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The Americans is a period spy thriller drama series created by Joe Weisberg. The FX series is set during the Cold War and it follows the story of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Soviet Kgb intelligence officers who are sent to Washington D.C. to pose as an American couple to gather information on the American government. The Americans stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys in the lead roles with Maximiliano Hernández, Holly Taylor, Keidrich Sellati, Noah Emmerich, Annet Mahendru, Susan Misner, and Alison Wright starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the intensely thrilling story, nail-biting drama, and compelling characters in The Americans here are some similar shows you should check out next.

The Spy (Netflix) Credit – Netflix

The Spy is a French English-language spy thriller drama series created by Gideon Raff. Based on the life...

Endor Productions, the television and film production company behind Vienna Blood, State of Play, Restless and Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot is to close after 26 years.

Seven.One Studios, which has owned Endor for the last 12 years, said it had taken the decision to shutter the outfit due to “the persistently difficult” market for productions in the international scripted sector.

In a statement to Screen’s sister title Broadcast, the ProSiebenSat.1 Media company said: “Endor will not make any further investments in new developments but will focus exclusively on the completion of current productions.

“This decision was made after long and careful consideration.

German-born laywer acquired hundreds of film and TV projects as pre-buys from US producers.

International media consultant and producer Thomas Augsberger has passed away suddenly at his home in the Hollywood Hills. He was 60 years old.

The German-born lawyer was founder of Eden Rock Media, a film and television production company and media consulting business.

Augsberger advised a number of high-profile media clients over the years, most prominently Germany’s Leonine Studios. Before Leonine, Augsberger spent 23 years as an advisor to Dr. Herbert Kloiber’s Tele Muenchen Group as Tmg’s exclusive North American representative in the US.

Augsberger’s...

International media consultant and producer Thomas Augsberger died suddenly on Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills, his publicist informed Variety. He was 60.

The German-born and trained attorney was founder of film and television production company and media consulting business Eden Rock Media. Augsberger’s high profile media clients included Germany’s Leonine Studios. Prior to Leonine, Augsberger served for more than two decades as an advisor to the Tele Muenchen Group (Tmg) as their exclusive North American representative in the U.S. During this time he oversaw Tmg investments in the U.S., including a preferred equity investment in Lionsgate Entertainment in 1999 and the acquisition of the Mutual Film Library in 2006.

Over his 26-year consulting career, Augsberger acquired hundreds of projects as pre-buys including Marvel’s Iron Man franchise, Voltage’s Oscar winner “The Hurt Locker,” Paramount’s “Shutter Island,” Summit’s Twilight franchise, Lionsgate’s John Wick franchise,...

Deadline has learned that Thomas Augsberger, Eden Rock Media founder, producer and international media consultant died suddenly today at his Hollywood Hills home. He was 60 years old.

The German-born and trained attorney advised a number of high-profile media clients over the years, most prominently Germany’s Leonine Studios. Prior to Leonine, Augsberger served 23 years as an advisor to Dr. Herbert Kloiber‘s Tele Muenchen Group as Tmg’s exclusive North American representative in the US.

In 2002, he founded Eden Rock Media, a film and television production company and media consulting business.

Augsberger was widely respected for his deep experience in the production and acquisition of feature films, television series, and content libraries; investments in US distributors and production companies; the co-financing, co-production, and distribution of film, television, and digital projects; and the negotiation of German output deals with studios for theatrical, home entertainment, and television. Over the course of his 26-year consulting career,...

James Bond has been played by many actors throughout his years on the big screen. But if one director had it his way, Daniel Day-Lewis would’ve been the ideal choice to portray the character.

This director felt Daniel Day-Lewis was how Ian Fleming pictured James Bond Daniel Day-Lewis | Jason Merritt/Getty Images

William Boyd once opened up on the actor he felt made a perfect match for the MI6 agent. Boyd was both closely connected to the Bond mythology as well as the film industry. As a screen writer, he’s even worked worked with a couple of Bond actors himself like Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan. Still, Boyd felt that Day-Lewis might be the Bond that resembled Fleming’s version the most.

“If there was going to be an actor to play my James Bond, I’d choose another actor who’s been in a film of mine...

A group of 200 internationally renowned writers, publishers, directors and producers have signed an open letter sounding the alarm over the implications of AI for human creativity.

“Several generative models of language and images have recently appeared in the public and private domains; they are developing at breakneck speed, accessible to all for any task which involves writing and creating,” read the letter, published online on Tuesday.

“These models are shaping a world where, little by little, creation can do without human beings, thereby hastening the automation of many creative and intellectual professions formerly deemed inaccessible to mechanization.”

