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Apc, Hat Trick & Dcd Joins Forces For London Screenings

A trio of distributors will join forces to showcase their latest wares at next year’s London TV Screenings. About Premium Content (Apc), Hat Trick International (Hti) and Dcd Rights will combine to introduce buyers to content at an event on Tuesday, February 25 at the Vue West End in Leicester Square from 4.30pm-7.30pm local time. Apc co-founders Emmanuelle Guilbart and Laurent Boissel and Hti chief Sarah Tong noted how combing efforts would allow time-stretched acquisitions execs access to more programming during an increasingly busy week of international screenings. Dcd Rights and Hat Trick have jointly screened at the Vue for the past two years. Dcd Rights CEO Nicky Davies-Williams said she was “pleased to have Apc join us and Hti for our annual screenings and drinks at the Vue, which has proved to be a must attend event over the past years.

Legendary “Pulp Fiction” producer Lawrence Bender has boarded “Red Alert,” a new Israel drama inspired by real-life events, as exec producer.

Five-part series “Red Alert” is based on the terror attacks of Oct. 7, telling the stories of five citizens who found themselves in unimaginable life-or-death situations as cold-blooded slaughter takes place around them.

“This multicharacter drama blends incredible human stories of bravery, resilience, and defiance – many of which made news headlines around the world in the aftermath of this shocking terror attack – with intense military action,” reads the logline.

Over a thousand people were murdered by Hamas terrorists and a further two hundred were taken hostage to Gaza during the attacks last year.

“Red Alert,” whose title is taken from Israel’s emergency warning signal indicating an imminent threat, was developed in consultation with survivors and victims’ families.

Lior Chefetz (“The Stronghold”) created the series, which he wrote and will also direct.

Law & Order: Organized Crime‘s move to Peacock will come with a new addition.

Olivia Thirlby (Y: The Last Man) has joined the series for Season 5 in a recurring role, our sister site Variety reports. Details about her character are not currently available.

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As recently reported by Matt’s Inside Line, the show...

Fox Entertainment has unveiled plans for an upcoming drama series called “Billionaire Apocalypse.” The show will explore themes of wealth inequality and social responsibility. It was created by Jay Carson, known for his work on “The Morning Show.”

“Billionaire Apocalypse” will follow the richest man in the world after a financial crisis causes his wealth to disappear. With his money gone, he loses power and control over his employees and family. The series looks at how this affects the relationships of those who relied on his wealth.

Carson will write and produce the show. He has experience in both politics and entertainment. Previously, Carson worked as a spokesperson in the U.S. Senate and for President Bill Clinton. Later he produced “House of Cards” for Netflix and created “The Morning Show” for Apple TV+.

Hollywood star Hugh Jackman and veterans Lawrence Bender and Kevin Brown will also serve as executive producers.

Fox is developing a drama series about the richest man in the world having to flee his private island after a global financial collapse.

Billionaire Apocalypse (w/t) comes from The Morning Show creator Jay Carson, who will write, and exec producers including Hugh Jackman, Pulp Fiction producer Lawrence Bender and Kevin Brown, exec producer of Starz’ Flesh and Bone.

The network is unveiling the project at Mipcom, where it is hunting for international partners.

Fox Entertainment Studios is producing and it will be distributed internationally by Fox Entertainment Global.

The series follows the richest man on the planet, 200 of his employees, and his family as they are forced to flee to his private island in the wake of a global financial collapse, where the employees and family members — who he’s treated as afterthoughts for decades — quickly realize he’s no longer rich and thus no longer in charge.

Fox said late Sunday night that it is developing a drama series tentatively titled Billionaire Apocalypse that hails from The Morning Show creator Jay Carson and counts Hugh Jackman among its executive producers.

The drama, from Fox Entertainment Studios for the Fox network, is written and executive produced by Carson, creator and writer of Apple+’s Emmy-nominated Morning Show. Also serving as exec producers are Lawrence Bender (Flesh and Bone, Pulp Fiction) and Kevin Brown (Flesh and Bone, Trumbo).

The logline for the drama: “The richest man on the planet, 200 of his employees, and his family are forced to flee to his private island in the wake of a global financial collapse, where the employees and family members — who he’s treated as afterthoughts for decades — quickly realize he’s no longer rich and thus no longer in charge.”

The project, which has received a script commitment, is being distributed worldwide by Fox Entertainment Global.

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One of the hardest parts of working in the film industry is the fact that your work, no matter how hard you've worked on it and/or how proud you are of it, can't move forward until you let other people pass judgment on it. That screenplay that you've poured every ounce of your creative energy into for months is finished, and now you've got to get notes from your friends, your agent, and anyone who might be interested in working on it. It's terrifying. And the situation gets more fraught when you're showing a cut of the film. You've been working with an editor to craft a compelling motion picture, and all that effort could come undone over two hours in a screening room.

