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Jonathan Kaplan, the five-time Emmy-nominated director/producer of ER and filmmaker behind projects like The Accused, Bad Girls and Unlawful Entry, has died at the age of 77, per multiple media reports.

His daughter Molly Kaplan said he died Friday at his home in Los Angeles of advanced liver cancer.

Kaplan was born in Paris on Nov. 25, 1947 to industry veteran parents, father Sol Kaplan, a film and TV composer, and mother Frances Heflin, a regular on ABC soap All My Children. (He was also the nephew of Oscar-winning actor Van Heflin.)

He began his career as a child actor in the Broadway production of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, helmed by Elia Kazan. Later, Kaplan earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago and studied film at New York University, where he was taught by Martin Scorsese.

It was the Goodfellas director who recommended him to Roger Corman,...

Jonathan Kaplan, who directed Jodie Foster to a best actress Oscar in The Accused and received five Emmy nominations for his work as a helmer and producer on ER, has died. He was 77.

Kaplan died Friday at his home in Los Angeles after a battle with liver cancer, his daughter, Molly Kaplan, told The Hollywood Reporter. “He was a loving, supportive father,” she said.

Kaplan, whose parents both worked in show business and whose uncle was Oscar-winning actor Van Heflin, served an apprenticeship with famed B-movie producer Roger Corman and then directed the blaxploitation classic Truck Turner (1974), starring Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto and Nichelle Nichols.

Kaplan also guided Michelle Pfeiffer to a best actress Oscar nomination in the 1960s-set Love Field (1992), and his directing résumé included the Shirley Muldowney biopic Heart Like a Wheel (1983), starring Bonnie Bedelia and Beau Bridges; Bad Girls (1987), the distaff Western starring Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson,...

Whenever a Hollywood epic gets so drunk on its own cultural importance that it attempts to pre-legitimize itself by casting every available star in town, you can be quite certain that the finished product will be either a terminal bore or a full-blown disaster. Darryl F. Zanuck's "The Longest Day" is very much the former, a 178-minute grind that tries and largely fails to thrust moviegoers into the middle of the D-Day invasion via docudrama techniques; it's often technically impressive, but it quickly turns into a game of spot-the-star, which pulls us straight out of the movie. And then there's 1967's "Casino Royale," a celebrity-studded James Bond parody that feels like watching an exclusive, booze-fueled bash from the house across the street.

There are obvious exceptions, but they come with the caveat of knowingly satirizing Hollywood's insularity (Robert Altman's "The Player") or simply being a hot project that...

It’s somewhat ironic to speak of a film that indirectly stood against the Marcos dictatorship in a time when his descendants have returned to power. Indeed, “Sister Stella L.” is unmistakably a political film; it might be most remembered for the magnetic presence of Vilma Santos, the Queen of Philippine Cinema, in one of her most iconic roles, but it remains a textbook illustration of Marxism For Dummies in dialogue with the Fioretti of St. Francis.

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The script by activist, poet, and journalist José “Pete” Lacaba tells the story of Sister Stella Legaspi, a young nun who answers the call of God and devotes herself to a convent that shelters women who have been abused or exploited. Against best practice, she becomes particularly involved with a pregnant woman named Gigi, who is furiously questioning her future. But her life takes...

Jack Betts, the character actor who appeared in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002) and over a dozen Spaghetti Western films, has died at the age of 96.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the news, Betts died Thursday in his sleep at his Los Osos, Calif. home, his nephew, Dean Sullivan, said.

Born Jack Fillmore Betts (saying he bore a relation to the 13th Potus Millard Fillmore) on April 11, 1929 in Jersey City, NJ, he grew up in Miami, where he eventually studied theater at University of Miami. Afterward, he moved to New York City, where he made his Broadway debut in 1953’s Richard III.

When a friend asked him to help with an audition for Lee Strasberg’s famed nonprofit, The Actors Studio, the director of the prestigious acting school granted him a three-year scholarship to study there. As a result, the venerated Elia Kazan later cast him in a production...

Jack Betts, the debonair character actor who starred in spaghetti Westerns, played Dracula for a fleeting moment on Broadway and appeared in such notable films as Spider-Man and Gods and Monsters, has died. He was 96.

Betts died Thursday in his sleep at home in Los Osos, California, his nephew, Dean Sullivan, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Betts was great friends with Everybody Loves Raymond actress Doris Roberts, with whom he shared a home and escorted her to events throughout Hollywood from the late 1980s until her death in April 2016.

A member of The Actors Studio, Betts portrayed Llanview Hospital doctor Ivan Kipling on ABC’s One Life to Live from 1979-85, and his soap opera résumé also included stints on General Hospital, The Edge of Night, The Doctors, Another World, All My Children, Search for Tomorrow, Guiding Light, Loving and Generations.

Betts bluffed his way into starring as the avenging title...

