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Although long-running franchises have become a seemingly permanent part of our current cinematic landscape, there's an argument to be made that even the most consistently high-quality series are subject to diminishing returns. The question of whether a sequel can match or surpass an original is still a topic of debate, and it's one that reaches all the way back to an era when sequels were hardly as common as they are now. While the debate makes sense on the surface — after all, on paper, how can any sequel be as fresh and unique as an original? — it's perhaps based on the wrong question. Maybe, despite all the constant franchise rankings and the like, we shouldn't be asking whether a sequel surpasses its predecessor, but rather what new depths and richness are brought to the material that enhances the franchise as a whole.

It's through that lens that I view 1975's "French Connection II,...

Gene Hackman, the versatile leading man renowned for his smoldering performance as hard-nosed New York City narc Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection, has died. He was 95.

The much-admired two-time Oscar winner and his second wife, Betsy Hackman, 64, were found dead Wednesday at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They had lived in a gated community northeast of the city since the 1980s.

In a statement to the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said, “We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday afternoon at their residence on Sunset Trail.” One of their three dogs also died.

A search warrant ruled that the deaths were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.”

His daughters, Elizabeth and Leslie, and granddaughter Annie noted in a statement that Hackman was “loved and admired by millions around...

Cinema Retro's Todd Garbarini with Sonny Grosso at a screening of The French Connection in 2010.

By Todd Garbarini

Salvatore Anthony Grosso, known affectionately as Sonny Grosso, passed away on Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at the age of 89. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, his work most assuredly did. Mr. Grosso was originally a New York City police detective who was the partner of Detective Eddie Egan. These two gentlemen both, on a hunch, broke up an organized crime ring which resulted in the seizure of 112 pounds of heroin. This then-unprecedented bust in 1961 provided the basis for the 1969 Robin Moore chronicle of their exploits, The French Connection, and was made into the Oscar-winning classic film of the same name two years later, resulting in a Best Picture win for producer Philip D’Antoni, Best Director for William Friedkin, Best Actor for Gene Hackman (he personified Eddie Egan’s Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle...

Sonny Grosso, an NYPD detective who, along with partner Eddie Egan, inspired William Friedkin’s 1971 crime classic The French Connection, died yesterday in Manhattan following a long illness. He was 88.

In the film, a character based on Grosso (born Salvatore Grosso) was played by Roy Scheider (Gene Hackman played his Egan-inspired partner Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle).

The New York Daily News was first to report Grosso’s death, with Retired NYPD Capt. Ernie Naspretto confirming.

Both Grosso and Egan were given small parts in the film, and Grosso would later appear in Friedkin’s 1980 Cruising, as well as an uncredited part in The Godfather. (Godfather lore has it that Grosso’s gun was used by Al Pacino when Michael Corleone retrieves the weapon in a restaurant men’s room).

After The French Connection, based on a real-life heroin ring bust, Grosso served as a consultant and producer on projects like Baretta and Kojak.

Forget All Singing! – All Dancing! Tonight’s bill of fare is wall-to-wall high grade crime action. Roy Scheider leads a great cast in an all-New Yawk tale of gangsters, kidnapping and betrayal. The police tactics of Scheider’s special felony crime squad would today land them all in jail, but they’re all stand-up guys. And buckle up for one of the best, most realistic pre-cgi auto chase scenes ever filmed.

The Seven-Ups

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date March 20, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Victor Arnold, Jerry Leon, Ken Kercheval, Larry Haines, Richard Lynch, Bill Hickman, Joe Spinell.

Cinematography: Urs Furrer

Film Editors: Jerry Greenberg, John C. Horger, Stephen A. Rotter

Stunt Coordinator: Bill Hickman

Original Music: Don Ellis

Written by Sonny Grosso, Alexander Jacobs, Albert Ruben

Produced by Philip D’Antoni, Kenneth Utt, Barry J. Weitz

Directed...

