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Every July 4th weekend, I, like so many others, uphold a sacred tradition: watching "Jaws." It's seasonal, it's timeless, and frankly, watching a fictional town be terrorized by the inaction of a local government that cares more about profits than people is one of the few appropriate ways to "celebrate" American independence. At the center of "Jaws," and the source of multiple generations developing galeophobia, is a large, aggressive, great white shark. The success of the film invented the summer blockbuster, and 50 years later, the combination of Bruce's dorsal fin breaking the surface of the water and the resonant rumble of a John Williams-conducted tuba is enough to keep some people out of the water for good.

Like its notorious antagonist gliding into the waters off Amity Island, "Jaws" was a cinematic feeding frenzy that continued well beyond Labor Day. This wasn't just a movie; it was a moment,...

When it comes to the biggest big screen stars of the 1960s and 1970s, even a short list would have to include Steve McQueen. He's rarely mentioned in the same acting league as contemporaries like Paul Newman and Robert Redford, but his early death in 1980 at just 50 years old is arguably the biggest reason for that. Still, even without later performances that would have surely continued to flex his acting muscles, his existing filmography shows an immense and interesting talent bristling with both energy and calm.

It's McQueen's control between the relaxed and the electric, along with his genuine and visible appreciation for life, that led to the actor being dubbed "the King of Cool." The persona served him well in roles that saw him playing underdogs and disrupters, men who refuse to abide by the established order and instead forge their own path, and it's part of what...

Olivia Hussey, who dazzled moviegoers as the female lead in Franco Zeffirelli‘s noteworthy 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, died Friday at her Los Angeles home of breast cancer. She was 73.

The Argentina-born actress died “surrounded by her loved ones,” according to an announcement on her official Instagram account. “Olivia was a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her,” the post reads.

She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008.

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Hussey was just 15 when she starred opposite British actor Leonard Whiting, 16, as Romeo in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Both were unknowns. The Paramount-distributed film, co-written by Zeffirelli, was nominated for the best picture Oscar and three other Academy Awards, and she received a David di Donatello prize and a Golden Globe for her efforts.

Hussey also...

Throughout the 1970s, audiences couldn’t get enough of disaster movies. The decade began with the all-star blockbuster bomb-on-a-plane thrill ride Airport, based on Arthur Hailey’s best-seller. Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Maureen Stapleton, Van Heflin, Jean Seberg, and Jacqueline Bisset headlined Airport, which became the second-biggest box-office hit of the year and earned nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and winning Best Supporting Actress for Hayes. Airport also established the template for subsequent movies: trapping all-star casts on a plane, a ship, or a high-rise.

SEEFred Astaire movies: 20 greatest films ranked worst to best

Producer-director-writer Irwin Allen took disaster movies to the next level — so much so he was dubbed “The Master of Disaster.” Allen, who enjoyed great success on the small screen in the 1960s with the series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel, and Lost in Space, brought his disaster savvy to the...

Jessica Lange came to the forefront of modern pop culture fans thanks to her roles in American Horror Story, but she’s been acting long before she was cast in the Ryan Murphy show. Lange modeled before she was cast in her breakout role in the 1976 remake of King Kong. Since then, she’s had about four dozen projects on the screen, but she’s proven that she does not need to have hundreds of roles to her name to be seen as an accomplished actress.

Lange is one of the actresses to snag a win from every major acting award show. She has two Oscars, three Emmys, five Golden Globes, and a Tony award for her work on the stage. She’s been appearing in Broadway shows off and on since the 1990s in addition to her work on the screen. These, however, only count the best of Jessica...

High-concept movies, particularly those based on previous films or novels, often face an uphill battle to surpass their predecessors. The inevitable comparisons and ‘who did it better’ debates can overshadow the new iteration’s merits. However, every so often, a fresh take can breathe new life into a beloved character, defying expectations and captivating audiences anew.

Jeff Bridges, in particular, had a profound vision for a beloved character from the MonsterVerse. The King Kong (1976) actor had a potential sequel, which unfortunately never came to fruition due to the movie’s modest box office performance. Bridges’ vision for the future of the giant ape was quite intriguing and might have become a hit for the genre.

A Vision Unfulfilled: The scrapped sequel concept

The MonsterVerse, synonymous with the iconic Godzilla, had another storied member: Kong, the giant ape that has terrorized cities for generations. With numerous renovations and reboots, each film...

Quick Links The Towering Inferno Is a Rip-Roaring Action Extravaganza Newman & McQueen's Fiery On-Set Feud The Towering Inferno Becomes a Celebrated Classic

Paul Newman and Steve McQueen were two of Hollywood's most sought-after leading men, with their charismatic and alluring presences dazzling audiences and establishing them as certified acting legends. In 1974, the powerhouse performers joined forces to headline the action-packed disaster extravaganza The Towering Inferno, which focuses on the valiant efforts of two courageous heroes as they attempt to save the lives of countless people trapped in a burning skyscraper.

