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The popular crime drama "Prison Break" ran for four seasons on Fox, returning for a successful revival season in 2017 and finding renewed success on Netflix. The series followed two brothers locked up in a maximum security prison looking to escape together and prove their innocence. As the story progresses, a large government conspiracy is uncovered while the brothers are on the run from the authorities. Led by series stars Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller, "Prison Break" boasts an impressive and extensive ensemble cast.

With so much time having passed since "Prison Break" began in 2005, its cast have since gone off in different directions in their lives and careers. Several major cast members have found even greater professional success elsewhere, while others have stepped away from acting or moved smaller projects. If you've been wondering what the main cast of "Prison Break" has been up to since the hit Fox series came to an end,...

Writer-director Hong Sang-soo’s By the Stream opens on a pastoral autumn landscape of Seoul, with a stream running toward a bridge. Wide landscape shots are unusual for Hong, and this image introduces this stream as the first of several refrains that will run through the film as, well, currents. Amid a vast narrative, especially for Hong, one that’s rich in scandals and disappointments and broken promises, there’s the relief for the characters of the stream, the foliage, and the moon. As despairing as this film can be, it also has a glow that’s reminiscent of Hong’s In Front of Your Face, only more so. This is the glow of communal rapture, the reassuring bond of community that can also be a trap.

Sitting by the stream is Jeonim (Kim Min-hee), who’s writing in a notebook, seemingly lost in reverie. Hong and Kim express more...

We have exciting news for fans of Prison Break!

The actors who played the incarcerated brothers at the center of that beloved Fox drama are reuniting for what sounds like an equally tension-fueled series.

Variety is reporting today that the two stars -- who also appeared together in Arrow and DC's Legends of Tomorrow -- are set to costar in Snatchback, a hostage recovery drama currently in development at Universal Television.

It'll be a family affair for Purcell, who's producing the series alongside his wife, Tish Cyrus-Purcell.

The series is based on the real-life experiences of an intelligence officer and his work in international hostage recovery.

It'll be helmed by showrunner Scott Rosenbaum, who is best known for his executive producer work on shows like The Shield and Chuck.

Related: Hero or Smooth Criminal? These TV Characters Make It Hard to Tell

“Inspired by the life of a real covert...

The “Prison Break” brothers are getting back together.

Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller are set as the stars of “Snatchback,” a series in development at Universal Television. Scott Rosenberg serves as writer and executive producer, while Purcell also executive produces via HopeTown Entertainment.

The official logline for “Snatchback” reads, “Inspired by the life of a real covert intelligence officer who is still active in the field today, the series follows a highly skilled privately contracted team of operatives as they recover hostages across the globe from some of the most exotic, and equally dangerous locations on the planet.”

Purcell and Miller led Fox’s “Prison Break” as brothers Lincoln Burrows and Michael Scofield for four seasons from 2006 to 2009 followed by “The Final Break,” a TV movie that concluded the series before a revival was ordered; Season 5 aired on Fox in 2017. The pair also both appeared in the CW Arrowverse series...

Nicole Kidman has been an international treasure going on four decades. Whether you’re tracking her many wigs (“The Undoing” is our favorite), admiring her textured and committed performances, or just standing up and saluting before every AMC Theatres showing, you’re probably honoring her in some way.

While five best actress Oscar nominations and one win (for “The Hours”) have been adequate markers of her success and endurance, conversations have been brewing for years about a lack of recognition for her remarkable artistic consistency.

“How many times does Nicole Kidman have to prove herself?” asked author Anne Helen Peterson in a 2017 essay for BuzzFeed, one that examined how esteem is or isn’t doled out to women in Hollywood, using Kidman as a template.

“While male actors coast on the brilliance of a single performance for years, female stars have to reapply for greatness on a yearly basis, fighting...

With an eye to star, Ethan Hawke has boarded a series adaptation of Angie Kim’s New York Times bestseller Happiness Falls as an executive producer.

Scott Steindorff’s Stone Village Television landed rights following a competitive bidding situation, in a six-figure deal, with Hawke’s Under the Influence Productions then coming aboard. Ryan Hawke, Ethan Hawke, and Mickey Schiff will exec produce for Under the Influence, alongside Dylan Russell, with Maria Breese-McLain, Bill Way and Elliott Whitton producing.

Published by Hogarth, a boutique imprint of Random House, Happiness Falls is a tale of a family in crisis when a father goes missing, forcing them to question everything they thought they knew about him and each other.

“I’m thrilled to be partnering with Scott Steindorff, Dylan Russell, and the entire team at Stone Village, as well as Ethan Hawke and Under the Influence Productions’ team to bring Happiness Falls to the screen,...