The French Connection 45th Anniversary Screening in Los Angeles

By Todd Garbarini

The Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting a 45th anniversary screening of William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning 1971 crime drama The French Connection. The 102-minute film will be screened on Saturday, June 18, 2016 at 7:30 pm. Starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Fernando Rey, Marcel Bozuffi, and the two real-life detectives who broke the actual case: the late Eddie Eagen and Salvatore “Sonny” Grosso, The French Connection is a New York movie of the first order and paved the way for gritty crime dramas like The Seven-Ups and The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3.

Director Friedkin is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session following the film.

From the press release:

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.

45th Anniversary Screening

This gritty and gripping police thriller won five...

We examine the real story behind The French Connection, and look at how police procedural flicks were never the same afterward.

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The French Connection is a seminal work in cop movies. It was that first sniff that hooked the moviegoing public on Hollywood’s war on drugs. It changed the look and the dynamic of law enforcement on film by focusing on the worn heels and tires of street-level surveillance. The movie should be boring with all that waiting around and stealthy shadowing, but the pacing and the performances keep it moving at a breakneck pace comparable to chasing a subway. The French Connection is probably the closest Hollywood has come to a true on-the-street crime procedural in a blockbuster. Things that are cliché in cop movies now were invented here.

The French Connection screeched into theaters in 1971. It was directed by William Friedkin, produced by Philip D'Antoni,...

We examine the real story behind The French Connection, and look at how police procedural flicks were never the same afterwards...

Culture

The French Connection is a seminal work in cop movies. It was that first sniff that hooked the moviegoing public on Hollywood’s war on drugs. It changed the look and the dynamic of law enforcement on film by focusing on the worn heels and tires of street-level surveillance. The movie should be boring with all that waiting around and stealthy shadowing, but the pacing and the performances keep it moving at a breakneck pace comparable to chasing a subway. The French Connection is probably the closest Hollywood has come to a true on-the-street crime procedural in a blockbuster. Things that are clichés in cop movies now were invented here.

The French Connection screeched into theaters in 1971. It was directed by William Friedkin, produced by Philip D'Antoni and...

Steven Awalt – author interviewed by Todd Garbarini

“Well, it’s about time, Charlie!”

Dennis Weaver utters these words in my favorite Steven Spielberg film, Duel, a production that was originally commissioned by Universal Pictures as an Mow, industry shorthand for “movie of the week”, which aired on Saturday, November 13, 1971. The reviews were glowing; the film’s admirers greatly outweighed its detractors and it put Mr. Spielberg, arguably the most phenomenally successful director in the history of the medium, on a path to a career that would make any contemporary director green with envy. Followed by a spate of contractually obligated television outings, Duel would prove to be the springboard that would catapult Mr. Spielberg into the realm that he was shooting for since his youth: that of feature film directing. Duel would also land him in the court of Hollywood producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck and get him his...

The Numbers Racket:

Do not put your faith in what statistics say

until you have carefully considered what they do not say.

William W. Watt

The nets don’t just pull a price out of their respective hats for their advertising time. Advertisers are paying for viewers’ attention. They want to know if they’re getting their money’s worth and the only way to do that is to know how many people are watching. This need has always been so imperative that as early as 1949, just one year after the third network — ABC — went on the air, and even before any of the nets had begun coast-to-coast operations, a regular ratings system was in effect.

Rating broadcast programs did not start with TV. Broadcast programmers had been doing that kind of thing back in the radio days for the same reasons: so that sponsors would know who was watching what,...

I looked for him, but he was gone. I checked the boozy dives and the greasy spoons and the street corners where the not-nice girls hang out.

Nothing.

He was gone.

Tall guy, fedora, trench coat. You must’ve seen him. Usually smoking. He was always hanging around, poking his nose where it didn’t belong and usually getting it punched.

A real wisenheimer, too, always cracking wise.

You see him, you call. And if I find out you’ve been holding back…

If you don’t miss that kind of patois, you’re either too young to remember it, or you’ve got a tin ear. God knows, I miss it.

Back in May, some of you might remember I interviewed Road to Perdition author Max Allan Collins (http://www.soundonsight.org/max-allan-collins-road-to-perdition-on-carrying-on-mickey-spillanes-legacy/). A lot of the discussion had to do with his connection with one of the giants of private eye fiction,...

