Genndy Tartakovsky makes everything he works on better, but even he wasn't able to fix the hot mess that was "Iron Man 2." In Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards' book "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios," the acclaimed filmmaker behind beloved titles like "Samurai Jack," "Dexter's Laboratory," and "Star Wars: Clone Wars" reveals that he was tapped by director Jon Favreau to help streamline the Marvel sequel's climax.
"Jon was a fan, and he liked the sensibility that I had on 'Samurai,'" Tartakovsky said in an interview for "MCU." "I know what I would want from this situation, so I just tried to give it to him — and he could use all of it or none of it." The scene in question takes place in a park in Queens, where a Japanese tea garden was digitally created. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Rhodey (Don Cheadle...
"Jon was a fan, and he liked the sensibility that I had on 'Samurai,'" Tartakovsky said in an interview for "MCU." "I know what I would want from this situation, so I just tried to give it to him — and he could use all of it or none of it." The scene in question takes place in a park in Queens, where a Japanese tea garden was digitally created. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Rhodey (Don Cheadle...
- 12/30/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
It’s somewhat surprising that Scarlett Johansson had been making films for over a decade before she first walked the Cannes Film Festival red carpet. Match Point, her initial collaboration with Woody Allen, lured her to the Croisette in 2005.
Johansson took over the lead role in the psychological thriller after Kate Winslet had dropped out. She starred opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who plays a tennis pro in a relationship with Chloe (Emily Mortimer) when he develops feelings for actress Nora (Johansson), who is engaged to his friend (Matthew Goode) who is also Chloe’s brother. THR’s review noted that Allen’s movie marked “the most startling departure in his filmmaking career,” despite his résumé including such serious fare as 1989’s Crimes and Misdemeanors. Ultimately, critic Kirk Honeycutt wrote, the film’s distinct lack of comedic repartee hindered its character development: “Match Point is a story designed more to prove...
Johansson took over the lead role in the psychological thriller after Kate Winslet had dropped out. She starred opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who plays a tennis pro in a relationship with Chloe (Emily Mortimer) when he develops feelings for actress Nora (Johansson), who is engaged to his friend (Matthew Goode) who is also Chloe’s brother. THR’s review noted that Allen’s movie marked “the most startling departure in his filmmaking career,” despite his résumé including such serious fare as 1989’s Crimes and Misdemeanors. Ultimately, critic Kirk Honeycutt wrote, the film’s distinct lack of comedic repartee hindered its character development: “Match Point is a story designed more to prove...
- 5/19/2023
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"What he really wanted was to spend Thanksgiving with his family. What he got was three days with the turkey."
The tagline of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" promises laughs, and writer-director-producer John Hughes delivers plenty in its snappy 97-minute runtime. Though his 1987 feature is a comedy, Hughes was diverging from the wry humor of his early National Lampoon days and earnest teen-centric comedies like "Sixteen Candles."
It would star Steve Martin as the uptight marketing exec Neal Page, whose journey from NYC back home to Chicago is disrupted, and ultimately enriched, by John Candy's heart-of-gold salesman — and tagline "turkey" — Del Griffith. What should be a cab and a flight home in time for Thanksgiving turns into a three-day trek that rivals Lope de Aguirre's odyssey of folly, except instead of the Amazonian landscape, the unforgiving travel routes of northeast U.S.A. threaten the hero's ambitions at every turn.
The tagline of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" promises laughs, and writer-director-producer John Hughes delivers plenty in its snappy 97-minute runtime. Though his 1987 feature is a comedy, Hughes was diverging from the wry humor of his early National Lampoon days and earnest teen-centric comedies like "Sixteen Candles."
It would star Steve Martin as the uptight marketing exec Neal Page, whose journey from NYC back home to Chicago is disrupted, and ultimately enriched, by John Candy's heart-of-gold salesman — and tagline "turkey" — Del Griffith. What should be a cab and a flight home in time for Thanksgiving turns into a three-day trek that rivals Lope de Aguirre's odyssey of folly, except instead of the Amazonian landscape, the unforgiving travel routes of northeast U.S.A. threaten the hero's ambitions at every turn.
- 11/23/2022
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
The 1987 comedy "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" is one of the late John Hughes' best movies. On the project, Hughes pulled a triple duty: he wrote, directed, and produced the film. That, however, wasn't suppose to be the case; Howard Deutch, who had just collaborated with Hughes on "Pretty in Pink," was originally set to direct the Thanksgiving classic, but once Steve Martin came into play, Hughes had a change of heart. "He loved Steve Martin," Deutch said in "John Hughes: A Life in Film," a 2015 biography written by Kirk Honeycutt.
