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Oscar voters will no longer be able to skip watching some of the nominated films. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Monday announced that members will from now on be required to watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final round of Oscar voting. Up until now, Oscar voters had only been encouraged to watch the nominees and vote in categories they felt qualified in. But in recent years, what films get watched by academy members has been increasingly seen as a significant factor in what wins. At the same time, the publication of anonymous Oscar ballots has often featured members confessing that they didn’t get around to watching some notable films or not finishing lengthier nominees. In other news — many appearances by the faces of the entertainment industry, from filmmakers of all different backgrounds, the Criterion Closet will get an extended appearance in Los Angeles, as a mobile version of the closet will be available for cinephiles to visit. With more than 1200 films in its official collection of Blu-rays, the Criterion Collection has been one of the leading physical media distributors. So with the closet arriving in Los Angeles, we thought it’d be worth checking in on the physical media industry with Dominic Patten, senior editor & tv critic at Deadline. We’ll also hear from Peter Rainer, who add their insights and discuss their favorite physical media. With files from the Associated Press
What do the movies The Brutalist, The Substance, Red Rooms and Anora have in common? They all made BOTH Dean AND Phil's lists of the Top Ten Films of 2024! The Critics have all had their say, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have announced their nominations for the Best in Cinema 2024, […]
Original Release Date: Monday 10 February 2025 Description: What do the movies The Brutalist, The Substance, Red Rooms and Anora have in common? They all made BOTH Dean AND Phil's lists of the Top Ten Films of 2024! The Critics have all had their say, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have announced their nominations for the Best in Cinema 2024, and on this week's show, your friends in podcasting finally have their say. Learn what other films made their lists as they count down their Top Ten from the cinematic year just past!
Award season continues! The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have announced their nominees for the 97th Oscars and SIGSI is here to break 'em down. BG and AJ give their first reactions to the nods, then BG reviews a new horror movie in theaters now. Plus Craig jumps in with a recap of some movies he's been watching too!
November 22, 2024, Park City, UT — The nonprofit Sundance Institute today announced details for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival's gala fundraiser, Celebrating Sundance Institute Presented by Google TV, which will take place on Friday, January 24, 2025 at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Utah. The event will be an evening in celebration of Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director of Artist Programs at Sundance Institute, for her longstanding commitment to nurturing artists and cultivating independent film through the Sundance Labs, where visionary artists convene to develop groundbreaking projects through an in-depth creative process, for the past four decades. The annual Vanguard Awards Presented by Acura will be awarded during the evening to Sean Wang, writer and director of Dìdi (弟弟), and Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, co-directors of Sugarcane, who premiered their films at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The annual gala enables the nonprofit to raise funds to support independent artists year-round through labs, grants, and public programming that nurture artists from all over the world. The 2025 event is made possible with the generous support of Google TV. The Festival will take place from January 23–February 2, 2025, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with a selection of titles available online from January 30–February 2, 2025 for audiences across the country to discover bold independent storytelling. Starting in 1981, Michelle Satter worked alongside Robert Redford who founded the Sundance Institute. Together with a committed team of leaders and collaborators, they developed impactful ways of mentoring emerging independent storytellers in a creative, rigorous, and safe space which launched with the annual June Filmmakers Lab. Satter has acted as an influential mentor to generations of award-winning filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino, Chloé Zhao, Dee Rees, John Cameron Mitchell, Paul Thomas Anderson, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Ryan Coogler, Miranda July, Kimberly Peirce, Darren Aronofsky, Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi, and many more. Over the years, Satter has built the Episodic Program, Producers Program, the Institute's global initiatives and oversees the Indigenous, Catalyst, and Documentary Film Programs. She also founded Sundance Collab — a global digital platform for storytelling, learning, and community, open to creators everywhere. Over the years, Satter's contributions to film and advocacy have been recognized with numerous awards including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an Oscar presented at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science's 2024 Governors Awards, the Women in Film Business Leadership Award, and the ACLU Bill of Rights Award. Stay connected with me at: https://www.chonacas.com/links/ Read more on David's Guide: https://davidsguide.com/michelle-satter-to-be-honored-at-2025-sundance-film-festival-gala-celebrating-sundance-institute-presented-by-google-tv/
This week, I'm honored to be joined by not one but two brilliant screenwriters, Larry Karaszewski & Daniel Waters. Larry Karaszewski & his writing/directing/producing partner Scott Alexander are best known for writing unusual true stories such as the films ED WOOD, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, MAN ON THE MOON, AUTO FOCUS, BIG EYES, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME, & the hit television miniseries THE PEOPLE VS. OJ SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY. The team has won Emmys, Golden Globes, Producers, & Writers Guild Awards. Additionally, Larry is also a former Governor & Vice President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. Born in Ohio & raised in Indiana, Daniel Waters is the Edgar award-winning screenwriter of the 1988 cult classic HEATHERS starring Winona Ryder & Christian Slater. Additionally, the man who wrote or co-wrote the films BATMAN RETURNS, HUDSON HAWK, THE ADVENTURES OF FORD FAIRLANE, DEMOLITION MAN, & more, he's also the writer-director of HAPPY CAMPERS & SEX & DEATH 101. Best friends & movie buddies since their teenage years in Indiana, in the fourth season of Watch With Jen, the two joined me to dissect the films of director Michael Ritchie, & this year, they're back to take us on another trip through the films of the 1970s, courtesy of actor Jan-Michael Vincent whose luscious blonde hair & laid back approach made him one of the most popular up-and-coming stars of the era. Although initially, we agreed on five films, including BUSTER & BILLIE, THE MECHANIC, WHITE LINE FEVER, THE WORLD'S GREATEST ATHLETE, & VIGILANTE FORCE, Larry & Dan made it their mission to do as much extra credit as possible, watching everything from obscure TV movies like TRIBES & SANDCASTLES to bigger hits like HOOPER & more. Along the way, we discuss Dan's issues with JMV in the '70s & this dream (or nightmare) he had where I ruined the vibe of his party, Larry's decision to watch two JMV movies on the ceiling under laughing gas at the dentist, & much, much more. What can I say? This conversation is a journey - a rollicking, thoughtful, & very engaging journey - & you're sure to love it.Originally Posted on Patreon (8/20/24) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/110417546Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fi
(airdate: 7.10.24) Will Smith is reeportedly begging the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to let him off for "good behavior" and let him return to the Oscar's before his 10 year ban is up...he has 8 more years to go...the 10 year slap. Remember Ellen? She says she's done after her Netflix special. Something about having chickens now. And Jimmy Fallon sat down with "A Family Affair's" Joey King, who plays Nicole Kidman's daughter. She has Nicole has wicked gluts (we hadn't noticed...not!) and she showed Joey how to become a "tubular gym rat." About that butt... And @HalleBerry Listen to the daily Van Camp and Morgan radio show at: AltBossGold.com 92.5TheBlock RockPartyRadio RiverRatRadio The Mix614 Sunny105 Souldies.com KTahoe.com RetroFM 941now.com ZFunHundred Tucka56Radio.com AmericaOneRadio.com TheMix96.com 100az.live Audacy Lite99Orlando.com PlayFMOnline.com Free99EastTexasRadio FrontierCountryOnline.com Hits247fm.com BossBossRadio.com Hot977FM.com CountryBarnyardRadio.com B98KC.com That70sChannel.com iHeartMedia That90sChannel.com CoolJamzRadio GenerationsX.com MagicRadio.rebelmediagroup.us BossCountryRadio.com Retro80sRadio24/7 NCMCountry OasisRadio Z89.3 StarHit1FM 925The Block 247TheSound.com WMQL War Zone Radio WRSR The Rooster DCXRocks FusionRadio Mix96.1 106.5TrisJamz BigRadio.online 389country.com Hawaiian Pacific Radio i92Knoxville The Rose A Mix That Rocks Camaradio.org Express Radio My Spotlight 105 B106 96 Radio Indonesia Carolina Boomer Country Cover By Damian FM TodaysMixx.com KXOK Camaradio.org HitMusicUSA 517Rocks Audilous.com/TheShark Kick Ass Country Classic Rock Planet Mix 106 Radio The Coyote Bold Country Hot106.ca Q100 Seattle Metro411.com Thasis.com TrendingNowHits.com find us at: VanCampAndMorgan.com
Today's Sponsor: Blinkisthttp://thisistheconversationproject.com/blinkist Today's Rundown:California police flatten pro-Palestinian camp at UCLA, arrest protestershttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/california-police-flatten-pro-palestinian-camp-ucla-arrest-protesters-2024-05-02/ T-Mobile buys Mint Mobile for $1.3 billion. Ryan Reynolds could make $300 millionhttps://qz.com/t-mobile-acquires-mint-mobile-ryan-reynolds-roaming-1851449754 MeTV is Launching a 24/7 Classic Cartoon Network in Partnership With Warner Bros. Discovery Called MeTV Toonshttps://cordcuttersnews.com/metv-is-launching-a-24-7-classic-cartoon-network-in-partnership-with-warner-bros-discovery-called-metv-toons/ Arizona Senate passes repeal of 1864 abortion ban, sending it to governor's deskhttps://abcnews.go.com/Politics/arizona-senate-passes-repeal-1864-abortion-ban-sending/story?id=109827722 Charles Barkley says he can become a 'free agent' if TNT loses NBA TV rightshttps://www.yahoo.com/sports/charles-barkley-says-become-free-162655245.html Eight tons of ground beef sold at Walmart locations nationwide recalled for possible E. coli contaminationhttps://www.cnn.com/2024/05/02/business/walmart-ground-beef-recall/index.html Allan Lichtman: ‘Nostradamus' of US presidential elections shares his forecast for 2024https://t.co/EyxserJW7P Iran's internationally renowned Shiraz University to grant scholarships to expelled pro-Palestine students in US, Europehttps://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/05/01/724698/Iran-Shiraz-University-grant-scholarships-expelled-students-United-States-Europe Website: http://thisistheconversationproject.com Facebook: http://facebook.com/thisistheconversationproject Twitter: http://twitter.com/th_conversation TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@theconversationproject YouTube: http://thisistheconversationproject.com/youtube Podcast: http://thisistheconversationproject.com/podcasts ONE DAY OLDER ON MAY 3:Willie Geist (49)Christina Hendricks (49)Dule' Hill (49) WHAT HAPPENED TODAY: 2006: A study by Salary.com reported a full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work.2014: Donald Sterling, L.A. Clippers owner, was banned for life after reports of his racist comments.2018: The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences membership voted to expel Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski. WORD OF TEH DAY: multitude / [ muhl-ti-tood, -tyood ]a large indefinite numberhttps://thebigwordsproject.morebettermediacompany.com/?p=214 PLUS, TODAY WE CELEBRATE: Paranormal Dayhttps://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-paranormal-day-may-3#:~:text=Each%20year%20on%20May%203rd,their%20experiences%20with%20each%20other.
