News

In the 1980s, Vision Quest star Matthew Modine was the apple of the studio system’s eye. Coming off a half-dozen roles in a two-year span, Modine was having a pancake breakfast with David Alan Grier, one of his co-stars from Robert Altman’s Streamers (1983), when a fellow patron at West Hollywood’s The Source Restaurant greeted him from afar with an f-bomb and a glower.

“David looked over his shoulder and said, ‘Oh, that’s Val Kilmer. He’s a really nice guy.’ He got up and started talking to Val, and then I said to him, ‘My name’s Matthew.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I know who you are,’” Modine tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Vision Quest’s 40th anniversary. “I was on a run from Private School and Streamers to Vision Quest and Mrs. Soffel, and while Val could have easily been cast in those movies,...

Microphones used by reporters and analysts with streaming sports platform Dazn. (Courtesy photo)

Streaming television services are expected to fork over more than $12 billion for the rights to live sports programming this year, according to a new forecast released by Ampere Analysis.

The forecast claims global sports juggernaut Dazn will lead the pack with its pursuit of live telecast rights, with the company’s recent decision to acquire Australian pay TV business Foxtel solidifying its lead through at least 2025.

While Dazn may be best known for streaming fight-based athletic competitions in the United States, the platform is more well-known overseas, serving as the main distributor of National Football League (NFL) games in Europe as well as pro soccer tournaments from FIFA, UEFA, Copa América, Conmebol and similar franchises.

This year, Dazn will serve as the exclusive global broadcaster of the FIFA Club World Cup soccer tournament; in the U.S.

Val Kilmer always wanted to be an actor, so he took his craft incredibly seriously. One of his earliest notable theater appearances was playing Hotspur in a 1981 production of Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1." This led to his securing the role of Alan in a production of "The Slab Boys," wherein he acted opposite fellow future stars Kevin Bacon, Jackie Earle Haley, and Sean Penn. Kilmer was so devoted to "The Slab Boys" that he turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of "The Outsiders."

Some may see that as a foolish career decision, but Kilmer instead made his feature film debut in the 1984 Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker slapstick comedy "Top Secret!," one of the best comedies of all time. Kilmer has admitted, however, that he didn't have much fun making "Top Secret!" because he was still hung up on the fineries of his classical theater education. It seems that he...

The best David Alan Grier movies and TV shows mostly feature several comedies and comedic series. However, he does have a few random dramatic roles to his name to show his versatility. Grier graduated from college with a Bachelor's degree in radio, television, and film from the University of Michigan and then got his Masters from the Yale School of Drama. It was an impressive education that paid off when he ended up starring in Broadway musicals to start his career, including the hit Dreamgirls.

This caught the attention of film legend Robert Altman (M*A*S*H), who cast him in the movie Streamers. While he started on Broadway and debuted in an Altman movie, Grier's comedic timing finally helped him break out. After taking a role in the Keenen Ivory Wayans-directed movie I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, he moved on to the cast of In Living Color, which is when his career exploded.

The 12th edition of Final Cut in Venice, the industry program supporting films in post-production from Africa and Arab countries, came to a wrap with an awards ceremony that saw Egyptian filmmaker Morad Mostafa’s “Aisha Can’t Fly Away” take the La Biennale di Venezia Prize for a film in post-production, worth €5,000.

Morad’s feature debut, which has previously been through the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra Lab, tells the story of a Somali woman caring for her elderly parents in Cairo while witnessing the tensions between the different ethnic groups who make up the city’s society.

This year’s jury was composed of Wayne Borg of Neom, Monica Ciarli of Minerva Pictures, and former director of the European Film Market Dennis Ruh. In their statement, the jury labelled Mostafa’s story “powerful and authentic,” adding: “Despite being a first feature film, it showcased confident direction and a distinct cinematic voice.

Censoring Streamers

Malaysia’s Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has said that he plans to hold meetings with the Communications Ministry with a view to extending the remit of the country’s Film Censorship Board (Lpf) to video streamers. Currently, the Lpf has jurisdiction over theatrical releases, but not content carried on the internet.