In "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," Steve Martin plays Neal Page, an impatient and snobby ad executive who's in a rush to make it home to his wife and children for Thanksgiving. Page's assumingly straightforward trip from New York back home to Chicago becomes a convoluted -- and hilarious -- disaster after repeated unfortunate encounters with Del Griffith (John Candy), a slob,...
In "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," Steve Martin plays Neal Page, an impatient and snobby ad executive who's in a rush to make it home to his wife and children for Thanksgiving. Page's assumingly straightforward trip from New York back home to Chicago becomes a convoluted -- and hilarious -- disaster after repeated unfortunate encounters with Del Griffith (John Candy), a slob,...
- 11/7/2022
- by J. Gabriel Ware
- Slash Film
Click here to read the full article.
Julie Powell, whose blog and book about cooking Julia Child recipes led to Amy Adams portraying her opposite Meryl Streep in the 2009 movie Julie & Julia, written and directed by Nora Ephron, has died. She was 49.
Powell died Wednesday of cardiac arrest at her home in Olivebridge, New York, her husband, Eric Powell, told The New York Times.
Streep was nominated for an Oscar for best actress her turn as Child in Columbia’s Julie & Julia, which was Ephron’s final movie (she died in June 2012). Chris Messina played Powell’s husband, while Stanley Tucci portrayed Child’s husband, Paul.
Powell, a native Texan, was a struggling writer living in Long Island City, New York, in 2002 when she set out to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s 1961 book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1, in the space of a year.
Powell...
Julie Powell, whose blog and book about cooking Julia Child recipes led to Amy Adams portraying her opposite Meryl Streep in the 2009 movie Julie & Julia, written and directed by Nora Ephron, has died. She was 49.
Powell died Wednesday of cardiac arrest at her home in Olivebridge, New York, her husband, Eric Powell, told The New York Times.
Streep was nominated for an Oscar for best actress her turn as Child in Columbia’s Julie & Julia, which was Ephron’s final movie (she died in June 2012). Chris Messina played Powell’s husband, while Stanley Tucci portrayed Child’s husband, Paul.
Powell, a native Texan, was a struggling writer living in Long Island City, New York, in 2002 when she set out to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s 1961 book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1, in the space of a year.
Powell...
- 11/1/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
Jason Momoa is opening up one particular career misfire that still cuts deep.
The actor, set to appear in such forthcoming films as Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Fast X, spoke to British GQ for a recently published interview about the fact that a project can be enjoyable to shoot and still end up not being well-liked, due to problems in post-production.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of things that really sucked, and movies where it’s out of your hands,” Momoa told the publication. “Conan [the Barbarian] was one of them. It’s one of the best experiences I had and it [was] taken over and turned into a big pile of shit.”
The 2011 Marcus Nispel-directed swords-and-sandals fantasy film, which was released the same year that the actor made his Game of Thrones debut as Khal Drogo, was based...
Jason Momoa is opening up one particular career misfire that still cuts deep.
The actor, set to appear in such forthcoming films as Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Fast X, spoke to British GQ for a recently published interview about the fact that a project can be enjoyable to shoot and still end up not being well-liked, due to problems in post-production.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of things that really sucked, and movies where it’s out of your hands,” Momoa told the publication. “Conan [the Barbarian] was one of them. It’s one of the best experiences I had and it [was] taken over and turned into a big pile of shit.”
The 2011 Marcus Nispel-directed swords-and-sandals fantasy film, which was released the same year that the actor made his Game of Thrones debut as Khal Drogo, was based...
- 8/10/2022
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
On August 2, 2002, Buena Vista unveiled M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi thriller Signs in theaters, where it would go on to gross 408 million as an end of summer hit. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:
Neither the home run he hit with The Sixth Sense nor the bunt single he laid down with Unbreakable, Signs will inspire an enthusiastic following but will probably disappoint the crowd that likes spooky alien space invasion movies to contain more hard-core action and less spirituality. Shyamalan’s name plus a cast headed by Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix ensures a solid opening for Disney followed by steady attendance into September.
After three major studio films and four if you count his second feature, Wide Awake, which Miramax released, it’s clear that Shyamalan can deliver chills. But equally as clear is his insistence upon investing the supernatural with the metaphysical,...
