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Exclusive: Hemdale Films, the one film production company to generate back-to-back Best Picture Oscar winners (Platoon and The Last Emperor), is re-emerging for the first time in forever. Revived by Eric Parkinson as a releasing label, Hemdale will release Torn: The Israeli-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets. The provocative documentary by director Nim Shapira focuses on the street war that broke out between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups that tore down each other’s messages about the 250 hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7 terror attack in Israel. The posters inflamed heated passion among those who put them up to raise awareness of the hostages and those who tore them down to show their opposition to Israel’s subsequent Gaza offensive. It led to heated arguments and often violence. Hemdale will open the film in theaters September 5 in New York and Los Angeles with a rollout to follow in the fall...

While the comic book movie genre is all the rage now thanks to the MCU and DC, there was a time when they were more grounded, gritty and edgy. Before the big studio franchises came and gave a CGI-filled direction to the genre movies like Blade, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, X-Menmovies kept the audience on the periphery of realism and fantasy. One among them, Sean Connery-led The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, finds some love on streaming.

As per FlixPatrol, the 2003 movie is steadily climbing the Tubi charts where it's streaming for free. The movie is at #7 on the list, standing behind titles like The Fast & The Furious, Friday the 13th, Next Friday, and more. While the steampunk superhero film is loosely based on the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill got mixed reactions from the audience upon its debut it was a commercial hit,...

Michelangelo Antonioni’s English-language debut, set in swinging Sixties London, was worshipped by New Hollywood directors, and it’s easy to see why. Blow-Up nails a dramatic use of urban space that American filmmakers spent the next decade chasing. That a generation of semiotically obsessed cinephiles fixated on this film is entirely logical. After all, for better or worse, Antonioni’s got his master stylist hat on here, even if it sometimes obscures his vision.

Blow-Up is a story about a photographer: Thomas (David Hemmings) is competent, successful, and pursued by models. He’s also sleazy and casually cruel. He’s chasing diversions: women, a plane propeller, a broken guitar – anything to offset the dull compromise between his personal and commercial work, the latter of which he resents.

There’s a sense that his cynicism feeds his detachment from reality. Antonioni nudges us to see his work like...

Stars: Chantal Contouri, Shirley Cameron, Max Phipps, Henry Silva, Rod Mullinar, David Hemmings, Rosie Sturgess, Robert Thompson | Written by John Pinkney | Directed by Rod Hardy

As a fan of Australian genre cinema, I find 1979s Thirst to be a fascinating, often overlooked entry in the country’s horror canon. Directed by Rod Hardy, this film stands as an intriguing bridge between the Ozploitation movement of the 1970s and the more refined horror-thrillers that would emerge in the 1980s. While it may not have the same raw, aggressive energy as Wake in Fright (1971) or Long Weekend (1978), it carves its own niche by blending Gothic horror with the uniquely unsettling atmosphere of Australian psychological thrillers.

What immediately sets Thirst apart is its distinct take on the vampire mythos. Rather than leaning into traditional European folklore, Hardy and screenwriter John Pinkney reimagine vampirism through the lens of a shadowy cult, which feels more...

Quick Links'Murder by Decree' Links Jack the Ripper to the British Royal FamilyJames Mason Is a Splendid Dr. Watson in 'Murder by Decree''Murder by Decree' Is From the Director of 'Black Christmas' and 'Porky's'

The famous detective duo of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson was introduced in the 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle detective novel A Study in Scarlet. The characters were later widely popularized through a series of films starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes, beginning with the 1939 Gothic mystery film The Hound of the Baskervilles, in which Rathbone’s Holmes is introduced as a dry-humored, obsessive follower of logic and reason, while Watson, played by Nigel Bruce, appears as Holmes’ lovable but often clueless assistant.

One of the first and best films to abandon this formula is the 1979 mystery thriller filmMurder by Decree, in which Holmes, played by Christopher Plummer, and Watson, played by James Mason, are approached to...

Djimon Hounsou has been featured in many blockbuster films, including Gladiator (2000), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and A Quiet Place: Part II (2020), but the two-time Oscar-nominated actor says he is still struggling financially. Hounsou was nominated for Academy Awards in both 2004 and 2007 for his performances in In America and Blood Diamond, respectively.

Per Deadline, Hounsou told CNN’s African Voices Changemakers, that despite his perceived success in Hollywood, he still struggles. The Beniese-born Hounsou said of his situation: “I’m still struggling to make a living. I’ve been in this business making films now for over two decades with two Oscar nominations, been in many blockbuster films, and yet, I’m still struggling financially. I’m definitely underpaid.”

Related Every A Quiet Place Movie, Ranked

A Quiet Place is an unexpected horror franchise that captivated millions, even if some entries aren't as loved as others.

Hounsou, who recently was featured...

While it might not seem very Christmas-y, Robert Eggers’ horror remake “Nosferatu” does partly take place at Christmas, which is a very unhappy holiday for all involved. And since the movie opened on Dec. 25, you can also spend your own Christmas break watching it.