The letter, initiated by European translation professionals under the banner of “Collective For Human Translation – In Flesh And Blood”, comes amid growing concern about the impact of generative AI technology on professionals working in the creative industries.

Signatories from the literary world included Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux (Happening) as well as best-selling...

What was the movie Steven Spielberg saw as a child that inspired him to become one of the most successful, influential, and acclaimed filmmakers? According to his semi-autobiographical new film “The Fabelmans,” his cinematic alter-ego Sammy becomes obsessed with movies after his parents take him to the see Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 circus epic “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

“The Greatest Show on Earth,” which not only won the Oscar for Best Picture and story, was the box office champ of the year earning 14 million domestically and 36 million worldwide. Critics were not so kind to his cotton-candy colored melodrama set under the big top at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Films in Review declared “Mr. DeMille is so accomplished a showman that one is astonished he did not just photograph a circus performance without the synthetic story he injected here. After all, the Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus is a wonder in itself.

Glenn Close and Sam Elliott sat down for a conversation for Variety’s Actors on Actors. For more, click here.

Sam Elliott may be a cinematic icon thanks to his craggy voice and résumé of cowboy roles, but he has yet to be recognized with an Oscar nomination. That will probably change with “A Star Is Born,” which has earned Elliott some of the best reviews of his career for his portrayal of Bobby, the brother and manager of Bradley Cooper’s alcoholic superstar Jackson Maine.

Glenn Close, another Hollywood veteran, is no stranger to the awards circuit. Over her distinguished career, she’s earned six Oscar nominations. She’s likely to pick up her seventh nod for “The Wife,” a drama about a woman who is the true literary force behind her Nobel Prize-winning husband. Close and Elliott discussed their respective films, their love of the Western and...

THR Felicity Jones replaces Portman in a Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic

Vox How Tom Holland's dance training makes him a fresh Spider-Man

La Times talks to 18 funny black actresses about their comic careers

Vulture Revenge of the Twink as slimmer male stars finally start getting action roles -- a nice switch over from the steroid set. For now at least

Pajiba five reasons why HBO's proposed Confederate series, from the guys behind Game of Thrones, is a terrible, disappointing, irresponsible idea

Vulture Bilge Elbiri ranks all of Christopher Nolan's movies. The new one, Dunkirk, is #1

IndieWire David Ehrlich ranks all of Luc Besson's movies so you don't have to. The new one, Valerian, is #6

My New Plaid Pants honors the current social media exhibitionistic streak of Zachary Quinto and his boyfriend

Playlist Jonathan Glazer (Birth, Under the Skin) working on his next film already. Yaaas!

Den of...

[Hello, readers! With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we here at Daily Dead thought it would be fun to do things a little different this year. We're putting the spotlight on our favorite horror-loving characters from genre cinema, people who have represented our own fandom on screen and, in many cases, helped bring our passion for horror into the mainstream. Be sure to check back here on Daily Dead every day through Valentine's Day for our tributes to some of the greatest horror fans to ever grace the big screen.]

Eric Binford, the protagonist (antagonist?) of Fade to Black (1980), loves movies so much, he is wholly subsumed by them. When not working in a Los Angeles film distribution center delivering prints to various locations, his life revolves around watching films on a projector in his room, or on TV, or reluctantly sharing a film at the theater with a crowd. Eric, played by Breaking Away’s Dennis Christopher, has no need for human interaction—the shadowy figures in the flickering lights are his only allies.

For those unfamiliar with Fade, it tells the simple tale of a lonely young man with an already tenuous grip on reality whose overwhelming passion for film leads him down a vengeful path of retribution against those who’ve wronged him. Dressing up as his favorite characters from filmdom (Dracula, The Mummy, Hopalong Cassidy, Cody Jarrett), Eric lays to waste those who come between him and his celluloid dreams.

Ten years ago I attended the Lone Pine Film Festival for the first time. It was the 17th annual celebration in 2006 of a festival dedicated to the heritage of movies (mostly westerns, but plenty of other genres as well) shot in or near the town of Lone Pine, California, located on the outer edges of the Mojave Desert and nestled up against the Eastern Sierra Mountains in the shadow of the magnificent Mt. Whitney. The multitude of films that could and have been celebrated there were most often shot at least partially in the Alabama Hills just outside of town, a spectacular array of geological beauty that springs out of the landscape like some sort of extra-planetary exhibit, a visitation of natural and very unusual formations that have lent themselves to the imaginations of filmmakers here ever since near the dawn of the Hollywood filmmaking industry.

In writing about the...

