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Before she was making a new generation laugh as melodramatic "Schitt's Creek" starlet Moira Rose or leaving audiences in stitches as Christopher Guest's go-to zany muse for his mockumentaries, comedic actor Catherine O'Hara almost had a key part in a golden age episode of "The Simpsons."

In the show's third season, the provocatively titled episode "Flaming Moe's" gave bartender Moe Szyslak (Hank Azaria) a rare win when a drink idea he stole from Homer took the local scene by storm. The drink in question, a Flaming Moe, was originally made up of all the leftover bits of alcohol in the Simpson liquor cabinet, with an added dose of child's cough syrup and a fiery garnish –- thanks to Selma and Patty's cigarette cinders. That's right: Homer Simpson got Springfield hooked on lean in 1991.

Part of the episode's charm comes from the "Cheers" parody that makes up a surprising amount of its runtime.

Partners to champion new voices, explore growth in global markets.

Mediawan and Miramax TV have struck a deal to partner on development and production of prestige international scripted content kicking off with adaptations of The Immortals and Chocolat.

The Immortals is a series adaptation of René Barjavel’s best-selling sci-fi conspiracy novel Le Grand Secret (The Immortals) about world leaders who cover up a virus that causes immortality.

Miramax’s global head of television Marc Helwig and vice president of television development Mirsada Abdool Raman will handle production for Miramax alongside head of Mediawan Pictures’ Elisabeth d’Arvieu and Atlantique Productions’ general director Nathalie Perus.

Mediawan and Miramax TV have signed a deal to co-develop and produce high-end scripted content, kicking off with the series adaptations “Chocolat,” and the sci-fi novel “The Immortals.”

As previously announced, the “Chocolat” series will be based on the books by Joanne Harris which were previously adapted into an Oscar-nominated movie directed by Lasse Hallstrom. The movie also went on to gross more than 152 million worldwide.

The series will expand on the novels and the film, and will take place in modern-day France. The plot will revolve around a woman and her daughter who settle down in a small town and shake things down. Their biggest challenge will be to convince the town’s folks to embrace the change they are bringing into town. French screenwriter Chloé Marçais will writing the adaptation, with Nathalie Perus. Atlantique Productions, a Mediawan company, is executive producing the series in France.

“The Immortals,” meanwhile,...

Comedian Sandi Toksvig has given fans an update on her health after being admitted to hospital.

The 64-year-old Bake Off presenter was touring Australia when she contracted bronchial pneumonia. She was then taken to hospital for treatment.

Writing on Twitter, Toksvig said: “Thank you to everyone who has sent such kind words while I’ve been unwell. I am now out of hospital and continuing my convalescence in Australia until I’m fit to fly home.

“My undying (literally) thanks to the amazing Australian health service.”

Before being sent to hospital, Toksvig had performed dates in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, and had been due to tour New Zealand next week, with dates lined up in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.

A previous statement shared on Toksvig’s Twitter account on Saturday (3 December) read: “Due to illness, Sandi has cancelled the New Zealand leg of her tour.

“She has been admitted to...

The 2000 film starred Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

Miramax TV is partnering with Mediawan’s Atlantique Productions for a French-language adaptation of 2000 Oscar-nominated box office hit Chocolat which starred Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

The film was directed by Lasse Hallstrom and based on the novel by Joanne Harris. It garnered five Academy Award nominations including best picture and grossed more than 152m at the global box office. The Miramax-Atlantique series adaptation will draw from both the original book and feature film as well as additional novels by Harris.

The series will follow a woman and her daughter who settle...

Johnny Depp hit Chocolat is to return as a French-language TV series from Miramax TV and Mediawan.

The five-time-Academy Award-nominated film’s TV adaptation will be shot in French and set in a small town in modern-day France, with Mediawan-owned Atlantique Productions producing with Miramax. The movie was released in 2000 and also starred Juliette Binoche and Judi Dench.

In the TV show, also adapted from the Joanne Harris novel, a woman and a daughter will settle down and disrupt the fragile social balance of the local community. Their biggest challenge will be to convince the town’s folks to embrace the change they are bringing into town, like a breath of fresh air.

“Joanne Harris’ richly textured comic fable is a timeless and uplifting crowd-pleaser,” said Marc Helwig, Miramax Global Head of Television. “This marks yet another fantastic project from our extensive IP and film library, that we are able...

Billy Bragg has hit back at Jk Rowling after she appeared to accuse him of supporting “rape and death theats” by backing Graham Norton’s view on transgender rights.