When you've been through this, when you know how it feels to take a barrage of constructive criticism,...

This article contains a discussion of sexual assault.

A new retrospective focused on Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece "Pulp Fiction" in Variety revealed the that notorious — and disgraced — producer Harvey Weinstein had a very clear idea regarding the film's casting, and he was ultimately overruled.

Journalist Todd Gilchrist spoke to a ton of people involved with the Oscar-winning film and learned, through executive producer Danny DeVito, executive producer Michael Shamberg, and producer Lawrence Bender, that Weinstein really wanted Daniel Day-Lewis to play Vincent Vega, the role that ultimately went to John Travolta. DeVito had an overall development deal at TriStar Pictures and got final cut on his projects there. As he recalled, he spoke to Weinstein, who insisted that Day-Lewis — who had just won his Academy Award for "My Left Foot — play Vincent.

"I said, 'The director wants John Travolta,'" DeVito told Gilchrist. "I told this kid I've got final cut,...

Rosanna Arquette had to wait 30 years to be able to appreciate Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.”

The actress, who plays the character Jody in the ensemble film, told Variety that she originally had to leave the 1994 film premiere as the feature was “so violent.” Arquette further reflected on the “cringe-worthy moments” in the Academy Award-winning script co-written by Roger Avary.

“I was pregnant when it came out, and I remember going into it and it was so violent my mom and I had to leave. So I’d never sat and watched it as a cinema experience until 30 years later at the Chinese Theatre [during the TCM Film Festival retrospective],” she said. “It’s still this cultural phenomenon, but also I still have the issue of, enough with the N-word. For me, that’s always been an issue, and I didn’t realize how much it was an issue until I saw it this last time.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary on Oct. 14, “Pulp Fiction” has left a massive footprint on moviemaking.

Originally conceived as an anthology by writer-director Quentin Tarantino and his longtime friend, collaborator and Video Archives coworker Roger Avary, the film evolved into a funny, violent, endlessly inventive, non-linear odyssey. In addition to reviving the career of John Travolta, minting a star in Samuel L. Jackson and spawning a still-thriving cottage industry of knockoffs and imitation films, “Pulp” earned the 1994 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or, seven Academy Award nominations and one win (for Tarantino and Avary’s screenplay), while its commercial success ($213 million off of an $8.5 million budget) forever changed the economics of independent cinema.

To commemorate the legacy and impact of “Pulp Fiction,” Variety spoke with more than 20 members of the film’s cast and crew to solicit their experiences and recollections. Armed with more than 100 pages of interviews, we’ve elected...

In what is shaping up to be a rather thin awards season, could a small but formidable film, written and directed by a filmmaker with three Oscar winners in his family, find its way into contention?

That’s what Falling Forward Films is betting on in acquiring the U.S. distribution rights for Jack Huston’s impressive directorial debut Day of the Fight, a black-and-white indie about a once-renowned boxer — played by Huston’s former Boardwalk Empire costar Michael C. Pitt — as he takes a redemptive journey through his past and present on the day of his first fight since he was released from prison.

Indeed, the upstart distributor has already begun mounting an awards campaign for the film, which also stars Nicolette Robinson, Ron Perlman, John Magaro, Anatol Yusef, Steve Buscemi (another Boardwalk Empire alum) and — coming out of retirement to make a brief but shattering appearance — Oscar winner Joe Pesci.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has been a commercial hit and a critical misfire.

In an era of declining Oscar telecast ratings, the new institution’s robust ticket sales — there have been nearly 2 million visitors since it opened in September 2021 — have turned it into a major Los Angeles draw, bolstered the Academy’s coffers and prompted inaugural museum director Bill Kramer’s ascension to CEO of AMPAS, the parent organization. Yet except for Regeneration, its lauded deep-dive showcase of Black American filmmaking through the early 1970s, the exhibits have been discourse duds, more fit for the local tourist attraction it is than the world-class institution it aims to be.

There’s been exuberant fan service (a sprawling tribute to Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki) and dutiful minor-key spotlights on illustrious yet lower-profile luminaries like editor Thelma Schoonmaker and director Oscar Micheaux. Then there was the museum’s debut survey of the film industry,...

The Academy Museum has vowed to modify language in its new “Hollywoodland” exhibit dedicated to the Jewish founders of Hollywood amid outcry labeling the exhibit antisemitic.

“We have heard the concerns from members of the Jewish community regarding some components of our exhibition ‘Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital,’” the Academy Museum said on Monday in a statement obtained by IndieWire. “We take these concerns seriously and are committed to making changes to the exhibition to address them. We will be implementing the first set of changes immediately — they will allow us to tell these important stories without using phrasing that may unintentionally reinforce stereotypes. This will also help to eliminate any ambiguities. In addition to these updates, we are convening an advisory group of experts from leading museums focused on the Jewish community, civil rights, and the history of other marginalized groups to advise us...