Despite both actors having decorated resumes and the adoration of millions of fans, their attitudes and egos clashed during the production of the electrifying flick and soured the shooting experience, with an intense and bitter rivalry forming between Newman and McQueen as a result. Let's dive in and explore what led to the famous Tinseltown feud and the fiery...

If this year's entry in the Monsterverse, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, left you wanting more gorilla warfare, Paramount+ has you covered. This month, the streamer is adding the 1976 King Kong remake to its library. The film stars Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, and Jessica Lange. A remake of the 1933 original, King Kong was produced by legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis, who wanted his own monster movie to contend with the 1975 megahit Jaws. The film was directed by John Guillermin (The Towering Inferno) and penned by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. (Three Days of the Condor), and was expected to be the biggest hit of 1976, as it carried a then-Kong-sized $24 million budget.

Robert Logan, who succeeded Edd “Kookie” Byrnes as the valet parking attendant on the famed ABC detective show 77 Sunset Strip and starred as the dad in a series of return-to-nature adventure movies, has died. He was 82.

Logan died May 6 of natural causes in Estero, Florida, his son, Anthony Logan, told The Hollywood Reporter. His family chose to wait until this week to announce his death.

After Gerald Lloyd Kookson III was promoted from parking attendant at Dino’s Lodge — a nightclub owned by Dean Martin — to partner and private investigator at the detective agency next door, the Brooklyn-born Logan joined Warner Bros. Television’s 77 Sunset Strip to play his replacement, another hipster named J.R. Hale.

On the swanky series that starred Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Roger Smith as the crime solvers Stu Bailey and Jeff Spencer, respectively, Logan portrayed Hale on 50 episodes of the show’s final two seasons,...

On Dec. 16, 1974, 20th-Fox and Warner Bros. unveiled in theaters what would become a landmark disaster movie: The 170-minute, John Guillermin-directed Towering Inferno. The movie grossed $116 million domestically at the time. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review of the feature is below:

Movie technology is the star of this awesome Irwin Allen production, a formula disaster picture made into an event by the sheer size of its inflating production values. More ordeal than entertainment, it overwhelms the spectator like a bully playing on the fears of a society trapped in its own burning affluence.

Since the screenplay by Stirling Silliphant has nothing new to say (the “insanity” of building skyscrapers is dealt with in Earthquake), and the general doomsday appeal of the disaster genre has already been established, The Towering Inferno‘s appeal lies entirely in immediate visceral reactions.

So, like Cecil B. DeMille before him, Irwin Allen gives the...

Anthea Sylbert, the two-time Oscar-nominated costume designer who worked on Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Carnal Knowledge, Shampoo and Julia before becoming a studio executive and producer, has died. She was 84.

Sylbert died Tuesday in Skiathos, Greece, director Sakis Lalas told The Hollywood Reporter. Lalas just finished a documentary about Sylbert titled, My Life in 3 Acts.

Sylbert partnered with two-time Oscar-winning production Richard Sylbert on eight films and with his twin brother, Paul Sylbert — her first husband and another Oscar-winning production designer — on another three.

“Paul is the more bitter, more angry of the two,” she told Peter Biskind in 1993. “Someone once put it this way: Dick is more of a diplomat. He will put the ice pick somewhere in your back, you’re not quite sure, and you sort of feel tickled; Paul, while facing you, sticks it in your gut. I always used to think that if you put them together,...

Even in this age of instant YouTube gratification, movie trailers are a big deal. They get us hyped for an upcoming project by making promises that the eventual film will (hopefully) pay off. The best sizzle reels are even able to do this by giving a taste of things to come without ruining any surprises or plot twists. Think about the teaser for Alien with its cracking egg and unnerving siren sound, or the deft use of a choral version of Radiohead’s “Creep” in the classic promo for The Social Network. Both of those examples speak to the haunting nature of their movies while allowing space for the film to stand on its own down the road.

But some trailers do their job too well. Some trailers outdo the movies they advertise, sometimes because the film has a concept too shallow to sustain more than three minutes, and sometimes...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

King Kong (1976) SteelBook 4K Uhd from Paramount

The 1976 remake of King Kong is now available on SteelBook 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray via Paramount. The 134-minute theatrical version is presented in 4K with Hdr., while the 182-minute TV cut is included on Blu-ray. No other special features are included.

