas’ 1974 landmark kids special, Free to Be … You & Me (he brought Brooks in on that); serving as a writer and executive producer on the first two seasons of CBS’ Cosby; and creating the short-lived CBS sitcoms Doctor, Doctor and Teech.

In the words of the late great Madeline Kahn‘s Empress Nympho, “Yessssss!” After 40 years, the classic satire that is Mel Brooks‘ History of the World: Part 1 has finally birthed a follow-up befitting its legendary status. Not only in laughs but in sheer casting magic. Like the feature film, which starred icons of comedy like the aforementioned Kahn, Gregory Hines, Cloris Leachman, Dom Deluise, and Sid Caesar, Hulu’s sequel series History of the World: Part II is running over with famous faces from, well, modern times. Literally, everyone is in this thing. Tyler Golden/Hulu In addition to Josh Gad, Zazie Beetz, and Jay Ellis, who sat down with us to talk about the project, there’s a cast list of historic proportions. Jake Johnson, Richard Kind, Johnny Knoxville, Lauren Lapkus, Jenifer Lewis, Poppy Liu, Joe Lo Truglio, Jason Mantzoukas, Ken Marino, Jack McBrayer, Jack Black, Jason Alexander, Ayo Edebiri,...

As the American treasure himself says in the opening credits, Mel Brooks is a hero to some, and merely a legend to others. He broke ground in irreverent social commentary with Blazing Saddles, and rewired the knobs in the monster’s brain for Young Frankenstein. Brooks’ Hulu TV-sketch-series-masquerading-as-a-film-sequel throws more jokes at the viewer than almost any comedy in the History of The World, Part II. Not all of them land squarely, though the ricochets inflict sufficient comic collateral damage.

There is a lot we can learn from an anthology sketch series. All of which is graded on a curveball. Like History of the World, Part I, the series is made up of short gags, like Marco Polo’s (Jake Johnson) impromptu gift-exchange on his first trip to China, longer one-off sequences, and a few continuing stories. The eight-episode series is Brooks’ first creative project since composing the score to...

Jennifer Coolidge is an American actress best known for her comedic roles in films such as Legally Blonde, Best in Show and A Cinderella Story. She has also had memorable roles on the television series 2 Broke Girls, Joey and Seinfeld.

Jennifer Coolidge. Depostiphotos

Coolidge began her career as a regular on the NBC sketch comedy series The Electric Company from 1989 to 1991. She then moved on to appear in numerous movies, including American Pie, Down to Earth, Bad Teacher and Click. She was even nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Bobbie Morganstern, the mother of Rachel Green (played by Jennifer Aniston), on Friends.

Coolidge has also done voice acting work in many animated shows, including Clone High and King of the Hill. In addition to acting, Coolidge has written two books – The Joys of Life: At Home and On the...

Awards season always turns up note-worthy moments: showstopping outfits, witty speeches or egregious faux-pas are instantly turned into memes and circulated endlessly on social media.

In 2021, one moment in particular captivated viewers worldwide, and that was watching eight-year-old actor Alan Kim – dressed in a tuxedo – tear up while accepting a Critics Choice Award for his scene-stealing part in the critically acclaimed film Minari.

After a successful season, however, which included a Bafta nod, the young star was eventually shut out of the Oscars. It was a shame – in a year of history-making nominations for the Academy Awards, seeing Kim recognised would have been the cherry on top.

But it was always a long shot. Child actors are a welcome but infrequent inclusion at the Oscars – their rarity though, does make every instance especially memorable.

In the run-up to next month’s ceremony, here is a list of the 13 youngest stars...

If you've never watched the 1981 Mel Brooks film "The History of the World, Part I," now is the time to do it. All these years later, a sequel series, "The History of the World, Part II," is hitting Hulu in March. Even if you haven't seen it, you've definitely heard people quote it, from the Torquemada musical number in The Spanish Inquisition segment to lines like, "It's good to be the king," and the "No, no, yes" song from Madeline Kahn. I feel pretty confident when I say that it's one of the funniest movies of all time, and I'm hardly alone in that sentiment.

"History of the World, Part I" is irreverent and absolutely stupid in the most wonderful way, and even after dozens of viewings, I still giggle to myself about parts of it whenever they cross my mind. Not only did Brooks write, direct, and star as Moses,...

In my eyes, one of the most singularly talented people of the second half of the 20th Century was Gregory Hines. The man was a true triple threat that harkened back to Golden Age of Hollywood musical stars. He was overflowing with movie star charisma and also had impeccable comedic chops. Hines was the consummate entertainer and sadly died far too soon from liver cancer in 2003.

The first time I ever saw Hines was in Mel Books' 1981 comedy "History of the World, Part I," which is finally getting a "Part II" this year. As it turns out, this also happened to be his very first movie, discounting his appearance in "Finian's Rainbow" as an extra when he was a kid. Brooks lets Hines show off every single thing that made him such a talent, most obviously his ability to play an absolute lown. It seems like it was a role specifically written for Hines,...

When people picture Count Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster, they think of the classic versions played by Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Lugosi's suave, mysterious, and authentically European Dracula has informed all subsequent portrayals while Karloff's lumbering, green-skinned monster has eclipsed Mary Shelley's original description of the Creature in her novel.