The new branded line Shout Selects chooses Buckaroo for special-special edition treatment, with a long making-of docu just like the ones from the heyday of DVD. And this oddest of oddball sci-fi pictures has a backstory worth documenting. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Blu-ray Shout Select 1984 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 102 min. / Street Date August 16, 2016 / 34.93 Starring: Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith, Rosalind Cash, Robert Ito, Pepe Serna, Ronald Lacey, Matt Clark, Clancy Brown, Carl Lumbly, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Bill Henderson, Damon Hines, Billy Vera Cinematography Fred J. Koenekamp Production Designer J. Michael Riva Art Direction Richard Carter, Stephen Dane Film Editor George Bowers, Richard Marks Original Music Michael Boddicker Written by Earl Mac Rauch Produced by Sidney Beckerman, Neil Canton, W.D. Richter Directed by W.D. Richter

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Not content with its already well appointed special Blu-ray editions,...

I’ve always been obsessed with watching movies. From seeing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at the age of four at a Saturday matinee revival to today, the flickering shadow shows have filled my life. Consumed, I’m sure some would say. However, discerning fact from fiction has never been an issue, unlike Eric Binford, the hapless ‘hero’ of the eerie (and funny) Fade to Black (1980) – now here’s a kid with issues.

Written and directed by Vernon Zimmerman (The Unholy Rollers), Fade to Black was distributed by American Cinema Releasing on October 14th, 1980. The film bypassed audiences for the most part, but critics were generally pleased with the offbeat tone that it brought to the genre. If you love movies about movies, especially with a horror bent, Fade to Black is the film for you.

Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher – Breaking Away) lives with his haranguing aunt, and spends his days...

Howard Hughes movies (photo: Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in 'The Aviator') Turner Classic Movies will be showing the Howard Hughes-produced, John Farrow-directed, Baja California-set gangster drama His Kind of Woman, starring Robert Mitchum, Hughes discovery Jane Russell, and Vincent Price, at 3 a.m. Pt / 6 a.m. Et on Saturday, November 8, 2014. Hughes produced a couple of dozen movies. (More on that below.) But what about "Howard Hughes movies"? Or rather, movies -- whether big-screen or made-for-television efforts -- featuring the visionary, eccentric, hypochondriac, compulsive-obsessive, all-American billionaire as a character? Besides Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays a dashing if somewhat unbalanced Hughes in Martin Scorsese's 2004 Best Picture Academy Award-nominated The Aviator, other actors who have played Howard Hughes on film include the following: Tommy Lee Jones in William A. Graham's television movie The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977), with Lee Purcell as silent film star Billie Dove, Tovah Feldshuh as Katharine Hepburn,...

I’m about to use a word that may be offensive to some, so if you’re one of them, I suggest you leave. You can make a ruckus as you go if you like; we judge here, but we do not blame.

Evolution. That’s the word, and now it’s out there. It may or may not recur as we proceed down the page.

The occasion is an item in Yahoo’s news site over weekend reporting that the moviemakers at Marvel and DC have their superhero schedule figured out for the next five years. Not all the t’s are crossed, but apparently The Big Two know how many superhero flicks they plan to make and when they’ll be putting these entertainments on a screen near you. And they don’t intend to skimp on quantity.

And I’ll probably see many, if not most, of them,...

I recently stumbled across my earliest photograph: a black & white snapshot I took with my Brownie box camera at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1960. I was 9 years old, going on 10, and I thought it turned out pretty well. (Actually, I still think so. It’s sharp and clear, which is more than I can say for some of the shots I get with my modern, high-tech camera.) My grandmother lived on West 71st Street in Manhattan, so I slept in her apartment the night before, so we could get up in time to walk to Central Park West and watch the parade go by. Here’s where it gets tricky: in the haze of my memory, I seem to recall shaking hands with Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd, that...

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Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Mohsin Hamid, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Malcolm Gladwell, Eleanor Catton and many more recommend the books that impressed them this year

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) is a brilliant, sprawling, layered and unsentimental portrayal of contemporary China. It made me think and laugh. I also love Dave Eggers' The Circle (Hamish Hamilton), which is a sharp-eyed and funny satire about the obsession with "sharing" our lives through technology. It's convincing and a little creepy.

William Boyd

By strange coincidence two of the most intriguing art books I read this year had the word "Breakfast" in their titles. They were Breakfast with Lucian by Geordie Greig (Jonathan Cape) and Breakfast at Sotheby's by Philip Hook (Particular). Greig's fascinating, intimate biography of Lucian Freud was a revelation. Every question I had about Freud – from the aesthetic to the intrusively gossipy – was...