Belgian Oscar Entry ‘Omen’ Opens In France, Director Baloji Releases Soundtrack Inspired By Film

Filmmaker-musician Baloji has released a five-track EP with McA Records (under Universal Music Group) in support of the French release of his feature Omen. The film, set primarily in the Congo, is a braided narrative of four main characters, who are all accused of witchcraft or sorcery and must contend with the social implications of this denouncement. Baloji has said the soundtrack “is a complementary backstory of the characters and a musical piece in its own right.” The EP contains the tracks ‘La Tâche,’ ‘Arcade (Feat Swazzi),’ and ‘Auto Psy (Feat Chrystel),’ along with ‘Matrone (feat. Maya Andrade).’ Baloji is represented by UTA (U.S.) and As Talents (France).

Ellie Kemper To Narrate Audiobook Edition Of Katherine Center’s ‘Happiness For Beginners’

Exclusive: Ellie Kemper has signed on to...

Producer recently wrapped doc about autism; in post on Adhd project.

Scott Steindorff, whose producing credits include The Lincoln Lawyer, Love In The Time Of Cholera, and Station Eleven, is lining up the feature documentary In Search Of Love and preparing to commence production in Paris in July.

The project is being produced by Steindorff’s Stone Village Films and will encompass locations in France, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Portugal, and Spain.

In Search Of Love will explore the complexities of love through personal narratives and insights from experts in the field, exploring the neuroscience behind the emotion, the enchantment of romantic love,...

A new series by Christopher James

Nicole Kidman at the Globes for Birth. They were the only group to embrace the film

Do one for them; do one for you. If you can still do projects for yourself, you can keep your soul.

— Martin Scorsese: A Journey

This week, Nicole Kidman earned her fifth Oscar nomination for Being the Ricardos, where she plays legendary star Lucille Ball. One can’t spend over thirty years in the industry without a couple of reinventions. The Australian star rose to prominence in America when she became Mrs. Tom Cruise after Days of Thunder. The entire 90s was spent breaking out of that reductive box. It wasn’t until the summer of 2001, when Kidman divorced Cruise, that she stepped into her own as a true A-list star. The one-two-three punch of The Others, Moulin Rouge and The Hours cemented her as both a...

Exclusive: In a competitive situation, Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell’s Stone Village has picked up film and television rights to Paul Theroux’s (The Mosquito Coast) latest novel Under The Wave At Waimea to adapt as a premium television series. The company is currently out to writers.

Per the book’s synopsis, “Set in the lush, gritty underside of an island paradise readers rarely see, Under the Wave at Waimea offers a dramatic, affecting commentary on privilege, mortality, and the lives we choose to remember. The story, set on the the big Island of Hawai’I, is about a big wave surfer named Joe Sharkey, who is past his prime and is losing his “stoke.” Joe learned to surf with with Eddie Aikau and to thrill seek with Hunter Thompson, as he chased the perfect wave around the world. The younger surfers around the breaks on the north shore...

Elyse Bridges lives in a glamorous house in Los Angeles, with her husband and son, where she spends most of her days lost in thought. But despite an idyllic opening shot set in a postcard suburban setting, something isn’t right in Stella Hopkins’ directorial debut, “Elyse.”

The black-and-white independent movie stars Lisa Pepper in the role of the film’s title character. Anthony Hopkins, the director’s husband, plays a psychiatrist. The rest of the cast of mostly unknowns are newcomers, who Stella cast because she believes one of the purposes of independent film is to shine a spotlight on emerging talent.

Stella has acted in (“The Human Stain”) and produced movies before, but this is her first time behind the camera. She shot “Elyse” in only 13 days last year, financing it through Margam Films, a division of the art company that she runs with with Anthony. “Elyse” is...

Time and time again during this year’s pandemic, movie studios have had to make the best of a bad situation. HBO Max’s list of new releases for December 2020 comes along with the most extreme example yet.

WarnerMedia undoubtedly had big plans for Wonder Woman 1984 when it scheduled it for a holiday release last year. After moving it to the summer, however, the conglomerate had to delay its theatrical release time and time again. Now HBO Max is the lucky winner of the saga, as it gets to premiere the long-awaited sequel on its servers on Dec. 25.

While Wonder Woman 1984 is definitely the headline this month, there are some other intriguing streaming options for HBO Max in December. The month plays host to a whole host of high-powered documentaries like Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults (Dec. 3), Alabama Snake (Dec. 9), and the Tiger Woods documentary Tiger (Dec.

