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The excellent retrospective of Joe Dante's subversive, eccentric cinema in New York at Bam this month includes all the expected classics, which can hardly be termed "forgotten"—"fondly remembered" would be more like it—but also some intriguing and more obscure pieces: The Film Orgy, a five-hour found footage riot; several items programmed by Dante, such as Anthony Mann's The Black Book (a.k.a. Reign of Terror) and Arthur Penn's existential art film Mickey One; and also some of Dante's TV work, much of which is far less well-known than it ought to be...Dante's episodes of cable show Masters of Horror are uniquely dark, savage affairs with strong political agendas—Homecoming (2005) was the first bit of American filmed drama to deal openly with the war in Iraq. The "serious comedy" of this all-out, take-no-prisoners assault on the Bush administration is anticipated by the...

Is satire obsolete? Our appalling present political reality has surpassed some of the wildest jokes in director Joe Dante's 'exaggerated, outrageous' 1997 cable movie. An immigration squabble snowballs until a renegade state governor closes his border and threatens to secede from the Union. It's a 'political idiocy' version of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World ... and nineteen years later, we're stuck living it. The Second Civil War DVD (2005) HBO Video 1997 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date August 30, 2005 / 14.98 Starring Beau Bridges, Joanna Cassidy, Phil Hartman, James Earl Jones, James Coburn, Dan Hedaya, Elizabeth Peña, Denis Leary, Ron Perlman, Kevin Dunn, Brian Keith, Kevin McCarthy, Dick Miller, William Schallert, Catherine Lloyd Burns, Jerry Hardin, Roger Corman, Rance Howard, Robert Picardo, Alexandra Wilson, Belinda Belaski, Jennifer Carlson, Sean Lawlor. Cinematography Mac Ahlberg Film Editor Marshall Harvey Original Music Hummie Mann Written by Martyn Burke Produced by Guy Riedel Directed by Joe Dante...

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As The Librarians returns to Syfy UK, we chatted to Noah Wyle about directing, Falling Skies, and Jonathan Frakes peeing in a dumpster…

Since he first appeared as medical student John Carter in the Emergency Room of County General Hospital, Ill., Noah Wyle has specialised in playing a particular type of brainy hero. During his record-breaking tenure in ER, Wyle was notably the first to portray a fictional version of Steve Jobs in biopic Pirates Of Silicon Valley, a part that earned him an invitation from Mr Jobs to play a prank on the audience at the 1999 Macworld Expo.

Among a host of stage and screen roles, Wyle also played the small but memorable role of Dr Monitoff, a science teacher with an interest in parallel universes in 2001's Donnie Darko, followed in 2004 with the part of Flynn Carsen, perpetual student-turned-Indiana-Jones-type in three The Librarian television movies.

Patricio Guzmán's Nostalgia for the Light won Best Feature at the International Documentary Association's Awards ceremony in Los Angeles last night. The La Times' Susan King: "Set in northern Chile's Atacama Desert, the documentary juxtaposes scenes of astronomers in observatories scanning the galaxies, while nearby, archaeologists and elderly women dig through the sand searching for the human remains of pre-Columbian mummies, 19th century miners who labored in slave conditions and the bodies of victims of Gen Augusto Pinochet's regime who were taken to the Atacama as political prisoners and dumped there." Michael Guillén interviewed Guzmán in October 2010.

TheWrap's Steve Pond notes that neither Nostalgia nor any of the other docs nominated for the Ida's top award — Better This World, How to Die in Oregon, The Redemption of General Butt Naked and The Tiniest Place — have made the Academy's shortlist of 15 films left in the race for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar.

The West Memphis Three: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory AIDS, American football, horses, the environment, war, the American Injustice System, Harry Belafonte. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 15 semi-finalists for the 2012 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award. Included on the list are James Marsh's Project Nim, a nominee for the British Independent Film Awards; Wim Wenders' Pina, Germany's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar; and Cindy Meehl's Buck, about the man who inspired the book The Horse Whisperer and the ensuing Robert Redford movie. Now, before anyone freaks out because of the inclusion of Undefeated: rest assured that this is Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin's documentary about underprivileged football players — Lindsay and Martin's effort has nothing to do with the Sarah Palin movie The Undefeated, a shoo-in Razzie nominee. Lorenz Knauer's Jane's Journey,...

Title: Under Fire: Journalists in Combat Director: Martyn Burke The drums of war, whatever the specific conflicts, almost always create an opportunity for much in the way of collateral damage. Director Martyn Burke’s “Under Fire: Journalists in Combat” takes the psychological temperature of those who would devote their lives to taking the sort of extraordinary risks that modern day war reportage entails. It’s an involving documentary look at a razor’s-edge occupation, as well as the coping mechanisms of the human brain under stress. Burke, himself a veteran of various warfields around the globe, unfurls his movie in a manner that is judiciously crafted to avoid imparting any sense of swaggering...