Malaysia has been notable in demanding cuts – sometimes refused by rights holders – to imported and local films, especially where they touch on religion or homosexuality, even tangentially. Hollywood films “Thor” and “Lightyear” were both banned. Last year, local director Amanda Nell Eu denounced the censored cut of her prize-winning film “Tiger Stripes.”

Speaking in parliament, Saifuddin said “the Lpf will not approve the screening of any films that promote LGBTQ, communism, Islamophobia, and those conflicting Islamic beliefs.”

VFX Investment

Japanese broadcaster TBS Holdings has announced “a significant capital investment” in Megalis a Tokyo-based VFX production company...

Legendary theatrical director George C. Wolfe launched his screen career with adaptations of plays for PBS series like “Great Performances” and “American Playhouse,” and he brings that same politely reverential energy to August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” But even if this version never shakes off its stage roots, it does act as a stately jewel box that houses an extraordinary ensemble of performances.

Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman get the meatiest roles here — and make the most of absolutely every second they’re on camera — but this Netflix feature is just as much a showcase for the talents of the always-brilliant Colman Domingo and the legendary Glynn Turman. Wolfe not only guides his top-flight cast to greatness, but he also keeps the plays themes of art vs. commerce and representation vs. exploitation front and center.

It’s 1927 Chicago, and legendary blues singer Ma Rainey (Davis) and...

Film sales veteran Michael F. Goldman, who helped launch the American Film Market, died of complications from Parkinson’s Disease on June 9 in Los Angeles. He was 80.

Goldman built and owned the international film sales company Manson International, a business that had been started in 1953 by his father Edmund, after leaving Columbia Pictures in 1953. Goldman joined Manson in 1962 upon graduating from UCLA and took over its operations in 1975.

Goldman was a founding member of the the American Film Marketing Association (which became the Independent Film & Television Alliance), representing independent producers and distributors worldwide. He helped launch the American Film Market in 1981. He served as Afma’s first CFO at inception and was elected Chairman of the board in 1984-85 and 1991-93. He remained active in the organization throughout its first 25 years, serving on the board and elected to its executive committee as vice chairman-secretary in 1999-2001.

Jean Prewitt, current president and CEO of Ifta,...

The executive director of the Cannes Marché will talk about what to expect from the virtual market.

Cannes Marché du Film executive director Jérôme Paillard will be in conversation with Screen International editor Matt Mueller in a one-to-one edition of Screen Talks on Wednesday, May 20, at 15.00 BST.

Click here to register

Following the postponement (and eventual cancellation) of the Cannes Film Festival from its original May 12-23 dates, Paillard announced details in mid-April for an online version of Marché du Film to run this year from June 22-26.

Intended to emulate the Cannes market experience for industry professionals, the online...

The executive director of the Cannes Marché will talk about what to expect from the virtual market.

Cannes Marché du Film executive director Jérôme Paillard will be in conversation with Screen International editor Matt Mueller in a one-to-one edition of Screen Talks on Wednesday, May 20, at 15.00 BST.

Click here to register

Following the postponement (and eventual cancellation) of the Cannes Film Festival from its original May 12-23 dates, Paillard announced details in mid-April for an online version of Marché du Film to run this year from June 22-26.

Intended to emulate the Cannes market experience for industry professionals, the online...

Bernard Gersten, a pioneering force in New York City’s nonprofit theater movement, died today at his home in Manhattan of pancreatic cancer. He was 97.

His death was announced by daughter Jenny Gersten.

“Lincoln Center Theater mourns our cherished Bernard Gersten who died this morning peacefully in his sleep at the astounding age of 97,” the theater company said in a statement. “Bernie’s intelligence, innate sense of goodness, bravery, wisdom, generosity, elegance and wit, and most important, deep knowledge and love of the theater, made him a giant in our...

Amazon Studios has picked up worldwide rights to “Sylvie’s Love,” a period romance starring Tessa Thompson, according to an individual with knowledge of the deal.