William Friedkin hasn’t always made odd films about strange characters who end up doing horrible things. He used to direct movies about little girls getting taken over by the Devil and edgy cops who crack down on drug rings. That latter part, The French Connection, is what we’re looking at this week, as it’s time to go back and listen to what the Killer Joe director had to say over one of his greatest films, a true classic with one of the greatest actors ever giving what is arguably – not very arguably, though – his finest performance. But we’re more interested in what the director of that film has to say about that actor, that greatest performance, and that damn car chase. Friedkin is known for giving great commentary, able to hold his own on a track with ample amounts of information, personal insight, and views on the art of filmmaking and the business...

There are all kinds of producers: hucksters, hustlers, con men and schlockmeisters. Some are in it for the glory, some like to walk the red carpet with a starlet on their arm. For some, the biggest award is a box office hit and it doesn’t matter what kind of crap they throw on the screen to earn it. There are producers like Harvey Weinstein who will spend more money to promote himself to an Oscar win than he does on actually making the Oscar-winning film. And there are producers like Joel Silver who once said the only proper role for women in film was either as a dead body or naked.

And there are those – who, to be honest, may also have a touch of all of this – who are mainly driven by a desire to make good movies. Like Dick Zanuck.

I don’t think anyone will argue...

There are all kinds of producers: hucksters, hustlers, con men and schlockmeisters. Some are in it for the glory, some like to walk the red carpet with a starlet on their arm. For some, the biggest award is a box office hit and it doesn’t matter what kind of crap they throw on the screen to earn it. There are producers like Harvey Weinstein who will spend more money to promote himself to an Oscar win than he does on actually making the Oscar-winning film. And there are producers like Joel Silver who once said the only proper role for women in film was either as a dead body or naked.

And there are those – who, to be honest, may also have a touch of all of this – who are mainly driven by a desire to make good movies. Like Dick Zanuck.

I don’t think anyone will argue...

If you have watched television or movies in the past 35 years, you likely have seen Sam McMurray in numerous shows and films. Among his many film credits are Raising Arizona, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, L.A. Story, The Wizard, and Drop Dead Gorgeous. On television he was a featured player on The Tracey Ullman Show, played a recurring role as Chandler's boss on Friends, and appeared in The King Of Queens, Disney's Recess, Freaks And Geeks, and The Sopranos. Now McMurray is bringing his talents to the web with a two-episode arc on hit comedy series Then We Got Help!

In Part 1 of our three part interview, McMurray revisted his early career including stints on daytime soaps The Doctors and Ryan's Hope. In Part 2 below, he shares his experiences working on Then We Got Help!

We Love Soaps TV: In comparison to your extensive Television and film experience, what was it...

(Celebrating award week with a look at one of Oscar’s most notable champions: The French Connection. Thirty-nine years ago, Connection – besides being one of the biggest hits of the 1970s – was the top winner at the Academy Awards walking away with gold for Best Picture [collected by producer Phil D’Antoni], Director [William Friedkin], Actor [Gene Hackman], Adapted Screenplay [by Ernest Tidyman], and Editing [Gerald Greenburg].)

“I grew up in a world where Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney …these were the heroes. Not the cops. Cops were the bad guys. Or they were stumbling around, couldn’t find their asses with both hands.”

So says Sonny Grosso, and it is a screen icongraphy he has worked hard to change. Grosso-Jacobson Communications has produced over 750 hours of programming for network and premium and basic cable television in its thirty-odd years. Though its output has run from Pee Wee’s Playhouse to adventure fare like Counterstrike, the most acclaimed of the company’s offerings...

Oscar-winning director William Friedkin.

In July of 1997, I conducted the first of two lengthy interviews with director William Friedkin, regarded by many as the "enfant terrible" of the so-called "Easy Riders and Raging Bulls" generation of filmmakers who, for one brief, shining moment, seemed to reinvent American cinema in the late '60s thru the late '70s. Meeting Friedkin was something of a milestone for me at the time: I was still in my 20s, had been writing for Venice Magazine less than a year, and "Billy," as he likes people to call him, was the first person I interviewed who was one of my childhood heroes--a filmmaker whose one-sheets hung on my bedroom walls when I was growing up.