Tonight's guest received her Masters in Fine Arts in screenwriting from the College of Motion Pictures Arts at Florida State University. While volunteering at the Revs Institute in Naples, Florida, she encountered one of two Maseratis entered by Lucy Schell in the 1940 Indy 500. Wanting to know more, and diving head first into the research, Lauren Goodman became an overnight Petrol-head, now owns a sports car, and finds herself as the Supervising Producer for Media and Exhibitions at The Revs Institute! And she's here to share her story with you! Revs Institute is more than a car museum — it is a place to see society through a different lens. It is an invitation into a working educational institution dedicated to the study, preservation, conservation, and restoration of historically significant automobiles. Explore the rich historical materials and images that define the automobile's role in society and motor sport. Step into the amazing world of meaningful cars at Revs Institute. if you're in the Naples, FL area - stop by the REVS institute for a visit, get a tour, and learn more about the museum and its collection. For more information check out www.revsinstitute.org or follow them on social media @revsinstitute on FB and IG, or @therevsinstitute on YT. ===== (Oo---x---oO) ===== The Motoring Podcast Network : Years of racing, wrenching and Motorsports experience brings together a top notch collection of knowledge, stories and information. #everyonehasastory #gtmbreakfix - motoringpodcast.net More Information: https://www.motoringpodcast.net/ Become a VIP at: https://www.patreon.com/ Online Magazine: https://www.gtmotorsports.org/
Hosts Dave Bossert and Aljon Go chat with Producer, Writer, and Director, Arnold Leibovit about The Puppetoon Movie Vol. 3. The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 Blu-Ray Limited Edition is a third landmark collection of 28 more spectacular George Pal Academy Award®-winning stop-motion and cel animated shorts, totaling some 5 hours of content. Each cartoon has been restored from its original Technicolor negatives. Fans will enjoy the return of Punchy & Judy, Jim Dandy, Rusty, Dr. Seuss, Jan and Janette, Mr. Strauss, Jasper and the Screwball Army; plus the first Puppetoon key animation work from legendary animator Ray Harryhausen. Buy THE PUPPETOON MOVIE VOLUME 3 Blu-ray Limited Edition – Puppetoon Productions. Arnold Leibovit is an award-winning writer, director, and producer. He wrote, directed, and produced the acclaimed film tribute "The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal" (1986) profiling the life of the Oscar-winning science fiction and fantasy film pioneer, who directed the first screen telling of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine". "Fantasy Worlds" features a who's who of over 25 stars and industry greats who worked with the late director. The film premiered at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and has since aired on The Disney Channel, PBS and won numerous awards. - From IMDB Skull Rock Podcast is brought to you by the generosity of the following companies: Shure and their MV7 - Podcast Microphone Kit (shure.com) Sound Extraordinary | The Old Mill Press - “Publishing beautifully crafted books that illuminate our world.” To learn more visit theoldmillpress.com - and listeners like you. Follow us Skull Rock Podcast | Facebook - Aljon Go (@aljongo) • Instagram - Aljon's Dining at Disney Podcast and Sorcerer Radio - All Disney Music, All Day Long SRSounds.com - E-mail: aljon@skullrockpodcast.com || Dave Bossert (@dave_bossert) • Instagram - dave@skullrockpodcast.com. For more great behind-the-scenes stories and articles visit davidbossert.com. Shop using our Amazon affiliate link - https://amzn.to/3uld8or - Book your next Disney, Universal, and Cruise vacation with Kristen themeparksandcruises@gmail.com. Thanks to you, the Skull Rock Podcast is on the list of the Best Disney Podcasts You Must Follow (feedspot.com). - Outro music "The Pirate King" composed by Jared Rehnquist/Untold Journey - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/skullrockpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/skullrockpodcast/support
Grace Emmons is the founder of Forward With Grace and the only Reiki Master with degrees in Biomedical Engineering from USC and Psychology from Columbia! Through her work, she focuses on scientifically-backed energy healing with her clients so they can confidently pave their own path. Between her degrees and her experience with energy work, Grace truly bridges the gap between science and spirituality and acts as a high vibrational channel for the healing of others, as well as bringing some of the "woo-woo" back down to earth and making it easily understandable.Forward With Grace is the first spiritual consultancy of its kind facilitating transformations for CEOs, celebrities, and high-powered individuals from Silicon Beach to Malibu along with leading companies such as the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Toms, Talkspace, Revolve, Dermalogica, and LiquidIV. In this episode, we cover Grace's story and how she ended up in the world of energy work, how body/heart/mind coherence affects us, client transformation stories, and how to get started on doing this work on yourself. Enjoy!Grace's Instagram: @forwardwgrace
Arnold Leibovit is an award-winning writer, director and producer. He wrote, directed and produced the acclaimed film tribute "The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal" (1986) profiling the life of the Oscar winning science fiction and fantasy film pioneer, who directed the first screen telling of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine". "Fantasy Worlds" features a who's who of over 25 stars and industry greats that worked with the late director.The film premiered at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and has since aired on The Disney Channel, PBS and won numerous awards. The DVD was released by Image Entertainment (September 2000). In addition, Leibovit directed and produced "The Puppetoon Movie," featuring such classic animation characters as Gumby, Pokey and Tubby the Tuba and the Oscar winning animated films of George Pal. The film premiered at the first American Film Institute Film Festival, distributed theatrically by Expanded Entertainment and has since screened at international film festivals in such cities as London, England; Annecy, France; Sitges, Spain; Tokyo, Japan; and Melbourne, Australia, as well as airing on Showtime.The DVD was released by Image Entertainment (November 2000) and a newly restored expanded Blu-Ray was released by B2MP Inc. (December 2014) that includes more newly restored Puppetoons with the cooperation of Paramount Pictures, The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and UCLA.http://puppetoon.net The Douglas Coleman Show now offers audio and video promotional packages for music artists as well as video promotional packages for authors. Please see our website for complete details.http://douglascolemanshow.com If you have a comment about this episode or any other, please click the link below.https://ratethispodcast.com/douglascolemanshow Please help us to continue to bring you quality content by showing your support for our show.https://fundrazr.com/e2CLX2?ref=ab_eCTqb8
This week, I'm honored to be joined by not one but two brilliant screenwriters, Larry Karaszewski & Daniel Waters. Larry Karaszewski & his writing/directing/producing partner Scott Alexander are best known for writing unusual true stories such as the films ED WOOD, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, MAN ON THE MOON, AUTO FOCUS, BIG EYES, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME, & the hit television miniseries THE PEOPLE VS. OJ SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY. The team has won Emmys, Golden Globes, Producers, & Writers Guild Awards. Additionally, Larry is also a former Governor & Vice President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. Born in Ohio & raised in Indiana, Daniel Waters is the Edgar award-winning screenwriter of the 1988 cult classic HEATHERS starring Winona Ryder & Christian Slater. Additionally, the man who wrote or co-wrote the films BATMAN RETURNS, HUDSON HAWK, THE ADVENTURES OF FORD FAIRLANE, DEMOLITION MAN, & more, he's also the writer-director of HAPPY CAMPERS & SEX & DEATH 101.Dear friends & movie buddies since their teenage years in Indiana, in this witty & well-researched ninety-minute conversation, the two champion the incredible '70s run of filmmaker Michael Ritchie. Focusing on Ritchie's view of America in the films DOWNHILL RACER, PRIME CUT, THE CANDIDATE, SMILE, THE BAD NEWS BEARS, & SEMI-TOUGH, before his wildly uneven '80s era, this episode is a must for '70s film fans. Originally Posted on Patreon (9/18/23) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/89431917 Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive Logo: KateGabrielle.com
Check out this month's timely podcast with film composer and creator, Carlo Siliotto. We talk about co-creation; the music supporting the storyline. The Writers Guild of America strike that began on May 2, 2023 continues as of the date of the release of this podcast. You can listen into Carlo's soundbites on AI in the creative process, the economics of residuals and governance as a committee member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Carlo Siliotto is a Golden Globe nominated Film composer. Since 1984 he has written music for over a hundred projects, ranging from theatrical features to documentaries and television series. Carlo is a prolific composer of concert music.. Carlo currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. See you in the Founders Sandbox!
In this episode, we delve into the transformative power of intuitive wisdom and energy healing for entrepreneurs & CEO's. Our guest, Grace Emmons comes on who is is the founder of Forward With Grace, the first spiritual consultancy of its kind facilitating transformations for CEOs, celebrities, and high-powered individuals from Silicon Beach to Malibu along with leading companies such as the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Toms, Talkspace, Revolve, Dermalogica, and LiquidIV. She shares her unique approach to helping high-achieving individuals tap into their inner guidance, boost self-worth, and take empowered actions to achieve their goals. Through a blend of evidence-based practices and intuitive insights, she provides a holistic framework for personal and business growth. Along with a custom meditation at the end! Episode Highlights: Explore the power of intuitive wisdom in entrepreneurship through the lens of evidence-based practices and transformative healing. Learn how a groundbreaking program at the intersection of spirituality and psychology shaped the career of our guest. Hear real success stories showcasing how intuitive insights can drive impactful decisions in high-stakes situations. Gain insights into building intuition language and recognizing personal intuitive signals. Embrace authenticity, aligned decisions, and empowered actions as key elements of entrepreneurial success. Connect with Grace: www.forwardwgrace.com https://www.instagram.com/forwardwgrace/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-g-emmons/ Connect with Danielle: https://www.danielleklemm.com/ https://youtube.com/@danielleklemmm https://www.instagram.com/danielleklemmm/
We continue our miniseries on the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, with a look at the films released in 1988. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we finally continue with the next part of our look back at the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, specifically looking at 1988. But before we get there, I must issue another mea culpa. In our episode on the 1987 movies from Miramax, I mentioned that a Kiefer Sutherland movie called Crazy Moon never played in another theatre after its disastrous one week Oscar qualifying run in Los Angeles in December 1987. I was wrong. While doing research on this episode, I found one New York City playdate for the film, in early February 1988. It grossed a very dismal $3200 at the 545 seat Festival Theatre during its first weekend, and would be gone after seven days. Sorry for the misinformation. 1988 would be a watershed year for the company, as one of the movies they acquired for distribution would change the course of documentary filmmaking as we knew it, and another would give a much beloved actor his first Academy Award nomination while giving the company its first Oscar win. But before we get to those two movies, there's a whole bunch of others to talk about first. Of the twelve movies Miramax would release in 1988, only four were from America. The rest would be a from a mixture of mostly Anglo-Saxon countries like the UK, Canada, France and Sweden, although there would be one Spanish film in there. Their first release of the new year, Le Grand Chemin, told the story of a timid nine-year-old boy from Paris who spends one summer vacation in a small town in Brittany. His mother has lodged the boy with her friend and her friend's husband while Mom has another baby. The boy makes friends with a slightly older girl next door, and learns about life from her. Richard Bohringer, who plays the friend's husband, and Anémone, who plays the pregnant mother, both won Cesars, the French equivalent to the Oscars, in their respective lead categories, and the film would be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 1987 by the National Board of Review. Miramax, who had picked up the film at Cannes several months earlier, waited until January 22nd, 1988, to release it in America, first at the Paris Theatre in midtown Manhattan, where it would gross a very impressive $41k in its first three days. In its second week, it would drop less than 25% of its opening weekend audience, bringing in another $31k. But shortly after that, the expected Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film did not come, and business on the film slowed to a trickle. But it kept chugging on, and by the time the film finished its run in early June, it had grossed $541k. A week later, on January 29th, Miramax would open another French film, Light Years. An animated science fiction film written and directed by René Laloux, best known for directing the 1973 animated head trip film Fantastic Planet, Light Years was the story of an evil force from a thousand years in the future who begins to destroy an idyllic paradise where the citizens are in perfect harmony with nature. In its first three days at two screens in Los Angeles and five screens in the San Francisco Bay Area, Light Years would gross a decent $48,665. Miramax would print a self-congratulating ad in that week's Variety touting the film's success, and thanking Isaac Asimov, who helped to write the English translation, and many of the actors who lent their vocal talents to the new dub, including Glenn Close, Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Grey, Christopher Plummer, and Penn and Teller. Yes, Teller speaks. The ad was a message to both the theatre operators and the major players in the industry. Miramax was here. Get used to it. But that ad may have been a bit premature. While the film would do well in major markets during its initial week in theatres, audience interest would drop outside of its opening week in big cities, and be practically non-existent in college towns and other smaller cities. Its final box office total would be just over $370k. March 18th saw the release of a truly unique film. Imagine a film directed by Robert Altman and Bruce Beresford and Jean-Luc Godard and Derek Jarman and Franc Roddam and Nicolas Roeg and Ken Russell and Charles Sturridge and Julien Temple. Imagine a film that starred Beverly D'Angelo, Bridget Fonda in her first movie, Julie Hagerty, Buck Henry, Elizabeth Hurley and John Hurt and Theresa Russell and Tilda Swinton. Imagine a film that brought together ten of the most eclectic filmmakers in the world doing four to fourteen minute short films featuring the arias of some of the most famous and beloved operas ever written, often taken out of their original context and placed into strange new places. Like, for example, the aria for Verdi's Rigoletto set at the kitschy Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, where a movie producer is cheating on his wife while she is in a nearby room with a hunky man who is not her husband. Imagine that there's almost no dialogue in the film. Just the arias to set the moments. That is Aria. If you are unfamiliar with opera in general, and these arias specifically, that's not a problem. When I saw the film at the Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz in June 1988, I knew some Wagner, some Puccini, and some Verdi, through other movies that used the music as punctuation for a scene. I think the first time I had heard Nessun Dorma was in The Killing Fields. Vesti La Giubba in The Untouchables. But this would be the first time I would hear these arias as they were meant to be performed, even if they were out of context within their original stories. Certainly, Wagner didn't intend the aria from Tristan und Isolde to be used to highlight a suicide pact between a young couple killing themselves in a Las Vegas hotel bathroom. Aria definitely split critics when it