On August 2, 2002, Buena Vista unveiled M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi thriller Signs in theaters, where it would go on to gross 408 million as an end of summer hit. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:
Neither the home run he hit with The Sixth Sense nor the bunt single he laid down with Unbreakable, Signs will inspire an enthusiastic following but will probably disappoint the crowd that likes spooky alien space invasion movies to contain more hard-core action and less spirituality. Shyamalan’s name plus a cast headed by Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix ensures a solid opening for Disney followed by steady attendance into September.
After three major studio films and four if you count his second feature, Wide Awake, which Miramax released, it’s clear that Shyamalan can deliver chills. But equally as clear is his insistence upon investing the supernatural with the metaphysical,...
- 8/2/2022
- by Kirk Honeycutt
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ray Liotta, the intense actor from New Jersey best known for his turn as the hustler turned mob rat Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas, has died. He was 67.
Publicist Jennifer Allen told The Hollywood Reporter that the actor died Wednesday night or early Thursday in his sleep in his hotel room while in the Dominican Republic making the movie Dangerous Waters. His fiancée, Jacy Nittolo, was with him. He had begun work on the film about a week ago.
The boyish, blue-eyed Liotta also was memorable as Ray Sinclair, the violent ex-convict husband of Melanie Griffith’s character, in Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild (1986); as the disgraced Chicago White Sox baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in the Kevin Costner starrer Field of Dreams (1989); and as the corrupt cop Matt Wozniak on the 2016-18 NBC cop drama Shades of Blue, opposite Jennifer Lopez.
“Ray was the epitome of a...
Publicist Jennifer Allen told The Hollywood Reporter that the actor died Wednesday night or early Thursday in his sleep in his hotel room while in the Dominican Republic making the movie Dangerous Waters. His fiancée, Jacy Nittolo, was with him. He had begun work on the film about a week ago.
The boyish, blue-eyed Liotta also was memorable as Ray Sinclair, the violent ex-convict husband of Melanie Griffith’s character, in Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild (1986); as the disgraced Chicago White Sox baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in the Kevin Costner starrer Field of Dreams (1989); and as the corrupt cop Matt Wozniak on the 2016-18 NBC cop drama Shades of Blue, opposite Jennifer Lopez.
“Ray was the epitome of a...
- 5/26/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Hello! It’s been a little while since we’ve had a new Catalog From The Beyond, hasn’t it? To be honest, in a year when it felt like my brain cells were squeezing out of my head like a tube of toothpaste, I had to take a break from some of the workload. But with the dawning of the New Year, I’m ready to hit the reset button and dive back into the Catalog.
I think it only fair to ease into things, however, so the following take won’t be the spiciest one I’ve ever put forth: Ken Foree seems like a pretty cool dude. After winning our hearts as the stoic Peter in George A. Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead, he’s stayed there pretty much ever since in movies like From Beyond, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Lords of Salem, and...
I think it only fair to ease into things, however, so the following take won’t be the spiciest one I’ve ever put forth: Ken Foree seems like a pretty cool dude. After winning our hearts as the stoic Peter in George A. Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead, he’s stayed there pretty much ever since in movies like From Beyond, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Lords of Salem, and...
- 1/28/2021
- by Bryan Christopher
- DailyDead
Ryan Reynolds has a string of successful blockbuster films under his belt, but there is one movie that he would rather not discuss.
On Wednesday, Lifewire editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff wrote on Twitter that he randomly selected Reynolds’ 2010 film, Paper Man, to stream on Amazon Prime.
After viewing the film, Ulanoff included in his tweet, “I have so many questions for @VancityReynolds,” to which the actor replied back, “I have zero answers.”
“I would expect no less,” Ulanoff tweeted in reponse to Reynolds, before calling the film “oddly affecting (emphasis on ‘oddly’),” in a follow-up tweet.
I have zero answers.
— Ryan...
On Wednesday, Lifewire editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff wrote on Twitter that he randomly selected Reynolds’ 2010 film, Paper Man, to stream on Amazon Prime.
After viewing the film, Ulanoff included in his tweet, “I have so many questions for @VancityReynolds,” to which the actor replied back, “I have zero answers.”
“I would expect no less,” Ulanoff tweeted in reponse to Reynolds, before calling the film “oddly affecting (emphasis on ‘oddly’),” in a follow-up tweet.
I have zero answers.
— Ryan...
