This side of "Star Trek" or "Doctor Who," it's hard to find a sci-fi TV show that had a more successful run than "Stargate Sg-1." The series, which is based on Roland Emmerich's 1994 movie "Stargate," ran for 10 seasons and more than 200 episodes, even switching networks along the way. For the actors involved, it was the sort of steady paycheck that is hard to come by in Hollywood. So, does Kurt Russell have any regrets about not reprising his role as Jack O'Neill? It sure doesn't sound like it.
In a 2006 interview with Dark Horizons, Russell was asked if he would like to return to the world of television in relation to the success of "Stargate Sg-1." The actor, who had previously starred in shows such as "The New Land" and "The Quest," made it crystal clear that he was far more interested in movies -- at least at that...
In a 2006 interview with Dark Horizons, Russell was asked if he would like to return to the world of television in relation to the success of "Stargate Sg-1." The actor, who had previously starred in shows such as "The New Land" and "The Quest," made it crystal clear that he was far more interested in movies -- at least at that...
- 9/9/2024
- by Ryan Scott
- Slash Film
Mark Wahlberg promised that he gets to show a very different side of himself in “Flight Risk,” a new thriller from Mel Gibson. And based on the trailer that Lionsgate shared at CinemaCon on Thursday, that’s no exaggeration. Wahlberg, who specializes in square-jawed heroes, is balding and psychotic, playing a mob hit man who tricks a federal agent into allowing him to pilot a plane carrying an informant out of a remote area.
Scenery is chewed as Wahlberg sports a faux Southern accent and flashes a sociopathic glint in his eye. Gibson, no stranger to controversies over the years, is presented in the trailer as the Oscar-winning director of “Braveheart” and “Apocalypto.” Gibson also earned an Oscar nomination for “Hacksaw Ridge.” He and Wahlberg have worked together in the past on “Father Stu” and “Daddy’s Home 2.” “Flight Risk” is different from those films (think aviation thrillers like “Executive Decision...
Scenery is chewed as Wahlberg sports a faux Southern accent and flashes a sociopathic glint in his eye. Gibson, no stranger to controversies over the years, is presented in the trailer as the Oscar-winning director of “Braveheart” and “Apocalypto.” Gibson also earned an Oscar nomination for “Hacksaw Ridge.” He and Wahlberg have worked together in the past on “Father Stu” and “Daddy’s Home 2.” “Flight Risk” is different from those films (think aviation thrillers like “Executive Decision...
- 4/10/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
I have vivid memories of seeing "Star Trek: Nemesis" on December 13, 2002 (the film's opening day) and learning what true pop culture disappointment felt like. "Star Trek" had been a part of my life and my home for as long as I could remember. Even lesser "Star Trek" was still "Star Trek." But "Nemesis" was different. It was bad in unique ways. It was bad in ways that didn't feel like "Star Trek." My life as a movie and TV fan, as a "Star Trek" fan, hinges on that day. The day I learned that the things I loved could actively hurt me. There are worse films out there, yes, but few carry the profound stench of disappointment quite like this one, a film that took one of the greatest casts of characters in science fiction history and gave them a conclusion so half-assed that it felt like a personal insult.
- 8/14/2023
- by Jacob Hall
- Slash Film
If you’re trying to figure out what to watch on HBO Max, you may want to prioritize a number of films that are due to leave the streaming service in April.
Set to depart HBO Max at the end of this month are such noteworthy films as the Oscar-winning “Promising Young Woman,” the Tom Hanks Western “News of the World,” the Kurt Russell 1996 thriller “Executive Decision,” and the extended version of Bruce Willis’ final “Die Hard” film “A Good Day to Die Hard.”
Also leaving HBO Max this month is “The Fast and the Furious” and the franchise’s first sequel “2 Fast 2 Furious.”
Check out the full list of what’s leaving HBO Max in April below.
April 3:
Life’s Too Short, 2012 (HBO)
April 30:
2 Fast 2 Furious, 2003 (HBO)
A Good Day to Die Hard, 2013 (HBO) (Extended Version)
Aftermath, 2017 (HBO)
Anna to the Infinite Power, 1982 (HBO)
Bloodsport,...
Set to depart HBO Max at the end of this month are such noteworthy films as the Oscar-winning “Promising Young Woman,” the Tom Hanks Western “News of the World,” the Kurt Russell 1996 thriller “Executive Decision,” and the extended version of Bruce Willis’ final “Die Hard” film “A Good Day to Die Hard.”
Also leaving HBO Max this month is “The Fast and the Furious” and the franchise’s first sequel “2 Fast 2 Furious.”
Check out the full list of what’s leaving HBO Max in April below.
April 3:
Life’s Too Short, 2012 (HBO)
April 30:
2 Fast 2 Furious, 2003 (HBO)
A Good Day to Die Hard, 2013 (HBO) (Extended Version)
Aftermath, 2017 (HBO)
Anna to the Infinite Power, 1982 (HBO)
Bloodsport,...
- 4/1/2022
- by Adam Chitwood
- The Wrap
Die Hard isn’t just lauded as perhaps the single greatest action movie ever made, as John McTiernan’s classic is also one of the most influential. John McClane’s misadventures in the Nakatomi Plaza have served as the inspiration for countless similar titles over the last 30 years, many of which are terrible, but others rank as some of the finest actioners of the modern era in their own right.
Under Siege, Passenger 57, Executive Decision, Air Force One, Con Air, Cliffhanger, Speed, Sudden Death, White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen have all taken the basic high concept formula established in Die Hard and transplanted it to battleships, planes, mountains, buses, stadiums and the White House respectively to wildly mixed results. Homaging the Bruce Willis classic is never going to go out of fashion, though, which is why Rawson Marshall Thurber’s Skyscraper looked like such a slam dunk on paper.
Under Siege, Passenger 57, Executive Decision, Air Force One, Con Air, Cliffhanger, Speed, Sudden Death, White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen have all taken the basic high concept formula established in Die Hard and transplanted it to battleships, planes, mountains, buses, stadiums and the White House respectively to wildly mixed results. Homaging the Bruce Willis classic is never going to go out of fashion, though, which is why Rawson Marshall Thurber’s Skyscraper looked like such a slam dunk on paper.
- 12/23/2020
- by Scott Campbell
- We Got This Covered
Exclusive: Veteran manager/producer Brad Kaplan has joined Link Entertainment as a partner. Kaplan, who comes from Primary Wave Entertainment, will work out of Link’s West L.A. offices which were expanded last month in part to make room for the company’s growing literary department.
“We have had the privilege to work with Brad in the past and he has been a friend for over 15 years,” the Link partners said in a statement. “He is one of the smartest and most genuine people we have had the pleasure to collaborate with. As we expand our literary/production division, we couldn’t ask for a better partner. We have always admired Brad’s incredible taste in both clients and material”.
Kaplan started his career at Silver Pictures where he worked as a production executive and worked on such films as Lethal Weapon 4, Conspiracy Theory, Executive Decision and The Matrix.
“We have had the privilege to work with Brad in the past and he has been a friend for over 15 years,” the Link partners said in a statement. “He is one of the smartest and most genuine people we have had the pleasure to collaborate with. As we expand our literary/production division, we couldn’t ask for a better partner. We have always admired Brad’s incredible taste in both clients and material”.
Kaplan started his career at Silver Pictures where he worked as a production executive and worked on such films as Lethal Weapon 4, Conspiracy Theory, Executive Decision and The Matrix.
- 2/11/2019
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Next month, enjoy plenty of sports-related flicks with the addition of the Oscar-nominated “I, Tonya,” on May 31 and all the “Rocky” movies on May 1.
Other highlights include the Hulu original series “All Night,” out May 11, which chronicles teens trying to make their high school dreams come true during an all-night grad party, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s 2017 remake of “Baywatch,” available May 12.
Catch Season 4 of FX’s “The Strain” on May 16 and the complete first season of TNT’s “Claws” on May 11.
