News

First things first. I don’t want to sensationalize an article or write a story simply for the click bait headlines that far-too-often derail our attention. Having said that, something is absolutely haunting my video footage of Pennywise actor Bill Skarsgård. We recently had the chance to sit down with Skarsgård at New York Comic Con to discuss his work on the upcoming Hulu original series Castle Rock, based entirely in the universe created by Stephen King.

Skarsgård was the nicest guy imaginable. The sit-down was a round-table press interview where instead of simply sitting down and saying hello, Skarsgård introduced himself and shook everyones hand at the table. It’s hard to imagine someone as popular as the guy who’s in the biggest grossing horror movie of all time could be so down to earth. But he was. That only adds to the fact that something about this video footage is off,...

Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man, 500 Days of Summer) is set to direct a film called This Above All. What makes this movie interesting is that it will tell the true-life story of Megan Phelps-Roper, who is a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church, which was founded by her grandfather. As you know the church is known for their hate speak and vicious protests.

The story follows Phelps-Roper’s upbringing around Topeka, Ks where they preached God’s power and damned those who sinned. The church has a long history of picketing the funerals of gay murder victims, those who died of AIDS, our fallen military, the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, and victims of mass shootings — including Aurora, Co, where thousands showed up to block them, and in Orlando, where a wall of people worked hard to block church signs from the sight lines of grieving mothers burying their children.

This Above All, Falling Water, Hellboy, And Other Film And TV Casting News This Above All, Falling Water, Hellboy, and other films and TV shows have made recent casting news. These productions come from studios based primarily in the United States. The castings are subject to change. Hellboy Ed Skrein has decided to step down from his role [...]

Continue reading: Film & TV Casting: This Above All, Falling Water, Ed Skrein Drops Out Of Hellboy...

Tony Sokol Aug 29, 2017

Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb is turning to the Nick Hornby-penned drama This Above All for his next project...

Following his Amazing Spider-Man movies and the light-hearted drama Gifted, director Marc Webb's turning to a much darker subject matter for his next project. ,The upcoming feature film, This Above All, will tell the true-life story of Megan Phelps-Roper, former member of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church. Written by Nick Hornby, the film will be produced by, among others, actress Reese Witherspoon.

See related Denis Villeneuve interview: Sicario, Kurosawa, sci-fi, ugly poetry Dune reboot: Denis Villeneuve confirmed to direct

“As the granddaughter of the famous founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, Phelps-Roper grew up espousing the teachings of her family, preaching God’s power and damning those who sinned,” reads an official statement from the film's backers. “She became one of the most powerful voices on social media for Westboro,...

Marc Webb (“Amazing Spider-Man 2”) will direct the upcoming feature film “This Above All,” about former member of the Westboro Baptist Church Megan Phelps-Roper, Conde Nast Entertainment announced on Monday. Nick Hornby will write the screenplay for the film, which will be produced by Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea for Made Up Stories, Dawn Ostroff and Jeremy Steckler for Conde Nast Entertainment, River Road Entertainment’s Bill Pohlad and Webb. River Road will finance the film. The film, being adapted from both an article written by Adrian Chen for The New Yorker and from Phelps-Roper’s upcoming memoir, follows the granddaughter of the.

Marc Webb is set to direct the feature film This Above All, based on the life of Megan Phelps-Roper, a former member of the hate-mongering Westboro Baptist Church. 

Nick Hornby will pen the screenplay from a New Yorker article by Adrian Chen and Phelps-Roper's upcoming memoir.

Phelps-Roper is the granddaughter of the famous founder of the Kansas-based church, which is known for picketing everything from sporting events to military funerals and protesting the Lgbt community, Islam and politicians, among many other groups. She became one of the most powerful voices for Wbc via social media, until her ongoing conversations with opponents...