On Thursday (13 October), Bragg posted a tweet praising TV host Graham Norton for his comments about so-called “cancel culture” while attending Cheltenham Literature Festival. Norton also commented on the media’s coverage of the debate surrounding trans rights.

Reposting a clip of Nortan’s talk, Bragg wrote: “Norton really good here on John Cleese.

“Telling him that cancel culture is just accountability, and Jk Rowling, suggesting that the media talk directly to trans teens and their parents rather than merely amplifying the takes of a celebrity.”

Rowling was quick to respond to Bragg, writing: “Very much enjoying the recent spate of bearded men stepping confidently onto their soapboxes to define what a woman is and throw their support behind rape and...

The worlds of publishing and screen have paid tribute to author Hilary Mantel, who died on Thursday (Sept. 22) at the age of 70.

Peter Kosminsky, who directed the BBC adaptation of Mantel’s novel “Wolf Hall,” told Variety: “A great light has gone out. The word ‘great’ is used very easily these days but nobody could dispute that it’s an appropriate epithet for Dame Hilary Mantel. If you look at the scale of her achievements, the impact she’s had, the breadth of her knowledge and reading… She’s someone whom people went to for thoughts and opinions on a variety of different novels ad nonfiction works. People recognized her for the massive intellect as she was. It’s hard to imagine a world without her.”

Colin Callender, producer of “Wolf Hall” added: “Hilary was a brilliant iconoclast and captivating storyteller. With ‘Wolf Hall’ she reinvented the traditional historical novel.

The bonus episodes of Netflix show The Sandman appear to make a dig at Jk Rowling.

On Friday (19 August), two weeks after the Neil Gaiman adaptation was released, a surprise "two-part story collection" was added to the streaming service.

The episode, which has caused excitement among fans of the show, covers two storylines from the comic books, “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope”.

In the episode, which was written by Catherine Smyth-McMullen, former Doctor Who actor Arthur Darvill plays author Richard Madoc.

One scene, set in August 2020, is set during Richard’s book launch, in which we hear that “every major studo wants a piece of him – film, broadcast, streaming”.

One character asks “who’s the frontrunner”, to which another replies: “Whoever lets him write and direct.”

The character then references the Harry Paotter author, stating: “They won't even let Jo Rowling write and direct,” to which the other...

A war of words has erupted between “Harry Potter” creator J.K. Rowling and “Chocolat” author Joanne Harris over gender identity issues.

The spat began after Rowling expressed concern for “The Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie when he was attacked and received a death threat on Twitter. Harris, who is the head of the U.K.’s Society of Authors, had expressed support for Rowling “and to everyone in a similar position.”

In response, Rowling told The Times that she had “received no communication whatsoever from Harris expressing sympathy for the death and rape threats I’ve received.”

“Harris has consistently failed to criticize tactics designed to silence and intimidate women who disagree with her personal position on gender identity ideology and has said publicly, ‘Cancel isn’t a dirty word. We habitually cancel things we no longer want,’ ” Rowling told The Times.

In response Harris said: “I’ve always said...

The 1980s were a very dangerous time for the younger generation onscreen. Any teen or twenty-something movie character in the slasher genre of the era was pretty much guaranteed to get the chop. 1989 slasher gem Hell High is a case in point – no sooner have the credits rolled heads have started rolling. Or rather, a delinquent biker tears the head off a young girl’s plastic dolly in a rage – the little girl is not happy, and the biker and his girlfriend end up impaled on iron spikes.

To celebrate the release of Hell High on Special Edition Blu-ray, and Limited Edition O-card Blu-ray, from Arrow Video, here are eight more ‘80s slashers featuring everything from terrorising twins to killer mascots via masked, axe-wielding psychopaths.

Blood Rage (1987)

Twins Todd and Terry seem like sweet boys, that is, until one of them takes an axe to the face of a fellow patron at the local drive-in.

The ’80s Slasher Classic Deadly Games (1982) will be available on Blu-ray February 22nd from Arrow Video

Steve Railsback (famed for his unhinged performance as Charles Manson in 1976’s TV mini-series Helter Skelter) is at his sinister best as a troubled Vietnam Vet in 1982’s Deadly Games – a tale of madness, murder and adultery from writer/director Scott Mansfied.

A masked maniac with a penchant for a horror-themed board game is playing his own twisted game with the women of a small American town. Each time the dice is rolled, another victim meets a grisly end. Returning home to mourn the death of her murdered sister, Keegan (Jo Ann Harris) befriends local cop Roger and oddball cinema projectionist Billy (Railsback) – but soon finds herself in the killer’s sights.