Also Read: Kyle Chandler Replaces George Clooney as Lead in Hulu's 'Catch-22'
See everything that’s coming and leaving below:
Available May 1
3 Ways to Get a Husband (2010)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
A Very Brady Sequel (1996)
The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)
Baby Boom (1987)
Back to School (1986)
Barefoot (2014)
201 (2017)
The Box (2009)
Booty Call (1997)
Breakable You (2018)
Bride and Prejudice (2004)
Bull Durham (1988)
The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)
The Crow (1994)
The Crow II: City of Angels (1996)
The Crow III: Salvation (2000)
The Crow IV: Wicked Prayer (2005)
Demolition Man (1993)
Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
Eight Men Out (1988)
Elizabethtown (2005)
Emperor (2012)
Executive Decision (1996)
Foxfire (1996)
Gator (1976)
Godzilla (1998)
The Hangman (2017)
Also Read: Hulu, Spotify Launch $13 Bundled Subscriptions
Here to be Heard: The Story of the Slits (2017)
Hot Boyz (2000)
The House I Live In (2012)
Immigration Tango (2010)
Iron Eagle IV: On the Attack (1995)
Kalifornia (1993)
Lost in Vagueness (2017)
Love is a Gun (1994)
Malena (2000)
Man of the House (2005)
Manhunter (1986)
Mansfield Park (1999)
The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Men in Black II (2002)
Men with Brooms (2002)
Never Back Down (2008)
New Guy (2002)
New Rose Hotel (1998)
Ninja Masters (2009)
No Greater Love (2015)
The Pallbearer (1996)
Pink Panther 2 (2009)
Pret-a-Porter (1994)
Priest (2011)
Race for your Life, Charlie Brown (1977)
Rocky (1976)
Rocky II (1979)
Rocky III (1982)
Rocky IV (1985)
Rocky V (1990)
School Ties (1992)
Set Up (2011)
She’s All That (1999)
Starting out the Evening (2007)
Strategic Air Command (1955)
The Swan Princess Christmas (2012)
Also Read: Hugh Laurie Joins Hulu 'Catch-22' Adaptation With George Clooney
The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure (1998)
Thief (1981)
To Rome with Love (2012)
Traffic (2000)
Untamed Heart (1993)
Valkyrie (2008)
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Available May 5
Drunk History: Complete Season 5A (Comedy Central)
Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin: Complete Season 1 (Sunrise)
The Longest Week (2014)
Warrior (2011)
Available May 6
I’m Dying Up Here: Season 2 Premiere (*Showtime)
Available May 7
Star vs. The Forces of Evil: Complete Season 3 (Disney Xd)
Available May 8
Running Wild with Bear Grylls: Season 4 Premiere (NBC)
Available May 9
T@gged: Complete Season 2 (AwesomenessTV)
Available May 11
All Night: Complete Season 1 (Hulu Original)
Claws: Complete Season 1 (TNT)
Bleeding Heart (2015)
Into the Fade (2018)
Available May 12
Patrick Melrose: Series Premiere (*Showtime)
Baywatch (2017)
Frank Serpico (2017)
Jane (2017)
Still Mine (2012)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Available May 13
Tonight She Comes (2016)
Available May 15
Animals (2015)
How to be a Latin Lover (2017)
It’s A Disaster (2012)
Periods. (2012)
Soul of a Banquet (2014)
Take Every Wave (2017)
The Other F Word (2011)
The Snapper (1993)
The Strange Ones (2018)
Available May 16
12 Monkeys: Complete Season 3 (Syfy)
The Strain: Complete Season 4 (FX)
Knights of the Damned (2018)
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)
Available May 19
Beatriz at Dinner (2017)
Shooters (2002)
Available May 21
American Folk (2017)
Neat (2017)
Available May 23
Half Magic (2018)
Available May 24
Curvature (2017)
Available May 25
Hollywood Game Night: Red Nose Dat Special (NBC)
Mad to be Normal (2017)
Available May 27
The Wedding Plan (2016)
Available May 30
America’s Got Talent: Season 13 Premiere (NBC)
World of Dance: Season 2 Premiere (NBC)
Available May 31
American Ninja Warrior: Season 10 Premiere (NBC)
I, Tonya (2017)
Please Stand By (2018)
Rain Man (1988)
And here’s everything that’s leaving:
May 31
1984 (1985)
The Accused (1988)
A Feast at Midnight (1997)
Antitrust (2001)
The Big Wedding (2013)
Boulevard (2015)
Branded (2012)
Breakdown (1997)
Captivity (2007)
Chaplin (1992)
Diablo (2016)
The Doors (1991)
Earth Girls are Easy (1988)
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Finder’s Fee (2003)
Fluke (1995)
Forces of Nature (1999)
Fred: The Movie (2010)
Fred: Night of the Living Fred (2011)
Fred 3: Camp Fred (2012)
The Glass Shield (1994)
Glitter (2001)
Gordy (1995)
Happythankyoumoreplease (2010)
Harriot the Spy (1996)
Hart’s War (2002)
He Named Me Malala (2015)
Hesher (2010)
High School (2010)
Honey (2003)
Honey 2 (2011)
Jack Goes Boating (2010)
Jennifer 8 (1992)
John Q (2002)
Kingpin (1996)
Love Crimes (1992)
Show of Force (1990)
Manhattan (1979)
Manny (2015)
The Million Dollar Hotel (2001)
National Lampoon’s Dirty Movie (2011)
National Lampoon’s Dorm Daze 2: College @ Sea (2006)
No Stranger Than Love (2016)
Outlaws and Angels (2016)
The Pick-up Artist (1987)
Regarding Henry (1991)
The Secret of N.I.M.H. (1982)
Southie (1998)
Sprung (1997)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
Read original story Here’s Everything That’s Coming to and Leaving Hulu in May At TheWrap...
Other highlights include the Hulu original series “All Night,” out May 11, which chronicles teens trying to make their high school dreams come true during an all-night grad party, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s 2017 remake of “Baywatch,” available May 12.
Catch Season 4 of FX’s “The Strain” on May 16 and the complete first season of TNT’s “Claws” on May 11.
Also Read: Kyle Chandler Replaces George Clooney as Lead in Hulu's 'Catch-22'
See everything that’s coming and leaving below:
Available May 1
3 Ways to Get a Husband (2010)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
A Very Brady Sequel (1996)
The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)
Baby Boom (1987)
Back to School (1986)
Barefoot (2014)
201 (2017)
The Box (2009)
Booty Call (1997)
Breakable You (2018)
Bride and Prejudice (2004)
Bull Durham (1988)
The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)
The Crow (1994)
The Crow II: City of Angels (1996)
The Crow III: Salvation (2000)
The Crow IV: Wicked Prayer (2005)
Demolition Man (1993)
Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
Eight Men Out (1988)
Elizabethtown (2005)
Emperor (2012)
Executive Decision (1996)
Foxfire (1996)
Gator (1976)
Godzilla (1998)
The Hangman (2017)
Also Read: Hulu, Spotify Launch $13 Bundled Subscriptions
Here to be Heard: The Story of the Slits (2017)
Hot Boyz (2000)
The House I Live In (2012)
Immigration Tango (2010)
Iron Eagle IV: On the Attack (1995)
Kalifornia (1993)
Lost in Vagueness (2017)
Love is a Gun (1994)
Malena (2000)
Man of the House (2005)
Manhunter (1986)
Mansfield Park (1999)
The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Men in Black II (2002)
Men with Brooms (2002)
Never Back Down (2008)
New Guy (2002)
New Rose Hotel (1998)
Ninja Masters (2009)
No Greater Love (2015)
The Pallbearer (1996)
Pink Panther 2 (2009)
Pret-a-Porter (1994)
Priest (2011)
Race for your Life, Charlie Brown (1977)
Rocky (1976)
Rocky II (1979)
Rocky III (1982)
Rocky IV (1985)
Rocky V (1990)
School Ties (1992)
Set Up (2011)
She’s All That (1999)
Starting out the Evening (2007)
Strategic Air Command (1955)
The Swan Princess Christmas (2012)
Also Read: Hugh Laurie Joins Hulu 'Catch-22' Adaptation With George Clooney
The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure (1998)
Thief (1981)
To Rome with Love (2012)
Traffic (2000)
Untamed Heart (1993)
Valkyrie (2008)
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Available May 5
Drunk History: Complete Season 5A (Comedy Central)
Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin: Complete Season 1 (Sunrise)
The Longest Week (2014)
Warrior (2011)
Available May 6
I’m Dying Up Here: Season 2 Premiere (*Showtime)
Available May 7
Star vs. The Forces of Evil: Complete Season 3 (Disney Xd)
Available May 8
Running Wild with Bear Grylls: Season 4 Premiere (NBC)
Available May 9
T@gged: Complete Season 2 (AwesomenessTV)
Available May 11
All Night: Complete Season 1 (Hulu Original)
Claws: Complete Season 1 (TNT)
Bleeding Heart (2015)
Into the Fade (2018)
Available May 12
Patrick Melrose: Series Premiere (*Showtime)
Baywatch (2017)
Frank Serpico (2017)
Jane (2017)
Still Mine (2012)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Available May 13
Tonight She Comes (2016)
Available May 15
Animals (2015)
How to be a Latin Lover (2017)
It’s A Disaster (2012)
Periods. (2012)
Soul of a Banquet (2014)
Take Every Wave (2017)
The Other F Word (2011)
The Snapper (1993)
The Strange Ones (2018)
Available May 16
12 Monkeys: Complete Season 3 (Syfy)
The Strain: Complete Season 4 (FX)
Knights of the Damned (2018)
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)
Available May 19
Beatriz at Dinner (2017)
Shooters (2002)
Available May 21
American Folk (2017)
Neat (2017)
Available May 23
Half Magic (2018)
Available May 24
Curvature (2017)
Available May 25
Hollywood Game Night: Red Nose Dat Special (NBC)
Mad to be Normal (2017)
Available May 27
The Wedding Plan (2016)
Available May 30
America’s Got Talent: Season 13 Premiere (NBC)
World of Dance: Season 2 Premiere (NBC)
Available May 31
American Ninja Warrior: Season 10 Premiere (NBC)
I, Tonya (2017)
Please Stand By (2018)
Rain Man (1988)
And here’s everything that’s leaving:
May 31
1984 (1985)
The Accused (1988)
A Feast at Midnight (1997)
Antitrust (2001)
The Big Wedding (2013)
Boulevard (2015)
Branded (2012)
Breakdown (1997)
Captivity (2007)
Chaplin (1992)
Diablo (2016)
The Doors (1991)
Earth Girls are Easy (1988)
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Finder’s Fee (2003)
Fluke (1995)
Forces of Nature (1999)
Fred: The Movie (2010)
Fred: Night of the Living Fred (2011)
Fred 3: Camp Fred (2012)
The Glass Shield (1994)
Glitter (2001)
Gordy (1995)
Happythankyoumoreplease (2010)
Harriot the Spy (1996)
Hart’s War (2002)
He Named Me Malala (2015)
Hesher (2010)
High School (2010)
Honey (2003)
Honey 2 (2011)
Jack Goes Boating (2010)
Jennifer 8 (1992)
John Q (2002)
Kingpin (1996)
Love Crimes (1992)
Show of Force (1990)
Manhattan (1979)
Manny (2015)
The Million Dollar Hotel (2001)
National Lampoon’s Dirty Movie (2011)
National Lampoon’s Dorm Daze 2: College @ Sea (2006)
No Stranger Than Love (2016)
Outlaws and Angels (2016)
The Pick-up Artist (1987)
Regarding Henry (1991)
The Secret of N.I.M.H. (1982)
Southie (1998)
Sprung (1997)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
Read original story Here’s Everything That’s Coming to and Leaving Hulu in May At TheWrap...