The film, which Amazon acquired the worldwide rights to for a high seven-figure price tag, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Written and directed by Eugene Ashe, “Sylvie’s Love” is a lush love story set in the cool jazz era of New York City that spans several years in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Thompson gives a powerful performance in the film as Ashe, melds music into his romance for a rich period piece. “Sylvie’s Love” played in competition in the U.S. Dramatic section.

Also Read: Sundance 2020: Streamers Spent Big and Documentaries Are All the Rage

The film follows Sylvie (Thompson) who meets aspiring saxophonist Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha) when he takes a job at her father’s record store in Harlem. After...

It was the independent studio that once reigned supreme at Sundance, snapping up exciting new projects and filmmakers with the promise of showcasing their work on the big screen. But in the age of deep-pocketed streamers — Netflix committed $15 billion for original content in 2019, Amazon devoted $7.5 billion, Apple appointed $6 billion and Hulu spent $2.5 billion — indie filmmakers are finding new demand for their work on the small screen. Here's who'll be repping the streamers on the ground in Park City.

When Robert Guédiguian returned to this year’s Venice Film Festival to premiere his latest film, “Gloria Mundi,” he brought nearly the exact same cast that joined him at the 2017 Venice festival for his previous outing, “The House by the Sea.” That is because the French director has built a tightknit troupe over the years, working with the same actors time and time again. Variety sat down with the filmmaker in Venice to ask about his stable of collaborators and his thoughts on recent industry trends.

For your past several films you’ve worked almost exclusively with the same cast of actors. That’s a somewhat uncommon model in modern filmmaking, so what do you think it brings to your work?

It’s like working in a theater troupe, and I’m the leader, the spokesperson for group. I have known these actors for a long time, so they tell me stories,...

In Toby MacDonald’s debut feature Old Boys, Alex Lawther stars as an awkward pupil at an all-boys boarding school who helps the handsome but dim school-hero pursue the teenage daughter of their French teacher in this charming new re-imagining of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac.

Earlier this week, HeyUGuys were lucky enough to speak to both Lawther and MacDonald during what seemed like a gruelling day of interviews and Q&As about their experiences of working on such an unusual project, and the challenges they met along the way.

For those still unfamiliar with Lawther’s name or body of work, it’s safe to say that if you’ve watched any TV or have been to the cinema regularly in the last couple of years, there is a strong chance that you might have come across the shy and softly spoken actor one way or another. At...

Actor and comedian David Alan Grier will host the 23rd Annual Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Awards on Saturday, Feb. 2 at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown.

The announcement was made today by Adg Awards producer Scott Moses, Adg. Grier is a three-time Tony and Grammy nominee, and was included on Comedy Central’s list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.

Grier currently stars in the new Fox comedy series The Cool Kids. His other TV credits include The Carmichael Show and the Emmy-winning In Living Color. He starred in Dag and Life with Bonnie, which earned him Image Award and Golden Satellite Award nominations. In 2015, Grier combined live theater and television when he played the Cowardly Lion in Broadway’s award-winning musical The Wiz Live! on NBC.

In film, Grier will next be seen in the indie drama Sprinter, produced by Will Smith. He...

With its 66th edition running Sept. 21-29, San Sebastian is the highest-profile festival in the Spanish-speaking world. Here are 10 things to watch for at this year’s installment.

Pursuing Parity

Could the tide be turning? Following Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo and Venice, of European events, San Sebastian will sign a gender-parity charter at this year’s event. More eye-catching, San Sebastian joins a growing bevy of events — Venice Days and Mexico’s Morelia, for example — in having at least one major section with more titles directed by women than men. In San Sebastian’s case, it is the 2018 Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum. That makes sense: Screening finished films, festivals depend on women’s movies getting made, and highlighting projects can further that goal. “We support ways for more women’s films to get made,” says San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos.

Stars

Danny DeVito, Judi Dench and Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose “Shoplifters...