We’ve now got just a few days left of November, so it’s time to take a look ahead at everything that’s headed to the major streaming networks in December. As it’s Christmas, Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Prime Video have extra special hauls ready to gift to their subscribers this holiday season, with literally hundreds of new movies and TV shows dropping over the course of the month.

All the various sites – excepting Disney Plus – are serving up a ton of newly licensed films on December 1st. Netflix, for instance, is adding such classics as E.T., Little Nicky and the first three Jurassic Parks. Meanwhile, HBO Max is offering up The Shawshank Redemption, Shaun of the Dead and a bunch of Final Destinations, while Hulu and Prime Video, which share a lot of the same movies, are treating users to a host of iconic...

Just like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and Disney Plus, HBO Max is adding a ton of great new titles to give you some festive treats this holiday season. The Warner streaming service’s December haul isn’t necessarily full of Christmas content – there’s a lot of that already available – but there are definitely a ton of must-see films and TV shows on the lineup, so let’s take a look at the highlights.

December 1st brings a glut of newly licensed titles, including everything from horror prequel Annabelle: Creation to the original Westworld movie. In terms of franchises, you’ll be able to find a bunch of The Crown films, some Final Destinations and the whole Free Willy trilogy on the site next month. And if you’re looking to chow down on some of the best movies around, you won’t be disappointed. Just a few of the acclaimed...

Photo: Wentworth Miller In a world where closeted gay leading men continue to hide their sexuality for their career's sake and to be marketable to America, here is one Hollywood leading man that has proudly proclaimed he will only accept and perform gay/LGBTQ roles from here onwards. And that is the definition of Courage and being a Hero. The Rise of Wentworth Miller If you are unfamiliar with rising star Wentworth Miller, now’s the time to wake up. Born in England in June of 1972, the gemini was raised in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and quickly developed a flair for the arts. Taking part in A Cappella groups and other performing arts organizations throughout school, Miller’s talent grew apparent and a career for him in entertainment became inevitable. By the late 90s, Wentworth was picking up guest-starring gigs in hit shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and ER before...

The idea of 67% of American households tuning into a network television movie seems almost absurd in 2020. The Super Bowl can rate those numbers, but a movie? A network TV movie? Almost impossible. That number was reached, however, by The Day After in 1983. At the height of the Cold War, this made-for-ABC Nicholas Meyer movie about the aftermath of nuclear war drew a staggering 100 million viewers. It also created a new dialogue around nuclear de-escalation, outraged conservatives, drove its director to complain to a gossip columnist about ABC executives, and haunted the dreams of young viewers for years to come. Quite a feat for any motion picture.

Jeff Daniels’ (not that one) documentary Television Event tells the story of The Day After’s conception, production, and impact in an entertaining fashion. A tale with surprising links to the present, it recounts a pop culture phenomenon that’s entirely deserving of this cinematic treatment.

Veteran’s campaign credits include Underworld franchise, Million Dollar Baby, End Of Watch.

As AFM 2020 Online gets underway Voltage Pictures has hired industry veteran Robert Burke as EVP marketing and distribution with immediate effect.

Burke, who launched Lakeshore Entertainment’s marketing division and subsequently ran consultancy Ten One Entertainment, will report directly to Voltage president and COO Jonathan Deckter.

He arrives at a busy time for the company, whose After We Collided is in release and has been a success story for the independent marketplace, earning close to $50m so far from an international run during the pandemic.

The third...

Exclusive: Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actor Gary Sinise will receive the Humanitarian Award from the Location Managers Guild International at the 7th Annual Lmgi Awards. Sinese established the Gary Sinise Foundation with the mission to serve and honor America’s defenders, veterans, first responders, Gold Star families and those in need. Sinese will be honored for the commitment he and his foundation have made to give back to those who sacrifice for our nation and create a legacy of service. The awards, hosted by Isaiah Mustafa, will be held during a virtual ceremony Saturday, October 24 at 2 pm Pst.

Sinese’s performance as Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump earned him Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations as well as the Best Supporting Actor Award from the National Board of Review and the Commander’s Award from the Disabled American Veterans. It also formed an enduring connection with servicemen and women throughout the military community.

Cutting Edge Group, a leading music financier and services provider for film, TV and advertising, has acquired Lakeshore Records, a top independent soundtrack label.

Their partnership will provide Cutting Edge with an in-house label, while Lakeshore will continue to operate as an independent, doing albums for such high-profile projects as “Marriage Story,” “Moonlight,” “Stranger Things” and “Narcos.”

Cutting Edge COO Tara Finegan cites Lakeshore’s “intensity and passion and desire to get things absolutely right for the fans of soundtrack music, and for the composers and filmmakers who are on the other side, creating this art.”