- 4/16/2018
- by Ashley Boucher
- The Wrap
Duncan Bowles Oct 23, 2017
Olympus Has Fallen 3 has a director - and Gerard Butler has been telling us what to expect from the film...
As part of our interview with Mr Gerard Butler, who’s in town to promote the gloriously enjoyable disaster/action/sci-fi/drama that is Geostorm, we saved a few minutes at the end to talk about the future of Mike Banning and the status of Angel Has Fallen. Like many of Butler’s films, both Olympus and London Has Fallen proved to be quite divisive in terms of the violence and political content. But they sure were box office hits.
See related The Flash season 4 episode 2 review: Mixed Signals The Flash season 4 episode 1 review: The Flash Reborn
With that in mind I was especially keen to find out how Angel Has Fallen was progressing, so asked the man himself what the score was and the enthusiasm in...
Olympus Has Fallen 3 has a director - and Gerard Butler has been telling us what to expect from the film...
As part of our interview with Mr Gerard Butler, who’s in town to promote the gloriously enjoyable disaster/action/sci-fi/drama that is Geostorm, we saved a few minutes at the end to talk about the future of Mike Banning and the status of Angel Has Fallen. Like many of Butler’s films, both Olympus and London Has Fallen proved to be quite divisive in terms of the violence and political content. But they sure were box office hits.
See related The Flash season 4 episode 2 review: Mixed Signals The Flash season 4 episode 1 review: The Flash Reborn
With that in mind I was especially keen to find out how Angel Has Fallen was progressing, so asked the man himself what the score was and the enthusiasm in...
- 10/22/2017
- Den of Geek
Simon Brew May 15, 2017
Forrest Gump was a huge hit - but it's worth remembering just what a massive, massive gamble it was. Here's just a slice of that story...
Few major Hollywood blockbusters of the 1990s can lay claim to being some kind of cultural phenomenon, but surely Forrest Gump can. Love or loathe the film, its dialogue has slipped into everyday language, it’s inspired a spin-off bunch of restaurants, and it’s one of the top grossing films of the decade. Oh, and it won a bunch of Oscars, including a second consecutive Best Actor win for Tom Hanks.
It’s often said that the most successful films, though, have tumultuous behind the scene stories. I remember when Richard Donner directed Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas in Assassins (based on a heavily butchered script by the pre-Matrix Wachowskis), and it was widely reported that the shoot was a calm and very pleasurable one.
Forrest Gump was a huge hit - but it's worth remembering just what a massive, massive gamble it was. Here's just a slice of that story...
Few major Hollywood blockbusters of the 1990s can lay claim to being some kind of cultural phenomenon, but surely Forrest Gump can. Love or loathe the film, its dialogue has slipped into everyday language, it’s inspired a spin-off bunch of restaurants, and it’s one of the top grossing films of the decade. Oh, and it won a bunch of Oscars, including a second consecutive Best Actor win for Tom Hanks.
It’s often said that the most successful films, though, have tumultuous behind the scene stories. I remember when Richard Donner directed Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas in Assassins (based on a heavily butchered script by the pre-Matrix Wachowskis), and it was widely reported that the shoot was a calm and very pleasurable one.
- 5/9/2017
- Den of Geek
Steven Seagal can now add Ukraine to the list of places he’s been banned from, right next to “That Blockbuster where the clerk wouldn’t stop calling Executive Decision ‘a Kurt Russell flick.’” Per The Guardian, the country issued a five-year ban on entry to the actor this week, accusing him of committing “socially dangerous” actions that might damage the country’s security.
Those actions presumably have less to do with breaking boards and setting new standards for bad efforts in film-making, though, and more to do with Seagal’s friendship with Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. Russia and Ukraine have a long, complicated, and largely ugly history, one exacerbated in recent years by Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, and support of rebels revolting against the Ukrainian government. (Bizarrely, Seagal was involved there, too, bringing his blues-rock band to play for pro-Russian separatists.)
Last year, Seagal accepted...
Those actions presumably have less to do with breaking boards and setting new standards for bad efforts in film-making, though, and more to do with Seagal’s friendship with Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. Russia and Ukraine have a long, complicated, and largely ugly history, one exacerbated in recent years by Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, and support of rebels revolting against the Ukrainian government. (Bizarrely, Seagal was involved there, too, bringing his blues-rock band to play for pro-Russian separatists.)
Last year, Seagal accepted...
- 5/6/2017
- by William Hughes
- avclub.com
Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.
The actor: Since the late ’80s—actually, let’s just say 1989, since that’s when Glory came out—if a casting director has found themselves in need of a burly, blustery, mustachioed man for their project, Richard Riehle has likely been near the top of their list. He’s been in over 200 films and on more than 125 TV series, including Casino, Executive Decision, The Fugitive, Grounded For Life, and Office Space. In addition to popping up all over the primetime lineup—among the currently airing shows he’s guested on are NCIS, The Middle, The Real O’Neals, Major Crimes, Mom, Drunk History, Modern Family, and The Mindy Project—Riehle can also been seen in ...
The actor: Since the late ’80s—actually, let’s just say 1989, since that’s when Glory came out—if a casting director has found themselves in need of a burly, blustery, mustachioed man for their project, Richard Riehle has likely been near the top of their list. He’s been in over 200 films and on more than 125 TV series, including Casino, Executive Decision, The Fugitive, Grounded For Life, and Office Space. In addition to popping up all over the primetime lineup—among the currently airing shows he’s guested on are NCIS, The Middle, The Real O’Neals, Major Crimes, Mom, Drunk History, Modern Family, and The Mindy Project—Riehle can also been seen in ...
- 3/29/2017
- by Will Harris
- avclub.com
Simon Brew Nov 28, 2016
When was the last time you saw a major blockbuster and felt real concern for the fate of the main characters?
This feature contains spoilers for Executive Decision, Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Mission: Impossible and, er, Dad’s Army.
In the mid-1990s, before the internet could spoil it for them, people piled in to see the still very enjoyable thank you very much Executive Decision. It’s a fun action movie, with Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal getting top billing in the movie. But there’s little suggestion that anything particularly radical was lying ahead. Yet in hindsight, there’s something far more surprising than perhaps it was given credit for even then.
For, surprisingly early in the film, Executive Decision is one of those rare films that’s willing to kill off one of its stars, Mr Seagal in this case (something he...
When was the last time you saw a major blockbuster and felt real concern for the fate of the main characters?
This feature contains spoilers for Executive Decision, Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Mission: Impossible and, er, Dad’s Army.
In the mid-1990s, before the internet could spoil it for them, people piled in to see the still very enjoyable thank you very much Executive Decision. It’s a fun action movie, with Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal getting top billing in the movie. But there’s little suggestion that anything particularly radical was lying ahead. Yet in hindsight, there’s something far more surprising than perhaps it was given credit for even then.
For, surprisingly early in the film, Executive Decision is one of those rare films that’s willing to kill off one of its stars, Mr Seagal in this case (something he...