Naturally, horror and holidays go together like, well… The Grinch and the town of Whoville. Here’s a few of the better genre offerings with maximum — and frightfully merry — mayhem.

Plus, there’s no end of killer Santa movies, including “Violent Night” with David Harbour and one where a robotic Santa run amok, if those are more to your liking. But for now, check out our list, below:

Olivia Hussey in “Black Christmas” (Credit: Warner Bros.) Black Christmas (1974)

Bob Clark’s still-shocking slasher takes place at a sorority house over the holidays where a creepy guy keeps calling… before he begins killing. Olivia Hussey, Karen Allen...

Courtesy of Eureka Entertainment

by James Cameron-wilson

Perhaps surprisingly, Juggernaut is being released on Blu-ray for the first time in the United Kingdom, from a high-definition restoration, to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. When Juggernaut was first released in cinemas in 1974, it was at the height of the disaster movie era, following on from The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and, in the same year, Airport 1975, Earthquake and The Towering Inferno, all stories featuring numerous sundry characters trapped together in terrifying circumstances. However, Juggernaut was a very different thing, both in its execution and in its presentation. Loosely inspired by the bomb hoax on board the QE2 luxury liner in 1972, the film was originally to have been directed by Bryan Forbes. However, when Forbes jumped ship, he was replaced by the American TV director Don Medford, who also left the project at the last minute, leaving the production company with the enormous daily...

Sherlock Holmes investigates Jack the Ripper in Murder By Decree, hitting 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on January 14 via Kino Lorber.

From Black Christmas director Bob Clark, the 1979 murder-mystery has been newly mastered in 4K by StudioCanal.

Christopher Plummer and James Mason star as as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, respectively, alongside David Hemmings, Susan Clark, Anthony Quayle, John Gielgud, Frank Finlay, Donald Sutherland, and Genevieve Bujold.

Disc 1 – 4K Uhd:

Uhd Sdr Master by StudioCanal Audio Commentary by Director Bob Clark Audio Commentary by Film Historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell Theatrical Trailer 5.1 Surround and Lossless 2.0 Audio

Disc 2 – Blu-ray:

HD Master by StudioCanal Audio Commentary by Director Bob Clark Audio Commentary by Film Historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell Theatrical Trailer 5.1 Surround and Lossless 2.0 Audio

John Hopkins (Thunderball) penned the script, inspired by Elwyn Jones & John Lloyd‘s 1975 book The Ripper File, Stephen Knight‘s 1976 book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution,...

"Gladiator II" spoilers follow.

"Gladiator II" arrives in theaters this weekend (read our review), almost a quarter of a century after its predecessor won the Academy Award for Best Picture following its big screen release in 2000. Considering the "Gladiator" sequel that we almost got instead, the existence of this follow-up in the hands of director Ridley Scott again feels like nothing short of a miracle, even if the movie itself doesn't quite measure up to the greatness achieved by the story of Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. You probably know the rest of that heroic diatribe, perfectly delivered by Russell Crowe, by heart.  

Anyway, "Gladiator II" acts as a quasi-remake and legacy-quel, focusing on a grown up Lucius, the young boy played by Spencer Treat Clark, the son of Roman Empress Lucilla,...

Spoiler Alert: Spoilers follow for the original GladiatorWere (hopefully) about to be entertained once again. Ridley Scotts long-awaited Gladiator II finally hits theaters next weekend, and if early buzz is to be trusted, viewers should expect another hugely engaging round of brutal combat and immaculately constructed setpieces. For a long time, viewers had no idea how Scott could possibly continue the 2000 Best Picture winning original, given that it ends with the lead characters death. But recent trailers have given us a better idea of Scotts vision for a legacy sequel (even if it does admittedly raise questions about whether hes retconning the first one).

With the new installment less than a week away, film junkies are understandably in a mad rush to rewatch the first Gladiator before seeing the sequel. But obviously, not everyone has the time to do so, plus theres an entire generation of people who missed seeing the original in theaters.

Ridley Scotts epic film Gladiator (2000) is widely considered one of the greatest sword and sandal period dramas. The film is, after 24 years, getting a well-deserved sequel. Now, fans who want to brush up on the original can watch it for free on the Roku Channel. The Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix historical tale has even cracked a list of the Top 10 movies across all streaming platforms, landing at No. 10 per Reelgood.

Gladiator won five Academy Awards in 2001, including Best Picture. It's the tale of Commodus (Phoenix) who takes power and rank from Maximus (Crowe) who is then doomed to fight to the death in gladiator arenas.

The sequel, Gladiator II, over two decades coming, will be released in the United States on Nov. 22. It stars Paul Mescal as the son of Crowes Maximus and Connie Nielsens Lucilla. Gladiator II is directed by Scott with the screenplay written by David Scarpa and...