From producer Dino De Laurentiis, the monster movie is directed by John Guillermin and written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. (Flash Gordon). Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, and Jessica Lange star.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter Apparel from Gutter Garbs

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter turns 40 tomorrow, and Gutter Garbs is celebrating with a design by Sam Coyne.

T-shirts for $30, long sleeves for $40, zip-up hoodies for...

In The New Empire, Godzilla and King Kong's buddy-cop dynamic shines, creating a lighthearted, action-packed adventure loved by many. King Kong Lives introduces a love story, surprising twists, and even a baby Kong, but falls short with outdated production quality. Director Guillermin's ambitious direction in King Kong Lives showcases Kong's character growth despite the film's overall campy feel.

While reviews for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire might be a mixed bag at the moment, everybody who has seen the movie seems to be in alignment about one thing. There is a themed balance between the two production companies handling kaiju films in the present day. Toho Studios appears to be handling the more serious stories like 2016’s Shin Godzilla and 2023’s Godzilla Minus One, while Legendary Entertainment are delivering on all the more lighthearted, brawl-style flicks with its own MonsterVerse.

One of the most recent examples of Legendary...

Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's 1933 mega-hit "King Kong" was a marvel of special effects. It employed stop-motion animation, outsize models, rear-projection, and novel composting methods to convince audiences that a giant ape was interacting with human co-stars. Compared to modern, ultra-slick CGI effects, the 1933 King Kong may not look as realistic, but the ape shimmers with life and personality beyond what many modern effects can accomplish. Kong is the most sympathetic character in the movie, as he was kidnapped from his home and exploited by would-be entertainment moguls. Using bi-planes to shoot Kong off the top of the Empire State Building wasn't a moment of triumph for a masterful humanity, but the tragic execution of an animal that doesn't understand what it was thrust into. Not bad for a film that's going to celebrate its 91st birthday in April of 2024.

Interpreting "King Kong" in 2024 is fraught. Cooper...

Jessica Lange, despite her successful career, may soon step away from acting due to the changes in the film industry. Lange criticizes the emphasis on corporate profits over creativity in Hollywood and the sacrifice of art for the sake of big franchise films. Other Hollywood legends, including Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, have also expressed concerns about the impact of franchise movies on the industry.

Oscar winner and American Horror Story star Jessica Lange could step away from acting soon, despite going through a great moment in her career over the last few years. And it has nothing to do with her age. Lange, who has been considered a legend in Hollywood for some time, began acting in 1976 in John Guillermin's King Kong, which turned her into an icon for the time. Just three years later she dazzled the world again with the Bob Fosse musical All That Jazz,...

Jessica Lange came by her restlessness naturally. Born on April 20, 1949, to a stay-at-home mom and a traveling salesman father who moved the family all over the state of Minnesota, she quickly became acclimated to the process of re-acclimating. Eventually, the need for stabilization lost its appeal. Three years into studying art and photography at the University of Minnesota, she married Spanish photographer Paco Grande, at which point their shared wanderlust took them all over the United States and Mexico. The pair split upon moving to Paris, where Lange discovered Étienne Decroux and corporeal mime -- which departs from the conventional white-faced japery you're familiar with, and seeks to find abstract poetry in the movement of people and things.

Lange possessed the soul of a poet, but found this form of performance emotionally unrewarding, so she decamped for New York City to study acting with Mira Rostova at Hb Studio. She...

John Guillermin’s Academy Award Winning remake of iconic Hollywood classic, King Kong (1976), starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange and produced by Hollywood legend Dino de Laurentiis, this retelling of the classic monster adventure film went on to jointly win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, as well as receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography (Richard H. Kline) and Best Sound. Jessica Lange was also honoured as Best new Actress for her role at the Golden Globes that same year.

Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin), an employee of a large American oil company, has been charged with a mission to find new oil wells. With a chartered boat, he sets off on a journey to an uninhabited island in the South Pacific. On board is also a stowaway: the palaeontologist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) has smuggled himself onto the ship, as he hopes to examine a rare species of monkey on this island.

The 1982 slasher film Unhinged is set to receive a second remake from the same producer. The original film is a project that owes a great debt to 1960's Psycho, following three young women who crash their car on their way to a music festival and hole up in a creepy rural home run by a woman named Marion and her handyman Norman, one of whom may be a murderer. The film was first remade in 2017 under the auspices of producer Scott Jeffrey, setting the film in England rather than America and renaming the sinister woman Miss Perkins in another nod to Psycho.

Per Bloody Disgusting, Jeffrey - who is also behind the public domain exploiting slasher film Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, which is coming to theaters on February 13, 2023 - is now mounting another remake of the same project. The film is going to be a modernization of the original story,...

