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Treasure Island is being remade at Disney. Robert Louis Stevenson's beloved 1883 novel will be reimagined by an unexpected duo: Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, the filmmakers behind The Peanut Butter Falcon and the upcoming Los Frikis.

Nilson and Schwartz unveiled the Treasure Island reboot news during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote Los Frikis, the duo's based on true events drama about the audacity and resilience of kindred souls facing the challenges of Special Period Cuba in the 1990s. "We’re working on Treasure Island for Disney. It’s an Australian surfer version of Treasure Island, and if they [Disney] ever make it, it would be so fun," said Schwartz. "It has the vibes that we do, and there’s found family, brotherhood, drama and outsider energy." Added Nilson, "It has the patina of the 1970s surf world. It's all there."

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Courtesy of Studiocanal

by James Cameron-wilson

Hard to believe today, but Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1949 drama was a flop. A glum, perhaps cynical, claustrophobic piece of film noir shot in black-and-white, The Small Back Room was released just four years after the end of the Second World War – and it was not what postwar audiences wanted to see. Indeed, it is hardly one of the most celebrated titles in the Powell/Pressburger catalogue and I, for one, had never seen it before. Even so, having just watched this consummately photographed and magically restored work, I would say without hesitation it is one of my very favourite Powell and Pressburger films.

With the psychological complexity of a good play and replete with telling touches, it blends both the disciplines of Hollywood film noir with the Expressionism of the Weimar cinema of Germany, but with its own ineffable, stiff upper lip Englishness.

Haven’t yet seen all the best old-school vintage naval combat epics? This color & ‘scope thriller has a terrific cast of Brit stars and up-n-comers, can boast excellent visuals and is historically accurate. Alec Guinness captains a ship during the Napoleonic Wars, and finds his duty complicated by a psychopathic top officer (Dirk Bogarde) who usurps authority and sees the crew as fresh meat for his sadistic ideas about discipline. All the tech and art credits are top-tier, plus we get nice supporting perfs from the likes of Anthony Quayle, Nigel Stock, Maurice Denham, Victor Maddern, Tom Bell, and Murray Melvin.

Damn the Defiant!

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 136

1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / H.M.S. Defiant / Available from Viavision / Australian 34.95 / and Amazon US / 34.95

Starring: Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, Maurice Denham, Nigel Stock, Richard Carpenter, Peter Gill, David Robinson, Robin Stewart, Ray Brooks, Peter Greenspan, Anthony Quayle, Tom Bell,...

Powerhouse Indicator continues its series of exotic attractions from the house of Hammer — productions that found new ways to shock audiences than tradition-breaking gore and violence. Two are war pictures with sharply contrasting themes, and the second pair constitute a popular-cinema referendum on racist colonial attitudes.

Hammer Volume 3 Blood and Terror

Blu-ray

The Camp on Blood Island, Yesterday’s Enemy, The Stranglers of Bombay, The Terror of the Tongs

Powerhouse Indicator

1958-1960 / Color / B&W / 1:85, 2:35 widescreen / / Street Date July 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £44.99

Directed by Val Guest, Terence Fisher, Anthony Bushell

It’s true — unless one is a full-on Hammer true believer that considers The Brigand of Kandahar and Creatures the World Forgot to be timeless classics, delving into the lesser-known Hammer films can be a case of diminishing returns. But when the company got truly creative, either with a radical screenplay or a committed director — Terence Fisher,...

'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl': Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' review: Mostly an enjoyable romp (Oscar Movie Series) Pirate movies were a Hollywood staple for about three decades, from the mid-'20s (The Sea Hawk, The Black Pirate) to the mid-to-late '50s (Moonfleet, The Buccaneer), when the genre, by then mostly relegated to B films, began to die down. Sporadic resurrections in the '80s and '90s turned out to be critical and commercial bombs (Pirates, Cutthroat Island), something that didn't bode well for the Walt Disney Company's $140 million-budgeted film "adaptation" of one of their theme-park rides. But Neptune's mood has apparently improved with the arrival of the new century. He smiled – grinned would be a more appropriate word – on the Gore Verbinski-directed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,...

Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...

Bobby Driscoll played young Jim Hawkins, a cabin boy who finds himself up against Long John Silver (Robert Newton) in the hunt for a cache of treasure. With the help of Squire Trelawney (Walter Fitzgerald), Dr Livesey (Dennis O'Dea) and Captain Smollett (Basil Sydney) plucky Jim sets sail on the creaky tub Hispaniola. The movie marked Disney's first completely live-action film and the first screen version of Treasure Island made in colour.

Some good franchise employees work hard for their bosses and never get noticed. Others get noticed, followed by praise and/or a raise.

On Thursdays, good employees not only get noticed, but they get put on a TV show where they have a chance to show off their skills and perhaps be awarded the chance to become a franchise owner.

But Food Network's "Giving You the Business" has one twist -- the top workers involved don't know that they're on a TV show, let alone that it could give one of them the opportunity of a lifetime.

The companies involved are 16 Handles, Freshii, Jersey Mike's Subs, La Prep, Muscle Make Grill, Saladworks, Topper's Pizza and Wok Box.

Former NBA star, franchise owner and motivational speaker Walter Bond is host of the series, in which the hand-picked employees are put through hidden-camera challenges that test their skills, honesty and ability...

The Fallen Idol (1948) Direction: Carol Reed Cast: Ralph Richardson, Bobby Henrey, Michèle Morgan, Sonia Dresdel, Denis O'Dea, Jack Hawkins, Walter Fitzgerald Screenplay: Graham Greene, from his short story "The Basement Room"; additional dialogue by Lesley Storm and William Templeton Oscar Movies Michèle Morgan, Ralph Richardson, The Fallen Idol By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica: The 1948 drama The Fallen Idol is the third film I've seen by British filmmaker Carol Reed. I'd previously watched the dreadful Oscar-winning musical Oliver! (1968) and the stolid biopic The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), featuring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo. I've also seen The Third Man, the 1949 thriller attributed to Reed, though I've always hedged upon taking the stance that it was Reed's film alone and not an Orson Welles film merely bearded by Reed. Well, after watching The Fallen Idol, which directly preceded The Third Man, I can tell you that I have no doubts [...]...

The 1948 film The Fallen Idol set for a new remake It seems that a high-powered producing team is readying a remake of a 1948 film. Deadline London is reporting that producers Walter Parkes and Laurie McDonald are setting up a remake of The Fallen Idol.

Screenwriter David Farr is writing the reboot to the 1949 film, which was directed by Carol Reed and written by Graham Greene. Parkes and McDonald are developing the film through Studio Canal, which owns the rights to the original film and it was said they would not seek out financing until they have a completed script, director, cast and budget lined up.

The original film told the tale of a young Lon boy who looked up to his family's butler until one day his image of the butler is shattered when he sees the married butler with another woman and also witnesses what could be a murder.