It's one thing to set a TV series in the 1980s; it's a whole other thing, however, to make it feel like it was actually shot during the Reagan-and-Rubik's-Cube era. Matt and Ross Duffer's new Netflix series Stranger Things is full of nostalgic nods to the decade and its pop-cultural products, but it's also uncommonly rigorous about getting the details just right — whether it's the many pitch-perfect music cues, the hat-tipping nods and homages to Eighties movies, or simply nailing the cringeworthy fashion statements of the day (those Mom jeans!

Long unavailable for home viewing, Robert Altman’s 1982 title Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean has languished as a remote, minor title of the auteur’s filmography, trotted out to devotees at retrospectives. Based on the play by Ed Graczyk and featuring a bevy of eclectic actresses, it’s often and unfairly lumped into consideration with Altman’s other adaptations of stage material from the time period, including David Rabe’s Streamers (1983), Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love (1985) and Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy (1987). Often described as typically Altmanesque with its examination of Americana, a dialogue heavy showcase of melodrama squeezed from the banalities of everyday existence, at last it’s available for a wider appreciation, ripe for a recuperation as more than a mere trifle lost in a flood of greater titles from an American auteur.

It’s 1975 and a group of extreme James Dean fans,...

What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream.

streaming now, before it’s in theaters

The Art of the Steal: one of the most fun heist movies ever, bursting with snappy humor and a twisty cleverness that knows that you know that you are getting conned as much as the mark onscreen [my review] [at Amazon Instant Video]

streaming now, while it’s still in theaters

Odd Thomas: it feels smaller and more rushed — and less plausible — than it should, but Anton Yelchin is charming, and the snappy comic tone sometimes works [my review] [at Amazon Instant Video]

streaming now, before it’s on dvd

American Hustle: epic ensemble historical crime dramedy bursts with insanely engaging characters who are impossibly real and impossibly ridiculous whose stories you don’t ever want to end [my review] [at Amazon Instant Video] Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues: far from perfect, but its humor is nearly Monty Python-esque, much more...

Director Robert Altman.

Robert Altman: Eclectic Maverick

By

Alex Simon

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of Venice Magazine.

It's the Fall of 1977 and I'm a bored and rebellious ten year old in search of a new movie to occupy my underworked and creativity-starved brain, feeling far too mature for previous favorites Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and wanting something more up-to-date and edgy than Chaplin's City Lights (1931). I needed a movie to call my favorite that would be symbolic of my own new-found manhood (and something that would really piss off my parents and teachers). Mom and Dad were going out for the evening, leaving me with whatever unfortunate baby-sitter happened to need the $10 badly enough to play mother hen to an obnoxiously precocious only child like myself. I scanned the TV Guide for what...

Today we are talking to an actor who has appeared in over fifty feature films and starred in plays on Broadway and in the West End all about his career thus far, looking ahead to his new role as John Sculley in the forthcoming jOBS, co-starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak, directed by Joshua Michael Stewart - the one and only Matthew Modine. In this all-encompassing chat tracing the past to the present, Modine also manages to give us the scoop on his featured role in the final part of Christopher Nolans Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, and shares his candid impressions of working with Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the rest of the starry cast of the sure-to-be blockbuster of the summer. Additionally, Modine illustrates his experiences working with director Robert Altman on screen and stage projects as diverse as Short Cuts and Streamers on film,...

The theater world was fixated this week on Tuesday’s announcement of the Tony nominations, which should prove a box office boon for much-nominated shows like Once, Newsies, and Peter and the Starcatcher. Of course, the noms also prompted the same-day closing notice of two shows completely overlooked for awards consideration: Magic/Bird and the Teresa Rebeck comedy Seminar. (And vultures are circling other shows, like the new musical Leap of Faith, that received only a smattering of Tony love.)

Looking ahead to next season (and who isn’t?), producers announced a Nov. 18 premiere of Rebecca, a new musical based...

Getty Images Playwright David Rabe on February 27, 2012 in New York City.

David Rabe is rewriting during rehearsals for his new play, “An Early History of Fire,” which opens off-Broadway on April 30.

This is the first time he has done that in his 40-year career, he said, adding that “the whole soul of the play started to transform during rehearsals.”