Says Lakeshore Records President Brian McNelis: “The combining of Cutting Edge and Lakeshore is an extension of the business that we had already been in. We had a working relationship and they were looking to complement their other services.” Lakeshore had been licensing albums from Cutting Edge as far back as 2005, and in...

Phyllis Newman, known for her Tony Award-winning role as the bath towel-clad Martha Vail in the musical Subways Are for Sleeping, has died. The star of stage and screen was 86.

The news was announced by her son Adam Green, a theater critic for Vogue, via Twitter. “My sister @amanda_green and I had to say goodbye to our beautiful mother today,” he tweeted. “I’ll miss her more than I can say.”

In addition to Subways Are for Sleeping, Newman appeared in numerous Broadway productions including Bells Are Ringing, The Apple Tree, On the Town, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Awake and Sing, Wish You Were Here and First Impressions. She also had her one-woman musical The Madwoman of Central Park West which was co-written by her and Arthur Laurents. She also received a Tony nom for her performance in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound.

She received a Drama Desk...

Exclusive: The UK Jewish Film Festival (Nov 6-23) has assembled a strong jury lineup for its 23rd edition including BAFTA chairwoman Jane Lush, Bridget Jones’s Baby scribe Dan Mazer, former Storyville boss Nick Fraser and Three Identical Strangers director Tim Wardle. Scroll down for the full list of jurors.

The festival program will be revealed on September 19 and organizers tell us it will be the biggest to date. The hub of the festival will be in London but there are due to be regional screenings in more than 20 cities in the UK.

Last year the Dorfman Best Film Award went to Wardle’s acclaimed doc Three Identical Strangers. There were special screenings for movies including Foxtrot, Promise At Dawn, Working Woman and Philip Roth adaptation The Human Stain. Guests included Simon Chinn, Mélanie Thierry and David Schneider.

The festival featured 85 films from 16 countries, including 51 UK premieres, at 21 cinemas in London,...

When the lifetime tributes start to roll in for Nicole Kidman, don’t expect more than a passing reference to 2003’s The Human Stain. The project was one of just a handful of adaptations to be made from the novels of Philip Roth (one of the most recent is 2016’s America Pastoral, directed by Ewan McGregor).

Stain followed Coleman Silk, who lives a quiet life of writing and teaching in New England until he is accused by two black students of racism for his use of the word "spooks." Forced to resign, he enters into an affair with ...

When the lifetime tributes start to roll in for Nicole Kidman, don’t expect more than a passing reference to 2003’s The Human Stain. The project was one of just a handful of adaptations to be made from the novels of Philip Roth (one of the most recent is 2016’s America Pastoral, directed by Ewan McGregor).

Stain followed Coleman Silk, who lives a quiet life of writing and teaching in New England until he is accused by two black students of racism for his use of the word "spooks." Forced to resign, he enters into an affair with ...

Hulu is out with its list of new content coming in July, and highlights include the “Veronica Mars” revival and the series premiere of the new “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” We also have the list of everything that’s being removed from the streaming service at the end of July.

Season 1-3 of the original “Veronica Mars” series will be available starting July 1, so you can brush up on all the background knowledge you’ll need to fully enjoy Season 4 when it drops July 26, with Kristen Bell returning the starring role as the title character after almost 15 years. Here’s everything we know about the revival so far.

The new Mindy Kaling-produced “Four Weddings and a Funeral” series comes July 31, with “Game of Thrones” star Nathalie Emanuel in the lead role. Original star Andie MacDowell will return as a guest star.

Also Read: Summer TV Premiere Dates: Here's...

Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Roth has died at age 85. The novelist was best known for writing the books “American Pastoral,” “The Human Stain,” and “Goodbye, Columbus.” Celebrities such as “The Wire” creator David Simon and “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn took to social media following confirmation of Roth’s passing to honor the iconic author.

“This one hurts, both me and all of literature,” Gunn wrote on Twitter. “He taught me when I was at Columbia and was a huge influence, impressing upon me the importance of writing through the hard times. I have many favorite books by Roth, but [‘The Counterlife’] is one of them.”

Other celebrities honoring Roth are Marc Maron, Lena Dunham, and St. Vincent. Simon wrote on Twitter that he met Roth just a few months ago to discuss an adaptation of “Plot Against America.”

“At 85, he was more precise and insightful, more intellectually adept and...

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Philip Roth died from congestive heart failure on Tuesday in a Manhattan hospital, according to The New York Times. He was 85.