- 4/9/2020
- by Nicholas Rice
- PEOPLE.com
While presenting Emmanuel Lubezki with the Best Cinematography prize at the 2014 Lafca Awards, Kirk Honeycutt referred to the celebrated Dp as an auteur. That designation is usually reserved for directors, but in “Chivo’s” case it fits — few artists’ or technicians’ work is so immediately recognizable. James Hayes would likely agree, as he’s put together a new video essay called “Emmanuel Lubezki: Making Beautiful Movies.” Watch it below.
Read More: ‘Carne y Arena’ First Details: Alejandro G. Iñárritu Teases Cannes Vr Installation With Emmanuel Lubezki
The video includes clips from Lubezki’s best-known work, including “The Revenant,” “Children of Men,” “Gravity” and “The Tree of Life.” Hayes draws attention to Lubezki’s use of lighting to create a sense of realism as well as his affinity for low angles, narrating as he goes: “What Chivo does is something different,” he says of those low angles. “It’s a...
Read More: ‘Carne y Arena’ First Details: Alejandro G. Iñárritu Teases Cannes Vr Installation With Emmanuel Lubezki
The video includes clips from Lubezki’s best-known work, including “The Revenant,” “Children of Men,” “Gravity” and “The Tree of Life.” Hayes draws attention to Lubezki’s use of lighting to create a sense of realism as well as his affinity for low angles, narrating as he goes: “What Chivo does is something different,” he says of those low angles. “It’s a...
- 5/5/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
The new dramatic comedy The Road Within stars Dev Patel, Robert Sheehan, Robert Patrick, Zoe Kravitz, and Kyra Sedgwick. It will be released on DVD and Blu-ray from Well Go USA on July 7th, but you have a chance to win the Blu-ray in advance!
The Road Within tells the story of Vincent, a young man suffering from Tourette Syndrome. His mother dies so his estranged father, Robert, is forced to step in. However, Robert’s running for political office and doesn’t want his son on the campaign trail – so Robert puts Vincent in a clinic that’s run by the unconventional Dr. Mia Rose. Once there, Vincent falls in love with an anorexic woman named Marie. Together, they steal Dr. Rose’s car, and end up having to kidnap his Ocd roommate, Alex, when he threatens to tell on them. With Robert and Dr. Rose in hot pursuit,...
The Road Within tells the story of Vincent, a young man suffering from Tourette Syndrome. His mother dies so his estranged father, Robert, is forced to step in. However, Robert’s running for political office and doesn’t want his son on the campaign trail – so Robert puts Vincent in a clinic that’s run by the unconventional Dr. Mia Rose. Once there, Vincent falls in love with an anorexic woman named Marie. Together, they steal Dr. Rose’s car, and end up having to kidnap his Ocd roommate, Alex, when he threatens to tell on them. With Robert and Dr. Rose in hot pursuit,...
- 6/18/2015
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Last month was the 30th anniversary of the release of The Breakfast Club, but this month is when we celebrate. A newly restored version of the John Hughes classic is screening at SXSW on Monday with stars Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy in attendance, and Fathom Events is bringing the teen movie to theaters nationwide on March 26 and March 31 accompanied by a bonus retrospective feature that will include new insights from the cast. Meanwhile, we also just learned some little-known details on the making of The Breakfast Club from Vanity Fair, which published an excerpt from Kirk Honeycutt's new book John Hughes: A LIfe in Film. The author goes into two notable cuts to the movie and the reasons they were permanently deleted. One was a locker room scene involving a topless P.E...
Read More...
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- 3/13/2015
- by Christopher Campbell
- Movies.com
As The Breakfast Club, John Hughes. groundbreaking comedic teen drama, celebrates its 30th anniversary with an upcoming digitally remastered re-release, it.s fun to reflect on certain aspects of the film that could have been, but never were. Most notable was the fact that iconic comedian Rick Moranis originally had a critical role in the film, only to see his performance end up on the cutting room floor. According to an excerpt from Kirk Honeycutt.s upcoming biography, John Hughes: A Life in Film, published in Vanity Fair, the almost mythical idea of Rick Moranis. involvement in The Breakfast Club took the form of the character, Carl the Janitor. While Hughes was initially "ecstatic" to have Moranis in the cast, the actor would apparently take an egregious creative liberty, reinventing the character with an over-the-top Russian accent. Honeycutt.s book recounts the story as told to him by co-producer,...