When the classic monster movie King Kong was released in the US in 1933, it had the biggest opening ever recorded, and little wonder – who could resist the fantastic story of a giant lovesick ape on the rampage in New York city!

Since then Kong has returned to the screen numerous times, not least in the 1976 version King Kong, starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange, with Kong himself brought to life by special effects legends Carlo Rambaldi (Et) and Rick Baker (American Werewolf in London). Directed by John Guillermin (The Towering Inferno) and produced by the legendary Dino De Laurentis (Flash Gordon) this blockbuster features a stirring John Barry score, action set pieces, stunning scenery, groundbreaking effects – it’s arguably one of the greatest King Kongs ever. To celebrate the towering release of the film in a stunning 4K restoration, here’s a look at Kongs onscreen from the 1931 original all...

To mark the release of the 4K reissue of John Guillermin’s King Kong, out now, we’ve been given a Steelbook to give away to 1 winner.

Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin), an employee of a large American oil company, has been charged with a mission to find new oil wells. With a chartered boat, he sets off on a journey to an uninhabited island in the South Pacific. On board is also a stowaway: the palaeontologist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) has smuggled himself onto the ship, as he hopes to examine a rare species of monkey on this island. On the way, after a violent storm, the expedition also takes on board the shipwrecked Dawn (Jessica Lange), who is floating in a lifeboat at sea. When the ship anchors off the island, however, it turns out not to be a uninhabited as everyone once thought. The natives of the island...

To mark the release of the 4K reissue of John Guillermin’s King Kong, out now, we’ve been given 2 copies to give away on 4K Ultra HD.

Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin), an employee of a large American oil company, has been charged with a mission to find new oil wells. With a chartered boat, he sets off on a journey to an uninhabited island in the South Pacific. On board is also a stowaway: the palaeontologist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) has smuggled himself onto the ship, as he hopes to examine a rare species of monkey on this island. On the way, after a violent storm, the expedition also takes on board the shipwrecked Dawn (Jessica Lange), who is floating in a lifeboat at sea. When the ship anchors off the island, however, it turns out not to be a uninhabited as everyone once thought. The natives of the...

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Sara Shane, who starred opposite Gordon Scott in Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure and appeared alongside Clark Gable in The King and Four Queens, has died. She was 94.

Shane died July 31 on the Gold Coast of Australia, her family announced.

Shane also starred with Kathleen Hughes and Marla English in the melodrama Three Bad Sisters (1956) and had the female lead in Affair in Havana (1957), featuring John Cassavetes and Raymond Burr.

With the Jane character absent in the John Guillermin-directed Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure (1959), Shane stepped in to portray Angie Loring, an American model and pilot who meets up with the King of the Jungle in Africa. The film was Scott’s fourth as Tarzan.

And in The King and Four Queens (1956), helmed by Raoul Walsh, Shane played Oralie McDade, one of four young widows — Eleanor Parker, Jean Willes and Barbara Nichols are the others — who...

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Disney+ is exploring a trip to Skull Island.

The streamer is in the early stages of development on a live-action King Kong series. The project from Disney Branded Television will be based on the 1933 film conceived by producer and director Merian C. Cooper and more recent novelizations by artist Joe DeVito, made in conjunction with Cooper’s estate.

Stephany Folsom (Prime Video’s Paper Girls) is attached to write a script and executive produce alongside James Wan (Aquaman), Michael Clear and Rob Hackett (via their Atomic Monster banner) and Dannie Festa of World Builder Entertainment.

This King Kong is not connected to the Monsterverse series from Legendary Entertainment, which has released two films featuring the giant ape (Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs. Kong) and is currently at work on a TV project at Apple TV+ and an animated Netflix show.

The Disney...

The year was 1976, and John Wayne was cheesed but good at King Kong.

The gargantuan ape with a fatal penchant for blonde starlets was all the rage at Paramount, and for good reason. The studio had sunk 24 million (equivalent to 124 million in 2022) into the John Guillermin-directed remake, and desperately needed it to hit the box-office jackpot when it opened in December. Though studios have huge marketing departments that, when professionally run, know how to manage multiple releases at once, Wayne felt the film that was to be his big-screen swan song, "The Shootist," was getting ignored by Paramount's advertising team. And it was all because of that big, stupid monkey.

The Duke Vs. King Kong

According to Scott Eyman's "John Wayne: The Life and the Legend," Wayne groused to his former secretary and then present companion Pat Stacy, "Those people are putting all their damn time into King Kong.

No stranger to the world of kaiju, storyboard artist Richard Bennett has utilized his artistic talents to help bring Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Kong: Skull Island to life on the big screen, and now he's teamed up with Clover Press to launch a Kickstarter campaign for Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett, a new hardcover coffee table book collecting his amazing storyboard art from all three of those colossal creature features (including deleted scenes)!