Below are the two interviews, conducted a decade apart from one another, and posted in reverse chronology. In both, Billy reveals a cunning intellect, a sometimes abrasive personal style,...

Douglas Cook and David Weisberg have been attached to write a big-screen adaptation of “Nick Ratchet,” a Stan Lee/Pow Entertainment project set up at Disney. The lighthearted mystery thriller follows a shy and ineffectual police officer and his rough and tough online avatar/persona named Nick Rachet, and a Jekyll & Hyde-type struggle between the two when Nick Ratchet emerges from inside his video game to take over the life of his creator. Richard Lagravenese is attached to direct, and the concept is from Stan Lee. Larry Jacobson and Sonny Grosso are producing, and Lee is exec producing with Gill Champion from Pow. Stay tuned to Shockya.com for more news. By Costa Koutsoutis (Source: [...]...

Comic-book legend Stan Lee struck a deal last year with Disney to bring projects from his Pow! Entertainment label to life. And last month that deal paid off as Disney will be producing no less than three of his projects - one of which is Nick Ratchet, a detective film that sounds quite unique.

Writing duo David Weisberg and Douglas Cook have been brought on-board together to pen this project that could only have come from the mind of the man who co-created such characters as The Hulk, X-Men, Spider-man and Iron Man. According to Empire, the film is, “a mystery-thriller about a meek police officer transformed Jekyll and Hyde-style into Nick Ratchet, a tough avatar cop who emerges from a video game to assume control of his creator.”

That sounds… interesting.

P.S. I Love You helmer Richard Lagravenese is attached to direct the movie (really, Stan?), with Larry Jacobson...

Douglas Cook and David Weisberg have been hired to write the mystery thriller "Nick Ratchet," one of Stan Lee's Pow Entertainment projects set up at Disney and based on an idea of Lee.s. Cook and Weisberg have writing credits that include Michael Bay's "The Rock" and the Ashley Judd/Tommy Lee Jones film "Double Jeopardy." According to The Hollywood Reporter, Richard Lagravenese will be handling directing duties. The story revolves around the internal struggle between a passive, ineffective police officer and his online alter-ego, a tough avatar cop named Nick Ratchet who jumps from inside a video game to present day reality to one-up the life of his creator. Larry Jacobson and Sonny Grosso are producing. Lee is exec producing...

Douglas Cook and David Weisberg have been hired to write Nick Ratchet , one of Stan Lee's Pow Entertainment projects set up at Disney, says The Hollywood Reporter . The mystery thriller centers on a Jekyll & Hyde struggle between a meek, ineffectual police officer and his online alter-ego, a tough avatar cop named Nick Ratchet who emerges from inside a video game to usurp the life of his creator. Richard Lagravenese is attached to direct "Ratchet," which is based on an idea of Lee's. Larry Jacobson and Sonny Grosso are producing. Lee is executive producing with Pow partner Gill Champion.

Douglas Cook and David Weisberg have been tapped to pen "Nick Ratchet," one of Stan Lee's Pow Entertainment projects set up at Disney.

The lighthearted mystery thriller centers on a Jekyll & Hyde struggle between a meek, ineffectual police officer and his online alter-ego, a tough avatar cop named Nick Ratchet who emerges from inside a video game to usurp the life of his creator.

Richard Lagravenese is attached to direct "Ratchet," which is based on an idea of Lee's.

Larry Jacobson and Sonny Grosso are producing. Lee is exec producing with Pow partner Gill Champion.

Brigham Taylor is overseeing for the studio.

Cook and Weisberg, repped by CAA and Benderspink, are veteran scribes with such movies as Michael Bay's "The Rock" and the Ashley Judd starrer "Double Jeopardy" among their credits. They have the creature feature "Vespers" and the pirate movie "Captain Kidd" set up at Disney.