- 3/12/2015
- cinemablend.com
John Hughes. seminal teen dramedy The Breakfast Club stands the test of time because it swam upstream against the tide that carried its conventional counterparts. Here, finally, was a tightly-scripted comedy with a tremendous ear for actual teen dialogue and five expertly crafted personalities to which millions of audience members could relate. So it.s funny to learn, 30 years after its release, that Hughes almost bowed to cultural influence and included a scene in The Breakfast Club that would have fit better in, say, Porky.s or one of its forgettable sequels. Vanity Fair has a fantastic excerpt from Kirk Honeycutt.s upcoming book "John Hughes: A Life In Film," during which he recounts how Hughes initially had a gratuitous nudity scene in the middle of his detention-day comedy. At the time of production, "teen comedies" in the defined genre usually included wild party scenes and shameless breast shots.
- 3/12/2015
- cinemablend.com
Sundance's 25th year event is remarkably quiet, almost unreal. Allowing a look at the reality, conversations actually can take place. The late night lounge is the place to see everyone after 10 and to talk more. Filmakers Bill Benenson and Eleonore Dailly, producer Gene Rosow and marketer Jeff Dowd hosted the Obama Inauguration party which also celebrated their film Dirt The Movie. Veteran Sundance community members, Nicole Guillemet, former director of Sundance, Paula Silver, Ira Deutschman, Susan Margolin, Todd McCarthy, Sasha Alpert, Mickey Cotrell and so many others bonded with joy as we all listened to the message delivered by President Obama. John Sloss's Cinetic party and William Morris Independent's parties were not as mobbed as in years past. The two films I have heard most praised are Push and The Cove. Latino film buzz is around Sin Nombre. Written and directed by Peter Bratt and starring his brother Benjamin Bratt and Jesse Borrego, La Mission and Don't Let Me Drown starring Yareli Arizmendi, who wrote and produced A Day Without a Mexican, one of the breakout Latino hits some years ago. I would most like to see Mark Stewart's Passing Strange, a Fairfax district Los Angeleno's work about "black folks passing as black folks" and other essentialist curiosities of American life as written up in Sundance Film Festival's Daily Insider of Day 3, Sunday January 18, 2009. Peter Rainer liked Art & Copy and was surprised to learn that it was originally intended as a promotional work of ad agencies. Kirk Honeycutt remarked to Peter Rainer and me how the films are so "lab-worked over". Does the professional finish of a lab make up, improve on or only mask the faults of a filmmaker's first work? Is it like a butterfly being helped to fly (and thereby not developing its own wings) or does it make the beginning filmmaker better? Mary Jane Skalski is here with two films, Dare and Against the Current. Steven J. Wolfe, who has worked on 35 films and has produced five with Jennifer Tilley, who is now playing professional poker, had his film 500 Days of Summer already placed with Fox Searchlight for U.S. and the world, so he was able to enjoy Sundance after 10 years absence from it. Senator picked up North American rights to Brooklyn's Finest. Visit Films picked up worldwide rights to Sundance world doc competition film Kimjongilia]and Spectrum title, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. The Canadian distribution rights to Cold Souls have been acquired by E1 Films. Opening night film Max and Mary was a huge success and well attended by acquisition and studio executives. Twentieth Century Fox had a team of 8, Lionsgate's Tom Ortenberg, Steve Beeks and Jason Constantine were there along with every other buyer. The film that landed with Icon when Icon acquired Becker International will soon announce a North American distribution deal. CinemaVault acquired international rights for Spectrum film Lymelife which originally premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and was picked up for US shortly after by Screen Media. Stephen Raphael is working on the U.S. marketing for the film. HBO has acquired TV rights to Burma VJ the hit of November’s IDFA whose North American debut was Saturday at Sundance. The the film will open theatrically at New York’s Film Forum in May, well ahead of its early 2010 HBO television debut. [Sony Classics acquired North American rights acquisition of Rudo Y Cursi having its U.S. premiere at Sundance.
- 1/16/2009
- Sydney's Buzz
Robert Altman, one of cinema's great democratic spirits whose wry appreciation of the idiosyncrasies of human nature suffused such films as MASH, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville and The Player, has died. He was 81.
Surrounded by his family, the director died Monday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of cancer. He had been dealing with the disease for the past 18 months, even as he completed his last film, A Prairie Home Companion, and readied his next movie, a typically Altmanesque-sounding project about a Texas endurance contest where the locals compete to win a Nissan Hardbody.