Thanks to enhanced security measures, attendees at this year’s Cannes Film Festival have faced only a few hiccups. Even the ongoing war and Israeli hostage situation in Gaza haven’t made headlines during the festival, in stark contrast with the Berlinale.

But one private screening, which was scheduled outside of the festival and market, was canceled abruptly, and attendees were told it was due to a security threat. Details of what happened remain unclear.

On May 17, WestEnd Films co-founder Sharon Harel-Cohen organized a screening of “Bearing Witness” for a small group of industryites who were in town for the festival. The 47-minute film shows raw footage from the Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel, some of it captured by body cameras and CCTV. The invitation warned: “The footage is extremely graphic and violent, including videos of murder filmed by Hamas terrorists.” It also noted, “For security reasons the location...

Robert De Niro’s film legacy is being toasted for his 80th birthday in 2024.

During the annual Tribeca Festival, which will take place June 5 through 16, will be an inaugural De Niro Con celebration of the Oscar winner’s filmography. Auteurs Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and David O. Russell will revisit their collaborations with De Niro for panel discussions post-screenings, while De Niro’s former co-stars Christopher Walken, Billy Crystal, and more are set to add to the celebrations.

The three-day tribute will take place at Spring Studios from June 14 through 16. De Niro Con is powered by Webex Events, allowing fans to download an exclusive app to make the most of their Con experience.

Programming includes a screening series with 13 classic De Niro films, including the 50th anniversary of “Mean Streets,” live conversations with long-time collaborators, career-spanning exhibit “De Niro Is an Icon: An Exhibit & Immersive Film” with more than 300 curated...

It’s time for a new episode of the Real Slashers video series, and with this one we’re taking another look at one of my personal favorites, director Scott Spiegel’s 1989 film Intruder (pick up a copy of the unrated Blu-ray Here). I previously covered this movie with an episode of Best Horror Movie You Never Saw and Emilie Black wrote about it for Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie. Now it’s Tyler Nichols’ turn to dig into it, and you can find out what he had to say about Intruder by watching the video embedded above.

Scripted by Spiegel (who wrote Evil Dead II with Sam Raimi) from a story he crafted with producer Lawrence Bender, Intruder has the following synopsis: It’s 10 pm and the employees of Michigan’s Walnut Lake Supermarket are in for a really bad night. The place is shutting its doors for good,...

Editors note: Filmmaker and producer Davis Guggenheim directed 2006’s An Inconvenient Truth featuring Al Gore. The film won the Oscar and helped put Jeff Skoll’s social-impact-driven production company then known as Participant Media on the map, and also sounded an alarm about climate change that has become more pronounced since the film was released. In addition to documentaries, Participant was also responsible for Oscar Best Picture winners Spotlight and Green Book, and Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, another timely topic. Guggenheim is a co-founder of Concordia Studio and most recently directed and produced Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, which won four Emmys including for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. He is the only person to direct and produce three distinct films ranking in the top 100 highest-grossing documentaries of all time. Here he penned a guest column for Deadline after learning Participant was shuttering.

John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and Harvey Keitel reunited at the TCM Classic Film festival on Thursday for a 30th anniversary screening of Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” to reflect on the film’s impact on their careers — and upon the medium itself.

“It changed cinema, so it’s almost hard to have it sink in,” observed Uma Thurman, who joined Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta and Harvey Keitel for a Q&a about Tarantino’s benchmark film with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz. “I feel like I’ve had an evolving and beautifully growing relationship with ‘Pulp Fiction’ all of my life. It changed cinema, and it changed every filmmaker I met since.”

Though she and her three costars were the only members asked to speak before the screening, several other members of the cast and crew joined them in the auditorium of the Tcl Chinese Theatre,...

Opening night of the TCM Classic Film Festival next week will also serve as a Pulp Fiction reunion.

Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Rosanna Arquette and Harvey Keitel are among those joining John Travolta on April 18 for the 30th anniversary, 35mm screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994) at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Fellow actors Eric Stoltz, Julia Sweeney, Frank Whaley, Phil Lamarr and Burr Steers, producer Lawrence Bender and executive producers Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher are expected to be there as well.

As previously announced, actor Billy Dee Williams and makeup artist Lois Burwell will be honored at the 15th annual festival; author Jeanine Basinger will receive the Robert Osborne Award; and Jodie Foster will partake in a hand- and footprint ceremony.

The festival, with the theme “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film,” runs through April 21 at venues including the rejuvenated Egyptian Theatre.

Among those...

In the weeks since the 2024 Academy Awards, figures throughout Hollywood have continued to declare their support for director Jonathan Glazer. While accepting the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for The Zone of Interest, a film that centers on the Holocaust, the Jewish director criticized the dehumanization of “victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza.”