Coming just two days after the death of Apple co-founder and chairman Steve Jobs, Sony Pictures is reportedly ironing out a deal for the feature rights for the upcoming biography of the innovator, the simply-titled Steve Jobs. The authorized look at Jobs’ life has been penned by Time managing editor (and former CNN chairman) Walter Isaacson. Mark Gordon (Source Code, Saving Private Ryan, Speed) will produce the project. The film will hopefully only further Sony’s recent track record of spinning real-life business-based bios into massive popular and critical hits (a la The Social Network and Moneyball). Isaacson’s biography of Jobs’ life is surely set to be the definitive piece on the man’s life, comprised of “over 40 interviews with the Apple co-founder and over 100 conversations with friends, family members, colleagues and competitors.” Jobs himself choose Isaacson for the project and gave him his full cooperation. As of mid-August, Jobs...

While all of Hollywood is reflecting on Steve Jobs' passing, TNT will air two broadcasts of the 1999 made-for-tv movie about the start of two of the most important tech companies of all time.

"Pirates of Silicon Valley" narrates the competitive beginnings of tech tycoons-to-be, Jobs and Bill Gates. Noah Wyle stars as the Apple visionary and Anthony Michael Hall as the PC genius.

The telepic - which to those who are unfamiliar, sounds like a dated "Social Network" - was written and directed by Martyn Burke and began, similar to the contemporary tech flick, as a best-selling book, "Fire in the Valley."

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TNT Press Release:

TNT will pay tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs tonight with a special presentation of the TNT Original Pirates of Silicon Valley. The movie will air at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. (Et/Pt).

Starring Noah Wyle (TNT’s Falling Skies) as Steve Jobs, Anthony Michael Hall as Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Joey Slotnick as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Pirates of Silicon Valley follows the fascinating and unforgettable race between technology rivals Apple Computers and Microsoft. From nights of dorm-room tinkering to days of boardroom scheming, their fierce and often humorous battle to rule the fledgling computer empire literally changed the world.

Pirates of Silicon Valley premiered on TNT in 1999 and went on to earn five Emmy® nominations, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or Movie. The movie was written and directed by Martyn Burke, who adapted the script from...

HBO has announced it is developing a new series tentatively titled Reds, inspired by the real-life occurrence of a Kgb sleeper agent infiltrating the United States during the 1980s.

The series will be drawn from an encounter writer/director Martyn Burke had while filming a documentary across the United States in the early part of the decade. Unknown to Burke, and the rest of his crew, the soundman they were all working with was actually a colonel in the Kgb. Before being found out, the Soviet spy managed to successfully establish a base of operations just outside New York City, and sought to conceal his true identity further by trying to start and raise a family.

Burke is being tapped to develop the show, no doubt for his firsthand knowledge of the situation, but also because the theme has followed ...

Click to continue reading HBO Announces Cold War Drama with...

HBO has a new period drama series, tentatively titled Reds, in the works about a Russian spy living in the Us. The project is from writer-director Martyn Burke (Pirates of Silicon Valley) and takes place in the 1980s. The story is  based on real-life events from Burke's early film career. "In the 80s, he was traveling the U.S. with a camera crew while making a documentary. However, unbeknownst to him,  the sound man on the crew was in reality a colonel in the Soviet Kgb. The Soviet spy later set up his base of operations outside New York City while attempting to raise a family as an ordinary American citizen but was eventually caught."

Burke is currently editing the documentary Journalists Under Fire for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., about "the psychological stresses war journalists face while covering conflicts." Burke is also in the early stages on production for A Death In The Bullfighting Hills,...

HBO is reportedly developing a new drama series based on the real-life exploits of a Russian spy. The project, provisionally titled Reds, will be based on the experiences of writer and director Martyn Burke, according to Deadline. In the 1980s, Burke travelled across America with a camera crew while filming a documentary, unaware that his sound man was secretly an undercover Kgb colonel. The Soviet operative later established a base in New York (more)...

HBO is developing a period drama tentatively titled "Reds" about Kgb sleeper spies in America in the 1980's reports Deadline.

The story is based on real-life events from "Pirates of Silicon Valley" filmmaker Martyn Burke's early career when he was making a documentary, unaware the sound man on the film was a Soviet Colonel.

Said man later set up his base of operations outside New York City while attempting to raise a family as an ordinary American citizen.

Burke is set to develop the series, though is currently occupied editing a documentary and in pre-production on a Luis Donaldo Colosio biopic.

Exclusive: Before Anna Chapman, there were scores of other Russia/Soviet Union spies in the U.S. living seemingly normal lives while sending secret dispatches to Moscow. One of them is the subject of a period drama series project in development at HBO, from writer-director Martyn Burke (Pirates of Silicon Valley). Set in 1980s, the project, tentatively titled Reds, is based on real-life events from Burke's early film career. In the 80s, he was traveling the U.S. with a camera crew while making a documentary. However, unbeknownst to him,  the sound man on the crew was in reality a colonel in the Soviet Kgb. The Soviet spy later set up his base of operations outside New York City while attempting to raise a family as an ordinary American citizen but was eventually caught. Burke, repped by Brent Travers of Ascend Entertainment and attorney Shep Rosenman, is currently editing the...