Originally entitled Who Fell Asleep, Deadly Games is an intriguing early ’80s slasher oddity which benefits from focusing as much on the...

Paranoia strikes deep! Alan J. Pakula made The Watergate-era conspiracy creepshow in this sinister extrapolation of political trends. Warren Beatty’s investigative reporter thinks he has an inside track to expose and destroy what looks like a shadow assassination bureau. If the technology of 1974 could be made this efficient, our own Brave New World of ‘truth control’ seems even scarier. Pakula and cameraman Gordon Willis found a Panavision style that fully expresses the faceless corporate menace; the ‘Parallax Recruitment Montage’ is still the most terrifying piece of psych-out Agit-prop ever assembled.

The Parallax View

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1064

1974 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 102 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 9, 2021 / 39.95

Starring: Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, Paula Prentiss, William Daniels, Jo Ann Harris, Walter McGinn, Jim Davis, Stacy Keach Sr., Ford Rainey, Richard Bull, Kenneth Mars, Bill McKinney, Craig R. Baxley, Anthony Zerbe.

Cinematography: Gordon Willis

Film Editor: John W. Wheeler...

'In the Fade' with Diane Kruger: Fatih Akin's German-language Avenging Woman drama may give its star the chance to become next awards season Isabelle Huppert. Diane Kruger: 2017–2018 awards season's Isabelle Huppert? The 2003 Cannes Film Festival's Female Revelation Chopard Trophy winner, Diane Kruger was Cannes' 2017 Best Actress winner for Fatih Akin's In the Fade / Aus dem Nichts. If Akin's German drama finds a U.S. distributor before the end of the year, Kruger could theoretically become the Isabelle Huppert of the 2017–2018 awards season – that is, in case the former does become a U.S. critics favorite while we stretch things a bit regarding the Kruger-Huppert commonalities. Just a bit, as both are European-born Best Actress Cannes winners who have been around for a while (in Huppert's case, for quite a while). Perhaps most importantly, like Huppert in Paul Verhoeven's Elle, Kruger plays a woman out for revenge in In the Fade. Diane Kruger-Isabelle Huppert 'differences' There is, however, one key difference between the two characters: in Elle, Huppert wants to avenge her own rape; in In the Fade, Kruger wants to avenge the death of her Turkish husband (Numan Acar) and their son (Rafael Santana) at the hands of white supremacist terrorists. Another key difference, this time about the Kruger-Huppert Cannes Film Festival connection: although Isabelle Huppert became a U.S. critics favorite – and later a Best Actress Oscar nominee – for her performance in Elle, her (unanimous) Best Actress Cannes win was for another movie, Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher / La pianiste back in 2001. At that time, Huppert also became a U.S. critics favorite (winning Best Actress honors in San Diego and San Francisco; a runner-up in Los Angeles and New York), but, perhaps because of the psychological drama's sexually charged nature, she failed to receive a matching Oscar nod. Last year's Cannes Best Actress, by the way, was Jaclyn Jose for Brillante Mendoza's Philippine drama Ma' Rosa. Huppert had been in contention as well, as Elle was in the running for the Palme d'Or. Diane Kruger Best Actress Oscar nomination chances? A Best Actress nomination for Diane Kruger at the German Academy Awards (a.k.a. Lolas) – for her first German-language starring role – is all but guaranteed. Curiously, that would be her first. As for a Best Actress Oscar nod, that's less certain. For starters, unlike the mostly well-reviewed Elle, In the Fade has sharply divided critics. The Hollywood Reporter, for one, summarized Akin's film as a “thriller made riveting by an emotional performance from Diane Kruger,” while The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw called it a “mediocre revenge drama” with “a not particularly good” star turn. Besides, since the year 2000 just one “individual” Best Actress Cannes winner has gone on to receive an Oscar nomination for the same performance: Rooney Mara*, who, though one of the two leads in Todd Haynes' Carol (2011), was shortlisted in the Oscars' Best Supporting Actress category so as not to compete with her co-star and eventual Best Actress nominee Cate Blanchett. Then there's the special case of Penélope Cruz; the 2006 Best Actress Oscar nominee – for Pedro Almodóvar's Volver – was a Cannes winner as part of that family comedy-drama ensemble†. And finally, despite their Cannes Best Actress win for performances in (at least partly) English-language films, no less than seven other actresses have failed to be shortlisted for the Academy Awards this century. Björk, Dancer in the Dark (2000). Maggie Cheung, Clean (2004). Hanna Laslo, Free Zone (2005). Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist (2009). Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy (2010). Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia (2011). Julianne Moore, Maps to the Stars (2014). Coincidentally, that same year Moore starred in Still Alice, which eventually earned her the Best Actress Oscar. Warner Bros. will be distributing In the Fade in Germany later this year. Regarding the Oscars, whether late in 2017 or late in 2018, seems like it would be helpful if Diane Kruger got a hold of Isabelle Huppert's – and/or Marion Cotillard's and Jean Dujardin's – U.S.