All you ever wanted to know about Bond – his earliest memory, his most treasured possession, his most unappealing habit. Don't miss William Boyd's interview with 007

James Bond was born in 1924. His father was Andrew Bond, a Scottish engineer who worked for the Vickers armament firm, and his mother, Monique, was Swiss, née Delacroix. Bond was initially educated abroad and became fluent in German and French. His parents, however, died in a tragic climbing accident when Bond was 11 years old. He was sent to Eton, and spent only two terms there before being expelled. The rest of his secondary education took place in Scotland, at Fettes College, Edinburgh, his father's old school. Bond left school at the age of 17 in 1941, and, lying about his age, joined a branch of what would become the Ministry of Defence. He ended the war with the rank of commander in the Special Branch of...

August 30, 2013

CBS Radio Workshop Volume 4 The CBS Radio Workshop debuted at the end of the Age of Classic Radio, which was a time of innovation and experimentation, especially in terms of radio drama. The ten-hour Volume 4 includes “All Is Bright”, a history of the famous Christmas song; “1489 Words”, which featured the debut of later film composer Jerry Goldsmith’s “The Thunder of Imperial Names”, which was written for a concert band and was based on a text piece by Thomas Wolfe; a two-part adaptation of Frederick Pohl and Cyril M. Cornbluth’s The Space Merchants, which offers a satirical look at rampant consumerism from the viewpoint of an advertising executive; Archibald MacLeish’s “Air Raid”, the series’ only re-broadcast, which had first been written for the 1938 Columbia Workshop. Aired during the Cold War era, it took on a sinister new meaning; Henry Fritch’s “The Endless Road”, about a road...

It's been a busy month for Alamo Drafthouse founder and CEO Tim League with new locations opening across the "Magnited States of America," from north Austin to Dallas/Fort Worth and even Yonkers, New York. I was most excited by the new location at Lakeline, the largest Drafthouse location to date with ten screens and a craft beer-themed bar. Glass Half Full offers a 32 craft beer lineup, including 9 rotating taps of special and season beer selections comprised mostly of Texas brews.

The intriguing beer cocktails and mixes concocted by Drafthouse beverage director Bill Norris are a refreshing re-imagining of craft beer libations. My personal favorites so far include the "Elderflower Snake Bite" made up of Pearlsnap Pils and Ace Cider with a hint of St. Germain, and the "Hopalong Cassidy" made of Old Tom Gin, Cointreau, fresh grapefruit and India Pale Ale syrup, which has converted me from a non-gin drinker.

If I quit my day job, I just might possibly keep up with the output from TwoMorrows Publishing. Sundry regularly published magazines (Alter-Ego, Back Issue, Draw!, etc.), trade paperback and hardcover profiles of significant creators, publishing lines, eras and events – I can’t begin to list them all here. Well, I could, but they do a better job on their own website.

Did I mention they do everything up in both hardcopy and digital? Well, they do, and they’ve made many an otherwise tedious commute into Manhattan a lot more palatable.

I only get to bring to your attention a small fraction of their books. I’m still pissed that travel and work schedules didn’t allow me to review their Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour. So, to paraphrase the great Jack Kirby (and, yeah, they also publish The Jack Kirby Collector), just buy it.

But I...

Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…. …the third consecutive week that the Geezer, also known as me, used that hokey lead. Pathetic? You decide. But as long as we’re here…what’s the Man of Steel doing this time? Looks like he’s holding his ears. That must mean that he’s somewhere near the end of his hit movie, at the climactic battle, before a kind of lengthy denouement. Because that was one noisy climax. But first, a geezerly digression. When I was young – and we’re talking really young, like six or seven – I much enjoyed the “cowboy pictures” I saw at the neighborhood theater on Friday nights. The dime Mom gave me bought a cartoon, maybe a Three Stooges feature and two cowboy pictures with real good guys: Hopalong Cassidy, Sunset Carson, Tim Holt, Red Ryder, and...

How did the lone cowboy hero become such a potent figure in American culture? In an extract from his final book Fractured Times, the late Eric Hobsbawm follows a trail from cheap novels and B-westerns to Ronald Reagan

Today, populations of wild horse-riders and herdsmen exist in a large number of regions all round the world. Some of them are strictly analogous to cowboys, such as gauchos on the plains of the southern cone of Latin America; the llaneros on the plains of Colombia and Venezuela; possibly the vaqueiros of the Brazilian north-east; certainly the Mexican vaqueros from whom indeed, as everyone knows, both the costume of the modern cowboy myth and most of the vocabulary of the cowboy's trade are directly derived: mustang, lasso, lariat, sombrero, chaps (chaparro), a cinch, bronco. There are similar populations in Europe, such as the csikos on the Hungarian plain, or puszta, the Andalusian...