The most recent show of support comes from an open letter signed by more than 150 Jewish creatives, including Joaquin Phoenix, Elliott Gould, Ilana Glazer, Chloe Fineman, Todd Haynes,...

Updated with more signatories: Reaction continues to The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer’s acceptance speech after his film won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film this month.

Some 1,215 Jewish show business professionals now have signed a letter denouncing the filmmaker’s speech, in which he decried the “dehumanization” of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. See the updated full list below.

“We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination,” the letter states (read it in full in full below).

This list includes among its signatories Eli Roth and Amy Sherman-Palladino, Amy Pascal, Debra Messing, Gail Berman, Hawk Koch, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gary Barber, Lawrence Bender, Tovah Feldshuh and Rod Lurie.

You can watch Glazer’s speech here,...

More than 1,000 Jewish creatives, executives and Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter denouncing Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” Oscar speech.

The list of co-signees provided to Variety Monday morning covers a broad swath of the industry including actors, executives, creators (Amy Sherman-Palladino), directors, producers and representatives. About 500 more individuals have added their names to the nearly 500 who signed on when the open letter was first published.

The group’s statement says: “We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination.”

Glazer declined to comment.

With such high-profile co-signees as Jennifer Jason Leigh, “La La Land” producer Gary Gilbert and “The Americans” creators Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, the statement adds, “The use of words like ‘occupation’ to describe an...

The Shape is back! Well, of course he is. He can't be killed, after all, and the "Halloween" franchise must go on to ensure that Michael Myers will still be terrorizing the fine folks in Haddonfield for generations to come. "Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers" continued the trend established in "Halloween 4" and "Halloween 5" of weirdly copying the sequel titles of the "Pink Panther" movies starring Peter Sellers. There was "The Return," then "The Revenge" and now it was time to dive a little deeper into "Halloween" lore, for better or worse.

Honestly, it was something of a miracle that "Halloween 6" even got made at all. After becoming the first in the series to actually premiere on Friday the 13th, "Halloween 5" was the lowest grossing movie of the franchise when it opened in October of 1989. After the development for "Halloween 6" stalled multiple times due to legal issues,...

If you look at Samuel L. Jackson's IMDb page, you will see a list of credits in the hundreds. For decades, Jackson has gradually become one of the most successful actors in Hollywood, appearing in movies of all genres at all budget levels in roles of all sizes. He's created a litany of indelible characters that make him someone so many actors — particularly Black actors — want to mold their careers after. Even if he has a dynamite screen persona he can tap into whenever he wishes, Jackson is one of the most versatile actors working, and though he's currently in his mid-70s, he shows no signs of slowing down.

Despite all the credits, there will be one role mentioned in the headline for his obituary when he eventually passes on hopefully many, many years from now. That role is Jules Winnfield in Quentin Tarantino's blockbuster sophomore feature "Pulp Fiction.

The Idf’s ground war in Gaza to root out the Hamas perpetrators of the Oct 7 terror attack has prompted demonstrations as casualties and the death toll mounts. As tensions continue to mount, groups of benefactors have focused on not allowing Oct 7 to be dismissed. After 45 minutes of gruesome footage shot by terrorists was shown in Hollywood and New York, some survivors are being flown to Hollywood to speak. That happened Saturday at the home of producer Lawrence Bender, and more than 100 gathered to hear the experiences of several survivors. One was Ella Shani, a 14-year old survivor of the attack on her Kubbutz Be’eri. Her father and neighbors were murdered, and her 16 year old cousin was kidnapped and is being held hostage. Another is Tomer Peretz, an Israel American artist on holiday in Israel when he volunteered with the Zaka-Rapid response unit of volunteers for mass casualty disasters,...

On Wednesday evening, while most of Hollywood was cheering the news that the months-long actors strike had just come to an end, some 200 invited members of the industry — most of them avowed supporters of Israel — convened at the Museum of Tolerance in West L.A. for a screening of a film unlike any other: Bearing Witness, which comprises 43 minutes of footage of atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli citizens on Oct. 7.

The somber gathering took place under heavy guard. Another media outlet leaked the location at which it would be taking place, resulting in threats against the museum and necessitating an FBI advance team in the days leading up to it. On Wednesday, a considerable number of LAPD officers were stationed inside the museum’s theater, out on the surrounding streets and in a helicopter overhead. But in the end, there appeared to be no more than a few...

4th Update, Oct 16: Casey Wasserman is the latest Hollywood heavyweight to speak out in support of Israel.

“There is no justification for this,” the Wasserman chairman-ceo – and chairman of the L.A. 2028 committee – reportedly said at an International Olympic Committee session in Mumbai on Monday. “I unequivocally stand in solidarity with Israel, but let me be clear I also stand with the innocent civilians in Gaza who did not choose this war.”

Referencing the terrorist kidnapping of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Games, Wasserman continued, “Unfortunately, the Olympics are not immune to the world we live in.