- 11/23/2016
- Den of Geek
Simon Brew Oct 7, 2016
From Demolition Man and James Bond through to Speed 2 and Steven Seagal: the movies filmmakers took on to get other projects made.
One for the studio, one for yourself? That’s sometimes been the case when it comes to making movies, and we suspect – under the surface – it happens more than we’re ever told. However, every now and then, it becomes clear that someone has signed up for a movie, with getting the film they really, really want to make as the hidden reason. Such as in these cases…
Nigel Hawthorne: Demolition Man
The late, great Nigel Hawthorne wasn't much of a fan of the much-liked Sylvester Stallone-Wesley Snipes showdown, Demolition Man. In his autobiography Straight Face, Hawthorne called the experience of making the film "miserable", and wasn't impressed with the time lost on set waiting around for Stallone and Snipes.
But...
From Demolition Man and James Bond through to Speed 2 and Steven Seagal: the movies filmmakers took on to get other projects made.
One for the studio, one for yourself? That’s sometimes been the case when it comes to making movies, and we suspect – under the surface – it happens more than we’re ever told. However, every now and then, it becomes clear that someone has signed up for a movie, with getting the film they really, really want to make as the hidden reason. Such as in these cases…
Nigel Hawthorne: Demolition Man
The late, great Nigel Hawthorne wasn't much of a fan of the much-liked Sylvester Stallone-Wesley Snipes showdown, Demolition Man. In his autobiography Straight Face, Hawthorne called the experience of making the film "miserable", and wasn't impressed with the time lost on set waiting around for Stallone and Snipes.
But...
- 9/27/2016
- Den of Geek
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Warner Bros has struggled with its blockbusters of late. But back in summer 1997 - Batman & Robin's year - it faced not dissimilar problems.
Earlier this year it was revealed that Warner Bros, following a string of costly movies that hadn’t hit box office gold (Pan, Jupiter Ascending, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., In The Heart Of The Sea), was restructuring its blockbuster movie business. Fewer films, fewer risks, more franchises, and more centering around movie universes seems to be the new approach, and the appointment of a new corporate team to oversee the Harry Potter franchise last week was one part of that.
In some ways, it marks the end of an era. Whilst it retains its relationships with key directing talent (Ben Affleck, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Nolan for instance), Warner Bros was, for the bulk of the 1990s in particular, the studio that the others were trying to mimic. It worked with the same stars and filmmakers time and time again, and under then-chiefs Terry Semel and Robert Daly, relationships with key talent were paramount.
Furthermore, the studio knew to leave that talent to do its job, and was also ahead of the pack in developing franchises that it could rely on to give it a string of hits.
However, whilst Warner Bros is having troubles now, its way of doing business was first seriously challenged by the failure of its slate in the summer of 1997. Once again, it seemed to have a line up to cherish, that others were envious of. But as film by film failed to click, every facet of Warner Bros’ blockbuster strategy suddenly came under scrutiny, and would ultimately fairly dramatically change. Just two summers later, the studio released The Matrix, and blockbuster cinema changed again.
But come the start of summer 1997? These are the movies that Warner Bros had lined up, and this is what happened…
February - National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation
Things actually had got off to a decent enough start for the studio earlier in the year, so it's worth kicking off there. It brought Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo back together, for the fourth National Lampoon movie, and the first since 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Interestingly, it dropped the National Lampoon moniker in the Us, and instead released the eventual movie as Vegas Vacation. It was a belated sequel, back when belated sequels weren’t that big a thing.
The film was quickly pulled apart by reviewers, but it still just about clawed a profit. The production budget of $25m was eclipsed by the Us gross of $36m, and the movie would do comfortable business on video/DVD. Not a massive hit, then, but hardly a project that had a sense of foreboding about it.
Yet the problems were not far away.
May – Father's Day
Warner Bros had a mix of movies released in the Us in March and April 1997, including modest Wesley Snipes-headlined thriller Murder At 1600, and family flick Shiloh. But it launched its summer season with Father’s Day, an expensive packaged comedy from director Ivan Reitman, starring Robin Williams and Billy Crystal. It had hit written all over it.
Father’s Day was one of the movies packaged by the CAA agency, and its then-head, Mike Ovitz (listed regularly by Premiere magazine in the 1990s as one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, if not the most powerful man). That he brought together the stars, the director and the project, gave a studio a price tag, and the studio duly paid it. Given Warner Bros’ devotion to star talent (Mel Gibson, then one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and a major Warner Bros talent, was persuaded to film a cameo), it was a natural home for the film. It quickly did the deal. few questions asked.
That package, and CAA’s fees for putting it together, brought the budget for a fairly straightforward comedy to a then-staggering $85m. The problem, though, was that the film simply wasn’t very good. It’s one of those projects that looks great on paper, less great when exposed on a great big screen. Warner Bros has snapped it up, without - it seems - even properly reading the script.
Premiere magazine quoted a Warner Bros insider back in November 1997 as saying “when [CAA] calls and says ‘we have a package, Father’s Day, with Williams and Crystal and Reitman, we say ‘great’”, adding “we don’t scrutinise the production. When we saw the movie, it took the wind out of us. We kept reshooting and enhancing, but you can’t fix something that’s bad”.
And it was bad.
The movie would prove to be the first big misfire of the summer, grossing just $35m in the Us, and not adding a fat lot more elsewhere in the world. Warner Bros’ first film of the summer was a certified flop. More would soon follow.
May - Addicted To Love
A more modestly priced project was Addicted To Love, a romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick. Just over a year later, Warner Bros would hit big when Meg Ryan reunited with Tom Hanks for Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail. But here? The film was a modest success, at best.
Directed by Griffin Dunne (making his directorial debut), and put together in partnership with Miramax, Addicted To Love was based around the Robert Palmer song of the same name. But whilst it was sold as a romcom, the muddled final cut was actually a fair bit darker. There was an underlying nastiness to some moments in the film, and when the final box office was tallied, it came in lower than the usual returns for pictures from Ryan or Broderick. Counter-programming it against the release of The Lost World: Jurassic Park didn’t massively help in this instance either, especially as the Jurassic Park sequel would smash opening weekend records.
Addicted To Love ended up with $34.6m at the Us box office. It would eke out a small profit.
June - Batman & Robin
And this is when the alarm bells started to ring very, very loudly. Summer 1997 was supposed to be about a trio of sure-fire hit sequels: Batman 4, Jurassic Park 2 and Speed 2. Only one of those would ultimately bring home the box office bacon, the others being destroyed by critics, and ultimately leaving far more empty seats than anticipated in multiplexes.
Batman & Robin, it’s easy to forget, came off the back of 1995’s Joel Schumacher-steered Batman reboot, Batman Forever that year's biggest movie). It had one of the fastest-growing stars in the world in the Batsuit (George Clooney), and the McDonald’s deals were signed even before the script was typed up. You don’t need us to tell you that you could tell, something of a theme already in Warner Bros' summer of '97.
That said, Batman & Robin still gave Warner Bros a big opening, but in the infancy of the internet as we know it, poisonous word of mouth was already beginning to spread. The film’s negative cost Warner Bros up to $140m, before marketing and distribution costs, and it opened in the Us to a hardly-sniffy $42m of business (although that was down from previous Batman movies).
But that word of mouth still accelerated its departure from cinemas. It was then very rare for a film to make over 40% of its Us gross in its first weekend. But that’s just what Batman & Robin did, taking $107.3m in America, part of a worldwide total of $238.2m. This was the worst return for a Batman movie to date, and Warner Bros had to swiftly put the brakes on plans to get Batman Triumphant moving.
It would be eight years until Batman returned to the big screen, in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. Warner Bros would undergo big changes in the intervening period.
As for the immediate aftermath of Batman & Robin? Warner Bros co-chief Robert Daly would note at the end of '97 that “we’d have been better off with more action in the picture. The movie had to service too many characters”, adding that “the next Batman we do, in three years – and we have a deal with George Clooney to do it – will have one villain”.
Fortunately, Warner Bros’ one solid hit of the summer was just around the corner…
July - Contact
And breathe out.
Warner Bros bet heavily again on expensive talent here, with Robert Zemeckis bringing his adaptation of Carl Sagan’s Contact to the studio for his first film post-Forrest Gump. Warner Bros duly footed the $90m bill (back when that was still seen as a lot of money for a movie), a good chunk of which went to Jodie Foster. It invested heavily in special effects, and gave Zemeckis licence to make the film that he wanted.
The studio was rewarded with the most intelligent and arguably the best blockbuster of the summer. I’ve looked back at Contact in a lot more detail here, and it remains a fascinating film that’s stood the test of time (and arguably influenced Christopher Nolan’s more recent Interstellar).
Reviews were strong, it looked terrific, and the initial box office was good.