We had the pleasure of catching up with Bennett in a new Q&a feature to discuss his career as a storyboard artist and what readers can expect to find within the pages of Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett.

You can check out the Q&a and a preview from the book below, and to learn more about Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett,...

Another month, another Criterion Channel lineup. In accordance with Black History Month their selections are especially refreshing: seven by Melvin Van Peebles, five from Kevin Jerome Everson, and Criterion editions of The Harder They Come and The Learning Tree.

Regarding individual features I’m quite happy to see Abderrahmane Sissako’s fantastic Bamako, last year’s big Sundance winner (and Kosovo’s Oscar entry) Hive, and the remarkably beautiful Portuguese feature The Metamorphosis of Birds. Add a three-film Laura Dern collection (including the recently canonized Smooth Talk) and Pasolini’s rarely shown documentary Love Meetings to make this a fine smorgasboard.

See the full list of February titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

Alan & Naomi, Sterling Van Wagenen, 1992

All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, 1955

The Angel Levine, Ján Kadár, 1970

Babylon, Franco Rosso, 1980

Babymother, Julian Henriques, 1998

Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006

Beat Street, Stan Lathan, 1984

Blacks Britannica, David Koff, 1978

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,...

Despite the proliferation of streaming services, it’s becoming increasingly clear that any cinephile only needs subscriptions to a few to survive. Among the top of our list are The Criterion Channel and Mubi and now they’ve each unveiled their stellar April line-ups.

Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.

At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...

During a three-hour discussion on a recent episode of “The Empire Film Podcast,” Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino revealed the existence of their makeshift quarantine movie club over the last 9 months. As Wright explained, “It’s nice. We’ve kept in touch in a sort of way that cinephiles do. It’s been one of the very few blessings of this [pandemic], the chance to disappear down a rabbit hole with the hours indoors that we have.” Tarantino added, “Edgar is more social than I am. It’s a big deal that I’ve been talking to him these past 9 months.”

A bulk of the film club was curated by none other than Martin Scorsese, who sent Wright a recommendation list of nearly 50 British films that Scorsese considers personal favorites. In the five months Wright spent in lockdown before resuming production on “Last Night in Soho” — and before he received the...

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By Tim McGlynn

During the pre-video/broadcast television era of the mid-seventies, college campuses were teeming with movie offerings on a weekly basis. It was the only way to see older theatrical titles in their uncensored form. My own experience at the University of Illinois provided 8 to 10 films per weekend with recent Hollywood hits, classic revivals and the occasional porn flick being the usual choices. Lecture halls, auditoriums and even church sanctuaries were converted to temporary cinemas that offered a cornucopia in 16mm. These were quality exhibitions with twin projectors, external speakers for clear dialogue and anamorphic lenses when needed. It seemed a little odd that one could view a somewhat racy movie in the same space that would be used for worship the next morning. I would often take in several titles on Friday and Saturday nights for the bargain price of...

Dino De Laurentiis took a lot of flack for his underwhelming remake of the incomparable 1933 horror classic, which he promoted into a monster-sized hit. Nothing could eclipse the original but the good casting still appeals. An honest ad campaign would have leaned on two points: See Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin carry an insultingly ugly production like real stars! See ‘newcomer’ Jessica Lange play a sexualized ditz so well that she retains her dignity! …and most importantly, See the biggest special effects fraud ever perpetrated on movie screens! Umbrella Entertainment from Australia puts this one back in print, on Blu-ray.

King Kong (1976)

Region B Blu-ray

Umbrella Entertainment

1976 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date November 4, 2020 / Available at Umbrella Enertainment 19.95 (au)

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, Jessica Lange, Rick Baker, Rene Auberjonois, Julius Harris, Jack O’Halloran, Ed Lauter, John Agar.

Cinematography: Richard Kline

Film Editor: Ralph E. Winters

Production design: Mario Chiari,...

As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.***"One of the truly outstanding incompetents" may have been Orson Welles's hilarious verdict on Franco-Irish director and madman John Guillermin, and looking at something like King Kong (1976) or God help us King Kong Lives (1986) one can't help but sense some justice in this, but in his earlier career, the energetic Guillermin showed some promise. His films throughout the fifties were solid and stolid in the way of too much British cinema of the time, but Rapture (1965) is a crazily stylish tour-de-force of excessive, out-of-control camera lurches and assaults which even Welles might have admired.The previous year Guillermin had made Guns at Batasi, a 99% British feature, but produced by...