Marc Webb will direct and Nick Hornby is scripting This Above All, based on the true-life story of Megan Phelps-Roper, a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church whose grandfather founded the group known for its hate speak and vicious protests. The film is being adapted from an article written by Adrian Chen for Condé Nast's The New Yorker and from Phelps-Roper's soon-to-be-published memoir. The story follows Phelps-Roper’s upbringing around Topeka, Ks, where the…...

We're less than a week from Hollywood's High Holy Night. Are you excited yet?

For today's trivia party we'll look at the only people to win exactly six Oscars. Four men. It's always men (sigh). Only 11 people have won more Oscars than these four men. I did not include confusing cases like Visual FX guru Dennis Murren -- IMDb argues exactly 6 but that depends on how you count them since his prizes are many and a confusing jumble of technical achievements, special Oscars, and regular competitive statues. (Unfortunately I couldn't find photographs of the set decorators) 

Gordon HollingsheadGORDON Hollingshead (1892-1952)

This producer won more Oscars in the short film categories than anyone other than the legendary Walt Disney and Frederick Quimby (of Tom & Jerry fame) but he won them for live action films. His first Oscar, though, was in the inaguaral year (1933) of a category called "Best Assistant Director" which...

A few years ago the editors of Shadowlocked asked me to compile a list of what was initially to be, the ten greatest movie matte paintings of all time. A mere ten selections was too slim by a long shot, so my list stretched considerably to twenty, then thirty and finally a nice round fifty entries. Even with that number I found it wasn’t easy to narrow down a suitably wide ranging showcase of motion picture matte art that best represented the artform. So with that in mind, and due to the surprising popularity of that 2012 Shadowlocked list (which is well worth a visit, here Ed), I’ve assembled a further fifty wonderful examples of this vast, vital and more extensively utilised than you’d imagine – though now sadly ‘dead and buried’ – movie magic.

It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...

Los Angeles, Calif. (October 2, 2015) – In 1915 William Fox founded Fox Film Corporation and forever changed the course of cinema. Over the next century the studio would develop some of the most innovative and ground-breaking advancements in the history of cinema; the introduction of Movietone, the implementation of color in partnership with Eastman Kodak, the development of the wide format in 70mm and many more. Now in honor of the 100th anniversary of the studio, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will celebrate by releasing some of their most iconic films that represent a decade of innovation.

Starting today, five classic films from the studio will be made available digitally for the first time ever – Sunrise (1927), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Man Hunt (1941), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). Throughout the rest of the year a total of 100 digital releases will follow from Fox’s extensive catalog, including 10 films...

I’m from New York.

I’m a New Yorker who has lived the last 20 years in Los Angeles or La, as it’s commonly called. La is where my life is now; driven here quite literally by an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Despite the often-racist policies of City Hall and its Choke-An-Unarmed-Black-Man-to-Death police force, NYC will always be my home. Every New Yorker will tell you that the city becomes part of you. There’s something about growing up in New York that taints your view of any other city. When New Yorkers leave New York, they may move, but they don’t relocate.

My body may live in La, but my heart and soul still reside in New York.

When the towers fell, I spent the entire day on the phone with Denys Cowan. We were both in La less than 10 minutes from each other, yet we...

It wrecks lives – but it has also inspired art from the poetry of Baudelaire to the music of Lou Reed. In Paris and Berlin, Andrew Hussey traces the path of heroin through modern culture

One of the easiest places to find heroin in Paris is in the streets in and around the Gare du Nord, a stone's throw away from the Eurostar terminal. I know about this place partly because I live in Paris and I am a frequent Eurostar traveller, and partly because this is where Google sent me when I typed in the request "Where to find heroin in Paris". Apparently the most popular spot for dealing is the rue Ambroise-Paré which contains a series of entrances to underground car parks where users can shoot up in relative privacy. The place permanently stinks of piss and is under constant police surveillance, as dealers and clients scurry back and forth between their hiding places.