But then the problem hit. For whilst Contact was a solid hit for Warner Bros, it wasn’t a massively profitable one. Had Father’s Day and Batman & Robin shouldered the box office load there were supposed to, it perhaps wouldn’t have been a problem. But when they failed to take off, the pressure shifted to Contact.
The movie would gross $100.9m in the Us, and add another $70m overseas (this being an era were international box office rarely had the importance it has today). But once Warner Bros had paid its bills, there wasn’t a fat lot over for itself. Fortunately, the film still sells on disc and on-demand. Yet it wasn’t to be the massive hit the studio needed back in 1997.
July - One Eight Seven
From director Kevin Reynolds, the man who helmed Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves and Waterworld, came modestly-priced drama 187, starring Samuel L Jackson (in a strong performance). Warner Bros wouldn’t have had massive box office expectations for the film (although it can't have been unaware that the inspirational teacher sub-genre was always worth a few quid), and it shared production duties on the $20m movie with Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions. But still, it would have had its eye on a modest success. What it got in return was red ink.
The film’s not a bad one, and certainly worth seeking out. But poor reviews gave the film an uphill struggle from the off – smaller productions arriving mid-summer really needed critics on their side, as they arguably still do – and it opened to just $2.2m of business (the less edgy, Michelle Pfeiffer-headlined school drama Dangerous Minds had been a surprise hit not two years before).
By the time its run was done, 187 hadn’t even come close to covering its production costs, with just under $6m banked.
Warner Bros’ summer slate was running out of films. But at least it had one of its most reliable movie stars around the corner…
August - Conspiracy Theory
What could go wrong? Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts were two of the biggest movie stars in the world in 1997, at a time when movie stars still equated to box office gold. Director Richard Donner, one of Warner Bros’ favourite directors, had delivered the Lethal Weapons, Maverick, Superman, The Goonies and more for the studio. Put them altogether, with Patrick Stewart (coming to wider public consciousness at the time off the back of his Star Trek: The Next Generation work) as a villain, and it should have been a big hit.
Conspiracy Theory proved to be one of the more ambitious summer blockbusters of the era. It lacks a good first act, which would be really useful in actually setting up more of what’s going on. But Gibson played an edgy cab driver who believes in deep government conspiracies, and finds himself getting closer to the truth than those around him sometimes give him credit for.
Warner Bros was probably expecting another Lethal Weapon with the reunion of Gibson (who had to be persuaded to take Conspiracy Theory on) and Donner (it’s pretty much what it got with the hugely enjoyable Maverick a few years’ earlier), but instead it got a darker drama, with an uneasy central character that didn’t exactly play to the summer box office crowd.
The bigger problem, though, was that the film never quite worked as well as you might hope. Yet star power did have advantages. While no juggernaut, the film did decent business, grossing $137m worldwide off the back of an $80m budget ($40m of which was spent on the salaries for the talent before a single roll of film was loaded into a camera). That said, in the Us it knocked a genuine smash hit, Air Force One, off the top spot. Mind you in hindsight, that was probably the film that the studio wished it had made (the cockpit set of Warner Bros' own Executive Decision was repurposed for Air Force One, fact fans).
Still: Warner Bros did get Lethal Weapon 4 off Gibson and Donner a year later…
August - Free Willy 3: The Rescue
Yeah.
Warner Bros opened its third Free Willy film on the same day as Conspiracy Theory (can you imagine a studio opening two big films on the same day now), but it was clear that this was a franchise long past its best days (and its best days hardly bring back the fondest of memories).
Still, Free Willy movies were relatively modest in cost to put together, and Warner Bros presumably felt this was a simple cashpoint project. But in a year when lots of family movies did less business than expected (Disney’s Hercules, Fox’s Home Alone 3, Disney’s Mr Magoo), Free Willy 3 barely troubled the box office. It took in just over $3m in total, and Willy would not be seen on the inside of a cinema again.
August - Steel
Not much was expected from Steel, a superhero movie headlined by Shaquille O’Neal. Which was fortunate, because not much was had.
It had a mid-August release date in the Us, at a point when a mid-August release date was more of a dumping ground than anything else. And even though the budget was set at a relatively low $16m, the film – and it’s an overused time – pretty much bombed. It took $1.7m at the Us box office, and given that its appeal hinged on a major American sports star whose fame hardly transcended the globe, its international takings did not save it (it went straight to video in many territories).
It was a miserable end to what, for warner bros, had been a thoroughly miserable summer.
So what did hit big in summer 1997?
Summer 1997 was infamous for big films failing to take off in the way that had been expected – Hercules, Speed 2, and the aforementioned Warner Bros movies – but there were several bright spots. The big winner would be Barry Sonnenfeld’s light and sprightly sci-fi comedy Men In Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Star power too helped score big hits for Harrison Ford (Air Force One), Julia Roberts (My Best Friend’s Wedding) and John Travolta (Face/Off).
This was also the summer that Nicolas Cage cemented his action movie credentials with Face/Off and Con Air. Crucially, though, the star movies that hit were the ones that veered on the side of 'good'. For the first of many years, the internet was blamed for this.
Oh, and later in the year, incidentally, Titanic would redefine just what constituted a box office hit...
What came next for Warner Bros?
In the rest of 1997, Warner Bros had a mix of projects that again enjoyed mixed fortunes. The standout was Curtis Hanson’s stunning adaptation of L.A. Confidential, that also proved to be a surprise box office success. The Devil’s Advocate didn’t do too badly either.
However, two of the studio’s key filmmakers failed to really deliver come the end of 1997. Clint Eastwood’s Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil failed to ignite (although many felt he was always on a hiding to nothing in trying to adapt that for the screen), and Kevin Costner’s The Postman would prove arguably the most expensive box office disappointment of the year. No wonder the studio rushed Lethal Weapon 4 into production for summer 1998. Oh, and it had The Avengers underway too (not that one), that would prove to be a 1998 disappointment.
The studio would eventually take action. The Daly-Semel management team, that had reigned for 15 years, would break up at the end of 1999, as its traditional way of doing business became less successful. The pair had already future projects that were director driven to an extent (Eyes Wide Shut), and it would still invest in movies with stars (Wild Wild West). But the immediate plan of action following the disappointment of summer 1997 – to get Batman 5 and Superman Lives made – would falter. It wouldn’t be until 1999’s The Matrix (a film that Daly and Semel struggled to get) and – crucially – 2001’s Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone that the studio would really get its swagger back...
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Movies Feature Simon Brew Warner Bros 16 Jun 2016 - 05:19 Conspiracy Theory Father's Day Addicted To Love Contact National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation One Eight Seven Steel Batman & Robin Free Willy 3: The Rescue...
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Warner Bros has struggled with its blockbusters of late. But back in summer 1997 - Batman & Robin's year - it faced not dissimilar problems.
Earlier this year it was revealed that Warner Bros, following a string of costly movies that hadn’t hit box office gold (Pan, Jupiter Ascending, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., In The Heart Of The Sea), was restructuring its blockbuster movie business. Fewer films, fewer risks, more franchises, and more centering around movie universes seems to be the new approach, and the appointment of a new corporate team to oversee the Harry Potter franchise last week was one part of that.
In some ways, it marks the end of an era. Whilst it retains its relationships with key directing talent (Ben Affleck, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Nolan for instance), Warner Bros was, for the bulk of the 1990s in particular, the studio that the others were trying to mimic. It worked with the same stars and filmmakers time and time again, and under then-chiefs Terry Semel and Robert Daly, relationships with key talent were paramount.
Furthermore, the studio knew to leave that talent to do its job, and was also ahead of the pack in developing franchises that it could rely on to give it a string of hits.
However, whilst Warner Bros is having troubles now, its way of doing business was first seriously challenged by the failure of its slate in the summer of 1997. Once again, it seemed to have a line up to cherish, that others were envious of. But as film by film failed to click, every facet of Warner Bros’ blockbuster strategy suddenly came under scrutiny, and would ultimately fairly dramatically change. Just two summers later, the studio released The Matrix, and blockbuster cinema changed again.
But come the start of summer 1997? These are the movies that Warner Bros had lined up, and this is what happened…
February - National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation
Things actually had got off to a decent enough start for the studio earlier in the year, so it's worth kicking off there. It brought Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo back together, for the fourth National Lampoon movie, and the first since 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Interestingly, it dropped the National Lampoon moniker in the Us, and instead released the eventual movie as Vegas Vacation. It was a belated sequel, back when belated sequels weren’t that big a thing.
The film was quickly pulled apart by reviewers, but it still just about clawed a profit. The production budget of $25m was eclipsed by the Us gross of $36m, and the movie would do comfortable business on video/DVD. Not a massive hit, then, but hardly a project that had a sense of foreboding about it.
Yet the problems were not far away.
May – Father's Day
Warner Bros had a mix of movies released in the Us in March and April 1997, including modest Wesley Snipes-headlined thriller Murder At 1600, and family flick Shiloh. But it launched its summer season with Father’s Day, an expensive packaged comedy from director Ivan Reitman, starring Robin Williams and Billy Crystal. It had hit written all over it.
