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In a new episode of How Art Changed Me, Broadway actor Ann Harada takes viewers from her roots in Hawaii to her celebrated career on stage and screen. Watch the episode now, where Harada reflects on the cultural influences and personal experiences that shaped her life and career. The All Arts series, How Art Changed Me, features artists reflecting on the personal and transformative role of the arts in their lives. It is part of their Broadway and Beyond lineup, which also includes the digital series Broadway Sandwich, House Seats: Mandy Gonzalez in Concert, Playing the Palace, and more. Take a look at the full schedule here. Ann Harada is currently starring in The Counterfeit Opera, a reimagining of John Gay's A Beggar's Opera at...

Quick Links What Is How the West Was Won About? What Is Cinerama? Why Were Four Cinematographers Used? Could Cinerama Make a 21st Century Comeback?

Released in 1962, How the West Was Won remains one of the most cherished epic movie Westerns on record. In addition to boasting a star-studded ensemble cast, the 3-time Oscar winner is a technical marvel that made history by becoming one of the first films to adopt Cinerama, a widescreen projection format allowing directors Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall to shoot the most expansive canvas possible.

Achieving the stunning technical feat required four cinematographers, each earning an Academy Award nomination. As Kevin Costner's epic Western Horizon struggles to find footing, a look back at How the West Was Won's groundbreaking cinematography, formatting, and depiction of the American frontier could help to revitalize a traditional movie genre that is becoming less popular in 2024.

What...

John Sturges’ Road Show comedy western has more in common with 1941 than The Magnificent Seven, but Kino has MGM’s new remaster and the visual result is spectacular. The Ultra Panavision 70 epic is still a favorite of fans of out-of-control Hollywood filmmaking. Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton, Pamela Tiffin and a huge cast lead the charge for a convoy of frontier whisky. It’s all in a fine spirit of madcap fun. . . so where are the big laughs?

The Hallelujah Trail

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 156 165 min. / Street Date December 13, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton, Pamela Tiffin, Donald Pleasence, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, John Anderson, Tom Stern, Robert J. Wilke, Dub Taylor, Whit Bissell, Helen Kleeb, Val Avery, Hope Summers, John Dehner (narrator).

Cinematography: Robert Surtees

Art Direction: Carey Odell

Costumes: Edith Head

Film Editor: Ferris Webster

Original Music: Elmer Bernstein...

This adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel was Paul Newman’s second directorial effort. Newman stars with Henry Fonda and Lee Remick as The Stampers, an Oregon logging family embroiled in a bitter struggle with the local union and other loggers. John Gay wrote the screenplay and longtime character actor Richard Jaeckel earned an Oscar nomination for his role as the tragic Joe Ben Stamper.

The post Sometimes a Great Notion appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Blown up to Road Show spectacular dimensions, a fairly modest idea for a comedy western became something of a career Waterloo for director John Sturges. But it’s still a favorite of fans thrilled by fancy 70mm-style presentations. A huge cast led by Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton and Pamela Tiffin leads the charge on a whisky-soaked madcap chase. It’s all in a fine spirit of fun. . . so where are the big laughs?

The Hallelujah Trail

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 155 min. / Street Date February 27, 2018 / available through the Olive Films website / 24.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton, Pamela Tiffin, Donald Pleasence, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, John Anderson, Tom Stern, Robert J. Wilke, Dub Taylor, Whit Bissell, Helen Kleeb, Val Avery, Hope Summers, John Dehner.

Cinematography: Robert Surtees

Film Editor: Ferris Webster

Original Music: Elmer Bernstein

Written by John Gay from the novel by William Gulick

Executive...

John Gay, whose writing credits for film and TV include big-screen fare like Run Silent Run Deep and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father and, on the small screen reach back to television’s Golden Age and continued through the 1980s and ’90s with such mini-series as Fatal Vision and Cruel Doubt, died February 4 in Santa Monica. He was 92. His death was announced by the Writers Guild of America, West. Gay co-wrote a 2008 autobiography Any Way I Can – 50 Years in Show Business…...

John Gay, whose writing credits for film and TV include big-screen fare like Run Silent Run Deep and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father and, on the small screen reach back to television’s Golden Age and continued through the 1980s and ’90s with such mini-series as Fatal Vision and Cruel Doubt, died February 4 in Santa Monica. He was 92. His death was announced by the Writers Guild of America, West. Gay co-wrote a 2008 autobiography Any Way I Can – 50 Years in Show Business…...

John Gay, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter best known for his work on Run Silent Run Deep, Separate Tables and The Courtship of Eddie's Father, has died. He was 92.