Roth was born in Newark, N.J. and attended Rutgers University and later transferred to Bucknell University. After receiving an M.A. in English literature from the University of Chicago, his first story was published in The New Yorker in 1958.

His first collection of short stories titled Goodbye, Columbus was published in 1959. This would be one of his many influential works that was adapted into a film. Goodbye, Columbus was directed by Larry Peerce and was nominated for an Academy Award for an adapted screenplay written by Arnold Schulman. His first novel, Letting Go, was published in 1962.

His works explored his perception of America and American themes. More specifically, he explored Jewish identity, anti-Semitism and the Jewish experience in America. In 1997 his book American Pastoral earned him a Pulitzer Prize.

Philip Roth, the American novelist responsible for such seminal works as “American Pastoral” and “Goodbye, Columbus,” died Tuesday. He was 85.

The New Yorker reported that friends close to Roth had confirmed his death.

Throughout his career, Roth won two National Book Awards in addition to the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his 1997 book “American Pastoral,” which featured his recurring alter ego Nathan Zuckerman. He was well known for writing about the Jewish experience, as well as American ideals, personal identity, and the human body, through autobiographical fiction.

Roth was born in Newark, N.J. in 1933 to first-generation parents and grew up in the Weequahic neighborhood, which would go on to provide the setting for his famous novel “Portnoy’s Complaint.”

His career was prolific, beginning with 1959’s “Goodbye, Columbus” and spanning well into the 2000s, with “Exit Ghost” in 2007. In 2012, he announced he would be retiring from writing fiction after...

Novelist Philip Roth has emerged from his retirement to slam President Donald Trump a “massive fraud” and “megalomaniac.” In a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times in which he wrote out his answers, the author of “Portnoy’s Complaint” and “The Human Stain” slammed Trump as a “massive fraud, the evil sum of his deficiencies, devoid of everything but the hollow ideology of a megalomaniac.” Roth addressed comparisons to Trump and “The Plot Against America,” his 2004 novel that presents an alternative history in which the famed pilot and fascist sympathizer Charles Lindbergh defeated Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential...

Gay Talese at home in his office: "Can you imagine if Anthony Hopkins was a voyeur? What a part it could be." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the final installment of my conversation with the author of The Voyeur's Motel and the subject of Myles Kane and Josh Koury's documentary, Voyeur, Gay Talese envisions Anthony Hopkins playing the voyeur and notes that both Dustin Hoffman (Alan J Pakula's All the President's Men) and Jack Nicholson (Mike Nichols' Heartburn) played Carl Bernstein, so "anybody could play me", if the abandoned Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes feature film had been cast. He remembers Nicole Kidman who starred opposite Hopkins in Robert Benton's adaptation of Philip Roth's The Human Stain as "what a cleaning lady!".

We start out with a discussion of his latest book which takes us to Voyeur, the film, that had its world premiere in the Spotlight...

By Todd Garbarini

Arguably the best Star Trek film ever made, Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), which was originally subtitled The Vengeance of Khan but was changed so as not to interfere with Richard Marquand’s Revenge of the Jedi which itself was changed to Return of the Jedi, celebrates its 35th anniversary this year and is the subject of an exclusive screening at Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre. The 113-minute film, which stars William Shatner and the crew of the Enterprise, will be screened on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 7:30 pm on Digital Cinema Projection (Dcp).

Please Note: Director Nicholas Meyer is scheduled to appear in person for a Q & A following the screening.

From the press release:

Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

(35th Anniversary Screening)

Wednesday, May 31, at 7:30 Pm at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre

Followed by Q&A with...

Philip Roth (Courtesy: Eric Thayer/Reuters

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

When it comes to acclaimed American authors, Philip Roth is right up there with the best of them—so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that his work has been translated from page to screen numerous times and to varying degrees of success.

Over the years, seven of the novelist’s books have been adapted to the big screen—with two of them coming out in 2016 alone: Indignation and American Pastoral. Before that, though, there was Goodbye, Columbus, Portnoy’s Complaint, The Human Stain, Elegy (based on The Dying Animal), and The Humbling.

Goodbye, Columbus (1969)—which starred Ali MacGraw and Richard Benjamin—earned Arnold Schulman a nomination for best adapted screenplay and was generally well-received by critics and did quite well at the box office.

Portnoy’s Complaint (1972)—which was adapted by Ernest Lehman—didn’t fare that...

The Toronto film festival is over and with it our first glimpse at Ewan McGregor’s attempt to bring Philip Roth’s American Pastoral to the big screen. How well do you remember other notable film versions of novels?