Our decision to declare Miami Vice this century’s greatest action film some eight years ago was neither made lightly nor received unanimously, but fortune favors the bold. Part and parcel of its canonization, Michael Mann’s classic streams on Criterion this July as part of Miami Neonoir, a set boasting Larry Clark’s Bully, the recently departed George Armitage’s Miami Blues, Out of Sight, Body Heat, and John Bailey’s lesser-seen China Moon. Series-wise, films about David Lynch, Picasso, and Basquiat fill out Portraits of Artists, while Summer Romances arrives just in time for you to imagine a better life than watching movies on your laptop.

July is a retrospective-heavy month: the recently restored, totally essential films of Jacques Rozier, works directed and shot by D.A. Pennebaker, shorts by Suzan Pitt, and Lino Brocka, Moustapha Alassane, Michael Haneke, and Hou Hsiao-hsien programs are complemented by an exposition of the Rolling Stones on film.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

The Matrix Reloaded and In the Spirit both play on 35mm this Friday, with the latter repeating Saturday; a print of Barry Lyndon screens on Sunday.

Film Forum

All five of John Cazale’s films play; the 4K restoration of Shall We Dance?, debuting Masayuki Suo’s cut, and a new 35mm print of 8½ continue; Elia Kazan’s A Tree Grows In Brooklyn plays on Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

A Theater Near You includes films by Welles, Raoul Walsh, Ozu, Dreyer, Renoir, and more.

Film at Lincoln Center

The Monica Vitti retrospective continues.

Paris Theater

Bleak Week begins.

Anthology Film Archives

A series on the Griots Theater Company begins.

Museum of the Moving Image

Stagecoach leads “See It Big: Stunts!“; The Birdcage shows Saturday and Sunday.

IFC Center

Ran continues in a 40th-anniversary restoration; Before Sunrise, Before Sunset,...

Bruce Dern is a two-time Oscar nominee who shows no signs of slowing down, having appeared in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" (2019). Let's take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1936, Dern made his film debut with an uncredited appearance in Elia Kazan's "Wild River" (1960). He popped up in a number of supporting roles throughout the decade, making a name for himself in exploitation films produced by low-budget king Roger Corman.

Dern hit his stride in the 1970s, when a number of offbeat-looking performers suddenly became leading men. He earned his first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for Hal Ashby's Vietnam War drama "Coming Home" (1978), playing a Ptsd-afflicted marine whose wife (Jane Fonda) falls in love with a paralyzed vet (Jon Voight) while he's deployed.

Dern spent most of his career as a colorful supporting player,...

While Andy Griffith is remembered now as one of the original sitcom superstars, he once had a career as a popular movie actor. He turns in an astonishing performance as Lonesome Rhodes in Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd, quickly followed by his hilarious team-up with Don Knotts in No Time for Sergeants. That comedy smash was the fourth highest-grossing film of 1958. Griffith appeared to be heading to movie stardom, but that train was quickly derailed.

The problem? Studio greed. After the success of No Time for Sergeants, Warner Bros. wanted to keep raking in that sweet Andy Griffith cash. It rushed another military comedy, Onionhead, into theaters, just five months after Sergeants. One of the film’s posters announced, “That wonderful No Time for Sergeants meathead Andy Griffith is back as Onionhead!”

He’s “goofin’-up the Coast Guard now!” trumpeted another.

Unfortunately for the studio and the actor,...

Huddle up, Hunger Games fans — casting news coming at you hot off the Panem press! As fans of Suzanne Collins' wildly popular win-or-die YA book series will be well aware, last month saw the release of Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping, a new prequel novel centred around fan-favourite District 12 tribute-turned-mentor Haymitch Abernathy. Now, with Games filmmaking veteran Francis Lawrence's cinematic take on the book just over a year and a half away, this week we've been learning who'll be volunteering as tribute for the franchise's latest big screen outing.

Toplining the Billy Ray written movie will be Ghostbusters: Afterlife and soon-to-be Scream 7 star McKenna Grace, exciting up-and-comer Joseph Zada, and Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina series regular Whitney Peak. Grace, who's been collecting franchise roles of late with gigs on the aforementioned Ghostbusters legacyquels, Kevin Williamson's upcoming slasher, and animated show Batman: Caped Crusader, is set to play...

We are now well into 2025, and our latest column features several books that will likely rank among the year’s finest and most important releases. Plus, this column features a lengthy rundown of new and recent novels that should be on your radar, as well as lots of 4K and Blu-ray gems. Let’s start with an entertaining and insightful look at female filmmakers.

Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words by Marya E. Gates (Rizzoli)

Anyone who has read critic and writer Marya E. Gates’ “Female Filmmakers in Focus” column for RogerEbert.com will agree that there is no one better suited to write Cinema Her Way. This lovingly crafted, visually sublime text is packed with info and interviews. Gates acknowledges the titans of cinema whose contributions paved the way for today’s filmmakers. And while there are passing references to biggies like Coppola and Gerwig,...