premiered at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, when it competed for the festival's main prize, the Palme D'Or. Roger Ebert would call it the first MTV opera and felt the filmmakers were poking fun at their own styles, while Leonard Maltin felt most of the endeavor was a waste of time. In the review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin would also make a reference to MTV but not in a positive way, and would note the two best parts of the film were the photo montage that is seen over the end credits, and the clever licensing of Chuck Jones's classic Bugs Bunny cartoon What's Opera, Doc, to play with the film, at least during its New York run. In the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper chose one of its music critics to review the film. They too would compare the film to MTV, but also to Fantasia, neither reference meant to be positive. It's easy to see what might have attracted Harvey Weinstein to acquire the film. Nudity. And lots of it. Including from a 21 year old Hurley, and a 22 year old Fonda. Open at the 420 seat Ridgemont Theatre in Seattle on March 18th, 1988, Aria would gross a respectable $10,600. It would be the second highest grossing theatre in the city, only behind The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which grossed $16,600 in its fifth week at the 850 seat Cinerama Theatre, which was and still is the single best theatre in Seattle. It would continue to do well in Seattle, but it would not open until April 15th in Los Angeles and May 20th in New York City. But despite some decent notices and the presence of some big name directors, Aria would stiff at the box office, grossing just $1.03m after seven months in theatres. As we discussed on our previous episode, there was a Dennis Hopper movie called Riders on the Storm that supposedly opened in November 1987, but didn't. It did open in theatres in May of 1988, and now we're here to talk about it. Riders on the Storm would open in eleven theatres in the New York City area on May 7th, including three theatres in Manhattan. Since Miramax did not screen the film for critics before release, never a good sign, the first reviews wouldn't show up until the following day, since the critics would actually have to go see the film with a regular audience. Vincent Canby's review for the New York Times would arrive first, and surprisingly, he didn't completely hate the film. But audiences didn't care. In its first weekend in New York City, Riders on the Storm would gross an anemic $25k. The following Friday, Miramax would open the film at two theatres in Baltimore, four theatres in Fort Worth TX (but surprisingly none in Dallas), one theatre in Los Angeles and one theatre in Springfield OH, while continuing on only one screen in New York. No reported grosses from Fort Worth, LA or Springfield, but the New York theatre reported ticket sales of $3k for the weekend, a 57% drop from its previous week, while the two in Baltimore combined for $5k. There would be more single playdates for a few months. Tampa the same week as New York. Atlanta, Charlotte, Des Moines and Memphis in late May. Cincinnati in late June. Boston, Calgary, Ottawa and Philadelphia in early July. Greenville SC in late August. Evansville IL, Ithaca NY and San Francisco in early September. Chicago in late September. It just kept popping up in random places for months, always a one week playdate before heading off to the next location. And in all that time, Miramax never reported grosses. What little numbers we do have is from the theatres that Variety was tracking, and those numbers totaled up to less than $30k. Another mostly lost and forgotten Miramax release from 1988 is Caribe, a Canadian production that shot in Belize about an amateur illegal arms trader to Central American terrorists who must go on the run after a deal goes down bad, because who wants to see a Canadian movie about an amateur illegal arms trader to Canadian terrorists who must go on the run in the Canadian tundra after a deal goes down bad? Kara Glover would play Helen, the arms dealer, and John Savage as Jeff, a British intelligence agent who helps Helen. Caribe would first open in Detroit on May 20th, 1988. Can you guess what I'm going to say next? Yep. No reported grosses, no theatres playing the film tracked by Variety. The following week, Caribe opens in the San Francisco Bay Area, at the 300 seat United Artists Theatre in San Francisco, and three theatres in the South Bay. While Miramax once again did not report grosses, the combined gross for the four theatres, according to Variety, was a weak $3,700. Compare that to Aria, which was playing at the Opera Plaza Cinemas in its third week in San Francisco, in an auditorium 40% smaller than the United Artist, grossing $5,300 on its own. On June 3rd, Caribe would open at the AMC Fountain Square 14 in Nashville. One show only on Friday and Saturday at 11:45pm. Miramax did not report grosses. Probably because people we going to see Willie Tyler and Lester at Zanie's down the street. And again, it kept cycling around the country, one or two new playdates in each city it played in. Philadelphia in mid-June. Indianapolis in mid-July. Jersey City in late August. Always for one week, grosses never reported. Miramax's first Swedish release of the year was called Mio, but this was truly an international production. The $4m film was co-produced by Swedish, Norwegian and Russian production companies, directed by a Russian, adapted from a Swedish book by an American screenwriter, scored by one of the members of ABBA, and starring actors from England, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Mio tells the story of a boy from Stockholm who travels to an otherworldly fantasy realm and frees the land from an evil knight's oppression. What makes this movie memorable today is that Mio's best friend is played by none other than Christian Bale, in his very first film. The movie was shot in Moscow, Stockholm, the Crimea, Scotland, and outside Pripyat in the Northern part of what is now Ukraine, between March and July 1986. In fact, the cast and crew were shooting outside Pripyat on April 26th, when they got the call they needed to evacuate the area. It would be hours later when they would discover there had been a reactor core meltdown at the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. They would have to scramble to shoot in other locations away from Ukraine for a month, and when they were finally allowed to return, the area they were shooting in deemed to have not been adversely affected by the worst nuclear power plant accident in human history,, Geiger counters would be placed all over the sets, and every meal served by craft services would need to be read to make sure it wasn't contaminated. After premiering at the Moscow Film Festival in July 1987 and the Norwegian Film Festival in August, Mio would open in Sweden on October 16th, 1987. The local critics would tear the film apart. They hated that the filmmakers had Anglicized the movie with British actors like Christopher Lee, Susannah York, Christian Bale and Nicholas Pickard, an eleven year old boy also making his film debut. They also hated how the filmmakers adapted the novel by the legendary Astrid Lindgren, whose Pippi Longstocking novels made her and her works world famous. Overall, they hated pretty much everything about it outside of Christopher Lee's performance and the production's design in the fantasy world. Miramax most likely picked it up trying to emulate the success of The Neverending Story, which had opened to great success in most of the world in 1984. So it might seem kinda odd that when they would open the now titled The Land of Faraway in theatres, they wouldn't go wide but instead open it on one screen in Atlanta GA on June 10th, 1988. And, once again, Miramax did not report grosses, and Variety did not track Atlanta theatres that week. Two weeks later, they would open the film in Miami. How many theatres? Can't tell you. Miramax did not report grosses, and Variety was not tracking any of the theatres in Miami playing the film. But hey, Bull Durham did pretty good in Miami that week. The film would next open in theatres in Los Angeles. This time, Miramax bought a quarter page ad in the Los Angeles Times on opening day to let people know the film existed. So we know it was playing on 18 screens that weekend. And, once again, Miramax did not report grosses for the film. But on the two screens it played on that Variety was tracking, the combined gross was just $2,500. There'd be other playdates. Kansas City and Minneapolis in mid-September. Vancouver, BC in early October. Palm Beach FL in mid October. Calgary AB and Fort Lauderdale in late October. Phoenix in mid November. And never once did Miramax report any grosses for it. One week after Mio, Miramax would release a comedy called Going Undercover. Now, if you listened to our March 2021 episode on Some Kind of Wonderful, you may remember be mentioning Lea Thompson taking the role of Amanda Jones in that film, a role she had turned down twice before, the week after Howard the Duck opened, because she was afraid she'd never get cast in a movie again. And while Some Kind of Wonderful wasn't as big a film as you'd expect from a John Hughes production, Thompson did indeed continue to work, and is still working to this day. So if you were looking at a newspaper ad in several cities in June 1988 and saw her latest movie and wonder why she went back to making weird little movies. She hadn't. This was a movie she had made just before Back to the Future, in August and September 1984. Originally titled Yellow Pages, the film starred film legend Jean Simmons as Maxine, a rich woman who has hired Chris Lemmon's private investigator Henry Brilliant to protect her stepdaughter Marigold during her trip to Copenhagen. The director, James Clarke, had written the script specifically for Lemmon, tailoring his role to mimic various roles played by his famous father, Jack Lemmon, over the decades, and for Simmons. But Thompson was just one of a number of young actresses they looked at before making their casting choice. Half of the $6m budget would come from a first-time British film producer, while the other half from a group of Danish investors wanting to lure more Hollywood productions to their area. The shoot would be plagued by a number of problems. The shoot in Los Angeles coincided with the final days of the 1984 Summer Olympics, which would cut out using some of the best and most regularly used locations in the city, and a long-lasting heat wave that would make outdoor shoots unbearable for cast and crew. When they arrived in Copenhagen at the end of August, Denmark was going through an unusually heavy storm front that hung around for weeks. Clarke would spend several months editing the film, longer than usual for a smaller production like this, but he in part was waiting to see how Back to the Future would do at the box office. If the film was a hit, and his leading actress was a major part of that, it could make it easier to sell his film to a distributor. Or that was line of thinking. Of course, Back to the Future was a hit, and Thompson received much praise for her comedic work on the film. But that didn't make it any easier to sell his film. The producer would set the first screenings for the film at the February 1986 American Film Market in Santa Monica, which caters not only to foreign distributors looking to acquire American movies for their markets, but helps independent filmmakers get their movies seen by American distributors. As these screenings were for buyers by invitation only, there would be no reviews from the screenings, but one could guess that no one would hear about the film again until Miramax bought the American distribution rights to it in March 1988 tells us that maybe those screenings didn't go so well. The film would get retitled Going Undercover, and would open in single screen playdates in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, St. Louis and Tampa on June 17th. And as I've said too many times already, no reported grosses from Miramax, and only one theatre playing the film was being tracked by Variety, with Going Undercover earning $3,000 during its one week at the Century City 14 in Los Angeles. In the June 22nd, 1988 issue of Variety, there was an article about Miramax securing a $25m line of credit in order to start producing their own films. Going Undercover is mentioned in the article about being one of Miramax's releases, without noting it had just been released that week or how well it did or did not do. The Thin Blue Line would be Miramax's first non-music based documentary, and one that would truly change how documentaries were made. Errol Morris had already made two bizarre but entertaining documentaries in the late 70s and early 80s. Gates of Heaven was shot in 1977, about a man who operated a failing pet cemetery in Northern California's Napa Valley. When Morris told his famous German filmmaking supporter Werner Herzog about the film, Herzog vowed to eat one of the shoes he was wearing that day if Morris could actually complete the film and have it shown in a public theatre. In April 1979, just before the documentary had its world premiere at UC Theatre in Berkeley, where Morris had studied philosophy, Herzog would spend the morning at Chez Pannise, the creators of the California Cuisine cooking style, boiling his shoes for five hours in garlic, herbs and stock. This event itself would be commemorated in a documentary short called, naturally, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, by Les Blank, which is a must watch on its own. Because of the success of Gates of Heaven, Morris was able to quickly find financing for his next film, Nub City, which was originally supposed to be about the number of Vernon, Florida's citizens who have “accidentally” cut off their limbs, in order to collect the insurance money. But after several of those citizens threatened to kill Morris, and one of them tried to run down his cinematographer with their truck, Morris would rework the documentary, dropping the limb angle, no pun intended, and focus on the numerous eccentric people in the town. It would premiere at the 1981 New York Film Festival, and become a hit, for a documentary, when it was released in theatres in 1982. But it would take Morris another six years after completing Vernon, Florida, to make another film. Part of it was having trouble lining up full funding to work on his next proposed movie, about James Grigson, a Texas forensic psychiatrist whose was nicknamed Doctor Death for being an expert witness for the prosecution in death penalty cases in Texas. Morris had gotten seed money for the documentary from PBS and the Endowment for Public Arts, but there was little else coming in while he worked on the film. In fact, Morris would get a PI license in New York and work cases for two years, using every penny he earned that wasn't going towards living expenses to keep the film afloat. One of Morris's major problems for the film was that Grigson would not sit on camera for an interview, but would meet with Morris face to face to talk about the cases. During that meeting, the good doctor suggested to the filmmaker that he should research the killers he helped put away. And during that research, Morris would come across the case of one Randall Dale Adams, who was convicted of killing Dallas police officer Robert Wood in 1976, even though another man, David Harris, was the police's initial suspect. For two years, Morris would fly back and forth between New York City and Texas, talking to and filming interviews with Adams and more than two hundred other people connected to the shooting and the trial. Morris had become convinced Adams was indeed innocent, and dropped the idea about Dr. Grigson to solely focus on the Robert Wood murder. After showing the producers of PBS's American Playhouse some of the footage he had put together of the new direction of the film, they kicked in more funds so that Morris could shoot some re-enactment sequences outside New York City, as well as commission composer Phillip Glass to create a score for the film once it was completed. Documentaries at that time did not regularly use re-enactments, but Morris felt it was important to show how different personal accounts of the same moment can be misinterpreted or misremembered or outright manipulated to suppress the truth. After the film completed its post-production in March 1988, The Thin Blue Line would have its world premiere at the San Francisco Film Festival on March 18th, and word quickly spread Morris had something truly unique and special on his hands. The critic for Variety would note in the very first paragraph of his write up that the film employed “strikingly original formal devices to pull together diverse interviews, film clips, photo collages, and” and this is where it broke ground, “recreations of the crime from many points of view.” Miramax would put together a full court press in order to get the rights to the film, which was announced during the opening days of the 1988 Cannes Film Festival in early May. An early hint on how the company was going to sell the film was by calling it a “non-fiction feature” instead of a documentary. Miramax would send Morris out on a cross-country press tour in the weeks leading up to the film's August 26th