Altman was Oscar-nominated as best director five times without winning -- he also earned two best picture noms for Nashville and Gosford Park. But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remedied that oversight this year at the 78th Annual Academy Awards, where he was presented with an honorary Oscar.
Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, who appear together as a singing sister act in Prairie, introduced the director with a bravura demonstration of the overlapping dialogue and free-floating humor that characterized his films.
"No other filmmaker has gotten a better shake than I have," Altman said in accepting the award. "I'm very fortunate in my career. I've never had to direct a film I didn't choose or develop. My love for filmmaking has given me an entree to the world and to the human condition." In a sense, he had become America's answer to France's Jean Renoir, whose 1939 The Rules of the Game, with its indulgent view of human foibles, could have served as a gentle template for Altman's more raucous take on the absurdities of life.
In the warmth of the moment, Altman, often depicted as a cantankerous maverick, chose to overlook the obstacles that Hollywood sometimes threw in his path -- and which he somehow managed to overcome, bucking the odds as his career just kept rolling along.
Even after more than 30 subsequent movies, his most commercially successful film remained the anti-war comedy MASH, which rocketed him to success in 1970 as it grossed $81.6 million, eventually spinning off the hit TV series that Altman himself couldn't abide.
But even though the movie, which won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, pushed him into the company of a new generation of Hollywood filmmakers who were shaking up the studio status quo, Altman, who was 45 by the time of his breakthrough film, had taken a surprisingly conventional route. He learned his craft by turning out such industrial films as How to Run a Filling Station before moving on to such episodic TV fare as The Millionaire, Bonanza and Combat.
For Altman could be as hard to categorize as the best of his films, which turned established genres inside out. With 1971's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, he reimagined the Western as a muddy opium dream in which pioneering individualism is pitted against corporate business interests. In 1973's The Long Goodbye, he cast a shambling Elliott Gould as a modern-day Philip Marlowe -- instead of Raymond Chandler's mean streets of Los Angeles, Gould must find his way through the laid-back Los Angeles smog. And in 1974's Thieves Like Us, he drained the romantic glamour out of period tales of lovers on the run such as Bonnie and Clyde or They Live by Night by having a vulnerable Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall play the awkward fugitives.
"Bob embodied the directors' ideal: a fiercely independent voice that was always challenging convention," DGA president Michael Apted said. "In doing so, he created a body of work of breathtaking diversity."
In 1975, Altman's groundbreaking experiments -- with dialogue seemingly overheard on the fly and a constantly prowling camera that can't resist poking around corners -- found an exuberant canvas in Nashville. The film, full of music, much of which was penned by its sprawling cast of actors, was a celebration of America in all its craziness as it tossed together country singers, lonely housewives, preening politicians, clueless reporters and an ominous assassin.
Related story: Critic Kirk Honeycutt's appreciation
Columnist Martin Grove: Altman's final Oscar shot...
Surrounded by his family, the director died Monday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of cancer. He had been dealing with the disease for the past 18 months, even as he completed his last film, A Prairie Home Companion, and readied his next movie, a typically Altmanesque-sounding project about a Texas endurance contest where the locals compete to win a Nissan Hardbody.
Altman was Oscar-nominated as best director five times without winning -- he also earned two best picture noms for Nashville and Gosford Park. But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remedied that oversight this year at the 78th Annual Academy Awards, where he was presented with an honorary Oscar.
Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, who appear together as a singing sister act in Prairie, introduced the director with a bravura demonstration of the overlapping dialogue and free-floating humor that characterized his films.
"No other filmmaker has gotten a better shake than I have," Altman said in accepting the award. "I'm very fortunate in my career. I've never had to direct a film I didn't choose or develop. My love for filmmaking has given me an entree to the world and to the human condition." In a sense, he had become America's answer to France's Jean Renoir, whose 1939 The Rules of the Game, with its indulgent view of human foibles, could have served as a gentle template for Altman's more raucous take on the absurdities of life.
In the warmth of the moment, Altman, often depicted as a cantankerous maverick, chose to overlook the obstacles that Hollywood sometimes threw in his path -- and which he somehow managed to overcome, bucking the odds as his career just kept rolling along.
Even after more than 30 subsequent movies, his most commercially successful film remained the anti-war comedy MASH, which rocketed him to success in 1970 as it grossed $81.6 million, eventually spinning off the hit TV series that Altman himself couldn't abide.