If there was any doubt at all about whether Anthony Quinn was a true star, just take a look look at his track record. A film career that lasted 66 (!) years.  Appearances in 151 films. Winner of two Academy Awards (for "Viva Zapata!' and 'Lust for Life'). Nominated for two more. Two BAFTA nominations. Five Golden Globe nominations. Nominated for a Primetime Emmy. And even a 382-performance run on Broadway as the star of the stage musical "Zorba," based on his own hit film. That, my friend, is a star.

Born in Mexico but raised in Texas, Quinn began his career as a professional boxer but soon segued to acting. Blessed with looks that defied pigeonholing, Quinn played characters who were Latino, Greek, Italian, Arab and Native American (among many others), allowing him to explore a range of characterizations that few actors would be able to pull off so skillfully.

We’ve always loved setting trends at The Film Stage and are accordingly chuffed that, nine months after we screened a 35mm print at the Roxy, Roman Polanski’s late-career triumph The Ghost Writer comes to the Criterion Channel in next month’s Coastal Thrillers, a series that does what it says on the tin: The Lady from Shanghai, Key Largo, The Long Goodbye, The Fog, and the other best film of 2010, Scorsese’s Shutter Island. It pairs well with Noir and the Blacklist featuring films by Joseph Losey, Fritz Lang, Jules Dassin, and so on. Retrospectives are held for Terry Southern, Kathryn Bigelow, Jem Cohen, and (just in time for Caught By the Tides) Jia Zhangke, while Spike Lee gets his own Adventures In Moviegoing.

For recent restorations, Antonioni’s Il Grido and Anthony Harvey’s Dutchman appear. Criterion Editions include The Runner, Touchez pas au grisbi, Godzilla vs.

Rod Steiger is primarily remembered for his tough guys in such films as "Al Capone," "The Big Knife" and his Oscar-winning performance in "In the Heat of the Night." But his performances include such diverse characters as a meek Holocaust survivor in "The Pawnbroker" and a fey embalmer in the satire "The Loved One."

In addition to his performance in "In the Heat of the Night," for which Steiger also won a Golden Globe as well, he was Oscar-nominated for "The Pawnbroker" and for his iconic performance as the brother of Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) in the back seat of that car in Elia Kazan's "On the Waterfront."

So let's raise a glass to the late great man and honor him by counting down his 12 greatest screen performances, ranked from worst to best.

Wherever you go, there you are. That iconic line has become a pop culture mainstay thanks to one of the strangest movies of the 80s, Buckaroo Banzai or, as it is formally titled, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. This 1984 science fiction movie has been a cult classic for four decades and remains a fan favorite thanks to its virtually unexplainable plot. Part comedy, part action, part scifi, part martial arts, part musical, part western, part satire and part of a franchise that never came to be, Buckaroo Banzai may be the single most bizarre movie we have ever covered for this series.

A box office bomb when it was released, grossing only six million against a seventeen million dollar budget, Buckaroo Banzai holds a decent 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes where critics sum it up succinctly as “violating every rule of storytelling and narrative structure in creating...

J.D. Salinger's 1951 book "The Catcher in the Rye" might be one of the most widely read American novels ever. Its protagonist, the 16-year-old Holden Caulfield, has become a model for adolescent angst, constantly expressing his disgust for the world and calling everyone and everything he objects to "phony." He feels he can still connect with certain individuals as he comes of age, notably younger kids, but that he is growing distant from the rest of the world. When asked what he wants to do with his life, Holden pictures a fantasy wherein he stands in a field of rye situated on top of a cliff. As children play in the rye, it's his job to catch them before they fall off the precipice. He is the catcher in the rye.

Salinger's book has been widely scrutinized and reinterpreted. It's as celebrated for its understanding of angst as it is pilloried for its nihilism,...

New York icon Martin Scorsese is revealing his go-to films set in the Big Apple.

The auteur curated the screening series “Living, Breathing New York” for the Roxy Cinema, which features screenings of four of his favorite NYC movies out of a full list of Scorsese’s 32 favorite New York movies he’s created and which IndieWire is proud to share below.

“Living, Breathing New York” is curated by Scorsese in celebration of the new release of Olmo Schnabel’s NYC-set thriller, “Pet Shop Days,” which Scorsese executive produced. The film premieres March 15 at the Roxy Cinema in New York, and stars Dario Yazbek Bernal and Jack Irv as two lovers whose whirlwind romance sends them down a rabbit hole of drugs and depravity in Manhattan’s underworld. Willem Dafoe (who starred in Olmo Schnabel‘s father Julian Schnabel’s Vincent Van Gogh biopic “At Eternity’s Gate”), Emmanuelle Seigner, Peter Sarsgaard,...