Rabe, who won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1972 for “Sticks and Bones,” discussed his work as actors read bits...

Jill Clayburgh, the Oscar-nominated actress whose portrayal of suddenly single women in the 1970s helped define feminism in movies and reshape the role of leading lady, died today at her home in Lakeville, Connecticut; she was 66.

A stage actress who started appearing onscreen in the 70s, she suddenly became the "It Girl" -- or rather, "It Woman" -- with her acclaimed performance as an upper-class Manhattan wife suddenly left by her husband in the comedy-drama An Unmarried Woman. For a brief time one of Hollywood's most recognizable actresses in both comedy and drama, her career took a rapid decline in the 80s before she resuscitated her career with a number of television and film roles. Still, despite her career ups and downs, she remained one of the most important actresses of the 70s, alongside Jane Fonda, Glenda Jackson, Diane Keaton, and the young Meryl Streep (with whom she was friends) -- women whose films were marked by their portrayals of strong, independent women who didn't need a man to complete their lives and were prepared to take a stand by doing so.

Born in New York City to a manufacturing executive father and a mother who was the production secretary for theatrical producer David Merrick, Clayburgh had a privileged Upper East Side upbringing, attending the noted Brearley Academy and then Sarah Lawrence College. After joining the Charles Street Repertory Theater in Boston, she worked primarily onstage, moving to Broadway for such shows as Pippin and The Rothschilds.

After sporadic film and TV appearances (including a stint on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow), Clayburgh nabbed her first big role in 1972's Portnoy's Complaint. Roles in TV shows such as Medical Center, Maude, and The Rockford Files followed (she received an Emmy nomination for the 1975 TV movie Hustling), before she essayed the role of Carole Lombard opposite James Brolin's Clark Gable in the critically lambasted Gable and Lombard (1976). The lavish biopic was soundly drubbed and might have marked the end of her career had it not been for a number of acclaimed performances and box office hits in rapid succession. Clayburgh earned acclaimed opposite Peter Falk in the TV cancer drama Griffin and Phoenix: A Love Story (1976) and that same year co-starred opposite Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in the blockbuster hit comedy Silver Streak. She held her own against two other high-profile, wildly popular leading men--Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson--in the football comedy Semi-Tough (1977) before landing the role that would make her a superstar of the decade: Erica in Paul Mazursky's An Unmarried Woman.

The story of a well-to-do wife and mother who is left by her husband for a younger woman, and attempts to reclaim her identity as a single woman in a world marked by the rise of feminism, the film was a lightning rod for many of the issues of the late 70s, from divorce to sexual liberation. With its message that it was okay not to be married, the film was a box office and critical hit, winning Clayburgh the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. An Unmarried Woman would receive three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Actress, but lost both awards to Vietnam-themed dramas The Deer Hunter and Coming Home (Jane Fonda was the Best Actress winner).

Anointed as the screen's quintessential liberated woman, Clayburgh followed that film in 1979 with two wildly disparate roles, as an opera singer who seduces her 15 year old son in Bernardo Bertolucci's Luna, and as a slightly ditzy kindergarten teacher who falls in love with a recently divorced Burt Reynolds in the comedy Starting Over. The former film was reviled by critics, while the latter earner her a second Academy Award nomination (surprisingly, she received Golden Globe nominations for both films).

The early 80s saw Clayburgh play two more independent women in the comedies It's My Turn and First Monday in October, as well as a Valium addict in the adaptation of the bestselling memoir I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can. But as the 80s came under the influence of the Reagan administration and lost interest in the burgeoning feminist movement, roles for Clayburgh became less easy to attain, and a string of film flops followed throughout the decade. Roles in low-budget movies and telefilms followed, though it was through a number of television appearances in the late 90s and early 2000s that Clayburgh revitalized her career on the small screen: there were acclaimed but failed sitcoms Everything's Relative and Leap of Faith, and a well-received turn as the mother of Calista Flockhart's titular character in the hit show Ally McBeal.