The following contains minor set-up spoilers for Gladiator II, opening in theaters on November 22Gladiator II boasts an impressive cast, including Matt Lucas who may have left The Great British Bake Off in part due to the opportunity to join the film. Set sixteen years after the events of the first Gladiator, Gladiator II follows Lucius Verus as he is forcibly brought back to Rome as a gladiator and finds himself caught amid a powerplay for the throne. Gladiator II's cast of characters includes figures that allude to the real-life history of Rome as well as some important returning faces, like Connie Nielsen's Lucilla. There are also many new faces, including Matt Lucas.

Lucas got his start in BBC shows like The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer and Shooting Stars before fully breaking out with the sketch comedy Little Brittain. This led to a more high-profile career for the actor,...

Joaquin Phoenix is widely considered one of the best actors of this generation and the Academy Awards recognized his talent when they awarded him the Best Actor award for 2019's Joker. However, the actor has been surrounded by controversies about wanting to leave projects ahead of filming.

This year, Phoenix left Todd Haynes' yet-untitled gay romance film five days before the film was supposed to start filming, and the film was ultimately scrapped. While the move shocked the people involved in the project, it turns out he's been trying to get out of projects for a long time. In a new interview with The New York Times, legendary director Ridley Scott revealed he also tried to get out of his role in 2000's Gladiator.

Related Joaquin Phoenix Recalls Meeting Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight's Joker Role

Joaquin Phoenix confirms having talks with Christopher Nolan for the role of...

Peggy Moffitt, the iconic ’60s model who was also a contract player at Paramount and who appeared in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, died at her Beverly Hills home on Saturday from complications of dementia. Her son, Christopher Claxton, confirmed the news to the New York Times. She was 86.

Moffitt’s wide-ranging influence can be traced to the persona she created, often in collaboration with others. Her gamine, modern look was a construct made up of her signature pale skin, harlequin eye makeup, five-point Vidal Sassoon haircut and a sense of humor, all of which she never abandoned.

She had a cultural moment when, in 1964, she posed in a topless swimsuit from designer Rudi Gernreich. The controversial look referenced a schoolboy’s shorts, with thin suspenders rising in a “V” between the cleavage, but nothing else above the waistline. The resulting image, which ran in publications across the world, was condemned...

Courtesy of Studiocanal

by James Cameron-wilson

Social commentary doesn’t come much stronger than in J. Lee Thompson’s 1959 drama. Here, a jittery aerial shot swoops down on the meandering Thames and the industrial, terraced sophistication of London in the 1950s. The drama, an adaptation of the play by Ted Willis, opens with a shot of an open stretch of urban wasteland, where a young thug – played by David Hemmings – runs straight into the arms of a plainclothes policeman, played by Ronald Howard (son of Leslie Howard). Allowing for the poetic licence that the teenager would have seen the cop a mile off, it is a good starting point, as the detective inspector gives a Pythonesque/Harold McMillan sermon: “you’ve never had it so good, when I was twenty years younger…” And so we cut to the bustling life of the block – or rather, the street – as it used to be,...

“There’s someone in the house … absolutely trying to kill me, ya’know?”

The Christmas season is upon us! The warm glow of twinkling lights fills the air. Green pine trees decorate our living rooms and every solid surface seems to be decked out with ribbons and garland of deepest crimson. What better time to celebrate Dario Argento’s 1975 holiday giallo film Deep Red. Musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings) is on his way home when he witnesses a brutal murder in the window of a neighboring apartment. To keep from becoming the next victim, he and quirky reporter Gianna Brezzi (Daria Nicolodi) must team up to solve not only the crime, but the mystery of the missing painting. This rocky partnership will lead them to a deep red lecture hall, a steamy bathroom, and an abandoned house in the canary islands all to track down a mysterious – and musical – killer.

The Bloody Disgusting-powered Screambox is home to a variety of unique horror content, from originals and exclusives to cult classics and documentaries. With such a rapidly-growing library, there are many hidden gems waiting to be discovered.

Alongside exclusives like Secret Santa and Night of the Missing and such classics as Black Christmas and Silent Night, Deadly Night 2, here are five Christmas horror recommendations you can stream on Screambox right now.

Christmas Evil

Not to be confused with the innumerable Santa slashers, Christmas Evil (also known as You Better Watch Out) is tonally more in line with Taxi Driver than Silent Night, Deadly Night. Writer-director Lewis Jackson clearly had no interest in making a body count flick; instead, he explores the psyche of a mentally unstable man who happens to dress up as Santa and kill people. The low-budget grit adds to the dark atmosphere.

The 1980 film chronicles one man’s...