-based awards season publicists. * Rooney Mara shared the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award with Emmanuelle Bercot for My King / Mon roi. † Also in the Cannes-winning Volver ensemble: Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Chus Lampreave, and Yohana Cobo. 'The Beguiled' trailer: Colin Farrell cast in the old Clint Eastwood role in Sofia Coppola's readaptation of Civil War-set, lust & circumstance drama. Sofia Coppola ends Cannes female drought About 13 years ago, Sofia Coppola became the first American woman to be shortlisted for the Best Director Academy Award – for the Tokyo-set drama Lost in Translation, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Coppola eventually lost in that category to Peter Jackson for the blockbuster The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but she did take home that year's Best Original Screenplay Oscar statuette. There haven't been any other Oscar nominations since, but her father-daughter drama Somewhere, toplining Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning, was the controversial Golden Lion winner at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. This year, Coppola has become only the second woman to win the Cannes Film Festival's Best Director Award – for The Beguiled, an American Civil War-set drama based on Thomas P. Cullinan's 1966 novel of the same name (originally published as A Painted Devil). With shades of Rumer Godden's Black Narcissus, The Beguiled follows a wounded Union soldier as he finds refuge at a girls' boarding school in Virginia. Sexual tension and assorted forms of pathological behavior ensue. Tenuous Cannes-Oscar Best Director connection From 2000 to 2016, 20 filmmakers† have taken home the Cannes Film Festival's Best Director Award. Of these, only four have gone on to receive matching Best Director Oscar nominations – but no wins: David Lynch, Mulholland Dr. (2001). Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel (2006). Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007). Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher (2014). Four other Cannes Best Director winners were bypassed by the Academy even though their movies featured – at least a sizable chunk of – English-language dialogue: Joel Coen, The Man Who Wasn't There§ (2001). Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love (2002). Gus Van Sant, Elephant (2004). Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive (2011). In other words, a Best Director Cannes Film Festival win is no guarantee of a Best Director Academy Award nomination. Ultimately, Sofia Coppola's chances of an Oscar nod in the Best Director category depend on how well The Beguiled is received among Los Angeles and New York film circles, and how commercially successful – for an “arthouse movie” – it turns out to be. † During that period, there were three Cannes Film Festival Best Director ties: 2001: Joel Coen for The Man Who Wasn't There§ & David Lynch for Mulholland Dr. 2002: Im Kwon-taek for Painted Fire & Paul Thomas Anderson for Punch-Drunk Love. 2016: Cristian Mungiu for Graduation & Olivier Assayas for Personal Shopper. Both films opened in the U.S. in spring 2017 and may thus be eligible for the upcoming awards season. § Ethan Coen co-directed The Man Who Wasn't There, but didn't receive credit in that capacity. 'The Beguiled' with Nicole Kidman. The Best Actress Oscar winner ('The Hours,' 2002) had two movies in the Cannes Film Festival's Official Competition; the other one was 'The Killing of the Secret Deer,' also with Colin Farrell. Moreover, Kidman was the recipient of Cannes' special 70th Anniversary Prize. 'Sly' & 'elegant' Also adapted by Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled will be distributed in the U.S. by Oscar veteran Focus Features (Brokeback Mountain, The Danish Girl). The film has generally received positive notices – e.g., “sly” and “elegant” in the words of Time magazine's Stephanie Zacharek – and could well become a strong awards season contender in various categories. The cast includes The Killing of a Sacred Deer actors Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell, in addition to Kirsten Dunst (the star of Coppola's Marie Antoinette), Somewhere actress Elle Fanning, Oona Laurence, Addison Riecke, Angourie Rice, and Emma Howard. As an aside, Cullinan's novel also served as the basis for Don Siegel's The Beguiled (1971), a Southern Gothic effort adapted by Irene Kamp and former Hollywood Ten member Albert Maltz. In the cast of what turned out to be a major box office flop: Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, and Jo Ann Harris. Women directors at Cannes & the Oscars For the record, Soviet filmmaker Yuliya Solntseva was the Cannes Film Festival's first Best Director winner, for The Story of the Flaming Years back in 1961. The only woman to have directed a Palme d'Or winner is Jane Campion, for The Piano (1993). Early in 1994, Campion became the second woman to be shortlisted for an Academy Award in the Best Director category. The first one was Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties (1976). 'A Gentle Night' & 'Montparnasse Bienvenue' Qiu Yang's short film Palme d'Or winner A Gentle Night should be automatically eligible for the 2018 Academy Awards. But competition, as usual, will be fierce. In the last decade, the only short film Palme d'Or winner to have received an Oscar nomination is Juanjo Giménez Peña's Timecode (2016), in the Best Live Action Short Film category. This article was originally published at Alt Film Guide (http://www.altfg.com/).