After appearances on The Practice and Nip/Tuck (the latter earning her a second Emmy nomination), she co-starred in the TV series Dirty Sexy Money opposite Donald Sutherland as the matriarch of a wealthy New York family. In the mid-2000s Clayburgh also starred on Broadway in Richard Greenberg's A Naked Girl on the Appian Way and in the 2006 revival of Barefoot in the Park. Her most recent roles include the upcoming comedy-drama Love and Other Drugs, as well as next year's Bridesmaids.

Clayburgh married acclaimed playwright David Rabe (Hurlyburly, Streamers) in 1979; she is survived by Rabe and their daughter, actress Lily Rabe, who will be appearing opposite Al Pacino, with whom Clayburgh was involved in the early 70s, in the new Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice, which has currently been delayed.

Beloved Broadway, film and television star Paul Ryan Rudd has lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 70. The entertainer died at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut on Thursday, August 12.

His Broadway credits include "The National Health" in 1974, a 1975 revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!", and a revival of "The Glass Menagerie" that same year. He also starred in the original production of John Guare's comedy "Bosoms and Neglect" in 1979, was part of the original Broadway cast of David Rabe's "Streamers" in 1976, and starred as Romeo in a 1977 production of "Romeo and Juliet". Alongside Meryl Streep and Philip Bosco, Rudd played the title role in a 1976 production of "Henry V" for the New York Shakespeare Festival.

On U.S. television, he starred in "Beacon Hill", and in 1977 TV movie "Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye". He also appeared in "The Betsy", the 1978 film based on the Harold Robbins novel,...

Beloved Broadway, film and television star Paul Ryan Rudd has lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 70.

The entertainer died at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut on Thursday.

His Broadway credits include The National Health in 1974, a 1975 revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness!, and a revival of The Glass Menagerie that same year.

He also starred in the original production of John Guare’s comedy Bosoms and Neglect in 1979, was part of the original Broadway cast of David Rabe’s Streamers in 1976, and starred as Romeo in a 1977 production of Romeo and Juliet.

Alongside Meryl Streep and Philip Bosco, Rudd played the title role in a 1976 production of Henry V for the New York Shakespeare Festival.

On U.S. television, he starred in Beacon Hill, and in 1977 TV movie Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye. He also appeared in The Betsy, the 1978 film based on the Harold Robbins novel, and continued his TV career throughout the 1980s with guest roles on TV series Hart to Hart, Moonlighting and others before leaving acting to raise his children.

Rudd is survived by his second wife, Martha Bannerman, their three children, Graeme, Kathryn and Eliza and his mother, Kathryn Rudd.

The weather's crap, but there's a frickin' gay pride parade on DVD this week, with three high-profile queer-inclusive titles making their home video premiere.

Read on for more!

The documentary The Butch Factor explores masculinity among gay men, by interviewing rodeo riders, pro football veteran David Kopay and cops, asking questions about what it means to be a gay man, societal phobias about effeminacy and the stereotypes that continue to exist decades after the Stonewall riots. Gay men of all stripes should find plenty of fodder for discussion here.

Speaking of gay men in uniform, Robert Altman's Streamers—about Vietnam-bound soldiers, one of whom (Mitchell Lichtenstein) does everything but wear a big scarlet "H" on his chest—finally makes its DVD debut this week. It's one of Altman's filmed plays (coming after the gay-fave Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and before the Nixon...

It’s almost impossible to watch this 1983 Robert Altman film today -- Streamers is finally getting its first Region 1 DVD release (it has been available in Region 2) -- with the mindset of the time in which it was created. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing... and in fact, that mental schism ends up highlighting just how much some things have changed in so relatively short a time. And how much some things haven’t changed.