Nineteen sixty-eight has to be considered the apex of psychedelic sexploitation romps, with the release of Candy, adapted from Mason Hoffenberg and Terry Southern’s satirical reworking of Voltaire’s Candide, and Roger Vadim’s Barbarella, based on Jean-Claude Forest’s comic, and partially scripted by Southern (alongside an armada of other credited writers). Both employ a rambling, shaggy-dog structure as an excuse to flagrantly foreground softcore sexual hijinks tinged with a pungent whiff of social commentary, albeit the latter aspect may be easier to discern in Candy’s perverse daisy chain of events.

Southern’s contributions to the Dino De Laurentiis-produced Barbarella can be detected in some of its wittier lines (“A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming!”) and sly pokes at the persistence of class-consciousness. Aside from Southern, the two films are linked by the presence of Anita Pallenberg, style icon and muse of the Rolling...

With guild agreements being signed and production ramping up, Hollywood hopefully awaits a moment of youthful innovation.

Oops: The most newsworthy films set for imminent release are directed by filmmakers in their 80s – grizzled veterans who understand their muscle but, like the neophytes, are perplexed by the chaotic landscape.

Will this become a Back to the Future moment?

Ageism debates about Biden (80) and Trump (77) may prompt political headlines, but it’s not intruding on either The Golden Bachelor (Gerry Turner is 72) or the movie release date calendar.

Still, talk to Michael Mann (Ferrari), Ridley Scott (Napoleon) or Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon) and you won’t encounter the sort of “we own the system” bluster held by the old-time studio directors. Behind them is an even older lineup of vintage filmmakers: Woody Allen (87) and Roman Polanski (90), whose movies await release dates, and Francis Coppola (84), who would welcome distribution...

Gayle Hunnicutt, best known for playing Vanessa Beaumont in the final three seasons of Dallas, has died. She was 80. According to The Times (U.K.), Hunnicutt passed away on Thursday, August 31, at a hospital in London. Born on February 6, 1943, in Fort Worth, Texas, Hunnicutt made her television debut in 1966 on the NBC sitcom Mister Roberts and went on to appear in several more TV series throughout the 1960s and 70s, including The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart, and Hey Landlord. She married British actor David Hemmings in 1968 and moved to the U.K, where she had roles in many British TV series, including The Golden Browl, Fall of Eagles, Thriller, and Return of the Saint. Hunnicutt also starred in numerous films, perhaps most memorably playing a glamorous Hollywood actress alongside James Garner in the 1969 neo-noir detective drama Marlowe. Her other film work includes The Wild Angels, Eye of the Cat, Fragment of Fear,...

Gayle Hunnicutt, the Texas-born actor known for 1969’s “Marlowe” and her role as Vanessa Beaumont in “Dallas,” died on Aug. 31 in London, according to The Times of London. She was 80.

Hunnicutt played Vanessa Beaumont, an English aristocrat who shares an illegitimate son with Larry Hagman’s J.R. Ewing, in the final three seasons of “Dallas” from 1989 to 1991.

Born on Feb. 6, 1943, in Fort Worth, Texas, Hunnicutt made her television debut in 1966 on the NBC sitcom “Mister Roberts.” She guested on several series in the ’60s, including “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Hey Landlord,” “Love on a Rooftop” and “Get Smart.”

On the film side, Hunnicutt starred opposite James Garner in the 1969 neo-noir crime film “Marlowe,” in which she played television star Mavis Wald. She appeared in more than 30 films during her career, including “The Wild Angels,” “P.J.,” “Freelance,” “Running Scared,” “Target” and “The Legend of Hell House” opposite Roddy McDowell.

Hunnicutt married...

Gayle Hunnicutt, whose best-known work came as Vanessa Beaumont, the mother of J.R. Ewing’s illegitimate son, in the final three seasons of Dallas, has died per multiple U.K. reports. Hunnicutt died last Thursday at a hospital in London, according to her ex-husband Simon Jenkins. She was 80 years old.

That Hunnicutt would find fame playing Vanessa Beaumont, a Brit, on a TV show called Dallas was a bit ironic for a woman born in Fort Worth. But it was entirely sensible given that the actress spent much of her career in British TV and movies, even marrying the be-knighted Jenkins before returning to work in the U.S.

Her TV career began with a role on the shortlived small-screen adaptation of Mister Roberts and included roles on The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart and in Marlowe opposite James Garner.

In 1970, Hunnicutt met and later married David Hemmings, who himself...

Ridley Scott's Napoleon is a historical tale of devastating war, limitless ambition and doomed romance. The Joaquin Phoenix-led film looks truly massive -- exactly the kind of scope that the story of the French empire deserves. But 2023 isn't the first time someone has attempted to bring the story to cinematic audiences.

One of the most iconic filmmakers in Hollywood history spent years trying to make a Napoleon movie. Although Stanley Kubrick never got the chance to complete it, his other work -- influenced by his time on the film -- helped shape cinema into its current form. Kubrick's valiant attempt at telling Napoleon's story ultimately helped make Scott's Napoleon possible.

Related: Best Historical Figures in the Napoleon Movie, From Josephine to Marshal Davout

Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon, Explained

As documented by Salon and other sources, following the success of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick planned for his next film...