At the 97th Academy Awards this past Sunday, Mikey Madison won Best Actress in a Leading Role for her eponymous role in Sean Baker's Anora. Anoratook home five other Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. It follows the titular character as she embarks on a whirlwind romance and eventual "fraud marriage" with the son of a Russian Oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). In her victory speech, the 25-year-old Madison(who also made history by becoming the first Gen Z actor to win an Oscar) proudly thanked and honored the sex worker community.

While Anora and Mikey Madison's win is one of the most overt examples of the Oscars recognizing sex work in recent memory, it has happened more times than many people may realize. 14 different women have taken home Academy Awards for portraying sex workers. In fact, Emma Stone also won in 2024 for portraying Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lantimos' Poor Things.

A spaghetti western is defined as a low-budget Western film created by European directors, and for the most part, they were primarily produced in Italy during the 1960s. In addition to a long list of different filming techniques, spaghetti Westerns were unique in the fact that they often focused on the negative aspects of Westerns, such as the corruption and violence at the center of many of it its stories.

As many Western fans are likely aware, Clint Eastwood famously starred in three spaghetti westerns: A Fistful of Dollars in 1964, The Good, the Bad and The Ugly in 1966, and For a Few Dollars More in 1965. Though he is considered a figurehead within the genre of Spaghetti Westerns, there are a wide variety of Spaghetti Westerns that are just as fantastical but do not star Eastwood.

Viva Zapata! Took Inspiration From Historical Conflicts Starring Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, Jean Peters

When imagining Viva Zapata!

While some actors seem more impassioned towards the performance aspect of a film rather than cinema itself, Ryan Gosling isn't one of them. Along with his award-winning acting chops, the A-lister has a deep love for movies. During a recent interview, he finally revealed his favorite movie of all time to fans — and it's a decades-old classic with a poignant message that's as relevant today as it was when it debuted.

On the Waterfront is a 1954 melodrama starring legendary actor, Marlon Brando (The Godfather) and directed by Elia Kazan. It was a critical success, winning Oscars for Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Picture, among others. Even today, the film proves its timeless excellence with a nearly perfect 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. So, what exactly makes On the Waterfront such a worthwhile triumph to watch again and again?

Your Ratingclose10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 stars5 stars4 stars3 stars...

“I was sure none of these people at the Actors Studio actually considered me an actor. I was a pretty boy, a real conventional kid who somehow had staggered into this mélange." - Paul Newman, The Extraordinary Life Of An Ordinary Man

For Montgomery Clift, there was Howard Hawks’ Red River...

Timothée Chalamet, after netting a best actor Oscar nomination for his role in A Complete Unknown on Thursday, has become the youngest multiple best actor nominee since James Dean.

On Thursday, film historian Mark Harris on his Bluesky account noted Chalamet had become the first to nab two best actor nominations from the Academy before turning 30, but only after following Dean.

The Hollywood icon, who died in a car crash in 1955 when he was 24, that same year received an Oscar nomination as the young hero in Elia Kazan’s screen version of John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden. Dean got a second posthumous nom for 1956’s Giant movie. Dean had been driving in his Porsche Spyder when he got into a head-on collision on a California highway, causing his untimely death.

Dean also died a month before the release of his most memorable movie, Rebel Without a Cause, where he played disaffected,...

Since James Dean's life was tragically cut short in a car accident when he was only 24 years old, he only ended up starring in three movies. Be that as it may, all three films has left an indelible mark on popular culture. With his narrow eyes and a cigarette dangling from his pursed lips, combined with the tight jeans and white shirts bursting from his wiry frame, Dean quickly created a brooding mystique that always seemed destined for Hollywood infamy.

Dean himself was a Method actor bad boy in the vein of Marlon Brando, though less brutish and more melancholic and sensitive. Beneath his tough-guy exterior, Dean also carried an inner weight that made his performances so achingly vulnerable. He was a handsome, tragic hero with a world-weary maturity who not only captivated 1950s audiences, but generations of moviegoers that followed as well. Let's rank the three movies that made him such a star.

A great 1945 war movie called The Story of G.I. Joe led to Robert Mitchum's only Oscar nomination even though the celebrated actor deserved at least one more. Mitchum has starred in some of the best film noirs of all time, such as The Big Sleep (1978), Cape Fear (1962), and The Night of the Hunter (1955). Mitchum was so exceptional in his prime that Roger Ebert called him his favorite movie star. Despite his acclaim, Mitchum was only nominated for one Oscar in his career for 1945's The Story of G.I. Joe.

Mitchum's acting career left a legacy as a classic figure in both film noir movies and Westerns. He starred alongside John Wayne in the Western drama El Dorado (1966) and in the classic war film The Longest Day (1962). He first rose to prominence in 1944's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo alongside Spencer Tracey and Van Johnson. Because of his overwhelming influence on...