Father’s Day was one of the movies packaged by the CAA agency, and its then-head, Mike Ovitz (listed regularly by Premiere magazine in the 1990s as one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, if not the most powerful man). That he brought together the stars, the director and the project, gave a studio a price tag, and the studio duly paid it. Given Warner Bros’ devotion to star talent (Mel Gibson, then one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and a major Warner Bros talent, was persuaded to film a cameo), it was a natural home for the film. It quickly did the deal. few questions asked.
That package, and CAA’s fees for putting it together, brought the budget for a fairly straightforward comedy to a then-staggering $85m. The problem, though, was that the film simply wasn’t very good. It’s one of those projects that looks great on paper, less great when exposed on a great big screen. Warner Bros has snapped it up, without - it seems - even properly reading the script.
Premiere magazine quoted a Warner Bros insider back in November 1997 as saying “when [CAA] calls and says ‘we have a package, Father’s Day, with Williams and Crystal and Reitman, we say ‘great’”, adding “we don’t scrutinise the production. When we saw the movie, it took the wind out of us. We kept reshooting and enhancing, but you can’t fix something that’s bad”.
And it was bad.
The movie would prove to be the first big misfire of the summer, grossing just $35m in the Us, and not adding a fat lot more elsewhere in the world. Warner Bros’ first film of the summer was a certified flop. More would soon follow.
May - Addicted To Love
A more modestly priced project was Addicted To Love, a romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick. Just over a year later, Warner Bros would hit big when Meg Ryan reunited with Tom Hanks for Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail. But here? The film was a modest success, at best.
Directed by Griffin Dunne (making his directorial debut), and put together in partnership with Miramax, Addicted To Love was based around the Robert Palmer song of the same name. But whilst it was sold as a romcom, the muddled final cut was actually a fair bit darker. There was an underlying nastiness to some moments in the film, and when the final box office was tallied, it came in lower than the usual returns for pictures from Ryan or Broderick. Counter-programming it against the release of The Lost World: Jurassic Park didn’t massively help in this instance either, especially as the Jurassic Park sequel would smash opening weekend records.
Addicted To Love ended up with $34.6m at the Us box office. It would eke out a small profit.
June - Batman & Robin
And this is when the alarm bells started to ring very, very loudly. Summer 1997 was supposed to be about a trio of sure-fire hit sequels: Batman 4, Jurassic Park 2 and Speed 2. Only one of those would ultimately bring home the box office bacon, the others being destroyed by critics, and ultimately leaving far more empty seats than anticipated in multiplexes.
Batman & Robin, it’s easy to forget, came off the back of 1995’s Joel Schumacher-steered Batman reboot, Batman Forever that year's biggest movie). It had one of the fastest-growing stars in the world in the Batsuit (George Clooney), and the McDonald’s deals were signed even before the script was typed up. You don’t need us to tell you that you could tell, something of a theme already in Warner Bros' summer of '97.
That said, Batman & Robin still gave Warner Bros a big opening, but in the infancy of the internet as we know it, poisonous word of mouth was already beginning to spread. The film’s negative cost Warner Bros up to $140m, before marketing and distribution costs, and it opened in the Us to a hardly-sniffy $42m of business (although that was down from previous Batman movies).
But that word of mouth still accelerated its departure from cinemas. It was then very rare for a film to make over 40% of its Us gross in its first weekend. But that’s just what Batman & Robin did, taking $107.3m in America, part of a worldwide total of $238.2m. This was the worst return for a Batman movie to date, and Warner Bros had to swiftly put the brakes on plans to get Batman Triumphant moving.
It would be eight years until Batman returned to the big screen, in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. Warner Bros would undergo big changes in the intervening period.
As for the immediate aftermath of Batman & Robin? Warner Bros co-chief Robert Daly would note at the end of '97 that “we’d have been better off with more action in the picture. The movie had to service too many characters”, adding that “the next Batman we do, in three years – and we have a deal with George Clooney to do it – will have one villain”.
Fortunately, Warner Bros’ one solid hit of the summer was just around the corner…
July - Contact
And breathe out.
Warner Bros bet heavily again on expensive talent here, with Robert Zemeckis bringing his adaptation of Carl Sagan’s Contact to the studio for his first film post-Forrest Gump. Warner Bros duly footed the $90m bill (back when that was still seen as a lot of money for a movie), a good chunk of which went to Jodie Foster. It invested heavily in special effects, and gave Zemeckis licence to make the film that he wanted.
The studio was rewarded with the most intelligent and arguably the best blockbuster of the summer. I’ve looked back at Contact in a lot more detail here, and it remains a fascinating film that’s stood the test of time (and arguably influenced Christopher Nolan’s more recent Interstellar).
Reviews were strong, it looked terrific, and the initial box office was good.
But then the problem hit. For whilst Contact was a solid hit for Warner Bros, it wasn’t a massively profitable one. Had Father’s Day and Batman & Robin shouldered the box office load there were supposed to, it perhaps wouldn’t have been a problem. But when they failed to take off, the pressure shifted to Contact.
The movie would gross $100.9m in the Us, and add another $70m overseas (this being an era were international box office rarely had the importance it has today). But once Warner Bros had paid its bills, there wasn’t a fat lot over for itself. Fortunately, the film still sells on disc and on-demand. Yet it wasn’t to be the massive hit the studio needed back in 1997.
July - One Eight Seven
From director Kevin Reynolds, the man who helmed Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves and Waterworld, came modestly-priced drama 187, starring Samuel L Jackson (in a strong performance). Warner Bros wouldn’t have had massive box office expectations for the film (although it can't have been unaware that the inspirational teacher sub-genre was always worth a few quid), and it shared production duties on the $20m movie with Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions. But still, it would have had its eye on a modest success. What it got in return was red ink.
The film’s not a bad one, and certainly worth seeking out. But poor reviews gave the film an uphill struggle from the off – smaller productions arriving mid-summer really needed critics on their side, as they arguably still do – and it opened to just $2.2m of business (the less edgy, Michelle Pfeiffer-headlined school drama Dangerous Minds had been a surprise hit not two years before).
By the time its run was done, 187 hadn’t even come close to covering its production costs, with just under $6m banked.
Warner Bros’ summer slate was running out of films. But at least it had one of its most reliable movie stars around the corner…
August - Conspiracy Theory
What could go wrong? Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts were two of the biggest movie stars in the world in 1997, at a time when movie stars still equated to box office gold. Director Richard Donner, one of Warner Bros’ favourite directors, had delivered the Lethal Weapons, Maverick, Superman, The Goonies and more for the studio. Put them altogether, with Patrick Stewart (coming to wider public consciousness at the time off the back of his Star Trek: The Next Generation work) as a villain, and it should have been a big hit.
Conspiracy Theory proved to be one of the more ambitious summer blockbusters of the era. It lacks a good first act, which would be really useful in actually setting up more of what’s going on. But Gibson played an edgy cab driver who believes in deep government conspiracies, and finds himself getting closer to the truth than those around him sometimes give him credit for.
Warner Bros was probably expecting another Lethal Weapon with the reunion of Gibson (who had to be persuaded to take Conspiracy Theory on) and Donner (it’s pretty much what it got with the hugely enjoyable Maverick a few years’ earlier), but instead it got a darker drama, with an uneasy central character that didn’t exactly play to the summer box office crowd.
The bigger problem, though, was that the film never quite worked as well as you might hope. Yet star power did have advantages. While no juggernaut, the film did decent business, grossing $137m worldwide off the back of an $80m budget ($40m of which was spent on the salaries for the talent before a single roll of film was loaded into a camera). That said, in the Us it knocked a genuine smash hit, Air Force One, off the top spot. Mind you in hindsight, that was probably the film that the studio wished it had made (the cockpit set of Warner Bros' own Executive Decision was repurposed for Air Force One, fact fans).
Still: Warner Bros did get Lethal Weapon 4 off Gibson and Donner a year later…
August - Free Willy 3: The Rescue
Yeah.
Warner Bros opened its third Free Willy film on the same day as Conspiracy Theory (can you imagine a studio opening two big films on the same day now), but it was clear that this was a franchise long past its best days (and its best days hardly bring back the fondest of memories).
Still, Free Willy movies were relatively modest in cost to put together, and Warner Bros presumably felt this was a simple cashpoint project. But in a year when lots of family movies did less business than expected (Disney’s Hercules, Fox’s Home Alone 3, Disney’s Mr Magoo), Free Willy 3 barely troubled the box office. It took in just over $3m in total, and Willy would not be seen on the inside of a cinema again.
August - Steel
Not much was expected from Steel, a superhero movie headlined by Shaquille O’Neal. Which was fortunate, because not much was had.