One of Stanley Kubrick’s lost projects, a large-scale biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, has been in the works for HBO for the last seven years.

Steven Spielberg, who has been involved for at least ten years, now says he is “mounting a big production” and the project will become a seven-part series for the premium cable network.

It’s not clear whether the project is still in the development stages or has a series order.

Speaking at the Berlin Film Festival, The Fabelmans director said, “With the co-operation of Christiane Kubrick and Jan Harlan, we’re mounting a large production for HBO on based on Stanley’s original script Napoloeon. We are working on Napoleon as a seven-part limited series,” he said.

Kubrick had originally planned the film after the success of 2001 and did extensive research on the French Revolutionary leader. He had planned to film the movie across Europe,...

Raquel Welch, the actor who became an icon and sex symbol thanks to films like “One Million Years B.C.” and “Three Musketeers,” died Wednesday in Los Angeles after a brief illness, her manager confirmed to Variety. She was 82.

She came onto the movie scene in 1966 with the sci-fi film “Fantastic Voyage” and the prehistoric adventure “One Million Years B.C.,” the latter of which established Welch as a sex symbol. The actor went on to appear in the controversial adaptation of Gore Vidal’s “Myra Beckrinridge,” “Kansas City Bomber” and Richard Lester’s delightful romps “The Three Musketeers” (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe, and “The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge” (1974). She was one of the first women to play the lead role — not the romantic interest — in a Western, 1971 revenge tale “Hannie Caulder” — an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” (2003), according to the director.

(Earlier, Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford...

Music teacher David Hemmings investigates a series of brutal axe murders in Dario Argento’s seminal giallo. Stylishly shot in Argento’s favorite location, Torino, Italy. The film exists in multiple edits, the original Italian running 126 minutes. The rock group Goblin provided their first of several Argento music scores when called in to replace composer Giorgio Gasilini, who ankled the project after blow-ups with the director. The 101 minute US theatrical version, titled The Hatchet Murders, is available online at The Internet Archive.

Check out Guillermo del Toro’s Spanish-language rendition of his Deep Red trailer commentary here!

The post Deep Red appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Pairing‌ ‌wine‌ ‌with‌ ‌movies!‌ ‌See‌ ‌the‌ ‌trailers‌ ‌and‌ ‌hear‌ ‌the‌ ‌fascinating‌ ‌commentary‌ ‌for‌ ‌these‌ ‌movies‌ ‌and‌ ‌many‌ ‌more‌ ‌at‌ ‌Trailers‌ ‌From‌ ‌Hell.‌ This week, the wine is the color of blood as we serve up some pairings for three films concerning serial killers.

In Cold Blood is a movie from 1967, based on Truman Capote’s book about the brutal real-life murders of a Kansas family by a pair of criminals in 1959. Their killing spree was a short one – they slit the throats of and shot the four family members in the middle of the night, after failing to find a safe full of cash they had hoped to crack. Robert Blake plays one of the killers while John Forsythe plays a state investigator.

When the two felons get out of prison and decide to resume a life of crime, they head to southwestern Kansas as the logical place to get their careers back on track.

"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens was embraced by the British public from the moment it first dropped in 1843; it was an instant bestseller and the work has never been out of print since (via ThoughtCo). Almost 60 years later, the festive tale took a leap to the new-fangled medium of cinema with "Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost" in 1901. That title hinted at a vision of Film Adaptations Yet to Come; Scrooge was the star of the show and would become a juicy role for dozens of famous actors over the next 120 years.

Since Daniel Smith donned Scrooge's nightcap in that pioneering first adaptation, George C. Scott, Albert Finney, Reginald Owen, Patrick Stewart, and Henry Winkler have all given their distinctive take on the role, while Alastair Sim remains many people's definitive version of the character. Bill Murray put a modern spin on the tale in "Scrooged," while in animation we've had Mr. Magoo,...

When Jane Fonda was preparing for the galactic striptease that opens the 1968 sci-fi fantasy Barbarella, she plied herself with vodka. She was so terrified that she made sure she was completely drunk before the cameras started rolling. A bat flew in front of the lens, spoiling the shot, and the director, her then-husband Roger Vadim, insisted that she shoot it again the next day.

“The take that was actually used, I was not only drunk. I was hungover too,” Fonda recalled in the 2018 documentary about her, Jane Fonda in Five Acts.

It’s one of the most memorable sequences in an otherwise patchy and eccentric movie that scarcely deserves its cult reputation. Fonda appears to be floating as she pulls off her outfit. In fact, she was lying on a pane of glass with the rest of the spaceship behind her for the shot. While she removes her helmet, gloves and eventually everything else,...