But even though the movie, which won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, pushed him into the company of a new generation of Hollywood filmmakers who were shaking up the studio status quo, Altman, who was 45 by the time of his breakthrough film, had taken a surprisingly conventional route. He learned his craft by turning out such industrial films as How to Run a Filling Station before moving on to such episodic TV fare as The Millionaire, Bonanza and Combat.
For Altman could be as hard to categorize as the best of his films, which turned established genres inside out. With 1971's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, he reimagined the Western as a muddy opium dream in which pioneering individualism is pitted against corporate business interests. In 1973's The Long Goodbye, he cast a shambling Elliott Gould as a modern-day Philip Marlowe -- instead of Raymond Chandler's mean streets of Los Angeles, Gould must find his way through the laid-back Los Angeles smog. And in 1974's Thieves Like Us, he drained the romantic glamour out of period tales of lovers on the run such as Bonnie and Clyde or They Live by Night by having a vulnerable Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall play the awkward fugitives.
"Bob embodied the directors' ideal: a fiercely independent voice that was always challenging convention," DGA president Michael Apted said. "In doing so, he created a body of work of breathtaking diversity."
In 1975, Altman's groundbreaking experiments -- with dialogue seemingly overheard on the fly and a constantly prowling camera that can't resist poking around corners -- found an exuberant canvas in Nashville. The film, full of music, much of which was penned by its sprawling cast of actors, was a celebration of America in all its craziness as it tossed together country singers, lonely housewives, preening politicians, clueless reporters and an ominous assassin.
Related story: Critic Kirk Honeycutt's appreciation
Columnist Martin Grove: Altman's final Oscar shot...
- 11/22/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Robert Altman, one of cinema's great democratic spirits whose wry appreciation of the idiosyncrasies of human nature suffused such films as MASH, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville and The Player, has died. He was 81.
Surrounded by his family, the director died Monday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of cancer. He had been dealing with the disease for the past 18 months, even as he completed his last film, A Prairie Home Companion, and readied his next movie, a typically Altmanesque-sounding project about a Texas endurance contest where the locals compete to win a Nissan Hardbody.
Related story: Critic Kirk Honeycutt's appreciation
Altman was Oscar-nominated as best director five times without winning -- he also earned two best picture noms for Nashville and Gosford Park. But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remedied that oversight this year at the 78th Annual Academy Awards, where he was presented with an honorary Oscar.
Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, who appear together as a singing sister act in Prairie, introduced the director with a bravura demonstration of the overlapping dialogue and free-floating humor that characterized his films.
"No other filmmaker has gotten a better shake than I have," Altman said in accepting the award. "I'm very fortunate in my career. I've never had to direct a film I didn't choose or develop. My love for filmmaking has given me an entree to the world and to the human condition." In a sense, he had become America's answer to France's Jean Renoir, whose 1939 The Rules of the Game, with its indulgent view of human foibles, could have served as a gentle template for Altman's more raucous take on the absurdities of life.
In the warmth of the moment, Altman, often depicted as a cantankerous maverick, chose to overlook the obstacles that Hollywood sometimes threw in his path -- and which he somehow managed to overcome, bucking the odds as his career just kept rolling along.
Even after more than 30 subsequent movies, his most commercially successful film remained the anti-war comedy MASH, which rocketed him to success in 1970 as it grossed $81.6 million, eventually spinning off the hit TV series that Altman himself couldn't abide.
But even though the movie, which won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, pushed him into the company of a new generation of Hollywood filmmakers who were shaking up the studio status quo, Altman, who was 45 by the time of his breakthrough film, had taken a surprisingly conventional route. He learned his craft by turning out such industrial films as How to Run a Filling Station before moving on to such episodic TV fare as The Millionaire, Bonanza and Combat.
For Altman could be as hard to categorize as the best of his films, which turned established genres inside out. With 1971's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, he reimagined the Western as a muddy opium dream in which pioneering individualism is pitted against corporate business interests. In 1973's The Long Goodbye, he cast a shambling Elliott Gould as a modern-day Philip Marlowe -- instead of Raymond Chandler's mean streets of Los Angeles, Gould must find his way through the laid-back Los Angeles smog. And in 1974's Thieves Like Us, he drained the romantic glamour out of period tales of lovers on the run such as Bonnie and Clyde or They Live by Night by having a vulnerable Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall play the awkward fugitives.
"Bob embodied the directors' ideal: a fiercely independent voice that was always challenging convention," DGA president Michael Apted said. "In doing so, he created a body of work of breathtaking diversity."