Joan Fontaine, who won the Best Actress Oscar for Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 classic Suspicion, has died in her California home at age 96. Fontaine began her film career playing attractive but nondescript characters until Hitchcock cast her as the female lead in his 1940 film version of the bestseller Rebecca opposite Laurence Olivier. The film earned her an Oscar nomination and elevated her to one of Hollywood's most in-demand actresses. In 1943 she received a third and final Oscar nomination for The Constant Nymph. Fontaine also won rave notices in the film version of the Gothic novel Jane Eyre, starring opposite Orson Welles. In both films she played an innocent woman whose husband is harboring a shocking secret that is unveiled within the walls of a stately but foreboding country manor. Fontaine's other major films include Ivanhoe, The Emperor Waltz, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, This Above All, The Women, Gunga Din,...

Joan Fontaine movies: ‘This Above All,’ ‘Letter from an Unknown Woman’ (photo: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine in ‘Suspicion’ publicity image) (See previous post: “Joan Fontaine Today.”) Also tonight on Turner Classic Movies, Joan Fontaine can be seen in today’s lone TCM premiere, the flag-waving 20th Century Fox release The Above All (1942), with Fontaine as an aristocratic (but socially conscious) English Rose named Prudence Cathaway (Fontaine was born to British parents in Japan) and Fox’s top male star, Tyrone Power, as her Awol romantic interest. This Above All was directed by Anatole Litvak, who would guide Olivia de Havilland in the major box-office hit The Snake Pit (1948), which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nod. In Max Ophüls’ darkly romantic Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Fontaine delivers not only what is probably the greatest performance of her career, but also one of the greatest movie performances ever. Letter from an Unknown Woman...

Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM) ultimate movie star showcase – Summer Under the Stars – returns this August for its 11th year as TCM pays tribute to 31 different stars in 31 days.

Sixteen of this year’s stars are being celebrated for the first time duringSummer Under the Stars, including Oscar® winners Joan Fontaine (Aug. 6), Mickey Rooney (Aug. 13), Wallace Beery (Aug. 17), Hattie McDaniel (Aug. 20), Downton Abbey star Maggie Smith (Aug. 22), Charles Coburn (Aug. 24), Martin Balsam(Aug. 27), Shirley Jones (Aug. 28) and Rex Harrison (Aug. 31). Also featured for the first time will be silent heartthrob Ramón Novarro (Aug. 8); legendary French actressCatherine Deneuve (Aug. 12), whose day features six films making their TCM debuts; Ann Blyth (Aug. 16), whose marathon will air on her 85th birthday; and Mary Boland (Aug. 4) and Glenda Farrell (Aug. 29), two outstanding character actresses who never received the recognition they deserved. They will join 15 returning favorites, including Humphrey Bogart (Aug. 1), Doris Day (Aug. 2), Charlton Heston (Aug.

Last week, our agent Rob Hunter picked up some carefully scouted insider intel saying that season one of FX’s animated spy drama Archer was full of “smart satire in between the naked ladies and rapid fire verbal slams.” It’s crass, sexual deviance struck a chord with our most experienced DVD reviewer. This above all things should not surprise you. It should also make you want to participate in the following mission. One that could yield a free copy of Archer for your own personal collection. Your Mission: Head over to our Facebook Page and hit the “like” button, even if it’s a blatant lie (sometimes a good agent must go undercover). Then find the thread on our Wall that asks you for your secret code name. That’s where you enter your secret code name. Because if agent Sterling Archer has one (it’s Duchess), you will need one, too...

Tyrone Power, who died 50 years ago at 44, has more of his movies available on DVD than practically any of his peers from Hollywood's Golden Age.

Partly, it's because he worked almost exclusively from 1937 to 1952 for 20th Century Fox, which has already released his classics, including "The Mark of Zorro," "Jesse James," "The Black Swan" and "In Old Chicago."

It's also because Power is more respected today - because of more ambitious roles in darker films like "Nightmare Alley" and "The Razor's Edge" -...