NahNotOutsideMyHouse! Productions Inc. in association with Shortened Attention Span Theater and Producer Al Messina is proud to announce the World Premiere Staged Reading of Charles Messina's new play A Room of My Own at the The Players Theatre Main Stage. A Room of My Own is a comedy set in the late 1970s and revolves around one wacky Italian-American family living in a small tenement apartment in Greenwich Village. Headed by a conniving, thieving matriarch, a gambling addicted patriarch, and an uncle with a secret that everyone knows, The Morelli Clan of Thompson Street is one outrageous bunch. Their struggles with debt, poverty and a Nun who they welcome into their lives is seen through the eyes of little 10 year old Carlo Morelli, a would-be writer, whose vocabulary consist mainly of four letter words. Playwright/Director Messina is best known for his work on the critically acclaimed, off-Broadway hits Mercury,...

Comic book legend Stan Lee has set up three projects at Disney, which houses his production shingle POW! Entertainment. The projects have attracted Oscar nominee Richard LaGravenese, scribe Gary Goldman and Robert Teitel and George Tillman Jr. of State Street Pictures.

The projects are based on stories and ideas from Lee, who will executive produce with his POW! partner Gill Champion.

Lee and Champion said the projects are intended to be tentpoles with franchise potential, with the first installments intended to serve as an origin story that lays out the mythology of the plot and characters.

"I only hope Disney will have room at the theme park once they become the tentpole franchises that we envision them to be," Lee joked.

LaGravenese is attached to write and direct Nick Ratchet, revolving around the exploits of a private eye. Sonny Grosso and Larry Jacobson are in talks to produce.

LaGravenese, repped by CAA, last wrote and directed P.S. I Love You. He was nominated for an Oscar for writing The Fisher King.

The action-adventure project Blaze is being written by Goldman (Next), who is repped by APA.

Former New York police detective-turned-producer Sonny Grosso has inked a development deal with AMC to develop a limited series based on his experiences with his late partner Eddie Egan on the famous French Connection case. Grosso and his producing partner Larry Jacobson will executive produce the project through their Grosso Jacobson Communications Corp. Talks with potential writers are under way. The events that led to the now-famous 1961 drug bust were chronicled in William Friedkin's Oscar-winning 1971 feature The French Connection, which was among the 25 films that the Library of Congress just named to the National Film Registry.

Director Clark Johnson has inked a one-year deal with NBC Universal TV Studio. Under the pact, Johnson will develop, direct and executive produce series projects for the studio. In developing new projects, Johnson will partner with producer Sean Ryerson. The deal with NBC Uni TV comes on the heels of Johnson directing the studio's drama pilot for NBC NY-70 this past development season. Written by Rand Ravich, NY-70 was based on the experiences of The French Connection detectives Sonny Grosso and Eddie Egan and starred Donnie Wahlberg and Bobby Cannavale.

Donnie Wahlberg is in negotiations to star opposite Bobby Cannavale in NBC's untitled '70s cop drama from writer-producer Rand Ravich, which Clark Johnson is on board to direct. Set in New York, the project is based on the real-life experiences of NYPD Detectives Sonny Grosso and Eddie Egan, the cops behind one of the biggest drug busts in U.S. history, which became the subject of the Oscar-winning 1971 feature The French Connection (HR 11/18). Wahlberg will play the character loosely based on Egan. In the movie, the role earned Gene Hackman an Academy Award.

Bobby Cannavale has been tapped to star in NY-70, NBC's cop drama from writer-producer Rand Ravich. Meanwhile, S.W.A.T. helmer Clark Johnson has come on board to direct the project set in 1970s New York. Cannavale's casting is said to be lifting the cast contingency from the pilot order for NY-70, which is based on the real-life experiences of New York detectives Sonny Grosso and Eddie Egan, the cops behind one of the biggest drug busts in U.S. history, which became the subject of the 1971 Oscar-winning feature The French Connection (HR 11/18).

The story of one of the biggest drug busts in U.S. history, subject of the Oscar-winning feature The French Connection, is coming to television. NBC is developing a French Connection series about the events that led to the now famous operation and the two cops who led it, New York Detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. Feature writer Rand Ravich has been tapped to pen the project as part of a sizable two-script deal he has signed with NBC Universal TV. A French Connection police drama had been on NBC head of drama Christopher Conti's list of show ideas for some time. When, after inking the pact with NBC's sister studio, Ravich met with Conti and heard several potential concepts, he immediately jumped at the idea of French Connection.