opening date, but Morris, like many documentary filmmakers, was not used to being in the spotlight themselves, and was not as articulate about talking up his movies as the more seasoned directors and actors who've been on the promotion circuit for a while. After one interview, Harvey Weinstein would send Errol Morris a note. “Heard your NPR interview and you were boring.” Harvey would offer up several suggestions to help the filmmaker, including hyping the movie up as a real life mystery thriller rather than a documentary, and using shorter and clearer sentences when answering a question. It was a clear gamble to release The Thin Blue Line in the final week of summer, and the film would need a lot of good will to stand out. And it would get it. The New York Times was so enthralled with the film, it would not only run a review from Janet Maslin, who would heap great praise on the film, but would also run a lengthy interview with Errol Morris right next to the review. The quarter page ad in the New York Times, several pages back, would tout positive quotes from Roger Ebert, J. Hoberman, who had left The Village Voice for the then-new Premiere Magazine, Peter Travers, writing for People Magazine instead of Rolling Stone, and critics from the San Francisco Chronicle and, interestingly enough, the Dallas Morning News. The top of the ad was tagged with an intriguing tease: solving this mystery is going to be murder, with a second tag line underneath the key art and title, which called the film “a new kind of movie mystery.” Of the 15 New York area-based film critics for local newspapers, television and national magazines, 14 of them gave favorable reviews, while 1, Stephen Schiff of Vanity Fair, was ambivalent about it. Not one critic gave it a bad review. New York audiences were hooked. Opening in the 240 seat main house at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, the movie grossed $30,945 its first three days. In its second weekend, the gross at the Lincoln Plaza would jump to $31k, and adding another $27,500 from its two theatre opening in Los Angeles and $15,800 from a single DC theatre that week. Third week in New York was a still good $21k, but the second week in Los Angeles fell to $10,500 and DC to $10k. And that's how it rolled out for several months, mostly single screen bookings in major cities not called Los Angeles or New York City, racking up some of the best reviews Miramax would receive to date, but never breaking out much outside the major cities. When it looked like Santa Cruz wasn't going to play the film, I drove to San Francisco to see it, just as my friends and I had for the opening day of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ in mid-August. That's 75 miles each way, plus parking in San Francisco, just to see a movie. That's when you know you no longer just like movies but have developed a serious case of cinephilea. So when The Nickelodeon did open the film in late November, I did something I had never done with any documentary before. I went and saw it again. Second time around, I was still pissed off at the outrageous injustice heaped upon Randall Dale Adams for nothing more than being with and trusting the wrong person at the wrong time. But, thankfully, things would turn around for Adams in the coming weeks. On December 1st, it was reported that David Harris had recanted his testimony at Adams' trial, admitting he was alone when Officer Wood stopped his car. And on March 1st, 1989, after more than 15,000 people had signed the film's petition to revisit the decision, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Adams's conviction “based largely” on facts presented in the film. The film would also find itself in several more controversies. Despite being named The Best Documentary of the Year by a number of critics groups, the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences would not nominate the film, due in large part to the numerous reenactments presented throughout the film. Filmmaker Michael Apted, a member of the Directors Branch of the Academy, noted that the failure to acknowledge The Thin Blue Line was “one of the most outrageous things in the modern history of the Academy,” while Roger Ebert added the slight was “the worst non-nomination of the year.” Despite the lack of a nomination, Errol Morris would attend the Oscars ceremony in March 1989, as a protest for his film being snubbed. Morris would also, several months after Adams' release, find himself being sued by Adams, but not because of how he was portrayed in the film. During the making of the film, Morris had Adams sign a contract giving Morris the exclusive right to tell Adams's story, and Adams wanted, essentially, the right to tell his own story now that he was a free man. Morris and Adams would settle out of court, and Adams would regain his life rights. Once the movie was played out in theatres, it had grossed $1.2m, which on the surface sounds like not a whole lot of money. Adjusted for inflation, that would only be $3.08m. But even unadjusted for inflation, it's still one of the 100 highest grossing documentaries of the past forty years. And it is one of just a handful of documentaries to become a part of the National Film Registry, for being a culturally, historically or aesthetically significant film.” Adams would live a quiet life after his release, working as an anti-death penalty advocate and marrying the sister of one of the death row inmates he was helping to exonerate. He would pass away from a brain tumor in October 2010 at a courthouse in Ohio not half an hour from where he was born and still lived, but he would so disappear from the spotlight after the movie was released that his passing wasn't even reported until June 2011. Errol Morris would become one of the most celebrated documentarians of his generation, finally getting nominated for, and winning, an Oscar in 2003, for The Fog of War, about the life and times of Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon's Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War era. The Fog of War would also be added to the National Film Registry in 2019. Morris would become only the third documentarian, after D.A. Pennebaker and Les Blank, to have two films on the Registry. In 1973, the senseless killings of five members of the Alday family in Donalsonville GA made international headlines. Four years later, Canadian documentarian Tex Fuller made an award-winning documentary about the case, called Murder One. For years, Fuller shopped around a screenplay telling the same story, but it would take nearly a decade for it to finally be sold, in part because Fuller was insistent that he also be the director. A small Canadian production company would fund the $1m CAD production, which would star Henry Thomas of E.T. fame as the fifteen year old narrator of the story, Billy Isaacs. The shoot began in early October 1987 outside Toronto, but after a week of shooting, Fuller was fired, and was replaced by Graeme Campbell, a young and energetic filmmaker for whom Murder One would be his fourth movie directing gig of the year. Details are sketchy as to why Fuller was fired, but Thomas and his mother Carolyn would voice concerns with the producers about the new direction the film was taking under its new director. The film would premiere in Canada in May 1988. When the film did well up North, Miramax took notice and purchased the American distribution rights. Murder One would first open in America on two screens in Los Angeles on September 9th, 1988. Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times noted that while the film itself wasn't very good, that it still sprung from the disturbing insight about the crazy reasons people cross of what should be impassable moral lines. “No movie studio could have invented it!,” screamed the tagline on the poster and newspaper key art. “No writer could have imagined it! Because what happened that night became the most controversial in American history.” That would draw limited interest from filmgoers in Tinseltown. The two theatres would gross a combined $7k in its first three days. Not great but far better than several other recent Miramax releases in the area. Two weeks later, on September 23rd, Miramax would book Murder One into 20 theatres in the New York City metro region, as well as in Akron, Atlanta, Charlotte, Indianpolis, Nashville, and Tampa-St. Petersburg. In New York, the film would actually get some good reviews from the Times and the Post as well as Peter Travers of People Magazine, but once again, Miramax would not report grosses for the film. Variety would note the combined gross for the film in New York City was only $25k. In early October, the film would fall out of Variety's internal list of the 50 Top Grossing Films within the twenty markets they regularly tracked, with a final gross of just $87k. One market that Miramax deliberately did not book the film was anywhere near southwest Georgia, where the murders took place. The closest theatre that did play the film was more than 200 miles away. Miramax would finish 1988 with two releases. The first was Dakota, which would mark star Lou Diamond Phillips first time as a producer. He would star as a troubled teenager who takes a job on a Texas horse ranch to help pay of his debts, who becomes a sorta big brother to the ranch owner's young son, who has recently lost a leg to cancer, as he also falls for the rancher's daughter. When the $1.1m budgeted film began production in Texas in June 1987, Phillips had already made La Bamba and Stand and Deliver, but neither had yet to be released into theatres. By the time filming ended five weeks later, La Bamba had just opened, and Phillips was on his way to becoming a star. The main producers wanted director Fred Holmes to get the film through post-production as quickly as possible, to get it into theatres in the early part of 1988 to capitalize on the newfound success of their young star. But that wouldn't happen. Holmes wouldn't have the film ready until the end of February 1988, which was deemed acceptable because of the impending release of Stand and Deliver. In fact, the producers would schedule their first distributor screening of the film on March 14th, the Monday after Stand and Delivered opened, in the hopes that good box office for the film and good notices for Phillips would translate to higher distributor interest in their film, which sorta worked. None of the major studios would show for the screening, but a number of Indies would, including Miramax. Phillips would not attend the screening, as he was on location in New Mexico shooting Young Guns. I can't find any reason why Miramax waited nearly nine months after they acquired Dakota to get it into theatres. It certainly wasn't Oscar bait, and screen availability would be scarce during the busy holiday movie season, which would see a number of popular, high profile releases like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ernest Saves Christmas, The Naked Gun, Rain Man, Scrooged, Tequila Sunrise, Twins and Working Girl. Which might explain why, when Miramax released the film into 18 theatres in the New York City area on December 2nd, they could only get three screens in all of Manhattan, the best being the nice but hardly first-rate Embassy 4 at Broadway and 47th. Or of the 22 screens in Los Angeles opening the film the same day, the best would be the tiny Westwood 4 next to UCLA or the Paramount in Hollywood, whose best days were back in the Eisenhower administration. And, yet again, Miramax did not report grosses, and none of the theatres playing the film was tracked by Variety that week. The film would be gone after just one week. The Paramount, which would open Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on the 14th, opted to instead play a double feature of Clara's Heart, with Whoopi Goldberg and Neil Patrick Harris, and the River Phoenix drama Running on Empty, even though neither film had been much of a hit. Miramax's last film of the year would be the one that changed everything for them. Pelle the Conquerer. Adapted from a 1910 Danish book and directed by Billie August, whose previous film Twist and Shout had been released by Miramax in 1986, Pelle the Conquerer would be the first Danish or Swedish movie to star Max von Sydow in almost 15 years, having spent most of the 70s and 80s in Hollywood and London starring in a number of major movies including The Exorcist, Three Days of the Condor, Flash Gordon,Conan the Barbarian, Never Say Never Again, and David Lynch's Dune. But because von Sydow would be making his return to his native cinema, August was able to secure $4.5m to make the film, one of the highest budgeted Scandinavian films to be made to date. In the late 1850s, an elderly emigrant Lasse and his son Pelle leave their home in Sweden after the death of the boy's mother, wanting to build a new life on the Danish island of Bornholm. Lasse finds it difficult to find work, given his age and his son's youth. The pair are forced to work at a large farm, where they are generally mistreated by the managers for being foreigners. The father falls into depression and alcoholism, the young boy befriends one of the bastard children of the farm owner as well as another Swedish farm worker, who dreams of conquering the world. For the title character of Pelle, Billie August saw more than 3,000 Swedish boys before deciding to cast 11 year old Pelle Hvenegaard, who, like many boys in Sweden, had been named for the character he was now going to play on screen. After six months of filming in the summer and fall of 1986, Billie August would finish editing Pelle the Conquerer in time for it to make its intended Christmas Day 1987 release date in Denmark and Sweden, where the film would be one of the biggest releases in either country for the entire decade. It would make its debut outside Scandinavia at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1988, where it had been invited to compete for the Palme D'Or. It would compete against a number of talented filmmakers who had come with some of the best films they would ever make, including Clint Eastwood with Bird, Claire Denis' Chocolat, István Szabó's Hanussen, Vincent Ward's The Navigator, and A Short Film About Killing, an expanded movie version of the fifth episode in Krzysztof Kieślowski's masterful miniseries Dekalog. Pelle would conquer them all, taking home the top prize from one of cinema's most revered film festivals. Reviews for the film out of Cannes were almost universally excellent. Vincent Canby, the lead film critic for the New York Times for nearly twenty years by this point, wouldn't file his review until the end of the festival, in which he pointed out that a number of people at the festival were scandalized von Sydow had not also won the award for Best Actor. Having previously worked with the company on his previous film's American release, August felt that Miramax would have what it took to make the film a success in the States. Their first moves would be to schedule the film for a late December release, while securing a slot at that September's New York Film Festival. And once again, the critical consensus was highly positive, with only a small sampling of distractors. The film would open first on two screens at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, December 21st, following by exclusive engagements in nine other cities including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC, on the 23rd. But the opening week numbers weren't very good, just $46k from ten screens. And you can't really blame the film's two hour and forty-five minute running time. Little Dorrit, the two-part, four hour adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, had been out nine weeks at this point and was still making nearly 50% more per screen. But after the new year, when more and more awards were hurled the film's way, including the National Board of Review naming it one of the best foreign films of the year and the Golden Globes awarding it their Best Foreign Language trophy, ticket sales would pick up. Well, for a foreign film. The week after the Motion Picture Academy awarded Pelle their award for Best Foreign Language Film, business for the film would pick up 35%, and a third of its $2m American gross would come after that win. One of the things that surprised me while doing the research for this episode was learning that Max von Sydow had never been nominated for an Oscar until he was nominated for Best Actor for Pelle the Conquerer. You look at his credits over the years, and it's just mind blowing. The Seventh Seal. Wild Strawberries. The Virgin Spring. The Greatest Story Ever Told. The Emigrants. The Exorcist. The Three Days of the Condor. Surely there was one performance amongst those that deserved recognition. I hate to keep going back to A24, but there's something about a company's first Oscar win that sends that company into the next level. A24 didn't really become A24 until 2016, when three of their movies won Oscars, including Brie Larson for Best Actress in Room. And Miramax didn't really become the Miramax we knew and once loved until its win for Pelle. Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 117, the fifth and final part of our miniseries on Miramax Films, is released. Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode. The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.