London, Dec 12: A novelist from Scotland - commissioned to write a new James Bond novel by the estate of Ian Fleming - has said that the screenwriters have underplayed 007's true alcohol consumption in the movies compared to the troubled nature of the spy in the books.

William Boyd dismissed the work of others who have brought the character to life and deliberately chose not to see 'Skyfall.'"

The 60-year-old historical novelist pointed out that in 'Dr No' 007 drank two bottles of bourbon, a bottle of champagne, a Calvados and four dry martinis in one night.

"In the films Bond is a cartoon character but in the novels.

By Allen Gardner

Pier Paolo Pasolini’S Trilogy Of Life (Criterion) Pier Paolo Pasolini was Italy’s last Neo-Realist, a product of post-ww II Europe who was fervently Catholic, openly gay, defiantly Marxist, and one of the most original voices of the 20th century’s second half. Before his brutal murder in 1975 (after the premiere of his still-controversial swan song, “Salo”), Pasolini directed a trilogy of films based on masterpieces of medieval literature: Boccaccio’s “The Decameron,” Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” and “The Thousand and One Nights (also known as “The Arabian Nights”). The three films celebrate the uninhibited, earthy, raw carnal nature of the original texts, leaving little to the imagination, but also offering Pasolini’s own very unique and pointed views on modern society, consumerism, religious and sexual mores (and hypocrisies), and an unexpurgated celebration of the human body, both male and female. Extraordinary production design by Dante Ferretti and another evocative,...

Dallas — A federal judge in Texas has blocked an attempt by the Los Angeles Police Department to use a search warrant to obtain decades-old tapes of conversations between a Manson family disciple and his attorney that police believe could help clear up more than a dozen unsolved murders.

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Schell's ruling stopped authorities from executing a search warrant earlier this month for the office of the bankruptcy trustee who has eight cassette tapes containing hours of conversations between Charles "Tex" Watson and attorney Bill Boyd.

Schell criticized the Lapd for what the judge called an apparent attempt to circumvent a court order making the tapes off limits until Watson's appeal of a previous ruling in bankruptcy court can be heard.

"This court understands and respects the desire of the Lapd to seek access to the 42-year-old tapes," Schell wrote in an Oct. 5 ruling. "However, the...

This entry was originally titled, "Would you kill Baby Hitler?" Unfortunately, as several readers pointed out, most of the comments centered on the title, suggesting few had made it to the end. The entry is not about Hitler so much as about fate, chance, and luck. I'm giving it a second chance under another title.

The original entry began: Of course, you would have needed to know on April 20, 1889 that the little boy would grow up to become Adolf Hitler, and would commit all of the crimes we now know he committed. The only way you could know that, apart from precognition, would be to have traveled backward in time from a point when Hitler had committed all his crimes and you knew about them.

Then again, Hitler did not act alone. He had many skilled and dedicated lieutenants, and the willing support of millions of Germans. Some historians argue...

The following is an introduction to a new edition of Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" [W.W. Norton, $24.95] written by Andrew Biswell. The piece sheds light on the enduring legacy of the novel, and the various dystopian works that influenced Burgess's writing. Biswell also discusses Burgess's (often clever) responses to the novel's adaptation, and ideas for adaptations that never came to fruition:

In 1994, less than a year after Anthony Burgess had died at the age of seventy-six, BBC Scotland commissioned the novelist William Boyd to write a radio play in celebration of his life and work. This was broadcast during the Edinburgh Festival on 21 August 1994, along with a concert performance of Burgess’s music and a recording of his Glasgow Overture. The programme was called "An Airful of Burgess," with the actor John Sessions playing the parts of both Burgess and his fictional alter ego, the poet F. X. Enderby. On the same day,...

When Joe Biden shakes hands with Paul Ryan before the vice-presidential debate on Oct. 11, many observers will focus on the contrasts. Notably, their ages: Ryan is only 42 while Biden is now 69. But the vice-president may feel for a moment as if he’s looking in the mirror. After all, he was one of youngest men to ever join the U.S. Senate when he was sworn in at the age of 29 in 1973 (when Ryan was only 2 years old.) Both men are favorite Irish sons from their respective states, Roman Catholic, and famously more handsome and charismatic than most of their Washington peers.

The latest issue (#15, Vol. 5) of MI6 Confidential, the British-based magazine dedicated to all things James Bond, is now shipping. As usual, the magazine is chock full of great stories and any number of rare photos guaranteed to shake and stir even the most die-hard 007 fan. Available exclusively from the MI6 HQ web site. Click here to order.

Here is the official description:

Not only will James Bond be keeping the British end up, but he will also be defending MI6 and his boss, M, in the upcoming adventure 'Skyfall'. It was an unprecedented wait for the first proper look at the film: an astonishing five months between the start of shooting and the first set photographs emerging. But the wait has been worth it. In this issue we catch up with the cast and crew in Istanbul, a city that has a special bond with 007.