Gay, who began his six-decade career as an actor and writer during the Golden Age of Television, died Feb. 4 in Santa Monica, the WGA announced. He often was in demand by the top directors of the day, scripting projects for the likes of Robert Wise, John Huston, Vincente Minnelli and John Sturges.

Gay also earned an Emmy nomination for scripting Fatal Vision, a controversial NBC 1984 docudrama about the 1970 Jeffrey...

By Lee Pfeiffer

The Universal Vault series has released the 1970 film "Sometimes a Great Notion" on DVD. Based on the novel by Ken Kesey, the film starred- and was directed by- Paul Newman. His skills as both actor and filmmaker are amply displayed in this engrossing, off-beat drama that never found its intended audience during its theatrical release, despite a heavyweight cast. The film is basically a domestic drama, though set amid the staggering beauty of the Oregon wilderness. The Stamper family runs one of the biggest logging operations around. The family's crusty patriarch, Henry (Henry Fonda), attributes the family's success to the fact that they lead a hard scrabble lifestyle and do much of the grueling work themselves rather than simply farming it out to paid employees. Henry ensures that he keeps the keys to his kingdom close to his vest: the only positions of power are held by him and his two sons,...

One of the most legendary writers of all time created the most adventurous fantasized and romanticized novel of all time Ivanhoe. Later in the timeline of movie making, several movies of this story were made, including an Australian cartoon movie from 1986. In 1982, a British movie maker Douglas Camfield created a television movie together with the writer John Gay. Douglas was born in 8th May in India, got adopted by English parents in London, he sadly passed away the 24th January 1984. His Ivanhoe movie is claimed to be one of the best version of the story and in Sweden when it got released it became so popular that it is broadcast on tv even today as a new year tradition every 31 December....

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Exclusive: Partners behind Breathe Umphefumlo reteaming on new slate of films.

The partners behind Berlinale Special world premiere Breathe Umphefumlo – Cape Town, South Africa-based Isango Ensemble, Advantage Entertainment, and the UK’s Film & Music Entertainment (F&Me) – are reteaming on a slate of new films starting with an adaptation of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera to shoot in Cape Town in August.

Isango will transport Gay’s 1728 satire/morality play to the jazzy underworld of 1950s Cape Town. Mark Dornford-May, who won the Golden Bear with U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, is again directing.

Dornford-May said, “The Beggar’s Opera is a savagely funny satire on money, morals and marriage — as relevant and biting today as it was when first written. Setting the film in post war colonial Cape Town will give it a visual style and a music flair that will inform the original – and take it further.”

“We have a number of other film ideas in development...

Philip Pullman's Grimm Tales are played out in Shoreditch, Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Mahler, Berlioz and Ives, plus Handel's Rodelinda from director Richard Jones

Opening this week

■ Grimm Tales

Immersive theatre for children in the bowels of Shoreditch Town Hall. Do you dare to follow Red Riding Hood into the forest or watch Rapunzel let her hair down? Philip Wilson adapts and directs tales in versions by Philip Pullman. Shoreditch Town Hall, London (020-7739 6176), Friday until 24 April.

■ Rambert

A mixed programme of contemporary dance includes a revival of Christopher Bruce's swaggering Rolling Stones tribute, Rooster. Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold (0845-330 3565), Wednesday until 15 March and touring.

■ San Francisco Symphony

Programmes featuring Ives, Adams and Berlioz, and Mahler's Third Symphony are on the menu for the UK leg of Michael Tilson Thomas's European tour with his fine orchestra. Symphony Hall, Birmingham (0121‑345 0600), Friday; Royal Festival Hall, London (0845 875 0073), Saturday & Sunday.

Albert Einstein once remarked that "the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious". Of course, one must not forget that Einstein's own 'experience of the mysterious' resulted in him marrying his first cousin, but the fact remains - the call/voyage into the great unknown has fueled man and geek for centuries, and long looks set to continue.

Ultimately, there's something intrinsically pleasing about a voyage of incomprehensible randomness. Sure, we can pack up and journey to a far off region in the hope of finding both ourselves and a new culture - falling in love with a random orphan child, riding an elephant or one of any other now cliched life experiences (not to take anything away from any of said experiences, of course) - but how many of us can truly admit to a journey into the complete unknown? One that promises nothing but delivers everything?...

Terence Davies’ newest film, “The Deep Blue Sea,” takes place, like much of his work, in post-World War II England. In it, Rachel Weisz plays Hester Collyer, a woman who abandons her passionless marriage to a wealthy barrister (Simon Russell Beale) for a torrid affair with a troubled former Royal Air Force pilot (Tom Hiddleston), the consequences of which plunge her into despair. When we got a chance to speak with the director, a natural storyteller with a mischievous sense of humor and infectious laugh, we would never have guessed he suffered from an acute case of homesickness for his native U.K., a fact he admitted toward the end of our time together.