“At its worst, it is a platform for hate to express itself on the stage and we will always remember the 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team who were taken hostage and murdered in Munich.

“But at its best it is an opportunity for sport to show the world a better path with peace and unity,...

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Spyglass Media Group founder Gary Barber, Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz and a group of other leaders in the entertainment industry denounced the “brutal attacks” by Hamas in Israel in a joint statement Thursday received exclusively by TheWrap.

“We denounce the brutal attacks by Hamas in Israel. These atrocities will have a devastating impact on future generations,” the statement read. “We unequivocally stand in solidarity with Israel in the global fight against terrorism. Am Yisrael Chai.”

Other signatories of the statement include Lawrence Bender, Jim Berkus, Roger Birnbaum, Jonathan Glickman, Jason Hirschhorn, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Brian Robbins, Eli Roth, Haim Saban, Chris Silbermann, Ben Silverman, Modi Wiczyk and Rick Yorn.

The joint statement follows several statements, both internally and externally, from companies including Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal parent Comcast...

Quentin Tarantino had a single epic film in mind when he set out to create what became Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and its follow-up.

The lead character of the Bride originated in conversations between Tarantino and star Uma Thurman during their first collaboration in 1993. “I came up with the idea of doing Kill Bill on the set of Pulp Fiction with Uma,” Tarantino told The Hollywood Reporter in 2003. “‘Bang Bang’ set to Uma for the opening credits was in my mind [back then],” the director said of using Cher’s song “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” to open the film, although he later opted for the Nancy Sinatra cover.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 centers on Thurman’s erstwhile assassin seeking revenge against her former team and their leader, Bill (David Carradine), after they tried to kill her and her unborn child on her wedding day. Tarantino envisioned Warren Beatty for...

Matt Damon and Minnie Driver first collaborated on the Oscar-winning feature Good Will Hunting. Driver won her role thanks to a powerful audition. But Damon couldn’t finish screening with the co-star after saying these words to his ex-girlfriend.

Matt Damon couldn’t continue with the audition after saying his heartbreaking ‘Good Will Hunting’ line Matt Damon | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Driver portrayed Damon’s love interest in his highly acclaimed 1997 feature Good Will Hunting. Originally, however, there were some who fought against Driver’s casting in the movie. The explanation was that Driver didn’t have the appropriate looks for the film.

“The producer of Good Will Hunting did not think I was hot enough to be in that film, and did not want me in the film. It came from the top,” Driver once told Daily Mail.

But both Damon and Affleck lobbied for the actor, which helped Driver...

In a display of pink visible from outer space, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” held its lush world premiere on Sunday in Los Angeles.

The Shrine Auditorum, located smack in the middle of the USC campus, was hosed down in colors of blush and bashful for the anticipated Warner Bros. release, which drew the film’s stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

One notable absence was Noah Baumbach, the film’s co-writer and Gerwig’s partner.

“My co-writer and co-creator, my partner in love and art, Noah Baumbach is not here. He is passionately supporting the fight of the Writers Guild of America,” Gerwig said. “He is a Barbie girl. Nothing in ‘Barbie’ happened without him, and nothing in Hollywood happens without writers.”

The Shrine, once the site of the annual Academy Awards, was packed with Gerwig’s cast of dolls, humans and other brand enthusiasts like “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Trixie Mattel and,...

At the sold-out annual gala of Moca on Saturday night, April 15, Keanu Reeves and his girlfriend artist Alexandra Grant, walked the red carpet and shared a kiss in front of the phalanx of photographers, before joining around 600 other guests inside the museum’s Geffen Contemporary building in downtown L.A.

During the cocktail hour, attendees — who also included Tiffany Haddish, Jodie Foster and Alexandra Hedison, Paramount Animation chief Ramsey Ann Naito and Reeves’ one-time Bill and Ted co-star Alex Winter, Jennifer Tilly, Lisa Edelstein, David and Susan Gersh, producers Lawrence Bender and Carolyn Folks, and CAA’s Joel Lubin — got the first look at Moca’s new exhibit, Carl Craig: Party/After-Party, an immersive soundscape and light installation, ahead of its opening today. “It’s so intense and the vibrations are so strong, that you can’t even hang art in the adjacent building,” Moca director Johanna Burton told THR of the show.

As a lifelong fan of Blaxploitation flicks and exploitation movies in general, of course Quentin Tarantino was desperate to work with Pam Grier. The legendary star of "The Big Bird Cage," "Coffey," and "Foxy Brown" meshed uncommon beauty with undeniable grit. She wasn't looking for trouble. She was trouble. And the bad folks clownish enough to try her on for size always found her to be a treacherously poor fit.