Also in this issue, we...

What do Jerry Lewis, Bugs Bunny, and Hopalong Cassidy have in common? They all recorded special material for an innovative kid-oriented Capitol Records series in the 1940s and ‘50s. This amazing output, perfectly timed for the baby boom of the post-World War II era, has now been exhaustively documented by Jack Mirtle in his self-published book The Capitol Records Childrens' Series: 1944 to 1956: The Complete Discography. The crossover from the movie world is notable, as Capitol featured such talents as Tex Ritter, Margaret O’Brien, William Boyd (as Hopalong Cassidy), Jerry Lewis, Claude Rains (reading Bible stories), and Smiley Burnette, along with the voice artists...

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The author William Boyd wants to take the super-spy back to his roots. Tell us how you feel about a device-free 007

James Bond's next adventure will be written by the author William Boyd, who says he will take 007 back to his roots in the "old-fashioned spying" of the cold war era. The Booker-nominated writer said he wanted to do away with gadgetry, emphasising "story and character" instead.

Boyd told the Today programme he didn't "quite see the point of moving the novel forward in time. What's fascinating about [James Bond author Ian] Fleming and Bond is the time in which it's set." He said "the films in a way rely on cars and gadgets but in a novel, describing some kind of elaborate gadget isn't quite the same as seeing it on screen".

The franchise has featured many such elaborate gadgets over the years from laser-emitting wristwatches and machine guns masquerading as bagpipes. Are...

London, Apr 12: William Boyd is geared up to pen the next James Bond novel, which would mark a return to "classic Bond" and will be set in the late 1960s.

The as-yet-untitled book will be out in 2013, the 60th anniversary of the super-spy's first literary outing, in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.

He is the third author in recent years to be invited by the Ian Fleming estate to write an official Bond novel, the BBC reported.

The Booker-nominated author said that he had "accepted at once" when invited by the Ian Fleming estate to write.

Author William Boyd has accepted an invitation from the Ian Fleming estate to write the next (as yet untitled) James Bond novel. Three of Boyd's books have been adapted into films that have starred 007 actors Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Boyd was not giving any details on the project except to say it will be retro-based with the story taking place in 1969. The Ian Fleming estate has been following a policy of having prominent authors each write one Bond novel. Sebastian Faulks and Jeffrey Deaver have already written best-selling Bond thrillers. Boyd has been a Bond fan since childhood. His book will be released in 2013. For more click here  ...

'I giggle too much'

Brenda Blethyn, 66, was born Brenda Bottle in Ramsgate, Kent. She worked as a secretary for British Rail and did amateur dramatics before going to drama school at the age of 27. In 1980, she was cast by Mike Leigh in the BBC film Grown-Ups and later starred in the same director's 1996 film Secret & Lies, a role that earned her an Oscar nomination. She was also Oscar-nominated for her performance in the 1998 film Little Voice. She has appeared at the National Theatre and on Broadway, and stars as Dci Vera Stanhope in the ITV series Vera, which begins a second season on 22 April.

When were you happiest?

I hope that time hasn't come yet.

What is your earliest memory?

Standing with my mother in Ramsgate. I was counting the buttons on my leggings and they went under the straps on my shoes and I was wondering whether I should count those,...

Veteran producer Hilary Bevan Jones has been involved with such British TV shows as Blackadder, Cracker and State Of Play. In 2006, she won an Emmy for HBO’s The Girl In The Café, written by Richard Curtis – whose 2009 feature The Boat That Rocked she produced for Working Title. From 2006-2008 she was also chairman of BAFTA; the first woman to hold the position in 60 years. Her slate at Endor includes projects involving Curtis, Neil Gaiman, Lenny Henry and Julian Farino. Endor is also producing William Boyd drama Restless for the BBC and starring Hayley Atwell. The acquisition of Endor by Red Arrow comes just ahead of the Mip-tv market, where Red Arrow will take over selling Endor’s programs and formats through its distribution arm, SevenOne International. Red Arrow group managing director Jan Frouman said: “We jumped at the chance to partner with a producer of Hilary’s stature, reputation and sheer likability.

If, over the last 10 months, you’ve sometimes felt that sitting through 2011’s movies has been somewhat akin to sitting through TV’s summer reruns, that’s because you have been sitting through reruns. Well, reruns Hollywood style.

According to a Box Office Mojo story earlier this year, 2011 will end as a record year for sequels, prequels, and spin-offs. I don’t know if Mojo included remakes in that calculation, but whether they did or didn’t, remakes have certainly added to that oppressive déjà vu feeling which seems to roll into the multiplex every couple of weeks.