Indignation

The Human Stain

The Hours

The Great Gatsby

The End of the Affair

The Reader

The Remains of the Day

The English Patient

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Doctor Zhivago

Women in Love

The L-Shaped Room

Fahrenheit 451

My Fair Lady

Lolita

Psycho

La Confidential

Devil in a Blue Dress

Fight Club

The Talented Mr Ripley

Atonement

Enduring Love

Pride & Prejudice

Never Let Me Go

True Grit

No Country For Old Men

The Road

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

A Most Wanted Man

Our Kind of Traitor

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The Constant Gardener

Million Dollar Baby

The Green Mile

The Notebook

Revolutionary Road

Out of Africa

The Conformist...

Indignation Roadside Attractions/ Summit Entertainment Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B+ Director: James Schamus Written by: James Schamus, based on Philip Roth’s novel of the same name Cast: Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, Tracy Letts, Linda Edmond, Danny Burstein Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 7/7/16 Opens: July 29, 2016 If nobody can surpass F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ability to conjure up the 1920s in America, ditto for Woody Allen for the 1930s, then can anyone capture the spirit of the early 1950s better than Philip Roth? The great novelist (30 books) is now retired, but happily movies continue to be adapted from his works, such as “The Human Stain,” Goodbye [ Read More ]

The post Indignation Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

“Being dead is not the same thing as not existing — many things exist that are dead. Indeed, I would argue that many of the greatest things that exist are dead and this is not necessarily a bad thing.” — James Schamus

In November of 2014, a little more than a year after he had been fired from his long-time job as the CEO of Focus Features, James Schamus was invited to the German Film Academy to give a speech about the future of cinema. Naturally, the underlying assumption of the event was that it had one.

The talk began on a routine note, as Schamus name-checked Theodor Adorno, bridged the gap between George Méliès and Christopher Nolan, and pushed through the obligatory references to the rise of Netflix and the fall of DVD. And then, reaching the fifth point of a lecture that he had split into 23 discrete fragments, Schamus reframed the conversation,...

Having written more than 30 books, including the Pulitzer Prize winner American Pastoral, it is somewhat surprising that there haven’t been more film adaptations of Philip Roth’s work. Portnoy’s Complaint, Goodbye Columbus, The Human Stain and more recently Barry Levinson’s The Humbling have been among the few to make it to the screen. But this year with American Pastoral (October 21) and this week’s release of Indignation, Roth is a hot commodity in cinemas. As I say in…...

Plot: A Jewish boy (Logan Lerman) attending a Wasp-y university on a scholarship, falls for a beautiful, sexually provocative classmate (Sarah Gadon). Review: Novelist Philip Roth is generally considered to be the hardest author to adapt to films. While screenwriter Nicholas Mayer gave it his best shot with The Human Stain and Elegy, the books are probably too specific to their form to make for good movies.... Read More...

Director: Alex Ross Perry; Screenwriter: Alex Ross Perry; Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Joséphine de La Baume, Krysten Ritter; Running time: 108 mins; Certificate: 15

The daggers are out for Jason Schwartzman's novelist Philip Lewis Friedman in this acerbic comic character study that doubles as a rib-tickling guide in how to lose friends and alienate people. Indeed, it's the titular writer who is the architect of his own misery (not the critics) by treating people with disdain. Similarly, writer/director Alex Ross Perry challenges viewers by making his antihero so anti-everything.

Playing the erudite idiot is second nature to Schwartzman, having done so in films dating back to Wes Anderson's Rushmore, and it's hard to imagine anyone else hurling elaborate insults with the same devastatingly flat delivery. His arrogance is countered by a deliciously dense voiceover from Eric Bogosian who speaks with the air of superiority you would...

Continuing with their numerous exciting news The Exchange's CEO Brian O'Shea has announced that Robert Sheehan ("Geostorm," "Mortal Instruments," Moonwalkers," "The Misfits," and "Red Riding")has been cast as the male lead in the feature "The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight" alongside Hailee Steinfeld.

The Exchange brought the feature to Cannes'15 to sell to international buyers. CAA holds domestic sales rights.

"The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight" is written, directed, and executive produced by Academy Award-winner Dustin Lance Black ("Milk," "J. Edgar") and produced by hit makers Bruna Papandrea ("Gone Girl," "Wild," "Warm Bodies"), Caroline Kaplan ("Time Out of Mind," "Boyhood," Letters to Juliet"), and Steve Hutensky ("2:22," "The Human Stain," "The Moon and the Sun"). 