In 1975, Altman's groundbreaking experiments -- with dialogue seemingly overheard on the fly and a constantly prowling camera that can't resist poking around corners -- found an exuberant canvas in Nashville. The film, full of music, much of which was penned by its sprawling cast of actors, was a celebration of America in all its craziness as it tossed together country singers, lonely housewives, preening politicians, clueless reporters and an ominous assassin.
Surrounded by his family, the director died Monday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of cancer. He had been dealing with the disease for the past 18 months, even as he completed his last film, A Prairie Home Companion, and readied his next movie, a typically Altmanesque-sounding project about a Texas endurance contest where the locals compete to win a Nissan Hardbody.
Related story: Critic Kirk Honeycutt's appreciation
Altman was Oscar-nominated as best director five times without winning -- he also earned two best picture noms for Nashville and Gosford Park. But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remedied that oversight this year at the 78th Annual Academy Awards, where he was presented with an honorary Oscar.
Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, who appear together as a singing sister act in Prairie, introduced the director with a bravura demonstration of the overlapping dialogue and free-floating humor that characterized his films.
"No other filmmaker has gotten a better shake than I have," Altman said in accepting the award. "I'm very fortunate in my career. I've never had to direct a film I didn't choose or develop. My love for filmmaking has given me an entree to the world and to the human condition." In a sense, he had become America's answer to France's Jean Renoir, whose 1939 The Rules of the Game, with its indulgent view of human foibles, could have served as a gentle template for Altman's more raucous take on the absurdities of life.
In the warmth of the moment, Altman, often depicted as a cantankerous maverick, chose to overlook the obstacles that Hollywood sometimes threw in his path -- and which he somehow managed to overcome, bucking the odds as his career just kept rolling along.
Even after more than 30 subsequent movies, his most commercially successful film remained the anti-war comedy MASH, which rocketed him to success in 1970 as it grossed $81.6 million, eventually spinning off the hit TV series that Altman himself couldn't abide.
But even though the movie, which won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, pushed him into the company of a new generation of Hollywood filmmakers who were shaking up the studio status quo, Altman, who was 45 by the time of his breakthrough film, had taken a surprisingly conventional route. He learned his craft by turning out such industrial films as How to Run a Filling Station before moving on to such episodic TV fare as The Millionaire, Bonanza and Combat.
For Altman could be as hard to categorize as the best of his films, which turned established genres inside out. With 1971's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, he reimagined the Western as a muddy opium dream in which pioneering individualism is pitted against corporate business interests. In 1973's The Long Goodbye, he cast a shambling Elliott Gould as a modern-day Philip Marlowe -- instead of Raymond Chandler's mean streets of Los Angeles, Gould must find his way through the laid-back Los Angeles smog. And in 1974's Thieves Like Us, he drained the romantic glamour out of period tales of lovers on the run such as Bonnie and Clyde or They Live by Night by having a vulnerable Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall play the awkward fugitives.
"Bob embodied the directors' ideal: a fiercely independent voice that was always challenging convention," DGA president Michael Apted said. "In doing so, he created a body of work of breathtaking diversity."
In 1975, Altman's groundbreaking experiments -- with dialogue seemingly overheard on the fly and a constantly prowling camera that can't resist poking around corners -- found an exuberant canvas in Nashville. The film, full of music, much of which was penned by its sprawling cast of actors, was a celebration of America in all its craziness as it tossed together country singers, lonely housewives, preening politicians, clueless reporters and an ominous assassin.
- 11/21/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Guy Ritchie's new movie has been savaged by critics after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Just two years after his last effort, Swept Away, flopped miserably, Revolver, Ritchie's return to the gangster genre, has been dismissed as a "convoluted, risibly overwrought muddle" by one US magazine. Screen International also warned viewers would be left "bewildered and disappointed" by what the Hollywood Reporter described as "pretentious style and fractured storytelling". Hollywood Reporter reviewer Kirk Honeycutt adds, "The movie spins wildly in circles, continually doubling back on itself, repeating scenes - once even backward - and lines of dialogue until a viewer loses a grip on what is supposed to be real." Jason Statham, Ray Liotta and Andre Benjamin star in the movie about a feud between a criminal gambler and a gangland boss. Ritchie was accompanied to the Toronto screening by his wife Madonna - appearing less than a month after she suffered three cracked ribs, a broken collarbone and a broken hand in a horse riding accident.
- 9/13/2005
- WENN
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