News

David Korda, the British film producer and financier who hailed from a family of notable filmmakers including his father Zoltàn Korda, has died. He was 87.

Korda’s death was disclosed Nov. 16 by film historian Charles Drazin via social media. Korda died Sept. 18 at Cromwell Hospital in London following a battle with cancer, according to Drazin who wrote a 2011 biography of Korda’s uncle, producer-director Alexander Korda. News of David Korda’s death was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter.

Korda’s father was the director of films such as 1939’s “The Four Feathers” and 1951’s “Cry, the Beloved Country.” His mother was actress Joan Gardner, known for roles in such films as 1934’s “The Scarlett Pimpernel” and 1937’s “Dark Journey.” His uncle Alexander Korda founded London Films, owner of British Lion Films, which produced the 1933 feature “The Private Life of Henry VIII” and 1949’s “The Third Man.” His uncle Vincent Korda...

Over the years, Daniel Day-Lewis has widely become regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation. With a storied career defined by meticulous method acting and transformative performances, he has cemented his spot in the industry. In fact, the 67-year-old is most known for his commitment to authenticity in films like There Will Be Blood, Lincoln, and Gangs of New York. With the actor being so iconic, it might be hard to imagine him ever being forced into a role that today would be deemed highly controversial.

Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln | Credits: 20th Century Fox

However, in the beginning stages of his career, Day-Lewis was thrust into a situation that forced him to wear blackface. Although it may be controversial now, the situation made the actor determined to retaliate in a way only he could—a genius, yet diabolical plan.

Daniel Day-Lewis’s childhood revenge

Ever since Daniel Day-Lewis was 12 years old,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSNo Other Land.Politically engaged documentaries—including some of the most lauded films of the festival season, like No Other Land (2024)—are struggling to find buyers, with many filmmakers resorting to self-distribution or service deals (in which a distributor is paid to release the film while filmmakers retain the rights).After the ignominious resignation of Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, many in the nation’s film industry are calling upon his replacement, Alessandro Giuli, to abandon plans for new legislation that would curtail government subsidies for film production.With drastically expanded tax incentives and brand-new soundstages, New Jersey hopes to again become a major hub for motion pictures. First Lady Tammy Snyder Murphy emphasizes the importance of every community,...

“Remember who you are. Remember.” This is one of the most iconic lines coming from one of the most iconic voices in pop culture. For nearly 70 years, James Earl Jones made a mark on the screen, stage, and television. Many know him as the iconic voice behind Darth Vader of the Star Wars saga and Mufasa of The Lion King franchise.

But there is a lot more storied history from the world-famous gravel voice that brought the entire galaxy to its knees and that led a boy to be king.

Humble Beginnings

Born on the 17th of January 1931 in Mississippi, James Earl Jones found his passion in poetry and acting to overcome his stutter, making him embrace his deep voice. It is truly amazing how overcoming a disability led him to be one of the most recognizable voices in film.

He then ventured into theater, eventually debuting in 1957 on Broadway...

The great James Earl Jones has left an amazing legacy behind in movies but some may be overlooking his fun TV work!

With that epic, deep voice, James Earl Jones was one of the most recognizable and amazing actors of any generation. He’ll always be known for voicing Darth Vader in Star Wars and Mufasa in The Lion King, as well as far too many movies to count. He’s an Egot winner (a lifetime achievement Oscar) as well as other awards and his passing has led to a good look at his career. It's why his passing at the age of 93 feels like a tremendous loss as generations grew up knowing Jones and his film work.

Yet it can be overlooked how Jones had a surprising number of TV appearances. Most were in guest star turns for one episode like Everwood, but others could be more notable. To mark his passing,...

Hollywood is in mourning today as the iconic actor, James Earl Jones has passed away at the age of 93.

The actor with the most recognisable baritone rumbling voice had a career that spanned over 60 years. Making his debut on Broadway in 1958 at the Cort Theatre — renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre in 2022, Jones went on to become best known for his role as Darth Vader in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. He also reprised his voice role of King Mufasa in Disney’s animated feature ‘The Lion King.’ Most recently, he revisited his role 2021’s ‘Coming 2 America.’ Reprising his role as King Jaffe Joffer from the 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy ‘Coming to America.’

Also in news – Pinch of salt time – ‘The Goonies’ sequel finally greenlit?

Throughout his long list of 80 film credits, Jones’ notable movies include as a B-52 bombardier in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Cold War satire ‘Dr. Strangelove’ in which...