January 2025 could mark a bleak month for very specific reasons, but in that month one can watch a nicely curated collection of David Bowie’s best performances. Nearly a decade since he passed, the iconic actor (who had some other trades) is celebrated with The Man Who Fell to Earth, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Linguini Incident, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and Basquiat. (Note: watch The Missing Pieces under Fire Walk with Me‘s Criterion edition for about three times as much Phillip Jeffries.) It’s a retrospective-heavy month: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Crowe, Ethan Hawke, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, Paolo Sorrentino, and Sean Baker are given spotlights; the first and last bring with them To Die For and Take Out‘s Criterion Editions, joining Still Walking, Hunger, and A Face in the Crowd.

“Surveillance Cinema” brings Thx 1138, Body Double, Minority Report, and others, while “Love in Disguise” offers films by Lubitsch,...

Since the first awards ceremony in 1929, the Academy Awards — colloquially known as the Oscars — have chosen the "best picture" in cinema every single year, with varying results. Still, a lot of the time, the Oscars at least gets it sort of right; to use a recent example, "The Shape of Water" is a good movie, but it was also competing against "Get Out" and "Lady Bird," so even a well-liked film like Guillermo del Toro's unexpected love story can spark a larger discussion about the Oscars and how they choose their winners. But I digress. Some of the historical best picture winners are (almost) universally beloved, with 99% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.

With acclaimed films like "Moonlight" and "Schindler's List" not far behind on Rotten Tomatoes' ranking of every best picture winner in Oscars history (both movies have a 98% rating), the following four films are, apparently, pretty close to perfect.

Director Elia Kazan‘s “The Visitors” was barely noticed when it was released in 1972, and it hasn’t had many opportunities for reappraisal since. While several of Kazan’s other movies that were commercial failures during their initial runs — most notably “Baby Doll,” “A Face in the Crowd” and “Wild River” — have since been canonized as classics, “The Visitors” remains obscure. That’s a shame, because it’s a fascinating case of Kazan applying his talents to film that initially seems like a major departure, but on deeper examination reveals itself to be a personal and profound work.

A new Blu-ray from Kino Lorber provides the perfect opportunity to take a closer look after decades in which “The Visitors” was almost impossible to find (and almost never in watchable transfers — the long out-of-print MGM DVD reduces the entire movie to a murky blob). The story is stark and simple: Years...

Nicolas Cage is one of our most impressive living actors, and a big part of that is because of his intense love of cinema. He's a true student of the craft, with an obsession for older films that has led him to an extensive knowledge of all the medium has to offer. Cage's passion for his projects has led to him becoming the subject of many memes, mostly using his most over-the-top performances, but the man really knows his stuff. So, when Rotten Tomatoes asked Cage for his five favorite films of all time, he came a little over-prepared, offering his top 13 favorite films instead. He said that he simply couldn't narrow it down to five because "there's different movies for different reasons in different lifetimes," which is the most Nicolas Cage thing he could have said.

The actor often looks back to older cinema for inspiration and compares...

Vivien Leigh was the two-time Oscar winner who made only a handful of films before her untimely death in 1967 at the age of 53. Yet several of those titles remain classics. Let’s take a look back at 10 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in British India, Leigh appeared in a number of roles on both the stage and screen in England, including a production of “Hamlet” opposite her husband, Laurence Olivier.

She came to international attention after landing the coveted role of Scarlet O’Hara in David O. Selznick’s massive adaptation of Margaret Mitchell‘s bestseller “Gone with the Wind” (1939). Leigh was far from the first choice to embody the headstrong Southern belle who pines after a married man (Leslie Howard) while wedding another (Clark Gable) against the backdrop of the Civil War. Yet the relatively unknown thespian beat out the likes of Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert,...

It’s been almost 60 years since Ron Howard last played that lovable scamp Opie on “The Andy Griffith Show,” but the Oscar-winning filmmaker still carries the hit television show in his heart to this day. In announcing his TCM Picks for November, Howard began by honoring his TV father, the late Andy Griffith, with the selection of Elia Kazan’s 1957 satire, “A Face in the Crowd.”

“It’s significance has grown tremendously over the decades, both as a distinct piece of cinema and an increasingly relevant social commentary,” Howard said in the video below. “Most personal to me is Andy Griffith’s performance as the central figure, Lonesome Rhodes, an easygoing folk singer who’s transformed by a media producer into a populist figure who’s changing the face of politics.”

Howard goes on to explain how Griffith was the second choice behind Kazan’s regular leading man Marlon Brando,...

2-time Oscar winner Marlon Brando had a historic run 70 years ago that has yet to be matched or replicated. Some of Marlon Brando's best movies came out of Hollywood's Golden Age, which took place from the late 1910s until the early 1960s. Although many of Brando's most prolific roles would arise in the 1970s in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, his performances as a leading man were just as impressive at the start of his acting career during the early 1950s.