Matthew Modine: Better Angels

By

Alex Simon

Matthew Modine has been something of an iconoclast most of his working life. After being groomed for ‘80s teen idol status in early films such as Private School and Vision Quest, Modine was also one of the first actors of his generation, along with Sean Penn, to take on riskier projects, such as Robert Altman's Streamers, Alan Parker’s Birdy, Gillian Armstrong’s Mrs. Soffel, and Alan J. Pakula’s Orphans. It was his lead role as the cynical Marine Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam epic Full Metal Jacket that put Modine into the pantheon of young actors who were more than just pretty faces and knowing winks at the camera. This, after all, was the young man who turned down the lead in Top Gun, arguably the prototypical ‘80s blockbuster, due to its cold war politics. From the beginning,...

Robert Altman, the legendary director behind such modern classics as MASH, Nashville, The Player, and Gosford Park, died Monday night in Los Angeles; he was 81. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed, and a statement released Tuesday afternoon stated that Altman died from complications due to cancer; the news release also said that Altman had been in pre-production for a film he was slated to start shooting in February. When he was presented with an honorary Academy Award just last year, Altman revealed that he had been the recipient of a heart transplant within the past ten years, a fact he hadn't made public because he feared it would hinder his ability to get work. One of the most influential and well-respected directors of modern cinema, Altman's work was marked by a naturalistic approach that favored long, unbroken tracking shots and overlapping dialogue (as well as storylines), as well as improvisation, usually among a large ensemble cast. Though now regarded as one of the premier American filmmakers, Altman had a career that reached both popular and critical highs as well as lows, as he burst onto the scene in the early '70s with very acclaimed films, but had a string of commercial and critical failures as well. All told, he received five Oscar nominations for directing MASH, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts and most recently Gosford Park. Other numerous awards include two Cannes Film Festival wins (for The Player and MASH), a Golden Globe (for Gosford Park) and an Emmy (for the TV series Tanner 88). Born in Kansas City, Altman attended Catholic schools as well as a military academy before enlisting in the Air Force in 1945. After being discharged, Altman tried his hand at acting and writing in both Los Angeles and New York before returning home to Kansas City, where he started making industrial films for the Calvin Company. After numerous false starts, Altman finally made the full move to Hollywood, and in 1957 directed his first theatrical film, The Delinquents. Though it didn't start him on the road to fame, the film was good enough to secure Altman work in television, particularly for Alfred Hitchcock and his Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series. In 1969, Altman was offered the script for MASH, which had been rejected by numerous other filmmakers. The movie, a black comedy set during the Korean War (and a thinly veiled attack on the then-raging Vietnam War), was a rousing commercial and critical success, scoring Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Director and, most famously, inspiring the successful TV sitcom, which took on a very different tone. His films after MASH included the revisionist western McCabe and Mrs. Miller and the updated California noir The Long Goodbye, but it was 1975's Nashville, a multi-layered film centered around the country music capital and the wildly divergent Americans who converged there, that would be his next major success, also receiving Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Director. After Nashville, Altman more often than not found himself on the opposite end of the spectrum, with films such as the acclaimed but sometimes puzzling 3 Women as well as the commercial flop A Wedding and, most notoriously, the Robin Williams version of Popeye, which was technically a hit but seen as an artistic failure. Altman worked constantly through the '80s - his films included Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Streamers, Secret Honor, and Fool for Love - but it wasn't until the HBO series Tanner 88, about a fictional candidate's run for the presidency, that he found favor again. In the early '90s, the one-two punch of The Player (a biting Hollywood satire) and Short Cuts (based on the stories of Raymond Carver) put him back on the map, but he followed those with the less well-received Pret-a-Porter, The Gingerbread Man, and Cookie's Fortune. True to the ups-and-downs of his career, Altman was back on top with Gosford Park, a British-set ensemble film that combined comedy, drama and mystery, and marked his first Best Picture nominee since Nashville. His last films included a revisit to the world of Tanner 88 with Tanner on Tanner, and just this year, A Prairie Home Companion, based on the radio show by Garrison Keillor. Upon receiving his honorary Oscar last year, Altman appeared to be in fine health, but reportedly directed most of A Prairie Home Companion from a wheelchair, with the Altman-influenced director Paul Thomas Anderson on hand. Altman is survived by his third wife, Kathryn, their two sons, and a daughter and two other sons from two previous marriages. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...