Set over a 24-hour period, "The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight" follows Hadley (Steinfeld,) stuck at John F. Kennedy Airport and late to her father's second wedding in London, who meets the "perfect" young man in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver (Sheehan), he's British, and he's found his way to seat 18B. Hadley is in 18A. In this story about the mad fears when love first strikes, Hadley and Oliver make it clear that true love isn't what greeting cards peddle, it's an act of bravery that's well worth the leap.

"Robert and Hailee together are perfect" O'Shea went on to state "They are both identifiable and winning, the script is sharp, the production team is aces, I really think we could have 'When Harry Met Sally' for the younger generation."

Robert Sheehan is represented by The Gersh Agency and Lisa Richards Agency.

Robert Sheehan (Geostorm, Mortal Instruments) has been cast as the male lead in Dustin Lance Black's The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight alongside Hailee Steinfeld.  Sales company The Exchange will be bringing the feature to Cannes and offer it to international buyers. The Exchange's CEO Brian O'Shea announced the casting on Thursday. CAA holds domestic sales rights. The film is written, directed and executive produced by Black (Milk, J. Edgar) and produced by Bruna Papandrea (Gone Girl), Caroline Kaplan (Boyhood) and Steve Hutensky (The Human Stain). Production is set to begin later this year. Read More Cannes:

read more...

Or The Unexpected Convenience of Sexism: Levinson’s Perplexing but Deviously Funny Stab at Roth

Decades passed between initial adaptations of novelist Philip Roth’s novels (1969’s Goodbye Columbus; 1972’s Portnoy’s Complaint) before filmmakers like Robert Benton and Isabel Coixet mounted their own renditions to varied reception in the past decade or so with The Human Stain (2003) and Elegy (2008), respectively. After a decently received found footage horror film with 2012’s The Bay, seasoned director Barry Levinson adapts The Humbling, which, like Roth’s novel itself, initially received some of the same unfavorable notices from Venice and Toronto Int. Film Fests. But Roth’s novels are exactly the kind of difficult narratives that used to make for a tradition of daring cinema that’s been eclipsed by safety and sanitization in an effort to decrease offense and increase mass satisfaction. That’s not to say that Levinson is entirely successful...

Schamus, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and producer of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Brokeback Mountain," is set to make his feature-length directorial debut with his adaptation of Philip Roth's "Indignation."  Per the press release: "Set in 1951, Indignation is the story of Marcus Messner, the idealistic son of a humble kosher butcher from Newark, New Jersey. Marcus leaves for Ohio to study at a small, conservative college, where he finds himself at odds with the administration, grapples with anti-Semitism and sexual repression, and pines after a troubled girl." Roth's licentious novels have proven notoriously difficult to translate for the big screen, with directors from Robert Benton ("The Human Stain") to Ernest Lehman ("Portnoy's Complaint") struggling to retain Roth's erudite Jewish-American voice. Larry Peerce's well-received "Goodbye,...

Jennifer Connelly has come aboard to play the female lead opposite Ewan McGregor in American Pastoral, director Phillip Noyce's adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Connelly will play Dawn, the wife of Seymour "Swede" Levov, McGregor's character. The project marks Lakeshore Entertainment’s third Roth adaptation, following The Human Stain and Elegy. Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are producing American Pastoral. “Jennifer Connelly is one of the great actresses of our time,” said Rosenberg. “We always wanted her to play Dawn in American Pastoral and we’re thrilled to be working with her." The story follows a

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Ewan McGregor will star in American Pastoral, which Phillip Noyce is directing. John Romano (The Lincoln Lawyer) adapted the screenplay based on Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Filming is scheduled for March 2015 in Pittsburgh. Photos 'Star Wars' Actors: Then and Now The project marks Lakeshore Entertainment’s third Roth adaptation, following The Human Stain and Elegy. Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are producing American Pastoral. The story follows Seymour “Swede” Levov, a former high school athlete who grows up to marry a former beauty queen and inherits his father’s business. His seemingly perfect life shatters when his daughter rebels

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Ewan McGregor will star in an adaptation of American Pastoral from director Phillip Noyce.

The Impossible actor and Salt filmmaker are working together to adapt Philip Roth's acclaimed novel, reports Coming Soon.

McGregor will take on the starring role of Seymour 'Swede' Levov, a blonde Jewish businessman living in Newark, New Jersey, whose ordinary life is disturbed by the chaos of the 1960s under the presidency of JFK's successor Lyndon B Johnson.

The Lincoln Lawyer writer John Romero wrote the script for the long-gestating project.

Roth's The Human Stain and Elegy have both previously been adapted to screen.

McGregor was most recently seen in August: Osage County and A Million Ways to Die in the West, and will apear in the upcoming Jane Got a Gun with Star Wars co-star Natalie Portman.