Welcome to Season 2 of the Diffusion Tapes. We spent some quality time with the illustrious Ann Jastrab for this episode. Ann Jastrab is the Executive Director at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel California. Ann grew up in the village of Whitsboro, New York. She studied literature and art in college and received her MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Since then she's been an educator for multiple organizations, a master printer, editor-in-chief, gallery director, executive director, portfolio reviewer, and master of the universe. She still carries around a wooden view camera.In our conversation, we chat with Ann about her journey as a photographer…. Recorded January 5th, 2023. These are the Diffusion Tapes... Show notesCenter for Photographic ArtThe Savannah College of Art and DesignMaine Media WorkshopsLinhof Technika - cameraRayKo Photo CenterHolga - cameraFotoFestPhotolucidaPhoto NOLAReview Santa FePhotoAllianceCalifornia College of the ArtsEast Bay Photo CollectiveHarvey Milk CenterCarmel, CaliforniaScott Nichols GalleryFriends of PhotographyBrian TaylorChris PichlerNazraeli PressAcademy of Motion Pictures Arts and SciencesMary Ellen MarkSF MOMASonoma Valley Museum of ArtBrenton HamiltonLishui Photo FestivalGuate Photo FestivalDonggang (Seoul) International Photo FestivalE. M. ForsterThe Paula Riff Award at CPAThe Diffusion Tapes are produced and hosted by Blue Mitchell and co-hosted by Michael KirchoffThe Diffusion Tapes theme song composed by Jeff Louviere
On the show today… Supermodel Naomi Campbell announced that she has welcomed her second child at 53 years old. Here's how she shared the news. And the Oscars are about to look very different going forward, because Austin Butler, Ke Huy Quan, Keke Palmer, Paul Mescal, and Taylor Swift are among the 398 artists and executives invited to join the membership of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Let's unpack what that actually means. Plus, Bebe Rexa and Pink are just the latest names in a group of pop stars who have been assaulted on stage in the last week (or had a dead woman's ashes hurled at the) some people are blaming the end of lockdowns for this new behaviour, but the explanation goes much deeper than that. Plus, it's Weekend Watch time! This week we have a returning fantasy series to recommend to you along with a glossy Netflix series that we… have some notes on. THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia GET IN TOUCH: Feedback? We're listening. Call the pod phone on 02 8999 9386 or email us at thespill@mamamia.com.au WANT MORE? Read all the latest entertainment news on Mamamia... https://mamamia.com.au/entertainment/ Subscribe to The Spill Newsletter... https://mamamia.com.au/newsletter CREDITS Hosts: Laura Brodnik & Em Vernem Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Scott Stronach Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading our articles or listening to our podcasts, you're helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We're currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.auBecome a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Moving beyond Empathy and Equity in Global Stories - The distinction between the West and the rest has been replaced by a multipolar world where the cultural influence of “the rest” is rising. This presents the chance for the documentary industry to re-invent itself by moving beyond empathy and equity. But is the documentary industry ready for this? A panel discussion presented at this year's Cannes Docs - Doc Day with producer, writer, and director Mehret Mandefro, cofounder of various organizations at the intersection of social impact and media in the US, Ethiopia, and across Africa at large. Mehret Mandefro is an Emmy-nominated producer, writer, entrepreneur, physician and thought leader who champions the creative arts as a path to developing a more just society. Her track record in both using narrative to shift culture and scaling media businesses secured her a spot on Variety's list of most impactful women in global entertainment. Drawing on her training at Harvard University in Medicine and Anthropology as the foundation to approaching social issues as a filmmaker, Mehret co-founded the independent production company Truth Aid Media in 2008 in the USA. She has since set up A51 Pictures as its sister company in Ethiopia as well as the Realness Institute in South Africa, and was formerly Executive Producer of Kana Television in Ethiopia, which was subsequently acquired by Canal+. Her latest media venture, TBTM Studios, is headquartered in Dubai and has a slate of projects across documentary and scripted, featuring Africa's leading voices. Mehret's credits include the Sundance and Berlinale Audience Award winner Difret, the New York Times Critic's Pick Little White Lie and she was showrunner for Ethiopia's first-ever teen drama series Yegna. She executive produced the American Masters feature documentary film How It Feels To Be Free and feature narrative film Sweetness in the Belly, both on Amazon Prime. Her latest documentary feature about reparations in America, directed by Yoruba Richen, is called The Inheritance and is in post-production. A member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Mehret is a sought-after speaker and has a widely watched TED talk about the impact of the creative industry on economic growth in Africa. Mehret has a BA in Anthropology from Harvard University, an MD from Harvard Medical School, a MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Fulbright Scholar, and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Temple University. She was a White House Fellow in the Obama Administration.This discussion was organized by Cannes Docs - Marché du Film with the support of Doc Alliance, Participant, LaScam in association with L'oeil d'or, Année du Documentaire, DAE, CNC, & ACID. Distributed by Docs in Orbit in partnership with Cannes Docs. For show notes visit docsinorbit.com and be sure to follow us on social media @docsinorbit for updates.
Grace Emmons is the founder of Forward With Grace, the first spiritual consultancy of its kind facilitating transformations for CEOs, celebrities, and high-powered individuals from Silicon Beach to Malibu along with leading companies such as the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Toms, Talkspace, Revolve, Dermalogica, and LiquidIV. I had a mini session with Grace before the interview and it was amazing. Felt like I released an energetic brick and I felt so much lighter after Grace and I chat about: what is energy healing why energy healing is powerful if you've tried everything else how we can connect deeper with ourselves to create more alignment in our lives energy healing for business growth practices to protect your energy Time is running out to get a ticket to the Toronto Event!! Join by June 5th and you'll also get access to my brand new group program that starts next week, $10K Month Bootcamp. Get an event ticket here. DM me with any questions you have.
On this episode of Pop Life, we conclude our three part series focusing on the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. To do so, host Kendall Phillips chats with Matt Severson, the Director the Margaret Herrick Library. Matt Has a 21+ year history of working in motion picture archives, exhibition curating, donor outreach and employee management. Skilled in Digitization, Curating, Writing, and Collection Management. Matt tell us about the woman the library is named after, the struggle of archiving hard copied document in a word that's gone digital, as well as sharing a very funny tale about the time Drew Barrymore visited the Library
Peter J. Devlin, recently elected as a Governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, has worked on more than 70 films and been nominated for five Oscars including Black Panther, Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon, Transformers, Star Trek (2009) and Pearl Harbor. He received a BAFTA nomination for his work on Star Trek and a Primetime Emmy nomination for Star Trek: Picard. He has worked closely with some of the top directors in film, including Michael Bay, Ryan Coogler, Ron Howard and Patty Jenkins. Earlier in the year he wrapped his work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and is thrilled to have just worked with Chris Pine, who is making his directorial debut with the upcoming film Poolman. A past CAS Board member, it was his first CAS nomination for Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday that introduced him to the organization in 2000. Since then, he has received multiple nominations. Born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Devlin knew that he wanted to work in film after seeing Jaws as a teenager. Though his school principal told him his dreams were “pie in the sky,” he applied for a trainee audio assistant position at the BBC in Belfast in 1981. Initially thinking he might move into the camera department, he quickly realized his true interest was in production sound. To prepare for the interview, he spent his days in the local library reading as much about microphone principles, recording techniques and filmmaking as he could find. He got the job, which proved the perfect training ground, with the BBC's wide range of productions, from news, to sports, to concerts and to radio drama. “I had great mentors, and I learned about all of the different disciplines of sound there.” Devlin's focus and persistence were evident as he took the next step, writing to directors he admired, including Michael Mann. He still has the letter Mann sent him in 1987, inviting him to visit the set of Miami Vice. From there, Devlin forged connections with others in the industry, landing his first job in the United States, working in commercials. Eventually, he moved into television and film. Today, Devlin continues to adapt to the ever-changing technologies that enhance storytelling through production sound mixing. While he wishes that he had today's tech for some of the films he worked on in the past, he says, “The most important element will always be the work of the sound department as a team, boom operators and sound utilities. Their expertise allows me to concentrate on recording performance and create tracks that can elevate a scene when they are handed off to our colleagues in post production.” Devlin joins an illustrious group of past CAS Career Achievement Honorees including: Anna Behlmer, Willie Burton, Tom Fleischman, Les Fresholtz, Ed Greene, Tomlinson Holman, Doc Kane, William B. Kaplan, David MacMillan, Paul Massey, Scott Millan, Mike Minkler, Walter Murch, Andy Nelson, Chris Newman, Lee Orloff, Richard Portman, John Pritchett, Don Rogers, Gary Rydstrom, Dennis Sands, Randy Thom, Jim Webb, Jeffrey S. Wexler and Charles Wilborn.