It had a mid-August release date in the Us, at a point when a mid-August release date was more of a dumping ground than anything else. And even though the budget was set at a relatively low $16m, the film – and it’s an overused time – pretty much bombed. It took $1.7m at the Us box office, and given that its appeal hinged on a major American sports star whose fame hardly transcended the globe, its international takings did not save it (it went straight to video in many territories).
It was a miserable end to what, for warner bros, had been a thoroughly miserable summer.
So what did hit big in summer 1997?
Summer 1997 was infamous for big films failing to take off in the way that had been expected – Hercules, Speed 2, and the aforementioned Warner Bros movies – but there were several bright spots. The big winner would be Barry Sonnenfeld’s light and sprightly sci-fi comedy Men In Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Star power too helped score big hits for Harrison Ford (Air Force One), Julia Roberts (My Best Friend’s Wedding) and John Travolta (Face/Off).
This was also the summer that Nicolas Cage cemented his action movie credentials with Face/Off and Con Air. Crucially, though, the star movies that hit were the ones that veered on the side of 'good'. For the first of many years, the internet was blamed for this.
Oh, and later in the year, incidentally, Titanic would redefine just what constituted a box office hit...
What came next for Warner Bros?
In the rest of 1997, Warner Bros had a mix of projects that again enjoyed mixed fortunes. The standout was Curtis Hanson’s stunning adaptation of L.A. Confidential, that also proved to be a surprise box office success. The Devil’s Advocate didn’t do too badly either.
However, two of the studio’s key filmmakers failed to really deliver come the end of 1997. Clint Eastwood’s Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil failed to ignite (although many felt he was always on a hiding to nothing in trying to adapt that for the screen), and Kevin Costner’s The Postman would prove arguably the most expensive box office disappointment of the year. No wonder the studio rushed Lethal Weapon 4 into production for summer 1998. Oh, and it had The Avengers underway too (not that one), that would prove to be a 1998 disappointment.
The studio would eventually take action. The Daly-Semel management team, that had reigned for 15 years, would break up at the end of 1999, as its traditional way of doing business became less successful. The pair had already future projects that were director driven to an extent (Eyes Wide Shut), and it would still invest in movies with stars (Wild Wild West). But the immediate plan of action following the disappointment of summer 1997 – to get Batman 5 and Superman Lives made – would falter. It wouldn’t be until 1999’s The Matrix (a film that Daly and Semel struggled to get) and – crucially – 2001’s Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone that the studio would really get its swagger back...
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Movies Feature Simon Brew Warner Bros 16 Jun 2016 - 05:19 Conspiracy Theory Father's Day Addicted To Love Contact National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation One Eight Seven Steel Batman & Robin Free Willy 3: The Rescue...
- 6/13/2016
- Den of Geek
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We chat to Michael Winnick, the director of Steven Seagal's latest, Code Of Honour, about make a Steven Seagal film...
Michael Winnick is someone with an interesting perspective. He’s just written and directed a VOD action film called Code Of Honour. It’s got Steven Seagal in it playing a vigilante on a brutal killing spree. As such, he’s made a movie under very different circumstances to most of the filmmakers we get to interview here at Den of Geek
I know Steven Seagal is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I really hope that even if he isn’t yours you’ll give this interview a chance (that you’ve opened the article and are reading the introduction bit is a good sign). I think Michael Winnick has some interesting insights into the challenges of making a film.
It was early evening for me,...
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We chat to Michael Winnick, the director of Steven Seagal's latest, Code Of Honour, about make a Steven Seagal film...
Michael Winnick is someone with an interesting perspective. He’s just written and directed a VOD action film called Code Of Honour. It’s got Steven Seagal in it playing a vigilante on a brutal killing spree. As such, he’s made a movie under very different circumstances to most of the filmmakers we get to interview here at Den of Geek
I know Steven Seagal is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I really hope that even if he isn’t yours you’ll give this interview a chance (that you’ve opened the article and are reading the introduction bit is a good sign). I think Michael Winnick has some interesting insights into the challenges of making a film.
It was early evening for me,...
- 6/8/2016
- Den of Geek
In many ways, Kurt Russell’s turn as John “The Hangman” Ruth in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eightmarks a logical marker in his 35-year progression as an action star.
One of the top action stars of the 1980s, Russell forged a formidable partnership with cult filmmaker John Carpenter that not only produced some of the decade’s greatest films but also allowed Russell to become a big-time action draw.
Building on the success of films like The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China, Russell anchored big ticket draws in the late ‘80s and ‘90s including everything from screwball antics in 1987’s Overboard to huge action undertakings like 1996’s Executive Decision.
While he continued to work in the late 90s and early 2000s in dramatic roles, he faded out of the spotlight as a big-time Hollywood draw.
However, in 2007 he linked up with Tarantino for Death Proof which may...
One of the top action stars of the 1980s, Russell forged a formidable partnership with cult filmmaker John Carpenter that not only produced some of the decade’s greatest films but also allowed Russell to become a big-time action draw.
Building on the success of films like The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China, Russell anchored big ticket draws in the late ‘80s and ‘90s including everything from screwball antics in 1987’s Overboard to huge action undertakings like 1996’s Executive Decision.
While he continued to work in the late 90s and early 2000s in dramatic roles, he faded out of the spotlight as a big-time Hollywood draw.
However, in 2007 he linked up with Tarantino for Death Proof which may...
- 1/28/2016
- by Shane McNeil
- Cineplex
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Looking for good books about the movies to read? We've got a bumper selection of recommendations right here...
A confession. I actually started writing this article in 2013, and the reason you've only reading it now is that I've made sure I've read every book on this list, save for one or two where I've marked otherwise. As such, what you're getting is a very personal list of recommendations. Each of these books has at least something to it that I think is of interest to someone wanting to learn more about film - or just enjoy stories of movie making.
I've tended to avoid picture books, with one exception, as these ones I've chosen are all intended to be chock-full of words, to relax with at the end of a long day. Which is what I did. There are one or two notable omissions, as I'm still...
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Looking for good books about the movies to read? We've got a bumper selection of recommendations right here...
A confession. I actually started writing this article in 2013, and the reason you've only reading it now is that I've made sure I've read every book on this list, save for one or two where I've marked otherwise. As such, what you're getting is a very personal list of recommendations. Each of these books has at least something to it that I think is of interest to someone wanting to learn more about film - or just enjoy stories of movie making.
I've tended to avoid picture books, with one exception, as these ones I've chosen are all intended to be chock-full of words, to relax with at the end of a long day. Which is what I did. There are one or two notable omissions, as I'm still...
- 12/10/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
It’s no secret that Martin Scorsese’s work remains a substantial influence on pretty much every American filmmaker who came to prominence after he stepped into the scene during the second, auteur-driven Hollywood golden age we call the 1970s. It’s hard to see this influence feature more prominently and clearly than in the works of up and coming indie filmmakers during the 1990s, which makes perfect sense since they were the movie nerds who grew up during Scorsese’s '70s reign. Read More: Retrospective: The Films Of Martin Scorsese There were two films that became a major influence on '90s cinema: “Die Hard” and “Goodfellas.” As often as 90s action fare copied the “Die Hard” formula (“Under Siege” was “Die Hard” on a boat, “Executive Decision” was “Die Hard” on a plane, etc…), indie filmmakers took their cues from “Goodfellas.” The Hughes Brothers’ “Menace II Society...
- 8/17/2015
- by Oktay Ege Kozak
- The Playlist
Star Trek 10 was supposed to lead into a further Next Generation crew movie, had all gone to plan. It didn't. So what happened?
1996's Star Trek: First Contact took $150 million worldwide, on a budget of $46 million. 1998's Star Trek: Insurrection managed to swallow a budget of $70 million and only return $118 worldwide, but after the critical feedback about that film, surely a darker action film along the same lines as First Contact would jump the box office back up? That appeared to be the thought pattern at Paramount, as it greenlit a further adventure for the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast. Star Trek: Nemesis was born.
The film, released in December 2002 in the Us, would go on to take $67m at the global box office, off the back of a $60m budget. It'd sell 1.3m DVDs in its first week in America, and in the scheme of things, was a financial disappointment.
1996's Star Trek: First Contact took $150 million worldwide, on a budget of $46 million. 1998's Star Trek: Insurrection managed to swallow a budget of $70 million and only return $118 worldwide, but after the critical feedback about that film, surely a darker action film along the same lines as First Contact would jump the box office back up? That appeared to be the thought pattern at Paramount, as it greenlit a further adventure for the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast. Star Trek: Nemesis was born.
The film, released in December 2002 in the Us, would go on to take $67m at the global box office, off the back of a $60m budget. It'd sell 1.3m DVDs in its first week in America, and in the scheme of things, was a financial disappointment.
- 8/6/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
This episode of Castle gets the mystery spot-on, even if it's missing the show's usual Beckett-Castle chemistry...
This review contains spoilers.
7.21 In Plane Sight
It’s not often that Castle goes outside its comfort zone. And still less often that it does it well. But In Plane Sight was just such an outing, and a real treat for mystery fans.