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, and Tom Stockman

Happy Birthday to one of We Are Movie Geeks favorite stars. Clint Eastwood was born on this day in 1930, making him 86 years old. The actor and two-time Oscar winning director hasn’t let his age slow him down a bit. Sully, his new movie as a director, opens in September.

We posted a list in 2011 of his ten best directorial efforts Here

Clint Eastwood has appeared in 68 films in his six (!) decades as an actor, and here, according to We Are Movie Geeks, are his ten best:

Honorable Mention: Honkytonk Man

By the 1980s, Clint Eastwood was one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. With his own production company, directorial skills, and economic clout, Eastwood was able to make smaller, more personal films. A perfect example is the underrated Honkytonk Man, which also happens to be one of Eastwood’s finest performances.

When it comes to potential Hollywood film projects, there are unsubstantiated rumours, and then there are rumours that increasingly look to be likelihoods. The Beguiled is becoming one such likelihood, as Indiewire report that the rumours surrounding the potential project are being supported by comments from people such as Kirsten Dunst. It seems that Academy Award winner Sofia Coppola could well be lining up a fresh version of The Beguiled, with Nicole Kidman, Dunst and Elle Fanning set to star.

First and foremost, The Beguiled is a 1966 novel by Thomas Cullinan, which was previously adapted for cinema in 1971, starring Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman and Jo Ann Harris. That version was directed by Don Siegel (Dirty Harry), and written by Albert Maltz, Irene Kamp and Claude Traverse. If it actually comes together, this new version by Sofia Coppola is expected to present a new adaptation of the source novel,...

When J. Edgar was released last Fall, We Are Movie Geeks published our Top Ten Tuesday article on Clint Eastwood’s best films as director. With word that Eastwood has come out of acting retirement, it’s time for another Top Ten list, this time of movies that Clint has starred in. Trouble With The Curve is currently filming and stars Clint as an ailing baseball scout in his twilight years who takes his daughter (played by Amy Adams) on the road for one last recruiting trip. This will be Clint’s first acting role since Gran Torino in 2008.

Super-8 Clint Eastwood Movie Madness will be a great way to celebrate the life and films of this legendary American actor. It takes place February 7th at the Way Out Club in St. Louis (2525 Jefferson in South City). Condensed versions of these memorable Clint Eastwood films will be shown on a...

Fans of classic horror and cheesy Eighties movies have just received the green light to shit their pants with joy! Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment’s Mod (Manufacturing on Demand) initiative is once again unleashing MGM's vaults with a stellar collection of long gone classics!

In September be prepared to break your banks as we have your first look at some of the upcoming hard to find titles that lay in the not too distant future!

The Living Ghost (1942) - James Dunn stars as Nick Trayne, a retired detective, hired to look for missing banker Walter Craig. During the investigation Craig shows up in a zombie-like state and murders his brother-in-law. But is the banker the killer or is someone controlling him? The trail leads Nick to the real culprit, a mad scientist, who has been conducting experiments on Craig. Stars James Dunn; Joan Woodbury; Paul McVey. Directed by William Beaudine.

The titular gang of Rape Squad is not a squad of rapists but rather a group of rape victims who band together to get revenge on their attacker. Released in 1974, Rape Squad is a bad taste bonanza that wants to have it both ways in terms of mixing sexploitation and feminism and the result is a queasy film that’s politically incorrect in a way only possible in the mid 1970’s. Though written by a woman (Betty Conklin), the film’s blatant misogyny is poorly concealed with the most shallow of feminist themes. Sure, the women who comprise the Rape Squad talk the talk about women’s empowerment, but the filmmakers make sure they do so while topless in the hot tub! It’s an interesting look at the sexual politics of its time but Rape Squad is so wrong on so many levels. It’s not an easy film...