On this episode, we do our first deep dive into the John Landis filmography, to talk about one of his lesser celebrated film, the 1985 Jeff Goldblum/Michelle Pfeiffer morbid comedy Into the Night. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Long time listeners to this show know that I am not the biggest fan of John Landis, the person. I've spoken about Landis, and especially about his irresponsibility and seeming callousness when it comes to the helicopter accident on the set of his segment for the 1983 film The Twilight Zone which took the lives of actors Vic Morrow, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, enough where I don't wish to rehash it once again. But when one does a podcast that celebrates the movies of the 1980s, every once in a while, one is going to have to talk about John Landis and his movies. He did direct eight movies, one documentary and a segment in an anthology film during the decade, and several of them, both before and after the 1982 helicopter accident, are actually pretty good films. For this episode, we're going to talk about one of his lesser known and celebrated films from the decade, despite its stacked cast. We're talking about 1985's Into the Night. But, as always, before we get to Into the Night, some backstory. John David Landis was born in Chicago in 1950, but his family moved to Los Angeles when he was four months old. While he grew up in the City of Angels, he still considers himself a Chicagoan, which is an important factoid to point out a little later in his life. After graduating from high school in 1968, Landis got his first job in the film industry the way many a young man and woman did in those days: through the mail room at a major studio, his being Twentieth Century-Fox. He wasn't all that fond of the mail room. Even since he had seen The 7th Voyage of Sinbad at the age of eight, he knew he wanted to be a filmmaker, and you're not going to become a filmmaker in the mail room. By chance, he would get a job as a production assistant on the Clint Eastwood/Telly Savalas World War II comedy/drama Kelly's Heroes, despite the fact that the film would be shooting in Yugoslavia. During the shoot, he would become friendly with the film's co-stars Don Rickles and Donald Sutherland. When the assistant director on the film got sick and had to go back to the United States, Landis positioned himself to be the logical, and readily available, replacement. Once Kelly's Heroes finished shooting, Landis would spend his time working on other films that were shooting in Italy and the United Kingdom. It is said he was a stuntman on Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but I'm going to call shenanigans on that one, as the film was made in 1966, when Landis was only sixteen years old and not yet working in the film industry. I'm also going to call shenanigans on his working as a stunt performer on Leone's 1968 film Once Upon a Time in the West, and Tony Richardson's 1968 film The Charge of the Light Brigade, and Peter Collinson's 1969 film The Italian Job, which also were all filmed and released into theatres before Landis made his way to Europe the first time around. In 1971, Landis would write and direct his first film, a low-budget horror comedy called Schlock, which would star Landis as the title character, in an ape suit designed by master makeup creator Rick Baker. The $60k film was Landis's homage to the monster movies he grew up watching, and his crew would spend 12 days in production, stealing shots wherever they could because they could not afford filming permits. For more than a year, Landis would show the completed film to any distributor that would give him the time of day, but no one was interested in a very quirky comedy featuring a guy in a gorilla suit playing it very very straight. Somehow, Johnny Carson was able to screen a print of the film sometime in the fall of 1972, and the powerful talk show host loved it. On November 2nd, 1972, Carson would have Landis on The Tonight Show to talk about his movie. Landis was only 22 at the time, and the exposure on Carson would drive great interest in the film from a number of smaller independent distributors would wouldn't take his calls even a week earlier. Jack H. Harris Enterprises would be the victor, and they would first release Schlock on twenty screens in Los Angeles on December 12th, 1973, the top of a double bill alongside the truly schlocky Son of The Blob. The film would get a very good reception from the local press, including positive reviews from the notoriously prickly Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas, and an unnamed critic in the pages of the industry trade publication Daily Variety. The film would move from market to market every few weeks, and the film would make a tidy little profit for everyone involved. But it would be four more years until Landis would make his follow-up film. The Kentucky Fried Movie originated not with Landis but with three guys from Madison, Wisconsin who started their own theatre troop while attending the University of Wisconsin before moving it to West Los Angeles in 1971. Those guys, brothers David and Jerry Zucker, and their high school friend Jim Abrahams, had written a number of sketches for their stage shows over a four year period, and felt a number of them could translate well to film, as long as they could come up with a way to link them all together. Although they would be aware of Ken Shapiro's 1974 comedy anthology movie The Groove Tube, a series of sketches shot on videotape shown in movie theatres on the East Coast at midnight on Saturday nights, it would finally hit them in 1976, when Neal Israel's anthology sketch comedy movie TunnelVision became a small hit in theatres. That movie featured Chevy Chase and Laraine Newman, two of the stars of NBC's hit show Saturday Night Live, which was the real reason the film was a hit, but that didn't matter to Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker. The Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker team decided they needed to not just tell potential backers about the film but show them what they would be getting. They would raise $35,000 to film a ten minute segment, but none of them had ever directed anything for film before, so they would start looking for an experienced director who would be willing to work on a movie like theirs for little to no money. Through mutual friend Bob Weiss, the trio would meet and get to know John Landis, who would come aboard to direct the presentation reel, if not the entire film should it get funded. That segment, if you've seen Kentucky Fried Movie, included the fake trailer for Cleopatra Schwartz, a parody of blaxploitation movies. The guys would screen the presentation reel first to Kim Jorgensen, the owner of the famed arthouse theatre the Nuart here in Los Angeles, and Jorgensen loved it. He would put up part of the $650k budget himself, and he would show the reel to his friends who also ran theatres, not just in Los Angeles, whenever they were in town, and it would be through a consortium of independent movie theatre owners that Kentucky Fried Movie would get financed. The movie would be released on August 10th, 1977, ironically the same day as another independent sketch comedy movie, Can I Do It Till I Need Glasses?, was released. But Kentucky Fried Movie would have the powerful United Artists Theatres behind them, as they would make the movie the very first release through their own distribution company, United Film Distribution. I did a three part series on UFDC back in 2021, if you'd like to learn more about them. Featuring such name actors as Bill Bixby, Henry Gibson, George Lazenby and Donald Sutherland, Kentucky Fried Movie would earn more than $7m in theatres, and would not only give John Landis the hit he needed to move up the ranks, but it would give Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker the opportunity to make their own movie. But we'll talk about Airplane! sometime in the future. Shortly after the release of Kentuck Fried Movie, Landis would get hired to direct Animal House, which would become the surprise success of 1978 and lead Landis into directing The Blues Brothers, which is probably the most John Landis movie that will ever be made. Big, loud, schizophrenic, a little too long for its own good, and filled with a load of in-jokes and cameos that are built only for film fanatics and/or John Landis fanatics. The success of The Blues Brothers would give Landis the chance to make his dream project, a horror comedy he had written more than a decade before. An American Werewolf in London was the right mix of comedy and horror, in-jokes and great needle drops, with some of the best practical makeup effects ever created for a movie. Makeup effects so good that, in fact, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences would make the occasionally given Best Makeup Effects Oscar a permanent category, and Werewolf would win that category's first competitive Oscar. In 1982, Landis would direct Coming Soon, one of the first direct-to-home video movies ever released. Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis, Coming Soon was, essentially, edited clips from 34 old horror and thriller trailers for movies owned by Universal, from Frankenstein and Dracula to Psycho and The Birds. It's only 55 minutes long, but the video did help younger burgeoning cineasts learn more about the history of Universal's monster movies. And then, as previously mentioned, there was the accident during the filming of The Twilight Zone. Landis was able to recover enough emotionally from the tragedy to direct Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd in the winter of 1982/83, another hit that maybe showed Hollywood the public wasn't as concerned about the Twilight Zone accident as they worried it would. The Twilight Zone movie would be released three weeks after Trading Places, and while it was not that big a hit, it wasn't quite the bomb it was expected to be because of the accident. Which brings us to Into the Night. While Landis was working on the final edit of Trading Places, the President of Universal Pictures, Sean Daniels, contacted Landis about what his next project might be. Universal was where Landis had made Animal House, The Blues Brothers and American Werewolf, so it would not be unusual for a studio head to check up on a filmmaker who had made three recent successful films for them. Specifically, Daniels wanted to pitch Landis on a screenplay the studio had in development called Into the Night. Ron Koslow, the writer of the 1976 Sam Elliott drama Lifeguard, had written the script on spec which the studio had picked up, about an average, ordinary guy who, upon discovering his wife is having an affair, who finds himself in the middle of an international incident involving jewel smuggling out of Iran. Maybe this might be something he would be interested in working on, as it would be both right up his alley, a comedy, and something he'd never done before, a romantic action thriller. Landis would agree to make the film, if he were allowed some leeway in casting. For the role of Ed Okin, an aerospace engineer whose insomnia leads him to the Los Angeles International Airport in search of some rest, Landis wanted Jeff Goldblum, who had made more than 15 films over the past decade, including Annie Hall, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Big Chill and The Right Stuff, but had never been the lead in a movie to this point. For Diana, the jewel smuggler who enlists the unwitting Ed into her strange world, Landis wanted Michelle Pfeiffer, the gorgeous star of Grease 2 and Scarface. But mostly, Landis wanted to fill as many of supporting roles with either actors he had worked with before, like Dan Aykroyd and Bruce McGill, or filmmakers who were either contemporaries of Landis and/or were filmmakers he had admired. Amongst those he would get would be Jack Arnold, Paul Bartel, David Cronenberg, Jonathan Demme, Richard Franklin, Amy Heckerling, Colin Higgins, Jim Henson, Lawrence Kasdan, Jonathan Lynn, Paul Mazursky, Don Siegel, and Roger Vadim, as well as Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, Midnight Cowboy writer Waldo Salt, personal trainer to the stars Jake Steinfeld, music legends David Bowie and Carl Perkins, and several recent Playboy Playmates. Landis himself would be featured as one of the four Iranian agents chasing Pfeiffer's character. While neither Perkins nor Bowie would appear on the soundtrack to the film, Landis was able to get blues legend B.B. King to perform three songs, two brand new songs as well as a cover of the Wilson Pickett classic In the Midnight Hour. Originally scheduled to be produced by Joel Douglas, brother of Michael and son of Kirk, Into the Night would go into production on April 2nd, 1984, under the leadership of first-time producer Ron Koslow and Landis's producing partner George Folsey, Jr. The movie would make great use of dozens of iconic Los Angeles locations, including the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the Shubert Theatre in Century City, the Ships Coffee Shot on La Cienega, the flagship Tiffanys and Company in Beverly Hills, Randy's Donuts, and the aforementioned airport. But on Monday, April 23rd, the start of the fourth week of shooting, the director was ordered to stand trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter due to the accident on the Twilight Zone set. But the trial would not start until months after Into the Night was scheduled to complete its shoot. In an article about the indictment printed in the Los Angeles Times two days later, Universal Studios head Sean Daniels was insistent the studio had made no special plans in the event of Landis' possible conviction. Had he been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, Landis was looking at up to six years in prison. The film would wrap production in early June, and Landis would spend the rest of the year in an editing bay on the Universal lot with his editor, Malcolm Campbell, who had also cut An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, the Michael Jackson Thriller short film, and Landis's segment and the Landis-shot prologue to The Twilight Zone. During this time, Universal would set a February 22nd, 1985 release date for the film, an unusual move, as every movie Landis had made since Kentucky Fried Movie had been released during the summer movie season, and there was nothing about Into the Night that screamed late Winter. I've long been a proponent of certain movies having a right time to be released, and late February never felt like the right time to release a morbid comedy, especially one that takes place in sunny Los Angeles. When Into the Night opened in New York City, at the Loews New York Twin at Second Avenue and 66th Street, the high in the city was 43 degrees, after an overnight low of 25 degrees. What New Yorker wants to freeze his or her butt off to see Jeff Goldblum run around Los Angeles with Michelle Pfeiffer in a light red leather jacket and a thin white t-shirt, if she's wearing anything at all? Well, actually, that last part wasn't so bad. But still, a $40,000 opening weekend gross at the 525 seat New York Twin would be one of the better grosses for all of the city. In Los Angeles, where the weather was in the 60s all weekend, the film would gross $65,500 between the 424 seat Avco Cinema 2 in Westwood and the 915 seat Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. The reviews, like with many of Landis's films, were mixed. Richard Corliss of Time Magazine would find the film irresistible and a sparkling thriller, calling Goldblum and Pfeiffer two of the most engaging young actors working. Peter Travers, writing for People Magazine at the time, would anoint the film with a rarely used noun in film criticism, calling it a “pip.” Travers would also call Pfeiffer a knockout of the first order, with a newly uncovered flair for comedy. Guess he hadn't seen her in the 1979 ABC spin-off of Animal House, called Delta House, in which she played The Bombshell, or in Floyd Mutrix's 1980 comedy The Hollywood Knights. But the majority of critics would find plenty to fault with the film. The general critical feeling for the film was that it was too inside baseball for most people, as typified by Vincent Canby in his review for the New York Times. Canby would dismiss the film as having an insidey, which is not a word, manner of a movie made not for the rest of us but for the moviemakers on the Bel Air circuit who watch each other's films in their own screening room. After two weeks of exclusive engagements in New York and Los Angeles, Universal would expand the film to 1096 screens on March 8th, where the film would gross $2.57m, putting it in fifth place for the weekend, nearly a million dollars less than fellow Universal Pictures film The Breakfast Club, which was in its fourth week of release and in ninety fewer theatres. After a fourth weekend of release, where the film would come in fifth place again with $1.95m, now nearly a million and a half behind The Breakfast Club, Universal would start to migrate the film out of first run theatres and into dollar houses, in order to make room for another film of theirs, Peter Bogdanovich's comeback film Mask, which would be itself expanding from limited release to wide release on March 22nd. Into the Night would continue to play at the second-run theatres for months, but its final gross of $7.56m wouldn't even cover the film's $8m production budget. Despite the fact that it has both Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer as its leads, Into the Night would not become a cult film on home video the way that many films neglected by audiences in theatres would find a second life. I thought the film was good when I saw it opening night at the Aptos Twin. I enjoyed the obvious chemistry between the two leads, and I enjoyed the insidey manner in which there were so many famous filmmakers doing cameos in the film. I remember wishing there was more of David Bowie, since there were very few people, actors or musicians, who would fill the screen with so much charm and charisma, even when playing a bad guy. And I enjoyed listening to B.B. King on the soundtrack, as I had just started to get into the blues during my senior year of high school. I revisited the film, which you can rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon and several other major streaming services, for the podcast, and although I didn't enjoy the film as much as I remember doing so in 1985, it was clear that these two actors were going to become big stars somewhere down the road. Goldblum, of course, would become a star the following year, thanks to his incredible work in David Cronenberg's The Fly. Incidentally, Goldblum and Cronenberg would meet for the first time on the set of Into the Night. And, of course, Michelle Pfeiffer would explode in 1987, thanks to her work with Susan Sarandon, Cher and Jack Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick, which she would follow up with not one, not two but three powerhouse performances of completely different natures in 1988, in Jonathan Demme's Married to the Mob, Robert Towne's Tequila Sunrise, and her Oscar-nominated work in Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons. Incidentally, Pfeiffer and Jonathan Demme would also meet for the first time on the set of Into the Night, so maybe it was kismet that all these things happened in part because of the unusual casting desires of John Landis. Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 108, on Martha Coolidge's Valley Girl, is released. Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about Into the Night. The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.
On this week's episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) discuss a rumor that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences want to broaden the theatrical exhibition requirement. Would this benefit theaters or just serve as a way for entrenched streaming powerhouses like Netflix to shut out mid-level distributors? Then the gang discusses Tetris, a movie that inspired confusing feelings in Peter and Sonny who, for one of the first times ever, felt ideologically pandered to by a major motion picture. Make sure to swing by Bulwark Plus for our bonus episode Friday on our favorite retro games. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend! A quick programming note: We are off next week, thanks to a confluence of travel and vacation schedules, but will be back the week after.
Mary Jane's films have screened at the Toronto, Venice, Berlin, Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals and have received numerous awards and nominations, including several appearances on the National Board of Review ‘best of' list, a BAFTA best screenplay win for The Station Agent and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Richard Jenkins in The Visitor. Mary Jane received the Independent Spirit Award for Producing in 2004 and was selected as one of Variety's Producers to Watch in 2003. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and serves on the Branch Executive Committee for the Producers Branch.Mary Jane has served as an adjunct at Columbia University and New York University and regular acts as an advisor at the Sundance Creative Producing and Catalyst Labs. In 2016 she served as the Allesee Chair at Wayne State University. From 2013-2018 Mary Jane was the Senior Advisor to Gamechanger, a financing entity focused exclusively on films directed by women. Gamechanger's inaugural slate of films included The Tale, The Invitation, Busters Mal Heart, Love Song, Land Ho, Addicted to Fresno and The Strange Ones. She is a graduate of The University of Michigan.Mary Jane Skalski is currently the President of Production for Echo Lake Entertainment, a production, management and financing company where, in addition to overseeing the company's slate, she is also producing a number of projects in film and tv and has a small number of clients.