Brando remains one of the few actors in Oscars history to win the Academy Award for Best Actor twice in his career. He is cemented among other great actors such as Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, and Anthony Hopkins. Daniel Day-Lewis remains the only actor to have ever won the award for three separate performances. He also remains the third youngest...

As production on the new Netflix limited series, East of Eden, a drama based on the John Steinbeck novel of the same name, gets underway, more of the shows cast has been announced. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Martha Plimpton and Ciarn Hinds (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) have been added to the cast, joining series leads Florence Pugh and Mike Faist.

Tracy Letts, Joseph Zada, and Joe Anders were also announced as part of the East of Eden cast. The series recently began production in New Zealand.

Related 'It's Our Time': The Goonies Star Calls for Steven Spielberg to Finally Make the Sequel

Recent rumors about a Goonies sequel has Sean Astin telling Steven Spielberg to make it a reality.

The Series Has Been In Development Since 2022

The series was acquired by Netflix in 2022 but was just greenlit in September. It is written and co-showrun by Zoe Kazan,...

Even though she's no stranger to Netflix, having starred in the streamer's original movies Outlaw King, Malevolent, and The Wonder, Academy Award-nominated actress Florence Pugh's biggest Netflix role is still to come. The talented star will lead the cast of Netflix's upcoming limited series East of Eden, based on the novel of the same name by John Steinbeck.

Pugh first became attached to star when word of the project was revealed by Deadline back in June 2022, but Netflix officially gave the limited series the green light in September 2024. Along with Pugh leading the cast, three additional cast members were announced at the time of the green light: Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist, and Hoon Lee.

On Oct. 21, the ensemble cast of East of Eden was rounded out with Tracy Letts, Matha Plimpton, Ciarán Hinds, Joseph Zada, and Joe Anders. With the cast set, it's reported that production on the seven-episode...

Netflix is adding to the ensemble for its adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden.

The limited series starring and executive produced by Florence Pugh has begun production in New Zealand. Joining the cast are Tracy Letts, Martha Plimpton, Ciaran Hinds, Joseph Zada and Joe Anders, who will appear alongside Pugh and the previously cast Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist and Hoon Lee.

Netflix formally greenlit the seven-episode drama in September, having acquired the rights in a bidding war back in 2022. Zoe Kazan — the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, who directed a 1955 feature film based on the novel — and Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, Vikings: Valhalla) are co-showrunners, with Kazan adapting Steinbeck’s book.

East of Eden tells the intertwined stories of two families in California’s Salinas Valley, the Trasks and the Hamiltons. Netflix says the series will “explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family, focusing new attention on its indelible antihero,...

Get ready to venture into the dark side of the California dream.

Production has started on East of Eden, the Netflix adaptation of the 1952 novel by Nobel Prize–winning author John Steinbeck.The seven-episode limited series, written and executive produced by Zoe Kazan, will film in several locations across New Zealand and will star Florence Pugh, who will also executive produce.

The new take on the classic novel continues the legacy of Zoe’s grandfather, Elia Kazan, who directed the 1955 East of Eden film starring James Dean.

“In the process of bringing this family saga to life, the resonance of my own familial connection to the material has not been lost on me,” Kazan told Netflix. “But it is Steinbeck’s writing — personal, shocking, profound, and...

The “East of Eden” limited series adaptation at Netflix is rounding out its cast.

Variety has learned that Tracy Letts, Martha Plimpton, Ciarán Hinds, Joseph Zada, and Joe Anders have all joined the series.

They will appear alongside previously announced cast members Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist, and Hoon Lee.

Letts will play Cyrus Trask, while Plimpton will play Faye, Hinds will play Samuel Hamilton, Zada will play Cal Trask, and Anders will play Aron Trask.

Based on the John Steinbeck novel of the same name, the series is said to “explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family, focusing new attention on its indelible antihero, Cathy Ames (Pugh).”

Production on the seven-episode series is now underway in New Zealand. In addition to writing, Zoe Kazan serves as executive producer and co-showrunner. Her grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the original film adaptation starring James Dean. Jeb Stuart serves as co-showrunner and executive producer as well.

Netflix has rounded out the main cast of its limited series East Of Eden, starring and executive produced by Florence Pugh and written and executive produced by Zoe Kazdan.

Tracy Letts, Martha Plimpton, Ciarán Hinds, Joseph Zada and Joe Anders have boarded the project, joining previously cast Pugh, Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist and Hoon Lee.

Production on the seven-episode limited series, produced by Fifth Season and Anonymous Content, has started; it will be filming across multiple locations in New Zealand.

East Of Eden, a modern interpretation of Steinbeck’s classic, will explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family, focusing new attention on its indelible antihero, Cathy Ames (Pugh).