“The romance of the desert has the power to seduce,” we hear in the first Death on the Nile trailer. Thus director Kenneth Branagh continues his loving obsession with mystery writer Agatha Christie, gathering as much star power as his 2017 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express. The opening shot lingers on the sun-drenched pyramids and entombed pharaohs with fetishistic delight. Gal Gadot and Armie Hammer also do a slow burn into the camera lens. These are killer shots, and the Death of the Nile release date, Oct. 23, brings a welcome relief but still leaves questions.

The 20th Century Studios mystery was filmed in England and Egypt just prior to the coronavirus pandemic, and the release will be in the early phases of theaters reopening around the world. Working from a screenplay by Michael Green, who also adapted Murder on the Orient Express, will Branagh be able to reconstruct the...

Director Kenneth Branagh is returning with another Agatha Christie adaptation, following up on his commercially successful and star-studded “Murder on the Orient Express,” which hit theaters in 2017. “Death on the Nile” will see a similarly pedigreed cast of British and international favorites embroiled in another Christie caper of chin-scratching proportions. Branagh has once again teamed up with his “Orient Express” screenwriter Michael Green for the adaptation from 20th Century Studios, which just released an official first trailer for the mystery thriller.

“Death on the Nile” will see Branagh returning in the role of beloved fictional detective Hercule Poirot. The rest of the stacked cast includes Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Ali Fazal, Sophie Okonedo, Tom Bateman, Emma Mackey, Dawn French, Rose Leslie, Jennifer Saunders, and Russell Brand.

The plot follows Poirot, a world-renowned detective, who becomes involved in a love triangle gone murderously bad while on a vacation in Egypt.

Shaft’s Big Score! / Shaft in Africa

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1972, 1973 / 2.35 : 1 / 104, 112 Min.

Starring Richard Roundtree, Vonetta McGee, Frank Finley

Directed by Gordon Parks, John Guillermin

Released in 1971 during a notoriously divisive presidential campaign, Shaft was both a middle finger to the powers that be and a sexually charged Black Power taunt – a combination that convulsed 42nd Street audiences while scaring the bejesus out of your average Nixon voter.

For that grindhouse crowd, Richard Roundtree, not Nixon, was The One and his portrayal of the street-smart detective reached far beyond The Deuce – director Gordon Parks’ film cost only $500,000 but brought in 13 million at the box office. Sequels were just around the corner.

A year later Shaft’s Big Score! reunited Parks, Roundtree and screenwriter Ernest Tidyman while quadrupling the budget in the bargain – the streets are still mean but the volatile mood swings that made the 1971 film a cultural touchstone...

Oscar-nominated art director and production designer Bill Creber died in Los Angeles March 7 of complications from pneumonia after a prolonged illness, Deadline has learned. He was 87.

A Los Angeles native, William “Bill” Creber is best known for his work with the original Planet of the Apes franchise including the original 1968 film starring Charlton Heston as well as Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) and Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971).

He received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction for the 1965 film The Greatest Story Ever Told. This was followed by two more Oscar nods for his work on two iconic Hollywood films: The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974). He also received a BAFTA nomination for the latter action pic which starred Steve McQueen and was directed by John Guillermin.

He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 1964 for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea...

Tarzan Goes to India/Tarzan’s Three Challenges

Blu ray

Warner Archives

1962, 1963 / 2:35:1 / 88 Min., 92 Min. / Street Date – January 29, 2019

Starring Jock Mahoney, Simi Garewal, Woody Strode

Cinematography by Paul Beeson, Edward Scaife

Directed by John Guillermin, Robert Day

Jane Goodall fell for Tarzan at an early age – ‘he married the wrong Jane’ she said, half joking. A confirmed tree-hugger, the King of the Apes would seem to be a perfect match for the nature loving primatologist – even though the greater part of Tarzan’s big screen career played out in backlot jungles rather than the real thing.

Producer Sy Weintraub rectified that situation with Tarzan Goes to India and Tarzan’s Three Challenges – both sleekly made widescreen entertainments that put the jungle lord in his proper element. Made on location in India and Thailand, the films are a non-stop parade of cliffhanging serial thrills that revel in the raw beauty...

Jock Mahoney in Tarzan Goes To India and Tarzan’S Three Challenges are now available On Blu-ray from Warner Archives! Ordering information can be found Here

Tarzan Goes To India (1962)

No need to land the plane when Tarzan flies to India. Just fly over an inland lake and the loin-clothed hero will leap into its blue depths! Jock Mahoney, who two years earlier portrayed Tarzan’s foe in Tarzan the Magnificent, makes his splashy debut as Tarzan in this tale about the Ape-Man’s rescue of elephants who will be doomed when a newly built dam unleashes its waters. John Guillermin directs, combining colorful subcontinent locales with battles large and thunderous (massive bull elephants), small and fierce (cobra versus mongoose), cunning and treacherous (Tarzan against human foes). No matter where the jungle, there is but one jungle lord!