Noyce's The Giver will be released in the summer.

American Pastoral will begin shooting in early 2015.

Entertainment Geekly is a weekly column that examines pop culture through a geek lens and simultaneously examines contemporary geek culture through a pop lens. So many lenses!

Should we start with the music videos? Does anyone in college or younger understand why music videos were important? There was a significant portion of the ’90s spent agonizing over how cinema would be forever altered by the onrushing influx of young-turk hotshot music-video auteurs, and the quick-cut glitter-grit really-just-too-much style they brought along.

Now it’s 2014 and music videos are dead, unless you’re a bygone spiffy-clean tween star nakedly straddling a spheroid metaphor.

Millennium Films has just picked up worldwide rights to Barry Levinson's "The Humbling," adapted from now-retired novelist Philip Roth's 2009 book of the same name. Currently in post-production and seeking Us distribution, the film stars Al Pacino, Diane Wiest, Greta Gerwig and Kyra Sedgewick."The Humbling" tells the story of an aging actor who has an affair with a lesbian woman half his age at a secluded country house in Connecticut. In typical Rothian fashion, the relationship takes unusual turns as people from their past surface and chaos ensues.The film version is a Baltimore Pictures production that continues the collaboration of Levinson and Pacino, who worked together on "Wag the Dog" in 1997. Roth is the author of the brilliant nightmare panorama of the 1970s "American Pastoral," "The Human Stain" and "Portnoy's Complaint," among dozens of other works.

A pregnant teenager flees life with her drug-addicted mother and ends up living on the street before being welcomed into her first real home in this gripping first trailer for Gimme Shelter, an extraordinary tale of survival and redemption inspired by actual events. Starring Vanessa Hudgens, the film will be in theaters January 24, 2014.

For 16-year-old Agnes “Apple” Bailey (Vanessa Hudgens), life has been a constant struggle to overcome the harsh reality of a subsistence existence with her abusive mother, June (Rosario Dawson), and June’s string of lowlife boyfriends. When she finds herself pregnant and alone, Apple temporarily takes shelter with her biological father, Tom (Brendan Fraser), a wealthy Wall Streeter living in a New Jersey mansion with his wife Joanna (Stephanie Szostak) and two young children. But Apple’s inability to adjust to her new circumstances, and her refusal to terminate her pregnancy, soon force her back onto the streets.

Sasha Alexander, star of the TNT original drama “Rizzoli & Isles,” and Clark Gregg, star of the ABC series “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” will reveal the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® nominations on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The nominations announcement will be telecast live on TNT at 9 a.m. (Et) / 6 a.m. (Pt) and webcast live on tntdrama.com and tbs.com. Prior to the announcement, this year’s stunt ensemble nominees will be unveiled during a live webcast at 8:50 a.m. (Et) / 5:50 a.m. (Pt).

Alexander has also been named social media ambassador for this year’s SAG Awards. During the six weeks leading up to the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony – which will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014, at 8 p.m. (Et), 7 p.m. (Ct), 6 p.m. (Mt) and 5 p.m. (Pt...

Nicole Kidman, who has starred in a number of high-profile literary adaptations (like "The Human Stain," "The Hours," and "Cold Mountain"), is set to bring another bestseller to the big screen, with "The Silent Wife," based on the summer smash by A.S.A. Harrison.

The novel, whose success was buoyed by residual interest in Gillian Flynn's breakthrough "Gone Girl" (which shares a similar structure and equal interest in thriller elements and bedroom dramas), was pushed in the summer and became a surprise hit. Harrison was a first-time novelist making her debut with a paperback original (instead of a hardcover); in a tragic twist, the writer succumbed to cancer just months before the book was published. Harrison never got to see what a phenomenon her slender novel would become.

Harrison's estate handled the sale of the book and development of the movie (Kidman is also a producer). "The Silent...

Birthday shoutouts go to Aaron Paul (above), who is 34, Paul Reubens is 61, and Tom Ford is 52

Pat Robertson has said so many batshit offensive things over the years, I gave up keeping track. But but this is so out there, all I can do is sadly shake my head.

*Nsync ‘Upset’ With Justin Timberlake For Scaling Back Songs In VMAs Reunion

Ricky Martin talks about his internalized homophobia when he was younger, and how it led to bullying people he knew were gay. “I was very angry, very rebellious. I used to look at gay men and think, I’m not like that, I don’t want to be like that, that’s not me. I was ashamed.”

Speaking of bullying, here are gay twins Gary and Larry Lane telling their own bullying stories.

Naya Rivera has revealed that Demi Lovato will play her love interest when she joins the cast this season.