Unfortunately, when the Blaxploitation trend faded in the late 1970s, Hollywood failed Grier. She went from starring roles to underwritten supporting parts in a string of mostly forgettable movies. Strangely, she didn't benefit much from the Black filmmaking renaissance of the early 1990s led by directors like Spike Lee, John Singleton and the Hughes brothers. Then 1996 happened. Though the films weren't particularly big hits, the triple-punch of "Mars Attacks!," "Original Gangsters," and "Escape from L.A." proved she still had plenty...

On Wednesday evening, Jeremy Lin, the basketball star whose 2012 run of greatness with the New York Knicks sparked a period of “Linsanity,” came to LA’s Museum in Tolerance for a screening of the Oscar-shortlisted HBO documentary short 38 at the Garden — a film that contrasts the pride that the Linsanity era brought Asian-Americans with the recent rise of hate directed at them — wearing brand new clothes and shoes. That was because, he revealed, he hadn’t planned to be there, but when he decided days earlier to leave the league in China in which he had been playing, he felt it was important to show his support for a film that, in his view, is less about him than a crisis that he wants to help shine a light on.

Introduced by executive producer Lisa Ling and fielding questions from yours truly alongside the short’s director Frank Chi and...

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When working on Jackie Brown, Pam Grier admitted that her performance left her “exhausted.”

In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment for Jackie Brown’s 25th anniversary, Grier reflected on starring in the 1997 film in which she portrayed a flight attendant caught smuggling money for an L.A. crime kingpin, Ordell Robbie (portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson), and explained how the biggest issue for her during filming was pace.

“Quentin told me that Sam[uel L. Jackson] had a metronome-like quality that’s really fast, but that I’d have to slow down for Robert [Forster],” she said. “He warned me that not all actors can do that, so I had to learn.”

In the film, Grier’s character executes a plan to escape with the smuggled cash, going against Jackson’s Ordell and enlisting help from bail bondsman Max Cherry (the late Forster).

“Quentin said to slow...

A 4K Steelbook! Haven’t seen this show lately, and discovered that it holds up remarkably well. Mr. Qt’s sophomore outing made an indelible mark on American movies — the darling of hipster crime filmmaking dazzled viewers with showcase set-piece scenes, entertainingly profane dialogue and ultra-hip inside-out time-shuffling narrative tricks. Add to that genuine star turns, especially Uma Thurman and John Travolta’s iconic dance scene. It’s old-fashioned movie-going in an avant-garde pattern, with raw violence and even rougher language. The stars include Samuel L. Jackson, Harvy Keitel, Ving Rhames, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer and Bruce Willis.

Pulp Fiction 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code

Paramount Home Video

1994 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 154 min. / Street Date December 6, 2022 / Available from Amazon / 30.99

Starring: Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Whaley, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz, Uma Thurman, Steve Buscemi, Emil Sitka, Christopher Walken, Maria de Medeiros,...

Quentin Tarantino’s first feature may not be to all tastes, but it is an admirable feat of commercial filmmaking — what other director has broken into the front rank with such panache? The fifth time through, the splintered, elliptical structure still impresses, and there’s always something new to see in the performances of Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, and Steve Buscemi. The (rather bargain-priced) 4K disc set has everything — two formats, a digital code and those deleted scenes to ponder. And a Pulp Fiction 4K is due in just a week or so.

Reservoir Dogs 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital

Lionsgate

1992 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / 30th Anniversary Edition / Street Date November 15, 2022 / Available from Amazon / 22.99

Starring: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Randy Brooks, Kirk Baltz, Eddie Bunker, Quentin Tarantino.

Cinematography: Andrzej Sekula

Production Designer: David Wasco

Film Editor: Sally Menke

Dedicatees: Timothy Carey,...

The Israeli-Palestinian drama “Roll,” from Italian-American first-time director Loris Lai and producer Lawrence Bender, has wrapped production in Tunisia and in Tarak Ben Ammar Studios in Tunis.

The film, which is inspired by the Italian novel “Sulle Onde della Libertà” by Nicoletta Bortolotti, is written by Lai and Dahlia Heyman. The story is set in the midst of war-torn Gaza, where two 12-year-old boys, one Palestinian and the other Israeli, along with an ex-surfing champion, form an unlikely friendship over their mutual love for the water. The lessons they learn from one another go beyond the waves, helping influence their decision-making and show their community that peace can exist.

The Palestinian and Israeli boys are played by newcomers Marwin Hemdan and Mikael Fridel, while Tom Rhys Harries (“The Gentleman; White Lines”) will play the ex-surfing champion. Lyna Khoudri (“The French Dispatch”) also stars.

“Roll” is co-produced by Jean Vigo Italia,...

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In a downtown parking lot on Oct. 27, a couple of grey cars pulled up from which dancers emerged. They proceeded to enact a rave party scene mostly in slow motion.