John Guillermin (Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure) directs this tale of action and intrigue in the subcontinent.

Jeff Bridges grew up with show business in his veins. His father, the late Lloyd Bridges, was a gregarious sort who not only loved the making of movies, but the selling of them as well. He would encourage his children to give it a go. “This is a great life,” he would tell them.

Still, like any rebellious kid, the younger Bridges — who will receive the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 6 — was resistant to chasing his father’s chosen trade. He wanted to be a musician instead, or an artist. “I had maybe 10 movies under my belt before I thought I could do this for the rest of my life,” he said in 2009.

Eventually the passion kicked in. Six decades into a movie career that technically began when he was a 6-month-old infant on...

Exciting news! Tarzan’S Greatest Adventure (1959) is now available on Blu-ray from Warner Archives! Ordering information can be found Here

After Lex Barker carried the mantle clear of Weissmuller’s long shadow, Gordon Scott was free to claim the crown of King of the Jungle. His Tarzan was keen, intelligent, and literate – much as Tarzan’s creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs, had envisioned – and in the aptly named Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure, Scott’s run as the jungle lord reached a peak in what is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the prodigious series of action adventure classics. Tarzan is on a deadly trail, determined to find the diamond hunters (including Anthony Quayle and Sean Connery) who brought terror and death to a peaceful village. But as much as Tarzan is a tracker and avenger, he’s also a protector. An irresponsible gadfly from the so-called civilized world...

Tarzan got a new lease on life when a film company finally went to Africa to pit the excellent ‘Lord of the Jungle’ Gordon Scott against a formidable phalanx of villains. Anthony Quayle, Sean Connery and Niall MacGinnis are perfect Dastards of the Darkest Continent. Also top-flight are the women in this jungle combat, wicked Scilla Gabel and naughty Sara Shane. Fun for adult kids of all ages!

Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1959 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date November 13, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Gordon Scott, Anthony Quayle, Sara Shane, Niall MacGinnis, Sean Connery, Al Mulock, Scilla Gabel.

Cinematography: Edward Scaife

Film Editor: Bert Rule

Original Music: Douglas Gamley

Written by Les Crutchfield, Berne Giler, John Guillermin from the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Produced by Harvey Hayutin, Sy Weintraub

Directed by John Guillermin

Of all the big-screen Tarzans — Johnny Weissmuller, Lex Barker, Jock Mahoney,...

Call Me By Your Name’s Armie Hammer has joined the cast of Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptation of Death on the Nile.

Hammer is expected to play the lead male role in the whodunit. He joins Gal Gadot who was recently announced to be playing the role of the rich heiress who steals her best friend’s man, Linnet Ridgeway Doyle. Doyle is also the main victim in the story. Branagh return’s to the role of detective Hercule Poirot. As casting commences we can expect yet another star-studded line-up to equal that of Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express.

The Death on the Nile story focuses on the honeymoon on a cruise down the Nile. Things become a bit complicated by the fact many of those onboard have a motive to kill her. Things get even more complicated when some of the suspects themselves start to be knocked off.

Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot is set to star in Kenneth Branagh’s follow-up to Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile.

Gadot will play the role of the rich heiress who steals her best friend’s man, Linnet Ridgeway Doyle. Doyle is also the main victim in the story. Branagh return’s to the role of detective Hercule Poirot. So far, Gadot is the only announced member of the film’s cast alongside Branagh.

The story focuses on the honeymoon on a cruise down the Nile. Things become a bit complicated by the fact many of those onboard have a motive to kill her. Things get even more complicated when some of the suspects themselves start to be knocked off.

Also in the news – Taron Egerton is the spitting image of Elton John in first look image from Rocketman

The Agatha Christie novel was first adapted for...

Exclusive: Gal Gadot has been set to star in Death On the Nile, the latest Agatha Christie adaptation set up at 20th Century Fox with Kenneth Branagh directing. The project came together last year as the studio was finding success with its Christie ensemble Murder on the Orient Express. The pic ended up grossing $352.8 million worldwide with Branagh at the helm and also playing master detective Hercule Poirot.

Fox has already set a December 20, 2019 release date for Death on the Nile, which Christie published in 1937. It centers on Poirot investigating a murder during a luxurious cruise on the Nile River that he just happens to be on. But just as he identifies a motley collection of would-be murderers, several of the suspects also meet their demise, which only deepens the mystery. Michael Green, who also adapted Orient Express, is the screenwriter.

Judy Hofflund, Simon Kinberg and Ridley Scott are producing.