In 1971, the Cannes Film Festival opened with a screening of Gimme Shelter by Albert and David Maysles, an immersive, vérité depiction of two weeks in the touring life of the Rolling Stones. If that was all it did, it might have been forgotten by now. But by a terrible freak of chance, the filmmakers followed the band to the most notorious concert of their entire career — the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in Livermore, CA, where the Stones, along with Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, were set to perform a free concert for 300,000 people on Dec. 6, 1969. “We didn’t know what it was going to be,” Albert said later. “We just had a childish faith that having seen the Stones and getting along with them, there might be a feature film there.”

At the apparent suggestion of Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead (who...

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By Todd Garbarini

The major question that I have about Douglas Heyes’s Kitten with a Whip, which opened in New York on Wednesday, November 4, 1964 on a double bill with Lance Comfort’s Sing and Swing (1963) with David Hemmings at some theaters, is this: where is the titular whip? We have the kitten, as embodied by the overly beautiful Ann-Margret as “bad girl” Jody Dvorak, but there is no whip to be found. Perhaps the “whip” is her personality? There certainly is an argument to be made for that. Jody has just made a break from a juvenile detention center but not before seriously wounding the head of the place who becomes hospitalized. Outwitting the police, she breaks into the semi-upscale home of David Stratton (John Forsyth), a stuffy, by-the-book political candidate hopeful twenty-three years her senior whose wife and daughter are conveniently...

” I will make it my personal business to see you don’t leave here alive. You understand me?”

Rogue Cops and Racketeers: Two Crime Thrillers: The Big Racket (1976) and The Heroin Busters (1977) will be available on Blu-ray April 19th from Arrow Video

Over a long and wide-ranging career, director Enzo G. Castellari helmed some of the most infamous of all the poliziotteschi – the gritty, action-packed crime films that proliferated in Italy throughout the 70s. Buckle up for a heart-stopping thrill ride through the seedy underbelly of Italian society in two of his most celebrated thrillers!

In 1976’s The Big Racket, Inspector Nico Palmieri is hot on the heels of a gang of ruthless racketeers. Realizing he’s not going to get anywhere within the confines of the law, Nico recruits a crack squad of civilians to dole out their own brand of justice. Then, in 1977’s The Heroin Busters, rule-flouting...

Exclusive: Helen Shaver has been tapped to direct and executive produce NBC’s Quantum Leap pilot, a reboot of the beloved 1990s sci-fi series, which starred Scott Bakula and the late Dean Stockwell.

Written and executive produced by La Brea co-showrunners Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt and executive produced by Blindspot creator Martin Gero as well as Quantum Leap creator/EP Don Bellisario and EP/co-narrator Deborah Pratt, the follow-up series is set in present time. It’s been 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett (Bakula) stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now a new team has been assembled to restart the project in the hopes of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it.

Bakula is not attached to reprise his role or produce the new Quantum Leap but is aware of the reboot and has had conversations about potentially getting involved.

To mark the release of Just a Gigolo on 8th November, we’ve been given 2 copies to give away on Blu-ray.

Paul von Przygodski (David Bowie), a young Prussian gentleman, arrives in the trenches in time to be caught in the final explosion of the Great War. After recuperating in a military hospital, where he is mistaken for a French hero, he returns to Berlin. His family home has been turned into a boarding house, his father (Rudolf Schündler) is paralyzed, and his mother (Maria Schell) is working in the Turkish baths. Attempting to find a new purpose, his childhood friend, Cilly (Sydne Rome), abandons him for fame and fortune; his former commanding officer, Captain Kraft (David Hemmings), tries to persuade him to join his right-wing movement and a widow, Helga von Kaiserling (Kim Novak), briefly seduces him with the finer things in life. In a society where the...

Dario Argento in 4K — that sounds like a good idea, especially for his more visually jolting giallos. Arrayed in garish reds and blacks, this blood-soaked mystery shocker emphasizes exotic murders — stabbings, scaldings, lacerations from broken glass. David Hemmings is again the investigator, digging into evidence sourced not in photographic details, but the hidden artwork of a disturbed child. Techniscope images by Luigi Kuveiller and music by Goblin, with abbondante gore orchestrated by Signor Argento at the top of his form.

Deep Red 4K

4K Ultra HD

Arrow Video

1975 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 127 & 105 min. / Street Date October 26, 2021 / 59.95

Starring: David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Méril, Eros Pagni, Giuliana Calandra, Piero Mazzinghi, Glauco Mauri, Clara Calamai, Nocoletta Elmi.

Cinematography: Luigi Kuveiller

Production Designer: Art Director:

Film Editor: Franco Fraticelli

Original Music: Goblin

Written by Dario Argento, Bernardino Zapponi

Produced by Claudio Argento, Salvatore Argento

Directed by Dario Argento

Deep Red hasn’t...

“I can feel death in this room! I feel a presence, a twisted mind sending me thoughts! Perverted, murderous thoughts… Go away! You have killed! And you will kill again!”

Dario Argento’s Deep Red will be available on Uhd 4K Ultra HD October 26th from Arrow Video

From Dario Argento, maestro of the macabre and the man behind some of the greatest excursions in Italian horror, comes Deep Red – the ultimate giallo movie.