The actors (and their respective characters) headlined many of Universal Pictures' classic horror monster movies. It all began in 1931, when Todd Browning's "Dracula" debuted in February and James Whale's "Frankenstein" followed in November. In another world, that year's fruits could've been all Lugosi's: Universal producer Carl Laemmle Jr. wanted to capitalize on the success of "Dracula" and have Lugosi play Frankenstein's Monster too. He thought Lugosi could be the "new Lon Chaney" — the "man of a thousand faces" — but the actor was reluctant to take up the offer.

"The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela...

Comedy king Mel Brooks has always pushed the envelope. He's been no stranger to controversy over the years, and a lot of his films have raised even more eyebrows in today's political climate than they did upon their release. But still, to this day, there isn't a single joke that Brooks would take back. In fact, he regrets not going even further.

Brooks' 1974 film "Blazing Saddles" examines race through a parody of classic Hollywood Westerns. Despite being a critique of racism, Brooks has argued that fear of political correctness would have censored the film if he had tried to make it today.

"We have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy," he explained to BBC Radio 4 (via Variety) back in 2017. "It's okay not to hurt feelings of various tribes and groups. However, it's not good for comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks.

It’s good to be a Hulu subscriber because Mel Brooks‘ History of the World, Part II series is finally ready to rewrite the past for laughs and scrutiny. Hulu shared a gallery of images from the original comedy series on Wednesday, featuring images of Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes, and Ike Barinholtz occupying various historical points for the sketch-style presentation.

According to Hulu’s official description, “After waiting over 40 years, there is finally a sequel to the seminal Mel Brooks film, History of the World, Part I, with each episode featuring a variety of sketches that take us through different periods of human history.”

The series stars Mel Brooks, Wanda Sykes, Nick Kroll, and Ike Barinholtz. Gary Nguyen, David Stassen, Dove Cameron, Pamela Adlon, and Johnny Knoxville also appear throughout the series.

Last year, The Ankler reported that Brooks’ History of the World, Part II series could feature a who’s who of Hollywood royalty,...

The game that taught you how candlesticks could be used for murder is getting an animated series from Fox.

"Clue," the board game first sold in 1949, was turned into a live-action film back in 1985 and is getting the animation treatment from Hasbro's eOne and Fox Entertainment's Bento Box Entertainment. Don't get this series confused with the 20th Century Studios live-action remake that is set to star Ryan Reynolds, directed by James Bobin ("The Muppets").

If you cast your mind back to childhood, you may recall the board game with teeny tiny murder weapons, rooms where the murder took place, and suspects named Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, and Mr. Green (these names differ in some versions). The game, which has been sold in over 30 countries (where it's sometimes called "Cluedo"), has a murder for you to solve, and now it's happening in animated form.

Though...

Exclusive: The co-screenwriter of Paramount’s spring hit, The Lost City, Oren Uziel, is giving 20th Century Studios’ Clue movie a big reworking.

The first draft for the Ryan Reynolds movie based on the popular whodunnit Hasbro game was by Rheet Reese and Paul Wernick. James Bobin is attached to direct.

The first feature take of Clue back in 1985 turned into a cult classic during the video era, the pic’s theatrical run stateside grossing just under 15M and featuring all-star cast of Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn and Lesley Ann Warren. Johnathan Lynn directed. Cute piece of distribution with that first movie is that various prints within certain metro areas like LA and NYC played different endings with different murderers (just like the board game).

The Lost City is one of the few original, non-franchise movies to bring older moviegoers back to the cinema during the pandemic,...

In “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” a dysfunctional group of rich kids who have long outgrown each other hole up in one of their parents’ mansions during a hurricane. When they’ve had enough of getting crossed and making TikToks, they turn to an old pastime: a Mafia-like game called “Bodies Bodies Bodies” that always ends in tears and hurt feelings. This time, though, the stakes aren’t just emotional: after the power cuts out, actual bodies begin to drop. Inside one of these chronically-online narcissists lurks a killer – who could it be?

If that synopsis makes the film seem difficult to categorize, it’s by design. “When [writer Sarah DeLappe] and I started to work together, we both felt that the biggest mistake you can make with a group film – and especially the slasher, or whatever genre you want to call this – is to have all the cliches,” director Halina Reijn said in an interview with TheWrap.

This What We Do in The Shadows review contains spoilers.

What We Do in the Shadows Season 4 Episode 5

The child which crawled its way out of the abdominal cavity of Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) has reached that wild age where sitcom parents have to learn to jump a shark or lean into it. What We Do in the Shadows season 4 episode 5 “Private School,” bashes it in the nose with a ball peen hammer. Let that be a lesson.

Laszlo (Matt Berry) is in denial. As the ad hoc self-proclaimed caretaker of baby Colin, he feels responsible for its cultured evolution. Laszlo is putting on the brave face of a proud father, in full belief that the energy draining antics of the ever-energized young lad is the spark of something, anything, interesting. Berry puts his full and rapt focus on this conviction. It is as strong as his dedication to sex,...