The resonant baritone of James Earl Jones – the Emmy Award-, Grammy Award-, and Tony Award-winning actor who also received an honorary Oscar, making him a non-competitive Egot designee – has gone silent. At age 93, the actor, best known for voicing the evil Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy and later the regal Mufasa in “The Lion King,” began his career on stage, in productions of “Othello” and the boxing biography “The Great White Hope.” The latter won him his first of three Tonys, as well as an Academy Award nomination for the film version in 1970.

His other notable work over the years included “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Hunt for Red October” (and its sequels), “Conan the Barbarian,” John Sayles’s labor struggle drama “Matewan,” the Broadway production of August Wilson’s “Fences,” the uneasy racial comedy “Soul Man,” and the South Africa-set “Cry, the Beloved Country.” He was also a...

James Earl Jones, the prolific film, TV and theater actor whose resonant, unmistakable baritone was most widely known as the voice of “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader, died Monday morning at his home in Dutchess County, N.Y., his rep confirmed to Variety. He was 93.

After overcoming a profound stutter as a child, Jones established himself as one of the pioneering Black actors of his generation, amassing a bountiful and versatile career spanning over 60 years, from his debut on Broadway in 1958 at the Cort Theatre — renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre in 2022 — to his most recent performance in 2021’s “Coming 2 America.” For that film, Jones reprised his role as King Jaffe Joffer from the 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy “Coming to America” — one of several roles, along with Darth Vader, that Jones revisited, including the voice of King Mufasa in Disney’s animated feature “The Lion King” in 1994, the 1998 direct-to-video sequel and the 2019 remake,...

James Earl Jones, the Egot-winning actor known for voicing Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise for four decades, has died at age 93.

Jones passed away at his home in Dutchess County, New York, on Monday, September 9th, according to the actor’s representatives.

The son of actor and boxer Robert Earl Jones, James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi on January 17th, 1931. His father left the family shortly after his birth, and Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents in Michigan from the age of five. Jones found the transition to living with his grandparents so traumatic that he developed a stutter and spent his time in school mute. He credited his high school English teacher, Donald Crouch, for helping him with his stutter; Crouch discovered Jones had a talent for poetry, and encouraged him to read his work aloud in class.

After graduating high school in 1949, Jones attended the University of Michigan,...

The 45th Durban Intl. Film Festival kicked off Thursday, as the world celebrated the birthday of freedom fighter and South Africa’s first Black president Nelson Mandela, with a rousing defense of hard-won personal liberties and an insistence that the art of cinema remains “as vital as ever.”

“As we celebrate 30 years of democracy and with this 45th edition of Durban Intl. Film Festival opening on Nelson Mandela Day, we also consider the role of cinema and filmmakers in reflecting society and in creating visions of a better world,” festival manager Andrea Voges said at Thursday night’s opening ceremony.

“We should never take our freedom and our right to freedom of artistic expression for granted. Many filmmakers and artists around the world create under extraordinary pressure and in great danger,” she continued. “We see the art form of cinema to be as vital as ever in challenging, confronting, enlightening and entertaining the audience.

Stars: Canada Lee, Charles Carson, Sidney Poitier, Joyce Carey, Geoffrey Keen, Vivien Clinton, Michael Goodliffe, Albertina Temba, Edric Connor, Lionel Ngakane, Charles McRae | Written by John Howard Lawson | Directed by Zoltan Korda

Released in celebration of Black History Month, Studio Canal reveal this 4k Restoration of the seminal British classic from 1951, Cry, The Beloved Country. Not only do you get the 4k restoration of the movie from director Zoltan Korda, but there’s also new extras, and archive footage including a documentary on cinema under apartheid and a 16-page booklet.

So, why is the movie so important? Now over 70 years old, it features a moving, and emotional story, played out by some fabulous actors and, it feels very much ahead of its time covering the racial injustices of the period.

Cry, The Beloved Country was shot on location in South Africa (with interior shots in the U.K.), which was...

Exclusive: South Africa’s Videovision Entertainment is heading to next week’s Mip Africa event with a new TV sales division.

The unit will bring a significant number of titles from South Africa, comprising over 100 feature films and more than 10,000 hours of television programs. Videovision is one the country’s oldest and most successful production houses.

Videovision’s CEO Anant Singh has secured a deal to represent e.tv’s daily soap House of Zwide, which the company produces. Other Videovision titles produced over the past four decades will also be included on the slate, with notable features include Sarafina!, starring Leleti Khumalo, Whoopi Goldberg and Miriam Makeba; Cry, the Beloved Country starring James Earl Jones, Richard Harris and Vusi Kunene; Red Dust starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor and directed by Tom Hooper; and Yesterday, which received South Africa’s first Academy Award nomination.