A work by Franco-Austrian choreographer Gisèle Vienne, the 90-minute dance performance, titled Crowd, was a vivid tableau, the slow motion effectively amplifying the urges on display: to feel a sense of abandon and freedom while never quite being able to escape the ennui of one’s circumstance. It felt a bit as if the characters of Euphoria had been asked to choreograph a Super Bowl halftime show with intriguing results.

The dance work was one of three presented in Los Angeles as part of Van Cleef & Arpels’ arts initiative Dance Reflections, which supports dance companies and institutions around the world. Earlier in the evening, the L.A. Dance Project, founded by choreographer Benjamin Millepied,...

He may be a brilliant director, but Quentin Tarantino was never known for being a very good student. Rather than thriving in an academic environment, Tarantino demonstrated an early passion and acumen for filmmaking, beginning with seeing adult-oriented films like "Carnal Knowledge" (1971) and "Deliverance" (1972) with his step father at the age of nine.

By age 14, he had completed his first script "Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit" based on the 1977 film "Smokey and the Bandit," which follows two bootleggers transporting beer from Texas to Georgia. Tarantino was a fairly dedicated but sometimes picky reader, who clearly latched onto stories about incompetent criminals because he has famously confessed to stealing a copy of Elmore Leonard's novel "The Switch" about two ex-cons mishandling a kidnapping. His mother grounded him for the offense but still allowed him out of the house to attend Torrance Community Theater, where he performed in his first Shakespeare production — "Romeo and Juliet.

Genre: Drama, Crime

Rating: R

On 4K Ultra HD: November 15, 2022

Running Time: 100 minutes

Cast: Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Chris Penn, Edward Bunker, Kirk Baltz, Quentin Tarantino, and Lawrence Tierney

Written by: Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Produced by: Lawrence Bender

Executive Producers: Richard H. Gladstein, Monte Hellman, Ronna B. Wallace

Co-Producer: Harvey Keitel

Director of Photography: Andrzej Sekula

Production Designer: David Wasco

Edited by: Sally Menke

Casting by: Ronnie Yeskel

Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann

Synopsis:

Frenzied, soaked in blood, and featuring gangsters both ruthless and engaging (who debate the deeper meanings of “Like a Virgin”), Reservoir Dogs — Quentin Tarantino’s debut film about a heist gone horribly wrong — attained iconic cult status upon its release in 1992, and launched the career of a director whose singular vision has influenced a generation of filmmakers. To celebrate the movie’s 30th anniversary, the cocked-and-loaded world of Mr.

Looking back from 2022, Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" is a star-studded feature. But when it premiered in 1992, the only big name in the cast was Harvey Keitel. The four main color-coded criminals, Steve Buscemi (Mr. Pink), Tim Roth (Mr. Orange), and Michael Maden (Mr. Blonde), had their fair share of film and television appearances, but were still in the minor leagues. "Reservoir Dogs" is what changed that for them, as Roth acknowledged at the 2017 Tribecca Film Festival.

Keitel, on the other hand, had appeared in Martin Scorsese classics like "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver," and just the previous year had played a major character in "Thelma and Louise". Keitel plays Mr. White, the most sympathetic of the criminals who forms a fatherly bond with Mr. Orange. Too bad for him that Orange is the rat of the group.

Getting Keitel in the movie was a goal of Tarantino's because...

Few filmmakers could — and even fewer should — attempt what writer-director Quentin Tarantino has accomplished across his three decades of movie-making magic. Armed with an appetite for ultra-violent action, a knack for crafting dialogue sharper than a samurai sword, an infectious appreciation for the art of filmmaking, and, yes, a bit of a thing for feet, the two-time Oscar winner famously said: “You don’t have to know how to make a movie. If you truly love cinema with all your heart and with enough passion, you can’t help but make a good movie.”

Though he was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and spent some years living in Austin, Texas (where the legendary director hosted an annual movie festival called “Qt Fest” from 1996 to 2007), Tarantino grew up mainly in Los Angeles, California. As a young man, Tarantino was a staple of the now-closed Video Archives rental store in Manhattan Beach, where he worked while writing,...

“Charmed,” “Dynasty,” “Roswell, New Mexico” and “In the Dark” have been canceled at The CW, Variety has learned.

Both “Roswell, New Mexico” and “In the Dark” have already completed filming on their upcoming seasons and will conclude after those episodes have aired.

Also canceled Thursday by the younger-skewing broadcast network were “Naomi” and “4400.”

Based on the original WB/CW series of the same name, “Charmed” was currently airing its fourth season. The reboot starred Melonie Diaz, Sarah Jeffery, Lucy Barrett, Rupert Evans and Jordan Donica. During the show’s first three seasons, Madeleine Mantock was the lead, playing the three sisters at the center of the series along with Diaz and Jeffrey. Barrett joined the show for Season 4 following Mantock’s exit.