Joseph Zada and Joe Anders

Letts will play Cyrus Trask; Plimpton will play Faye...

Those who were driving through the intersection of Highland and Fountain in Los Angeles in the early 2000s got to know Tommy Wiseau very, very well. It was at that intersection that Wiseau chose to buy a billboard for his then-new film "The Room," and it featured a rather unflattering closeup of the man, staring directly into the camera, one of his eyes half-closed. The billboard stayed up for five straight years, costing Wiseau $5,000 a month.

It worked, though. Enough Angelenos drove past the billboard to become curious about "The Room" and seek out a screening at the Sunset 5 theater nearby. Those who saw it in those early days were utterly baffled. "The Room" is an intense infidelity drama about an all-around good guy named Johnny (Wiseau) whose fiancée Lisa (Juliette Danielle) instigates an affair with Johnny's best friend Mark (Greg Sestero). The film, however, is so weirdly scripted and...

Marlon Brando is largely considered an actor who changed Hollywood forever, thanks to his contributions to film and performances in some of the best movies of all time. Throughout his career, it seemed that Brando understood what made a good script and what directors he would best work with, as the projects he sought out almost always garnered significant attention and accolades. Though there's much more to a performer's legacy than how many awards they win, Brando was consistently recognized for his work and is frequently singled out as one of the greatest actors of his generation.

Much of his early acting work and training took place on stage in the theater, which informed much of Brando's success. Several of his early projects were film adaptations of stage plays, easing the transition from theater to the movies. Many of Marlon Brando's best movies feature him in classic roles that highlight...

Christopher Abbott is joining the Blumhouse cinematic monster universe with horror film “Wolf Man.”

The “Poor Things” star and “Girls” alum leads the Blumhouse and Universal feature about a werewolf. Julia Garner also stars.

Ryan Gosling produces the film, which is directed by “Saw” co-creator and “The Invisible Man” helmer Leigh Whannell. Gosling was originally cast in the lead role before exiting the project; Abbott took over the titular part.

Abbott and Garner previously starred in “Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene” together in 2011.

Director Whannell is a Blumhouse staple, having previously directed “The Invisible Man,” “Upgrade,” and “Insidious: Chapter 3″ for the studio.

Whannell co-wrote the “Wolf Man” script with Corbett Tuck, Lauren Schuker Blum, and Rebecca Angelo. Jason Blum is producing the film, a Blumhouse and Motel Movies production, with Gosling Ken Kao, Bea Sequeira, Mel Turner, and Whannell executive producing.

The official synopsis reads: “The film follows Blake (Abbott), a San Francisco husband and father,...

With Janus possessing the much-needed restorations, Catherine Breillat is getting her biggest-ever spotlight in November’s Criterion Channel series spanning 1976’s A Real Young Girl to 2004’s Anatomy of Hell––just one of numerous retrospectives arriving next month. They’re also spotlighting Ida Lupino, directorial efforts of John Turturro (who also gets an “Adventures In Moviegoing”), the Coen brothers, and Jacques Audiard.

In a slightly more macroscopic view, Columbia Noir and a new edition of “Queersighting” ring in Noirvember. Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse trilogy and Miller’s Crossing get Criterion Editions, while restorations of David Bowie-starrer The Linguini Incident, Med Hondo’s West Indies, and Dennis Hopper’s Out of the Blue make streaming debuts; and Kevin Jerome Everson’s Tonsler Park arrives just in time for another grim election day.

See the full list of titles arriving in November below:

36 fillette, Catherine Breillat, 1988

Anatomy of Hell, Catherine Breillat,...

Two years ago, we brought you the news that Florence Pugh had signed on to star in a new adaptation of East Of Eden, John Steinbeck's 1952 literary epic. In the time since the project — a seven-part Netflix limited series written by Zoe Kazan (The Big Sick) — was first announced, Christopher Abbott has joined the show's cast and Pugh's star has continued to rise with winning turns in the likes of The Wonder, Oppenheimer, and Dune: Part Two. And now we're getting an exciting new casting announcement for the series as Netflix has officially greenlit the project. Per Deadline's reporting, Challengers star Mike Faist has joined the ensemble, and whilst earlier indications suggested he will be playing Cal Trask, the part James Dean famously played in Elia Kazan's 1955 movie, it looks instead like he'll be playing the novel's Cain figure, Charles, instead.

Lion director Garth Davis and Lady Chatterley's...

Like most of the cinema’s recurring images and sensations, there’s no precise “first movie” about the maladjusted, dissatisfied, wounded soul, but the floodgates about this most serious of fellows seemed to open just after World War II. The late 1940s and early ’50s witnessed the infiltration of the New York theater, Marlon Brando, Elia Kazan, Stanley Kramer, Robert Rossen, Abraham Polonsky, Nicholas Ray, and so on—directors, scribes, or actors whose meal tickets more often than not depended on their ability to write the counter-mythology to V-Day utopia. They asked, amid the fanfare and the ticker-tape parades, “Is this all there is?”