One night, musician Marcus Daly, looking up from the street below, witnesses the brutal axe murder of a woman in her apartment. Racing to the scene, Marcus just manages to miss the perpetrator… or does he? As he takes on the role of amateur sleuth, Marcus finds himself ensnared in a bizarre web of murder and mystery where nothing is what it seems…

Aided by a throbbing score from regular Argento collaborators Goblin, Deep Red (aka...

“I tend to the bodily needs of these people, not the spiritual ones. Now, come along back to bed.”

Sharon Tate in Eye Of The Devil (1966) will be available on Blu-ray October 26th from Warner Archive

A forbidding French chateau and its surrounding vineyards are the setting for Gothic thrills in this haunting excursion into the occult. Deborah Kerr and David Niven, costarring for the first time since Separate Tables, lead an exceptional cast in a chiller reminiscent of the later The Wicker Man (1973), in which an innocent outsider to an enclosed world peels back layers of mystery to reveal a shocking truth. Vineyard owner Marquis Philippe de Montfaucon (David Niven) is called back to his castle Bellenac because of another dry season. He asks his wife and children to remain in Paris, but they still come after him. His wife Catherine de Montfaucon (Deborah Kerr) soon discovers that her...

To mark the release of Just a Gigolo, out now, we’ve been given a signed copy of the boxset to give away.

Paul von Przygodski (David Bowie), a young Prussian gentleman, arrives in the trenches in time to be caught in the final explosion of the Great War. After recuperating in a military hospital, where he is mistaken for a French hero, he returns to Berlin. His family home has been turned into a boarding house, his father (Rudolf Schündler) is paralyzed, and his mother (Maria Schell) is working in the Turkish baths.

Attempting to find a new purpose, his childhood friend, Cilly (Sydne Rome), abandons him for fame and fortune; his former commanding officer, Captain Kraft (David Hemmings), tries to persuade him to join his right-wing movement and a widow, Helga von Kaiserling (Kim Novak), briefly seduces him with the finer things in life.

In a society...

Brian Trenchard-Smith created this trailer for an Aussie supernatural thriller that never made it to American theaters. Director David Hemmings (star of Blow-Up) was determined to class up what was initially intended as a lowly horror movie, and rewrites of David Ambrose’s script continued throughout production. Actor’s Equity frowned on so many overseas cast members and refused to allow Susan George and Samatha Eggar to perform. Thom Eberhardt’s 1983 Sole Survivor uses the same premise to a degree that it should almost be considered a remake, although there’s no official connection.

The post The Survivor appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

“I’m working in the outhouse again.” That’s how Ben Hecht, the fabled screenwriter, used to describe toiling in Hollywood. “And the nitwits are still in charge,” he assured his friends.

Hecht wrote terrific movies like Scarface and Notorious but he hated studio chiefs, and it was mutual. His name came to mind last week when Don Winslow posted his poignant piece on Deadline reminding producers and executives that writers of books and scripts these days could use a little more love. Given the tensions of the moment, he argued, a few friendly phone calls (and even checks) would bolster sagging writer morale.

More from DeadlineDon Winslow: Top 10 Things Studios, Networks and Streamers Could Do To Treat Authors BetterDon Winslow: My First Experience With Hollywood MathDon Winslow's Take On Scorsese & De Niro Doing 'The Irishman' Over 'Frankie Machine:' 'I Blame Eric Roth'

Winslow is responsible for...

Music teacher David Hemmings investigates a series of brutal axe murders in Dario Argento’s seminal giallo. Stylishly shot in Argento’s favorite location, Torino, Italy. The film exists in multiple edits, the original Italian running 126 minutes. The rock group Goblin provided their first of several Argento music scores when called in to replace composer Giorgio Gasilini, who ankled the project after blow-ups with the director. The 101 minute Us theatrical version, titled The Hatchet Murders, is available online at The Internet Archive.

Check out Guillermo del Toro’s Spanish-language rendition of his Deep Red trailer commentary here!

The post Deep Red appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

England’s swingin’ ’60s were more than A Hard Day’s Night, the Mersey Beat and slapstick in the street with Rita Tushingham. Michael Winner got the scene off to an early start with this beach-set tale of ‘clever lads’ that cooperate to score with vacationing girls. Oliver Reed gives a sterling performance as Tinker, a photo-snapper who takes on a tall target — an independent, posh model with her own amorous agenda. The romance proceeds in a positive direction… or is Tinker fooling himself?

The System (The Girl-Getters)

Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1964 / B&w / 1:85 / 90 min. / / Street Date September 23, 2019 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Oliver Reed, Jane Merrow, Barbara Ferris, Julia Foster, Harry Andrews, Ann Lynn, Guy Doleman, David Hemmings.