Hailing from CBS Studios and Propagate Content, “Charmed” is executive produced by Jeffrey Lieber, Nicki Renna and Joey Falco, Kevin Dowling, Jennie Snyder Urman, Ben Silverman, Brad Silberling,...

NBCUniversal’s Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo has ordered a slew of new scripted and unscripted series for both its linear network and TPlus brand on Peacock.

The company unveiled its 2022/23 line-up ahead of its Upfront event on Monday.

These include new projects from Wilmer Valderrama and Lawrence Bender.

On TPlus, the company’s block on Peacock, NCIS star Valderrama is exec producing Keep This To Yourself, an adaptation of Tom Ryan’s YA thriller. The series, written by Ryan and Mark Kruger, takes place the year after the notorious Catalog Killer murdered four victims before disappearing. Like everyone else left in the murderous wake, a teen tries desperately to leave that horrible summer in the past, which is easier said than done since his best friend was the murderer’s final victim. Yet, when a cryptic message turns up one day, the search for the killer reignites ―and may not be...

Hey, everyone! Last Friday, we celebrated all the fun independent horror that was released throughout the 1980s (you can read that piece Here), and before we examine the ’90s indie horror scene tomorrow, I thought I’d take today to celebrate a few more underappreciated indie genre gems from the ’80s that are currently available to stream on Shudder’s platform. When it comes to movies from this decade, there are so many titles that get endless love, so I thought it would be fun to put the spotlight on five movies that I would consider to be underappreciated, but very much worth checking out if you’re a horror fan who enjoys offbeat horror stories.

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker

The thing I love about Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker is that it feels like someone watched Friday the 13th and they were like, “What if we do some variation on this story,...

Filmmaker Boaz Yakin discusses some of his favorite films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes:

Movies Referenced In This Episode

Aviva (2020)

The Harder They Fall (2021)

The Harder They Come (1972)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Fresh (1994)

Mo’ Better Blues (1990)

Safe (2012)

Scream (2022)

The Punisher (1989)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Kagemusha (1980) – Bernard Rose’s trailer commentary

Mean Streets (1973)

Jaws (1975) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The 400 Blows (1959) – Robert Weide’s trailer commentary

Yojimbo (1961)

Dodes’ka-den (1970)

Short Cuts (1993) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray commentary

Casablanca (1942) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Coonskin (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Fritz The Cat (1972) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

The Lord of the Rings (1978)

Wizards (1977)

Heavy Traffic (1973) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

The Warriors (1979)

Quintet (1979)

Brewster McCloud (1970) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Mash (1970)

Nashville (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Dan Perri’s trailer commentary,...

They wouldn’t make a film like that now. It’s a sentiment as old as the movies themselves, with folks ever eager to note how the next generation of storytellers is not telling stories in the same way that the last one(s) did. Sometimes there is a kernel of truth at the root of this argument. After all, does anyone doubt Mel Brooks when he says he couldn’t make Blazing Saddles now as he did nearly half a century ago?

But by and large, these arguments appear to be couched in nostalgia—a wistfulness which naturally occurs when comparing the icons of your past to the ones that seem ready to displace them in the present. Perhaps for this reason it’s easy to fall into the especially deceptive trap of contrasting “then” versus “now,” and assuming the differences occurred in a vacuum. Take the current “debate...

Yuri Bykov’s 2014 Russian-language film “The Fool” has been acquired by MGM’s Orion Television to be adapted into an English-language series.

The film follows Dima Nikitin (Artyom Bystrov), an ordinary honest plumber who suddenly decides to face the corrupt system of local politics in order to save the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dormitory, which is about to collapse.

“The Fool” had a stellar festival run and won multiple awards at the Locarno International Film Festival and Les Arcs European Film Festival, besides many other accolades worldwide and at home in Russia. It was produced by Rock Films, Alexey Uchitel and Kira Saksaganskaya.

Bykov’s 2013 Cannes title “The Major,” also produced by Rock Films, was previously adapted by Netflix into the Emmy winning series “Seven Seconds,” winning Regina King the Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or movie and a Golden Globe nomination in the same category.

The African American Film Critics Association said Wednesday that it has selected Netflix’s Western The Harder They Fall as its film of the year. It leads a Top 10 list that also includes King Richard, Respect, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Passing, Belfast, Who We Are, House of Gucci, The Power of the Dog and West Side Story.

The Aafca will reveal winners of the 13th annual Aafca Awards on January 17, 2022 in 15 competitive film categories, with an in-person ceremony set for March 2 in Los Angeles.

The Harder They Fall, directed and co-written by Jeymes Samuel and which premiered at this year’s London Film Festival, hit about 600 theaters in October before its debut on the streamer November 3. It was No. 1 across all streamers the week of its debut, according to Nielsen.

The ensemble case includes Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Delroy Lindo, Lakeith Stanfield, Danielle Deadwyler, Edi Gathegi, R.J. Cyler, Damon Wayans Jr.,...