We started by asking him about societal differences between England in the 1950’s versus 2012. “What I think people don't understand is how traumatic the war was for Britain. When the war was over, Britain didn't get...

When it comes to actresses, the movie business has always had an eye for beautiful faces. Unfortunately, it has often only been an afterthought as to whether or not that beautiful face could do anything other than be beautiful. Leaf through the archives of any of the movie glamour magazines from long ago and you’ll find them a cemetery of beautiful faces primped and hyped by the Hollywood PR machine to be The Next Great Thing. Some never made it past a screen test, while others managed to survive a few screen roles, but through lack of talent, charisma, the right roles — whatever mysterious magic it is that causes a performer to click with an audience — soon disappeared, never to be heard of again. It’s a long, looong casualty list of forgotten pretties like Merrilyn Grix, Eleanor Counts, Kathy Marlowe, Myrna Dell, Sandra Giles, Jean Colleran, Sunnie O’Dea,...

Mary Evans/John Gay/English Heritage/Everett Collection

A few weeks ago, my 9-year-old son asked if he could start watching the news in the morning.

Partly, this was a scam. He’s not typically allowed to watch TV during the school week, except for the evening news and sports, and so this was his way of getting some more screen time. When the TV is off he’s more likely to read, so I’d rather keep the tube off.

Who's really running the country? In 2003 documentary The Kids Across The Hill, young 20-something staffers for Republican Arizona Congressmen Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe race Senator Ted Kennedy and his Immigration Counsel Esther Olavarria to introduce a strong, bipartisan bill to Congress. Will Kennedy's staff rally the unions, advocates and business community in time to draft a bill? Will Kolbe and Flake find a Democrat to sign on first? This week, on May 27th at Washington DC's Goethe Institute, How Democracy Works Now will premiere the never-before-seen backstory to immigration reform - and a surprise turn that will shape political leadership on immigration for years to come. Also starring John Gay, Randy Johnson, Margaret Klessig, Douglas Rivlin, Frank Sharry, Rebecca Jensen Tallent, and others. Screenings are on Thursday, May 27, at 7 Pm and 9 Pm. Cost is $7. Film...

Now this is a story to raise our spirits, Screen Daily is reporting that two of our favourite stars, Andy Serkis and Nick Cave are teaming up for on a motion capture version of Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera.

Admittedly, it's a piece of news that's come right out of leftfield but, wow, what an exciting concept.

While in Berlin to publicise his Ian Dury biopic Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll, Serkis let slip the project and said "It's nice to announce it in its hometown."

There's no indication about cast or crew or indeed in what capacity Serkis and Cave will be involved (Cave has contributed to numerous soundtracks as well as providing a brilliant screenplay for John Hillcoat's The Proposition) but we do know that it will be animated using the popular mo-cap method.

If you don't know already, The Threepenny Opera...

Here's news to warm your heart on this cold February morning: Andy Serkis is collaborating with Nick Cave on a motion capture version of Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera. Didn't see that one coming, did you?Screen Daily's story is pretty cursory, but reports that Serkis announced the project in its birthplace, Berlin, while publicising his Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. "It's nice to announce it in its hometown," he said.The Threepenny Opera was first performed in 1928. A Marxist critique of capitalism, it's a loose adaptation of John Gay's 18th century Beggar's Opera, and focuses on the antihero Macheath, and his "troubled" relationship with his father-in-law, who wants him hanged. It's been filmed before, most recently in 1989 with Raul Julia, Richard Harris, Julie Walters and Bill Nighy, and in translation, gave the world the Rat Pack favourite Mack the Knife. There's no...

Savvy entertainers often save some of their most popular hits to conclude a concert. What you can do for an encore may just determine if your audience exits whistling happily or not. And so it can be with comics—specifically Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill’s The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Teaming up some formidable fictional characters (Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Mina Murray Harker, the Invisible Man) to protect Victorian England was an inspired idea—and indeed their first adventure together was grand entertainment as this latest of several historical Leagues took on Fu Manchu and Professor Moriarty. On the other hand, it did spawn a movie version (which re-upholstered the plot and inexplicably added Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray to the group). Sadly, that flick—not quite as lousy as its reputation suggests—was such a torturous experience that it caused star Sean Connery to...

Columbia Stages presents The Threepenny Opera, a play with music after John Gay?s The Beggar?s Opera, in Three Acts, music by Kurt Weill, German translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann, adaptation and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, English translation by Michael Feingold, and directed by Henning A. Hegland, running April 1st - 4th, 2009, at The Riverside Theatre, located in the historic Riverside Church at 91 Claremont Avenue between 120th and 122nd Streets.