In her 74 years in show business, Dame Angela Lansbury has become a legend in film, theater and television. She has been nominated for three Academy Awards and was bestowed with an honorary Oscar in 2013. In addition, she has won two Golden Globe Awards for her film work, as well as two additional nominations. She has also won five Tony Awards (from seven nominations) for her work in the theatre. It has been quite a career. She is one of the few performers equally known for all three entertainment genres, and for that effort she was recognized with a Kennedy Center Honors in 2000.

SEEEmmys 2018 exclusive: PBS ‘Masterpiece’ categories for ‘Little Women,’ ‘The Child in Time’ and more

Yet the only major award to have eluded Dame Angela is the Emmy. Famously, she has been nominated 18 times for the golden statue and yet has never won the golden statue. All of her...

By Nicholas Anez

Business isn’t exactly booming for private detective Peter Joseph Detweiler, better known as P.J. His makeshift office is in a bar belonging to his only friend Charlie, his sporadic jobs include entrapping cheating wives and he is not above drowning his sorrows in liquor. So when wealthy magnate William Orbison offers him a substantial fee to be a bodyguard for his mistress, Maureen Prebble, he jumps at the chance. What P.J. doesn’t know is that Orbison has already hired someone else to commit a murder. How this murder and the shamus’s new job intersect is the crux of the terrific 1968 neo-noir from Universal, P.J. (U.K. title: New Face in Hell.)

Private detectives were prominent in the late 1960s and included Harper (1966), Tony Rome (1967), Gunn (1967), and Marlowe (1969). P.J. appeared in the midst of this surplus, which may account in part for its box office failure.

Chris here. Has everyone caught up to Murder on the Orient Express yet? For yours truly, it was set exactly in the spot in Europe that Clueless said we might be "whelmed" and our Eric Blume felt the same. But that hasn't stopped audiences from turning it into a modest hit, resulting in a global take of over $150 million - and that's enough for Fox to officially kick off a mini-franchise.

The new Agatha Christie Poirot films are keeping in line with the adaptations of the 70s, so next up will be Death on the Nile - expect Evil Under the Sun afterwards should Nile be a success too. Branagh is expected to return as director and star, and Orient Express's screenwriter Michael Green will be back as well. Get ready for more CGI exotic locales and modes of transportation because this one is set on a steamboat in Egypt.

20th Century Fox is moving forward with a sequel to the Agatha Christie adaptation Murder on the Orient Express, entitled Death On the Nile. The studio is bringing back Murder on the Orient Express writer Michael Green to pen the script. While there is no deal in place as of yet for filmmaker/star Kenneth Branagh, he is expected to return to the director's chair, while also coming back to star as detective Hercule Poirot. Whether Poirot's epic mustache also returns remains to be seen, but that seems likely as well.

Death on the Nile was first published in 1937, three years after Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express was published. The story finds Hercule Poirot on vacation in Cairo, Egypt, where he becomes entangled in a deadly love triangle. While Poirot is the only character from Murder on the Orient Express to cross over, the story features the same...

What’s the best true-story WW2 combat film for pure-grit, no-nonsense tanks ‘n’ bombs ‘n’ crazy mayhem action on a giant scale? This non-stop battle epic gets my vote. George Segal and Ben Gazzara’s infantry dogs are suitably tough, cynical and desperate, especially when they’re repeatedly sent into danger. The history is fairly accurate — there was indeed a race to seize the last bridge across the River Rhine.

The Bridge at Remagen

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 117 min. / Street Date June 13, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: George Segal, Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara, Bradford Dillman, E.G. Marshall, Peter Van Eyck, Hans Christian Blech, Bo Hopkins, Matt Clark, G&uunl;nter Meisner.

Cinematography: Stanley Cortez

Film Editors: William Cartwright, Harry Knapp, Marshall Neilan Jr.

Original Music: Elmer Bernstein

Written by Richard Yates, William Roberts, Roger Hirson

Produced by David L. Wolper

Directed by John Guillermin

Who...

In the entire history of cinema, only a few select films are so influential, so ingrained in our popular culture, that they become a modern myth. 1933's King Kong, directed by Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack, is one of those films. As the original effects-driven blockbuster and monster movie milestone, Kong has been re-imagined, parodied, and referenced countless times since first being unleashed more than eight decades ago. Each one of us has, at some point in our lives, encountered The Eighth Wonder of the World. Whether it's a remake, like John Guillermin's 1976 film, or Peter Jackson's in 2005, or a reference made in The Simpsons, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, or Jurassic Park, the legend of the colossal ape endures. With Kong: Skull Island, the eighth movie to feature the titular beast, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (of the Sundance breakout The Kings of Summer previously) delivers a fresh,...