"Everything is in a cycle, and the cycle is dictated by the audience's needs and wants, the studio's needs and wants in terms of the financial bottom line, right? Those two very evolving organisms are always trying to sync into the right gear. So, I don't worry anymore because it always comes back around. You're in this long enough, you just go, all right, this is a cycle, it'll come back around." Stephanie Allain Stephanie Allain of Homegrown Pictures, is a prolific film and television producer dedicated to creating content by and about women and people of color with authentic stories, depictions, and representation. She began her career in the mid-80s as a reader at the elite talent agency, CAA, a job that required reading scripts and books submitted to the agency and providing coverage of the material, often the first barrier for further consideration and development. In her next position at Columbia Pictures, as one of only two African-American readers, a young USC student found his way to her under the guise of interest in a job. Instead that student, John Singleton, pitched her Boyz in the Hood and the rest, as they say, is history. Stephanie worked with John Singleton on five movies: Boyz N the Hood (1991), Poetic Justice (1993), Higher Learning (1995), Hustle & Flow (2005) and Black Snake Moan (2006). She also produced Something New, Peeples, Beyond The Lights, Dear White People, French Dirty, Burning Sands, Juanita and Really Love. Her work has been nominated for numerous awards with wins from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Film Independent Spirit Awards, NAACP and others. A few of her projects currently in production include her first documentary Untitled Billy Preston, and a limited series for HBO, Sula by Toni Morrison. Amid a brilliant career, Stephanie became the first black woman to co-produce the Academy Awards (2020) and made history again by becoming the first woman of color to be named as President of the Producer's Guild of America (2022). Please join me, your host, Brad Johnson, on Corner Table Talk with this inspiring woman and Hollywood powerhouse. * * * Instagram: Corner Table Talk and Post and Beam Hospitality LinkedIn: Brad Johnson E.Mail: brad@postandbeamhospitality.com For more information on host Brad Johnson or to join our mailing list, please visit: https://postandbeamhospitality.com/ Theme Music: Bryce Vine Corner Table™ is a trademark of Post & Beam Hospitality LLCSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Lauren Goodman received her MFA in screenwriting from the College of Motion Pictures Arts at Florida State University. While volunteering at the Revs Institute in Naples, Florida, she encountered one of two Maseratis entered by Lucy Schell in the 1940 Indy 500. Ms. Goodman's research into Lucy's time in France as a team owner and principal has been presented at Revs Institute. Her writing draws heavily on history and the lives of women whose achievements have been overlooked. Presently, she is developing Lucy's story into a feature-length project. Ms. Goodman's presentation will highlight Lucy's role in motor racing history and her contributions to the sport. This episode is sponsored in part by: The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argetsinger Family - and was recorded in front of a live studio audience.
Filmmaker Kimberly Peirce talks with Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ about her award-winning film “Boys Don't Cry” that was featured on the second season of Turner Classic Movies series “Reframed”. “Reframed” addresses famous/classic films that may have been controversial when they were released due to their themes like homophobia, misogyny, racism etc. The series that aired throughout November also took a look at pioneering LGBTQ films from an historical perspective. Each film is shown along with a discussion from film experts about these issues. Peirce co-hosted the show with Ben Mankiewicz who engaged in a conversation about how this 1999 breakthrough film raised awareness to the lives of our transgender community and the discrimination they faced that unfortunately continues today. “Boys Don't Cry” was directed by Kimberly and co-written by Peirce and Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena played by actress Hilary Swank who won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance. The story is about a trans man who attempts to find love in Nebraska but falls victim to a brutal hate crime perpetrated by two male acquaintances. The film co-stars Chloë Sevigny who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress as Teena's girlfriend Lana Tisdel. We talked to Kimberly about what she hopes to accomplish with her work and her spin on our LGBTQ issues. Kimberly Peirce received a BA from the University of Chicago and an MFA from Columbia University Graduate Film. She also graduated from Sundance Institute's Writing, Directing & Producing Labs. Her unflinching debut feature “Boys Don't Cry” earned numerous honors and was inducted into the Library of Congress as a National Treasure in 2020. Her second feature “Stop-Loss” was released by Paramount Pictures in 2008. In 2013 she directed a remake of the horror film “Carrie”. Kimberly is a Governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and a National Board member of the Directors Guild of America. Recently she co-founded the first ever DGA LGBTQ+ Committee to expand the rights, representation and protections of LGBTQ+ people at the DGA and the industry. For More Info… LISTEN: 600+ LGBTQ Chats @OUTTAKE VOICE
For Video Edition, Please Click and Subscribe Here: https://youtu.be/PUt7aZ6mO_g Brad Forenza (series creator, Around the Sun) is an award-winning, New York-based writer/performer. His artistic style blends observational humor and existential contemplation. Brad's original films include: Awakening Arlene, Breaking Points, and The Lady Yang. His plays have been presented in New York and Los Angeles. Brad is the author of over 100 articles, editorials, and speeches. His anthologized publications include: The Public Figure Songbook (a concept album), Reagan Babies (personal essays), Vignettes (source material for the episodes comprising Around the Sun), and the forthcoming Long Ways Home. As an actor, Brad has appeared in roles for all mediums. James LaVeck is an author and blogger on the topics of grief, recovery, and living life and dreams in the face of being widowed twice. He is also an actor, filmmaker, and certified master life coach living in New England with his two children. Taylor A. Purdee is an American director, actor, screenwriter, and songwriter. He is the creator of the musical film Killian & the Comeback Kids, both the original screenplay and music of which were recently preserved by The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. As a producer he has overseen the protection and re-release of screen legend Lee Grant's documentary work, curating the "worlds first virtual repertory series," 20th Century Woman: The Documentary Films of Lee Grant. As an actor, he's appeared on hit TV shows like “Gotham" and "Marvel's Iron Fist", and the surprise Finnish hit "Nerd: DragonSlayer666". He is the first bi-racial director/star of African American descent to have a narrative film theatrically released in America in the 21st Century.
Part I. A Modern History of Disinformation: From the Tobacco Industry to Climate Climate Change. Guest: Naomi Oreskes is Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She is a leading voice on the role of science in society, the reality of anthropogenic climate change, and the role of disinformation in blocking climate action. She is the author of many books including the best-selling, Merchants of Doubt, The Collapse of Western Civilization, Why Trust Science?, Science on a Mission, and her upcoming, The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free Market, which will be published in February 2023. Part II. Conversations with Birds Guest: Priyanka Kumar is the author of Conversations with Birds. She is a recipient of the Aldo & Estella Leopold Writing Residency, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award, a New Mexico/New Visions Governor's Award, a Canada Council for the Arts Grant, an Ontario Arts Council Literary Award, and an Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Fellowship. Feature photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash The post From the Tobacco Industry to Climate Climate Change to Social Media: A Modern History of Disinformation. Then, Conversations with Birds appeared first on KPFA.
In this episode, we're speaking with pioneering filmmaker Nina Menkes, who's one of the first women to present a feature film at Sundance and the filmmaker behind documentary BRAINWASHED: Sex-Camera-Power, which premiered at Sundance 2022 and has since screened at other prominent festivals worldwide. BRAINWASHED was released theatrically in October 2022 by Kino Lorber. Considered a cinematic feminist pioneer and one of America's foremost independent filmmakers, Nina has shown widely in major international film festivals including multiple premieres at Sundance, Cannes, the Berlinale and Toronto. Nina has an MFA with high honors from the UCLA Film School (1989). She's taught film directing at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and is currently a faculty member at California Institute of the Arts. She is a directing member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Nina synthesizes inner-dream worlds with harsh, outer realities. She was called “brilliant, one of the most provocative artists in film today” by the Los Angeles Times, and her body of work was described as “controversial, intense and visually stunning” by Sight and Sound. Nina has referred to herself as a witch; and Dennis Lim, writing in The New York Times, called her a “cinematic sorceress.”
Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by Priyanka Kumar, author of Conversation With Birds. Priyanka Kumar is the author of Conversations with Birds. Her essays and criticism appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Huffington Post, and High Country News. She is a recipient of the Aldo & Estella Leopold Writing Residency, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award, a New Mexico/New Visions Governor's Award, a Canada Council for the Arts Grant, an Ontario Arts Council Literary Award, and an Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Fellowship. A graduate of the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts and an alumna of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Kumar wrote, directed and produced the feature documentary The Song of the Little Road, starring Martin Scorsese and Ravi Shankar. Kumar has taught at the University of California Santa Cruz and the University of Southern California, and serves on the Board of Directors at the Leopold Writing Program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Topic: Award-winning film & TV producer, bestselling author, and renowned speaker DeVon Franklin joins Dr. Nii-Quartelai Quartey conversation about his successful career, his recent projects (including being a guest expert on “Married at First Sight” and his new riveting and soul-stirring Audible Original “It Takes a Woman”). We'll also get his insight as to what lessons he learned during the pandemic. Bio: Named by Variety as one of the "Top 10 Producers to Watch" and by Oprah as "a different kind of spiritual teacher," DeVon Franklin is a Hollywood producer and New York Times bestselling author blazing his own unique trail with an unwavering commitment to uplifting the human spirit through entertainment. DeVon serves as President and CEO of Franklin Entertainment, a dynamic production company that has first-look deals with Paramount Pictures and CBS TV Studios. He's the driving force behind some of Hollywood's most successful inspirational films including Breakthrough, Miracles from Heaven, and the soon to be released movie Flamin' Hot for Disney, plus the TV series Kingdom Business for BET. In addition to his work as a producer, DeVon is also the author of multiple bestselling books such as The Success Commandments and his new Audible Original, It Takes a Woman, which is a deeply personal look into the tragedy that transformed his family's life forever. DeVon serves the greater Hollywood community at large as Vice President of the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. DeVon is a graduate of the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.
Named by Variety as one of the "Top 10 Producers to Watch" and by Oprah as “a different kind of Spiritual Teacher,” DeVon Franklin is a Hollywood Producer and New York Times bestselling author blazing his own unique trail with an unwavering commitment to uplifting the human spirit through entertainment. DeVon serves as President and CEO of Franklin Entertainment, a dynamic production company in conjunction with Paramount Pictures and CBS TV Studios. He's the driving force behind some of Hollywood's most successful inspirational films, including BREAKTHROUGH and MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN, as well as the hit television series KINGDOM BUSINESS for BET and the soon-to-be-released movie FLAMIN' HOT for Disney. DeVon also serves as a guest relationship expert on the current season of MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT and has stepped in front of the camera with his first major film role in the upcoming Lionsgate feature film, JESUS REVOLUTION. In addition to his work as a producer, DeVon is also the author of multiple bestselling books, such as THE SUCCESS COMMANDMENTS and his new Audible Original IT TAKES A WOMAN, which is a deeply personal look into the tragedy that transformed his family's life forever.DeVon serves the greater Hollywood community at large as Vice-President of the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles. www.devonfranklin.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/annette-ortiz-mata/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/annette-ortiz-mata/support
Oscar-winning Visual Effects Specialist Ben Grossmann has been paving the way for the new immersive web for nearly 20 years. As a Co-Founder of Magnopus, he's long had a vision of bringing physical and digital worlds together through connected spaces. His passion for immersive technologies has made him a prominent voice on the subject. Over the years, Ben has used his experience in films to lead augmented and virtual reality projects for brands like Sony, Disney, Meta, and NASA. He led the creation of a virtual live-action world for the makers of Disney's The Lion King. And most recently, directed Expo Dubai Xplorer, bringing the world's largest social digital twin to life for tens of millions of visitors globally. Prior to Magnopus, Ben supervised visual effects on more than a dozen feature films including the Oscar-nominated Star Trek Into Darkness, and Martin Scorsese's Hugo — earning him the Oscar for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in 2012. His work continues to transform the way movies are made today. Ben has also directed award-winning commercial campaigns and worked on iconic projects like The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park. He is also a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the Visual Effects Society. In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews the Co-Founder of Magnopus Ben Grossmann about his journey in VFX, taking initiative as a young Artist, the state of VFX versus the promise of VR, visual fidelity versus interactivity, the power of communication and persuasion, how Artists pigeonhole themselves, the power of “WE” and how and when to say NO. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/367.