See a trailer for the slate here.

Sidney Poitier walked among kings and earned Hollywood’s highest honors, but that didn’t stop the Federal Bureau of Investigation from keeping tabs on the actor and philanthropist via informants and surveillance tactics during the civil rights era, according to documents newly obtained by Rolling Stone. Poitier, who passed away at age 94 on January 6, 2022, had a career that lasted 75 years and was surveilled by the agency at the height of his fame.

Poitier’s FBI file – requested via the Freedom of Information Act – is 13 pages long, covering 1959 to 1963, with...

Sidney Poitier, the noble leading man whose work in such films as No Way Out, Lilies of the Field and In the Heat of the Night paved the way for minority actors and actresses everywhere, has died. He was 94.

Poitier died Thursday night at his home in Beverly Hills, a rep for his family told The Hollywood Reporter.

Poitier was the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor when he was acknowledged for his portrayal of a good-hearted handyman for Arizona nuns in Lilies of the Field (1963).

He received an earlier best actor nomination for his turn as a convict on the run in The Defiant Ones (1958).

In 2002, he received an honorary Oscar from the Academy “for his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the motion picture industry with dignity, style and intelligence throughout the world.”

Poitier was the first actor...

Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival

The devastation of AIDS on South Africa could not be captured more intimately and with more effect than Darrell James Roodt's new drama Yesterday.

The socially conscious director of such South African movies as Cry, The Beloved country and Dangerous Ground has now turned his attention to the HIV crisis in his motherland, and has conceived a moving, inspirational tale designed to spread the word.

Without a doubt, it's a message movie presented amidst majestic breath-taking landscape. But because he keeps the narrative low-key @ as well as investing the emotions in a very likeable lead character @ Yesterday maintains a political punch and reins in the tear-jerking schmaltz. It doesn't hurt that this is a wondrous picture visually making great use of the incredible expansive landscape to distil the personal intimate struggle of people facing obstacles beyond their control.

The film begins as a mother and her young daughter are walking across the harsh, dusty terrains of Zululand to try and see the doctor in a neighboring remote town. The trek takes hours and when they arrive, they are too late, the line is too long and the mother is told to come back when the doctor returns next week.

So, mother and daughter head home to their meager but placid village full of contented people and friendly neighbors. The selfless and dedicated woman assumes her bad cough will sooner or later go away. It doesn't. When she finally gets to see a physician she learns the dreaded virus has infected her body. Her husband, the obvious transmitter has been away from home fro months and is working in an underground mine in Johannesburg.

With little money, a shortage of health facilities and even less hope for optimism, the woman named Yesterday, because her father thought "things were better then," wills herself to stay strong so her last wish @ to survive long enough to see her daughter go to her first day of school @ is fulfilled. Meanwhile, the film tone grows darker as the ignorance and prejudices of villagers turn. Sociable neighbors now give them a cold shoulder.

The character of Yesterday is perhaps a little too saintly @ she is portrayed to be so pure of heart, she feels no malice even to the husband who gave her the disease and physically assaulted her when she informed him of the truth @ on the other hand this is the kind of proud black strong woman character that Oprah would approve and endorse if given a chance. "I am not brave, it is just the way things are," Yesterday explains in the film.

Starring in the lead is Leleti Khumalo, whose handsome face conveys a depth of dignity and soul, making her more than a do-good two-dimensional victim. She previously starred in the musical "Sarafina!". Acting with restraint, she makes the most touching scenes even more hearttugging.

In short, this is a simple elegant film. Yesterday is also the fist film to be presented completely in the Zulu language. Tragic and uplifting, Roodt leaves little doubt of where his allegiance lies. But for a cause this good, it's easy to forgive the film's dramatic faults.

YESTERDAY

HBO Films presents

In association with Distant Horizon and The Nelson Mandela Foundation

Credits:

Writer/Director: Darrell James Roodt

Producers: Anant Singh, Helena Spring

Director of photography: Michael Brierley

Production designer: Tiaan van Tonder

Costume designer: Darion Hing

Make-up and hair: Raine Edwards

Sound Designer: Jeremy Saacks

Cast:

Yesterday: Leleti Khumalo

Beauty: Lihle Mvelase

John Khumalo: Kenneth Kambule

Teacher: Harriet Lehabe

Clinic Doctor: Camilla Walker

Village Healer: Nandi Nyembe

In Zulu with English subtitles

No MPAA rating

Running time --- 93 minutes...