Cinematography: Nicholas Roeg

Film Editor: Fred Burnley

Original Music: Stanley Black

Songs: The Searchers, The Marauders, The Rocking Berries

Written by Peter Draper

Produced by Kenneth Shipman

Directed by Michael...

Music teacher David Hemmings investigates a series of brutal axe murders in Dario Argento’s seminal giallo. Stylishly shot in Argento’s favorite location, Torino, Italy. The film exists in multiple edits, the original Italian running 126 minutes. The rock group Goblin provided their first of several Argento music scores when called in to replace composer Giorgio Gasilini, who ankled the project after blow-ups with the director. The 101 minute Us theatrical version, titled The Hatchet Murders, is available online at The Internet Archive.

The post Deep Red appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Music teacher David Hemmings investigates a series of brutal axe murders in Dario Argento’s seminal giallo. Stylishly shot in Argento’s favorite location, Torino, Italy. The film exists in multiple edits, the original Italian running 126 minutes. The rock group Goblin provided their first of several Argento music scores when called in to replace composer Giorgio Gasilini, who ankled the project after blow-ups with the director. The 101 minute Us theatrical version, titled The Hatchet Murders, is available online at The Internet Archive.

The post Deep Red appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Anni Browning accepts the 2017 Spa Award to Film Finances for Best Service and Facilities.

In 22 years with Film Finances Australasia, Anni Browning experienced numerous highs and faced a few challenges as the cinema industry ebbed and flowed.

Browning, who has stepped down as MD of the completion bond company but is still a consultant, supported Rachel Perkins’ debut feature Radiance.

She took one of her biggest risks on a Rolf de Heer movie, which she counts as one of her proudest achievements.

The biggest trend during her time has been the proliferation of low budget films, despite the need to pay crews and allocate reasonable money for post- production. Film Finances bonded a lot of films budgeted at $1 million- $1.5 million and one-off feature docs costing as little as $100,000- $200,000.

One thing which has not remained constant is the insurance bond premium. When she started it was as high as 6 per cent of the budget.

How terrible to be the solitary vampire; cursed to walk the earth alone, sleepless nights interrupted by an insatiable blood lust, no one to go shopping with. It just doesn’t seem like the most sociable of lifestyle choices. This would be the case for most of horror’s filmdom until Thirst (1979), a quirky Australian blend of political satire and nightmarish imagery that presents a society of bloodsuckers intent on branding long before it entered the consciousness.

Released by New Line Cinema in late September, Thirst traipsed its way through the market place of grindhouse and drive-ins before popping up on VHS, where a young horror fiend (me) eagerly lapped up everything coming out by the nascent home video realm. What did the ten year old think? Well, not much at the time; he found it well made but slow. The man-child before you has the same thoughts, except time has brought me patience,...

To live under the shadow of a famous father must be very hard, especially so if you choose to follow in his footsteps; the fact that you’re born unto him is beyond your control, but to take the same path will bring a lifetime of comparisons, unjust or not. Such is the case with Lamberto Bava; toiling on some of Mario’s films as assistant director (and a couple of Argento’s as well) gave him the confidence to fly solo, and his second feature A Blade in the Dark (1983) is brimming with that confidence – and a bit of blood, too.

Released in its native Italy in August, Blade arrived stateside through Ascot Films, but not until ’86; perhaps this was done to capitalize on Bava’s success with the Argento-produced Demons from the previous year. Regardless of the reasoning, Blade holds its own as an impressive giallo from a...

Suspiria. Courtesy of Tk.Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, who shot Dario Argento’s debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), believes it to be “the blueprint for all Argento movies.” It first introduced the gloved hands and the knives. It displayed a tendency towards strange supporting characters and underlying fetishes. As a film about seeing and memory, Argento would essentially remake the film in 1975 as Deep Red, but would incorporate these fractured images and wounded pasts into nearly all his characters and the films that would follow. His cinema is one of convoluted gender roles and impotence. Argento’s films evolve and progress over time, but always keep traveling back to these same questions, essentially using the framework of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage in various settings and situations in his attempts to dig deeper into these issues. It is an investigation that begins two years prior to Argento’s directorial debut,...

Deep Red. Image courtesy of Tk.A hand, sheathed in black leather, fingers wrapped around a razor—or maybe a meat cleaver—rises dramatically. It alone occupies the screen. The glinting blade pauses briefly at its apex, then plummets, slashing pale flesh, the blood a garish shade of red pouring in runnels, spraying walls and floors. A woman’s face contorts into a look of anguish—eyes wide, mouth agape, white teeth bared. Maybe she raises weakly a hand in futile protest, maybe she gets out a pitiable call for help before falling dead to the floor. Maybe the killer photographs her. Flashes of eyeballs, or palpitant gray matter, appear on screen, a suggestion of the ubiquity of danger, of psychological turmoil. The body lays supine, limbs protruding at awkward angles. The head might have smashed through a pane of glass. It’s all theatrical, orchestrated with a cruel and terrific deftness.