Deities such as Brando and James Dean were responsible for taking that particular ship into orbit, but John Garfield was a pioneer of sorts, as early as 1938’s Four Daughters, where his appearance in such a genteel trifle was no less jarring than a Martian invasion.

The upcoming Netflix adaptation of East of Eden has filled in a major role opposite Florence Pugh. The seven-part limited series will adapt John Steinbecks classic, profound novel of the same name, with big names already attached to the project in various roles. It has already found its Cathy Ames, an iconic antiheroine, in Florence Pugh, who is also co-producing. Zoe Kazan will serve as a writer, executive producer, and co-showrunner, alongside Jeb Stuart. The novel, which is a beloved tome that explores deep themes, including familial trauma and repair, has been adapted before, by Kazans grandfather, Elia Kazan.

Per Netflix, the TV adaptation of East of Eden has found its Charles Trask in Challengers and The Bikeriders star Mike Faist. The series has also added Hoon Lee to the so far impressive cast. In the book, Charles is the half-brother of Adam, and, while most of the characters in...

While Florence Pugh is teaming up with a group of supervillain misfits for Marvel Studios’ upcoming closer to phase five, Thunderbolts*, she will also be gearing up for a Netflix drama that’s based on John Steinbeck’s literary classic, East of Eden. The Hollywood Reporter has unveiled that the streamer has given the go-ahead to a seven-episode limited series based on the 1952 novel. The book was previously adapted for a 1955 movie, which was directed by Elia Kazan and featured the iconic James Dean in his first lead role.

Elia Kazan’s granddaughter, Zoe Kazan, is set to adapt the novel into an episodic show and will serve as co-showrunner along with Jeb Stuart, known for projects like Die Hard and Vikings: Valhalla. Pugh will be joined by Christopher Abbott, as well as Mike Faist, who is playing the role Dean had in the film adaptation, and Hoon Lee will also starring.

East of Eden is coming!

Netflix has ordered the limited series adaptation from writer Zoe Kazan, via Variety.

The series was originally reported to be in development in June 2022 with Florence Pugh attached to star as Cathy.

Keep reading to find out more…

Now, there are more castings: Christopher Abbott is set to play Adam, Mike Faist is Charles and Hoon Lee is Lee.

Netflix has ordered seven episodes.

Here’s a plot summary: “Based on the John Steinbeck novel of the same name, the series is said to ‘explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family, focusing new attention on its indelible antihero, Cathy Ames.’”

Zoe Kazan serves as executive producer and co-showrunner. Her grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the original film adaptation starring James Dean.

“Zoe’s thoughtful and artistic vision pays homage to her grandfather’s revered film adaptation while beautifully honoring and introducing new audiences to a true canon of American literature,...

More than two years after Netflix’s take on East of Eden first went into development, the streamer has officially ordered a limited-series adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel.

Oscar nominee Florence Pugh (Little Women), who was reportedly attached to the project when it was initially in the works in 2022, is now confirmed to star in the seven-episode series as Cathy Ames; per the official logline, Netflix’s adaptation will focus “new attention” on “indelible antihero” Cathy as it explores the multigenerational saga of the Trask family.

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Netflix will revisit a classic novel for its latest prestige series.

The streamer has formally greenlit East of Eden, a seven-episode limited series based on John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel. The book was previously adapted for a 1955 movie directed by Elia Kazan that was notable as James Dean’s first lead role.

Zoe Kazan, Elia Kazan’s granddaughter, is adapting the novel and will serve as co-showrunner with Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, Vikings: Valhalla). Florence Pugh heads the cast, with Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist (playing the role Dean had in the film) and Hoon Lee also starring. Fifth Season and Anonymous Content are producing.

“In the process of bringing this family saga to life, the resonance of my own familial connection to the material has not been lost on me,” Kazan said in a statement. “But it is Steinbeck’s writing — personal, shocking, profound and free — that has kept me enthralled...

Netflix has ordered the limited series adaptation of “East of Eden” from writer Zoe Kazan, Variety has learned.

The series was originally reported to be in development at the streamer in June 2022 with Florence Pugh attached to star as Cathy. Now, Christopher Abbott is set to play Adam, with Mike Faist as Charles and Hoon Lee as Lee. Netflix has ordered seven episodes.

Based on the John Steinbeck novel of the same name, the series is said to “explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family, focusing new attention on its indelible antihero, Cathy Ames.”

In addition to writing, Kazan serves as executive producer and co-showrunner. Her grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the original film adaptation starring James Dean. Jeb Stuart has joined the project as co-showrunner and executive producer as well. Garth Davis will direct the first four episodes and serve as an executive producer. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre will executive...