On this episode, we speak with film historian, author and UCSB professor Ross Melnick about his new book, his 80s cinema class, and five films from the decade he thinks you should watch again. ----more---- Ross Melnick was also named as a 2017 Academy Film Scholar, one of only two film scholars who were bestowed this honor by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. His new book, Hollywood Embassies: How Movie Theatres Projected American Power Around the World, has just been released by Columbia University Press, and it has been a great honor to have him guest on the show. The movies we discussed on this episode include: A Better Tomorrow (1986, John Woo) Cruising (1980, William Freidkin) El Norte (1983, Gregory Nava) Escape from Liberty Cinema (1990, Wojciech Marczewski) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986, John Hughes) Moscow on the Hudson (1984, Paul Mazursky) Radio Days (1987, Woody Allen) Reds (1981, Warren Beatty) Soul Man (1986, Steve Miner)* To Live and Die in L.A. (1985, William Freidkin) *Although discussed during the episode, neither Mr. Havens nor Mr. Melnick condones the viewing of Soul Man.
Named by Variety as one of the "Top 10 Producers to Watch" and by Oprah as “a different kind of Spiritual Teacher,” DeVon Franklin is a Hollywood Producer and New York Times bestselling author blazing his own unique trail with an unwavering commitment to uplifting the human spirit through entertainment. DeVon serves as President and CEO of Franklin Entertainment, a dynamic production company in conjunction with Paramount Pictures and CBS TV Studios. He's the driving force behind some of Hollywood's most successful inspirational films including BREAKTHROUGH and MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN, as well as the KINGDOM BUSINESS television series for BET. In addition to his work as a producer, DeVon is also the author of multiple bestselling books such as LIVE FREE, THE SUCCESS COMMANDMENTS, THE TRUTH ABOUT MEN and his new Audible Original IT TAKES A WOMAN, which is a deeply personal look into the tragedy that transformed his family's life forever. DeVon serves the greater Hollywood community at large as Vice-President of the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. DeVon is a graduate of the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.
Named by Variety as one of the "Top 10 Producers to Watch" and by Oprah as “a different kind of Spiritual Teacher,” DeVon Franklin is a Hollywood Producer and New York Times bestselling author blazing his own unique trail with an unwavering commitment to uplifting the human spirit through entertainment. DeVon serves as President and CEO of Franklin Entertainment, a dynamic production company in conjunction with Paramount Pictures and CBS TV Studios. He's the driving force behind some of Hollywood's most successful inspirational films including BREAKTHROUGH and MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN, as well as the KINGDOM BUSINESS television series for BET. In addition to his work as a producer, DeVon is also the author of multiple bestselling books such as LIVE FREE, THE SUCCESS COMMANDMENTS, THE TRUTH ABOUT MEN and his new Audible Original IT TAKES A WOMAN, which is a deeply personal look into the tragedy that transformed his family's life forever. DeVon serves the greater Hollywood community at large as Vice-President of the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. DeVon is a graduate of the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.
The team sits down with David Goldblum & Julie Parker Benello, Producers of "Sell/Buy/Date".Sell/Buy/Date is a heartfelt, witty doc/narrative hybrid following Tony-winning performer/comedian Sarah Jones and her multicultural characters on a journey exploring her personal relationship to the sex industry through a social justice lens.David Goldblum is a writer/producer at the intersection of social justice and entertainment. Next up he's writing/producing an adaptation of the #1 New York Times best-selling book which sold 12 million copies worldwide, A Child Called It. David has extensive experience in film and TV development, having worked for Paula Wagner, Participant Media, AMC TV, and Stone Village Productions. He was a graduate of the UCLA MFA Screenwriting Program, the recipient of the UCLA/Participant Media Fellowship, a Telluride Film Festival Film Lab Fellow, a recipient of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences Fellowship, and was nominated for the Humanitas Drama Award.Julie Parker Benello is the Founder of Secret Sauce Media, her latest venture to produce and invest in surprising and timeless film projects. Julie co-founded Chicken & Egg Pictures, in 2005 with a shared belief that diverse women nonfiction storytellers have the power to catalyze change at home and around the globe. She produced Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert's Academy Award®, Emmy, Gotham, and Independent Spirit-winning feature documentary American Factory, streaming on Netflix in partnership with Higher Ground Productions and Participant Media. Most recently she produced Sarah Jones's directorial debut Sell/Buy/Date premiering at SXSW 2022 and Bonni Cohen & Jon Shenk's Netflix Originals documentary – Athlete A. Julie lives in San Francisco and serves on the Board of SFFILM and is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Documentary Branch.Fandor is a proud sponsor of San Francisco International Film Festival.Fandor on Social Media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fandorTwitter: https://twitter.com/FandorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/fandorfilmsTikTok: tiktok.com/@fandorfilms Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
For Educational Purposes Only. The Artists , Authors, Creators and Producers own their music/songs and content. ☆☆ The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Board of Governors, today slapped back imposing a 10-year ban for all events on Actor Will Smith for assaulting Chris Rock at The Dolby Theater in L. A., Sunday 03/27/22.☆☆
On today's Breitbart News Daily podcast, a trove of leaked tapes reveal Disney middle managers are openly planning to sexualize young children and indoctrinate them into the LGBTQIA+/pregnant man emoji cult. Sick stuff, but will anyone fight back? Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is and we give you all the details. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is meeting today to decide if there will be consequences for Academy Award winner Will Smith. Apparently, it will take them longer to investigate the slap heard 'round the world than it will to approve a Supreme Court Justice, so don't expect any big news for a while. The only thing that could save Hollywood at this point is to announce it was all a hoax and a marketing gimmick to promote "G.I. Jane 2" starring Jada Pinkett Smith, but they probably can't pull it off at this point. Then, we get into the latest on the economy, Russia changing course in the war against Ukraine, and coronavirus lockdowns in China, plus so much more. A quick plug for the live show - we broke the details of a major terror attack in Israel and got into the background of Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate, Dr. Oz (R), and we got John Nolte's take on the Will Smith Oscars fiasco. But you'll have to get all of that on the SXM app. And if you want more Breitbart News Daily live, you can tune in 6am ET (Mon.-Fri.) on Patriot Channel 125 or go to SiriusXM.com. Our guest today is Monica Crowley, former Assistant Treasury Secretary under President Trump and host of The Monica Crowley Podcast. We get into her thoughts on the news of the day, especially Bidenflation. She breaks down the key details and gives some ideas on what we can do about it.
The Carolina Panthers training facility project is still in limbo, and a Rock Hill, South Carolina, business owner spoke out about his concerns by writing a letter and sending it to city and county leaders.Ryan Sanderson is the co-founder of the Knowledge Perk coffee shop. In his letter, he asked leaders to work together so the Panthers training facility project doesn't leave Rock Hill. “I'm not just trying to look out for my business and my employees, but I'm trying to look out for my kid's businesses down the road and my grandkid's businesses down the road,” Sanderson explained. “And I don't want us to set a precedent of not being able to communicate with the public and [not] collaborate with each other, and lose something as significant as this deal.”READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/money/business/small-business/carolina-panthers-training-facility-deal-issues-rock-hill-south-carolina-small-businesses/275-e8625fc7-b755-4ac3-b039-5241321d96f7 The day after slapping Chris Rock on the stage of the 94th Academy Awards, Will Smith issued an apology to the comedian, the academy and viewers at home, saying he was “out of line” and that his actions are “not indicative of the man I want to be.”The fallout of Sunday's show continued Monday as the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences condemned Smith's onstage assault and said it would launch an inquiry into it. Later in the day, Smith gave a stronger apology than he did in his best actor acceptance speech, which notably didn't include apologizing to Rock.READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/entertainment/events/oscars/academy-condemns-will-smith-actions-launches-review/507-c1f8411a-d49a-416f-95e6-789f30767dbc
The Carolina Panthers training facility project is still in limbo, and a Rock Hill, South Carolina, business owner spoke out about his concerns by writing a letter and sending it to city and county leaders. Ryan Sanderson is the co-founder of the Knowledge Perk coffee shop. In his letter, he asked leaders to work together so the Panthers training facility project doesn't leave Rock Hill. “I'm not just trying to look out for my business and my employees, but I'm trying to look out for my kid's businesses down the road and my grandkid's businesses down the road,” Sanderson explained. “And I don't want us to set a precedent of not being able to communicate with the public and [not] collaborate with each other, and lose something as significant as this deal.” READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/money/business/small-business/carolina-panthers-training-facility-deal-issues-rock-hill-south-carolina-small-businesses/275-e8625fc7-b755-4ac3-b039-5241321d96f7 The day after slapping Chris Rock on the stage of the 94th Academy Awards, Will Smith issued an apology to the comedian, the academy and viewers at home, saying he was “out of line” and that his actions are “not indicative of the man I want to be.” The fallout of Sunday's show continued Monday as the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences condemned Smith's onstage assault and said it would launch an inquiry into it. Later in the day, Smith gave a stronger apology than he did in his best actor acceptance speech, which notably didn't include apologizing to Rock. READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/entertainment/events/oscars/academy-condemns-will-smith-actions-launches-review/507-c1f8411a-d49a-416f-95e6-789f30767dbc
While interviewing many of Hollywood's top stars, Reba made her name as an interviewer who never delved into gossip. Rather, Reba's unique interview skills drew out powerful and intimate moments from these very public celebrities. She hosted four talk shows: (“Reba” and “Good Morning Arizona” on ABC) (“Sunup San Diego” on CBS and “That's Life” on Cox Cable, which garnered her an Emmy Award and a Cable Ace Nomination). Based on her body of work, Reba was elected to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and The Reba Merrill Collection is now part of the Motion Picture Academy archives. Reba's interviews will be appearing on “Night Flight” every Friday night at 11PM, and have been featured on The Official Hollywood Walk of Fame App.
In this eighth in a series of episodes leading up to Oscar night 2022, rewind to early 2007 when the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences bestowed Best Picture honors to The Departed and finally gave Martin Scorsese his long-overdue Best Director award! Did he win for the right film? What was that year's competition? How would the three presenters have reacted if it had been another name in that envelope? And how does the cast measure up to the Boston dialect? Chris from the podcast The Movie Psycho joins me to tackle these and other questions!
In this seventh in a series of episodes leading up to Oscar night 2022, rewind to early 2002 when the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences bestowed Best Picture honors to A Beautiful Mind, as well as Art Direction (now Production Design) and Costume Design prizes to Moulin Rouge! How does young Obi-Wan Kenobi stack up against Nicole Kidman? What do listeners have to say about the Muppet parody with Miss Piggy as 'Saltine' in Moulin Scrooge? What do personal painful memories of math class have to do with John Nash's profession? Spoiler-free plot setups, behind-the-scenes fun facts, listener shout-outs, trivia, and highlights of that year's Oscars ceremony in the feature "The Good, the Bad, and the Outrageous"!
In this fifth in a series of episodes leading up to Oscar night 2022, rewind to early 1997 when the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences bestowed Best Picture honors to The English Patient, as well as Screenplay and Best Actress prizes to the Coen Brothers and Frances McDormand, respectively. Was Elaine Benes (TV's Seinfeld) right - was Sack Lunch better than The English Patient? Was Father Noel Furlong (TV's Father Ted) delusional, or was it his kind of film? Did Pacey (TV's Dawson Creek) put you to sleep by telling you the story as well? Spoiler-free plot setups, behind-the-scenes fun facts, listener shout-outs, trivia, and highlights of that year's Oscars ceremony in the feature "The Good, the Bad, and the Outrageous"!
In this fourth in a series of episodes leading up to Oscar night 2022, rewind to early 1992 when the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences bestowed Best Picture nomination honors to an animated feature for the first time, 1991's Beauty and the Beast, as well as JFK, co-written, directed, and produced by Oliver Stone ... Spoiler-free plot setups, behind-the-scenes fun facts, listener shout-outs, trivia, and highlights of that year's Oscars ceremony in the feature "The Good, the Bad, and the Outrageous"!
In this third in a series of episodes leading up to Oscar night 2022, rewind to early 1987 when the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences bestowed Best Picture honors to 1986's Platoon, written and directed by Oliver Stone, and Best Cinematography to The Mission, starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons. The regular segments of plot setups, behind-the-scenes fun facts, listener shout-outs and trivia, and highlights of that year's Oscars ceremony in the feature "The Good, the Bad, and the Outrageous", all set to new intro music for the new year!
In this second in a series of episodes leading up to Oscar night 2022, rewind to early 1982 when the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences hurled the golden trophy for 1981's Best Picture at Chariots of Fire with Leading Actor and Actress honors landing in the hands of Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn for On Golden Pond. The regular segments of plot setups, behind-the-scenes fun facts, listener shout-outs and trivia, and highlights of that year's Oscars ceremony in the feature "The Good, the Bad, and the Outrageous"! As an added bonus, hear the personal connection between Jim Morrison, Downton Abbey's Christmas album, and Vangelis's iconic Chariots of Fire score!