And we’re not even considering the familiar-feeling clones and knock-offs. “Oh, yippee, another superhero flick! Another The Hangover wannabe!” It’s like that Twilight Zone where Dennis Weaver is damned to relive the same bad dream over and over; the people take different parts in each cycle, but it’s still the same nightmare.

This is not your granddaddy's Western. Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Gabby Hayes would not recognize the actions that take place in "Meek's Cutoff." They would not feel at home here, but Gus Van Sant would. Consider Van Sant's 2002 film "Gerry," in which two twenty-something men go off into the desert and forget to bring any food with them. "Gerry" has an opening that would likely drive half the audience to the exits-that's how slow-moving the scenes slide by, setting the tone for the remainder of the inaction. Kelly Reichardt would love that picture. She opens her "Meek's Cutoff" without dialogue for ten or fifteen minutes, her camera person grooving on some long shots of folks in a covered wagon traipsing across the Oregon Trail in 1845 before railroad made the trip outdated. Still its tempting to say that the brave and foolish people making the trip...

Hollywood actor often cast as a good-time girl who became the fifth and last wife of Hopalong Cassidy star William Boyd

In the 1930s and 40s, in order to fill up the programmes of double bills, Hollywood studios churned out hundreds of cheap "programmers" through which some actors, such as Grace Bradley, who has died aged 97, gained a modicum of fame. Bradley later became more celebrated as "Mrs Hopalong Cassidy", the fifth and last wife of William Boyd, the actor who embodied the cowboy hero. The petite, seductive and sassy Bradley, who never made a colour film, was a redhead but was frequently seen as a blonde. From 1933 to 1943, she appeared in dozens of quickly made second features, often cast as what were termed "good-time girls", as distinct from good girls, sometimes with invented ooh-la-la French names.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bradley played the piano, sang and danced, on stage and in nightclubs,...

Grace Bradley when she was a Paramount starlet in the 1930s. I’ve just learned that brave, beautiful Grace Bradley Boyd has passed away, having just celebrated her 97th birthday. This remarkable woman led an incredible life, from the time she entered show business in her teens, to the day she married the man she’d idolized on the screen, William Boyd, to the years she spent in her 80s and 90s teaching other senior citizens Tai Chi near her home in Orange County, California. The year before last, pop culture guru Russ Cochran published a long-awaited book about the Boyds that…...

The Post Office unveiled some very special stamps yesterday morning in Southern California; a set devoted to classic television.

The "Early TV Memories" set of commemorative stamps were launched at a special event at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood. The 20 shows that are honored on the stamps are The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet; Alfred Hitchcock Presents; The Burns and Allen Show; The Dinah Shore Show; Dragnet; The Ed Sullivan Show; The Honeymooners; Hopalong Cassidy; Howdy Doody; I Love Lucy; Kukla, Fran and Ollie; Lassie; The Lone Ranger; Perry Mason; The Phil Silvers Show; The Red Skelton Show; Texaco Star Theater; The Tonight Show; The Twilight Zone; and You Bet Your Life.

All of the performers pictured on the stamps are no longer with us. Stars like Sid Caesar would likely also have been honored but Post...

The Post Office unveiled some very special stamps yesterday morning in Southern California; a set devoted to classic television.

The "Early TV Memories" set of commemorative stamps were launched at a special event at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood. The 20 shows that are honored on the stamps are The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet; Alfred Hitchcock Presents; The Burns and Allen Show; The Dinah Shore Show; Dragnet; The Ed Sullivan Show; The Honeymooners; Hopalong Cassidy; Howdy Doody; I Love Lucy; Kukla, Fran and Ollie; Lassie; The Lone Ranger; Perry Mason; The Phil Silvers Show; The Red Skelton Show; Texaco Star Theater; The Tonight Show; The Twilight Zone; and You Bet Your Life.

All of the performers pictured on the stamps are no longer with us. Stars like Sid Caesar would likely also have been honored but Post Office rules stipulate that a living person can't appear on a stamp.

Stamp collecting is something I just never got into (don't worry, I have plenty of other obsessions), but this might be the first time I actually go to my local post office and get a sheet.

Yesterday, 20 new classic TV stamps were unveiled: I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, The Honeymooners, Texaco Star Theater, Perry Mason, The Lone Ranger, Burns and Allen, Ozzie and Harriet, Hopalong Cassidy, Lassie, Dragnet, You Bet Your Life, The Dinah Shore Show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Phil Silvers Show, Howdy Doody, The Red Skelton Show, and Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, Continue reading Classic TV stamps unveiled

 

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I was in the post office the other day and saw one of the "coming soon" ads for stamp collections that were on the way. It was too distant for me to make out exactly what it was, but one of the upcoming collections was dedicated to the golden age of TV. And now Sci Fi Wire has better quality images and more information about those stamps.

The set includes Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, the Lone Ranger, Burns and Allen, Ozzie and Harriet, original Tonight Show host Steve Allen, Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, Alfred Hitchcock, Raymond Burr as Perry Mason, Jack Webb from Dragnet, Lassie, Red Skelton, Uncle Miltie, Dinah Shore, Groucho Marx, Phil Silvers, from the world of puppets, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie as well as Howdy Doody, William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd, and Rod Serling.

(A.C. Lyles, below)

by Jon Zelazny

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared at EightMillionStories.com on February 27, 2009

There’s an A.C. Lyles Building at the Paramount Pictures main lot, but you won’t find A.C. Lyles there; his office is on the fourth floor of the William S. Hart Building.

When I arrived for our interview, Mr. Lyles was chatting with some visitors in his outer office. He bid me into his main office, and asked his assistant Pam to put in a video… a short promo reel that opens with a six minute tribute by then-President Ronald Reagan, who warmly recalls his and Nancy’s many years of friendship with A.C. and his wife Martha, and congratulates A.C. on his fifty years at the studio. The President’s intro is followed by taped congratulations from President Carter, President Ford, and Vice President Bush, then assorted clips celebrating Mr.

Flicker Alley in association with the Blackhawk Film Collection has announced the release of "Under Full Sail – Silent Cinema on the High Seas," a new DVD release featuring, as per its press release, "five breathtaking films that preserve the romance, grandeur and allure of windjammers sailing open waters, exquisitely photographed in the style of the time." The following information is from the Flicker Alley release: The Yankee Clipper (1927), produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Rupert Julian, restored to the most complete version available since the film’s release, is a feature-length melodrama recreating the real-life race from Foo Chow to Boston for the China tea trade. The gorgeous production filmed at sea for six weeks aboard the 1856 wooden square-rigger Indiana with stars William Boyd, Elinor Fair and Frank “Junior” Coghlan. Renowned organist Dennis James, in his solo DVD premiere, accompanies the film on an original-installation 1928 Wurlitzer pipe organ...

Click to see stamps The United States Postal Service today revealed the commemorative stamps planned for 2009. Among the many new stamps that will be available, from famous politicians to lighthouses, is a set dedicated to famous characters and moments from classic television shows, called the "Early TV Memories" stamps. The shows commemorated are Adventures of Ozzie Harriet; Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Dinah Shore Show; Dragnet; Ed Sullivan Show; George Burns Gracie Allen Show; Hopalong Cassidy; The Honeymooners; Howdy Doody; I Love Lucy; Kukla, Fran and Ollie; Lassie; The Lone Ranger; Perry Mason; Phil Silvers Show; Red Skelton; Texaco Star Theater; Tonight Show; Twilight Zone; and, You Bet Your Life.

Bill "Hopalong" Cassidy is getting the big screen treatment from Mark Canton (300) and Pterodactyl Prods. according to Variety.

The beloved tough cowboy was originally created by Clarence E. Mulford in 1904 and he was a popular staple in fiction before being portrayed on screen by William Boyd. He portrayed the cowpuncher in 66 short films between the 1930s and 1950s. There was also a long-running radio show in addition to comic books.

The comics were initially produced by Fawcett for 84 issues with Dan Spiegel producing a lot of the artwork. When Fawcett ceased publishing, the rights were acquired by DC Comics in 1954 for an additional 50 issues. Editor Julie Schwartz used his regulars on the feature including writer John Broome and artists Gil Kane, Bernard Sachs, and Joe Giella. The title featured Gene Colan’s first work for the company and he did a long stretch of the title.

There hasn’t been...

As soon as the Lone Ranger started to be pulled into modern Hollywood, I knew other cowboys would follow. If Hi, Ho, and Silver, aren't your idea of a good time, how about Bill "Hopalong" Cassidy?

Variety reports that 300 producer Mark Canton is joining forces with Pterodactyl Prods. on a film that will feature the iconic Hopalong. The hero, who was created back in 1904, made his way through stories and novels before going Hollywood in 1935 and appearing in a whopping 66 films through the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Canton says: "We're looking to ring in the modern age with a branded, well-loved hero that we approach in a fresh way." (Hopalong had comics, serials, a series, and was the first image to be slapped on a lunchbox.

Of course this would appeal to cross-platform thinkers, but can we really call Hopalong well-loved today? His fans are at least pushing 50, if not 80 or 90. Nevertheless,...