On one level, this is a surprise. After all, this episode has few of the hallmarks of what faithful viewers tend to think of as key to a good Castle tale. In Plane Sight takes place entirely during the course of a transatlantic flight on the always-tragic Oceanic Air (Oceanic Air/Airlines/Airways is the commonly used name of an airline company where bad air stuff always happens—think Lost or Executive Decision) during which Rick and Alexis are on their way to London to have a little father-daughter bonding-time.
This review contains spoilers.
7.21 In Plane Sight
It’s not often that Castle goes outside its comfort zone. And still less often that it does it well. But In Plane Sight was just such an outing, and a real treat for mystery fans.
On one level, this is a surprise. After all, this episode has few of the hallmarks of what faithful viewers tend to think of as key to a good Castle tale. In Plane Sight takes place entirely during the course of a transatlantic flight on the always-tragic Oceanic Air (Oceanic Air/Airlines/Airways is the commonly used name of an airline company where bad air stuff always happens—think Lost or Executive Decision) during which Rick and Alexis are on their way to London to have a little father-daughter bonding-time.
- 5/5/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
First, some disclosure: I love pretty much any thriller set on a plane. Passenger 57, Flightplan, Airport, Executive Decision, Air Force One… Die Hard 2, by extension.
So for that reason, but also others, I kinda loved this hour of Castle, and felt it was easily the best episode since 3Xk’s return.
PhotosMay Sweeps/Finale Preview! Get 100+ Spoilers for Castle, Once Upon a Time and Other Shows
For one, the episode did right by Rick, putting him in command of this investigation into an air marshal’s mid-flight murder. He was smart and a bit more serious than usual,...
So for that reason, but also others, I kinda loved this hour of Castle, and felt it was easily the best episode since 3Xk’s return.
PhotosMay Sweeps/Finale Preview! Get 100+ Spoilers for Castle, Once Upon a Time and Other Shows
For one, the episode did right by Rick, putting him in command of this investigation into an air marshal’s mid-flight murder. He was smart and a bit more serious than usual,...
- 4/28/2015
- TVLine.com
I have fond memories of Steven Seagal kicking ass in movies like Hard To Kill, Marked For Death, and Under Siege. Hell, Seagal's brief scenes in Executive Decision were pretty awesome too. In recent years, the man has done everything from direct to video action flicks to reality television. Even at the age of 63, the man is still churning out movies on a regular basis. His latest, Absolution, opens next month and we have an exclusive first clip from the movie. When a contract killer (Steven...
- 4/21/2015
- by Alex Maidy
- JoBlo.com
In the quarter century since "Die Hard" was first unleashed on moviegoers worldwide, there have been countless iterations of the same formula, to the point that, for a while at least, it became a whole action movie subgenre. Projects would be pitched (and subsequently produced) with sentences describing the movie as... "Die Hard" on a plane ("Executive Decision," "Passenger 57"), "Die Hard" in a tunnel ("Daylight"), "Die Hard" on a bus ("Speed"), and "Die Hard" in the White House ("White House Down"). The fact that no one's attempted a "Die Hard" with a female heroine seems like some kind of cosmic impossibility, but it's never happened. Until now. With "Everly," the basic "Die Hard" formula is rehashed with a female lead in mind, and the results are surprisingly spectacular. The shtick still works 26 years later. When "Everly" opens,...
- 2/25/2015
- by Drew Taylor
- The Playlist
The Die Hard series may be alive and well, but there's a unique story behind the writing of each one…
As any action fanatic will tell you, Die Hard is among the best films of its type ever made. Tautly directed by John McTiernan, deceptively well shot by cinematographer Jan de Bont, and full of charismatic turns from Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman and Bonnie Bedelia, it’s seldom been bettered, even by its sequels.
The key to the first film's success, and the sequels in their best moments, is hero John McClane. Tough, sarcastic but ultimately human and relatable, he cuts a very different figure from the beefed-up, larger-than-life heroes of 1980s and 90s action cinema. When John McClane gets shot or injured, he actually feels pain. It's something we were keenly aware of in the 1988 original, but gradually ebbed away as the Die Hard franchise drifted from thriller territory...
As any action fanatic will tell you, Die Hard is among the best films of its type ever made. Tautly directed by John McTiernan, deceptively well shot by cinematographer Jan de Bont, and full of charismatic turns from Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman and Bonnie Bedelia, it’s seldom been bettered, even by its sequels.
The key to the first film's success, and the sequels in their best moments, is hero John McClane. Tough, sarcastic but ultimately human and relatable, he cuts a very different figure from the beefed-up, larger-than-life heroes of 1980s and 90s action cinema. When John McClane gets shot or injured, he actually feels pain. It's something we were keenly aware of in the 1988 original, but gradually ebbed away as the Die Hard franchise drifted from thriller territory...
- 12/9/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
In the quarter century since "Die Hard" was first unleashed on moviegoers worldwide, there have been countless iterations of the same formula, to the point that, for a while at least, it became a whole action movie subgenre. Projects would be pitched (and subsequently produced) with sentences describing the movie as "Die Hard" on a… There's been "Die Hard" on a plane ("Executive Decision," "Passenger 57"), "Die Hard" in a tunnel ("Daylight") "Die Hard" on a bus ("Speed") and "Die Hard" in the White House ("White House Down"). The fact that no one's attempted a "Die Hard" with a female heroine seems like some kind of cosmic impossibility, but it's never happened. Until now. With "Everly," the basic "Die Hard" formula is rehashed with a female lead in mind, and the results are surprisingly spectacular. The shtick still works 26 years later. When...
- 9/20/2014
- by Drew Taylor
- The Playlist
Michael Douglas. Anthony Hopkins. Just two actors who've returned to play the parts that won them Oscars...
When Oscar glory comes knocking for a successful Hollywood actor, it must be hugely tempting when the chance arrives for them to reprise that award-winning role. But while sequels and reboots are a common enough sight in the movie industry these days, examples of stars who've returned to their Oscar-winning roles are relatively few and far between.
The reason, perhaps, is because it's so difficult to recapture the creative lightning in a bottle that led to the Oscar win in the first place. Nevertheless, some actors do occasionally take up the offer and return to the filmmaking well. And as the list below proves, the results can sometimes be highly accomplished - though seldom quite as powerful and fresh as the films they're following...
Gene Hackman
Won for: The French Connection
Played the...
When Oscar glory comes knocking for a successful Hollywood actor, it must be hugely tempting when the chance arrives for them to reprise that award-winning role. But while sequels and reboots are a common enough sight in the movie industry these days, examples of stars who've returned to their Oscar-winning roles are relatively few and far between.
The reason, perhaps, is because it's so difficult to recapture the creative lightning in a bottle that led to the Oscar win in the first place. Nevertheless, some actors do occasionally take up the offer and return to the filmmaking well. And as the list below proves, the results can sometimes be highly accomplished - though seldom quite as powerful and fresh as the films they're following...
Gene Hackman
Won for: The French Connection
Played the...
- 8/26/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Steven Seagal has made only one horror movie to date, and that was 2009's Against the Dark, in which he had a cameo that found him beating off vampires. Yet, here at Dread Central we've been known to cover the world of the bizarre and the paranormal. You're about to learn something about Seagal that is beyond bizarre...
Did you ever notice the strangest thing about Seagal movie titles is that they tell a story in order of their release? No? Check IMDb if you don't believe. Sit back, dear reader, and allow me to take you on a strange trip filled with action, madmen, and revenge.
Steven Seagal was Above The Law, but he was too Hard To Kill so now he's been Marked For Death by Jamaicans who are Out For Justice. Can he live while Under Siege and On Deadly Ground? Could you survive while Under Siege...
Did you ever notice the strangest thing about Seagal movie titles is that they tell a story in order of their release? No? Check IMDb if you don't believe. Sit back, dear reader, and allow me to take you on a strange trip filled with action, madmen, and revenge.
Steven Seagal was Above The Law, but he was too Hard To Kill so now he's been Marked For Death by Jamaicans who are Out For Justice. Can he live while Under Siege and On Deadly Ground? Could you survive while Under Siege...
- 6/22/2014
- by Steve Barton
- DreadCentral.com
I used to love watching Steven Seagal movies. Movies such as Under Siege, Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, Above the Law and Executive Decision. But we're talking a long time ago now and I think the last time I went to go see a Seagal movie in the theater was 1994's On Deadly Ground. The guy has now become something more of a curiosity than anything else, though he doesn't seem to be done with movies just yet, but that doesn't mean you should ever expect to see him in one of the Expendables movies. In an interview with The Big Issue he was asked why he hasn't starred in one of the action star team-ups just yet and he didn't hold back: "I just didn't like some of the people involved... Life is too short to work with funny people... There's good and bad people everywhere and a...
- 6/17/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
If there's one notable absence thus far from "The Expendables" films, it's that of Steven Seagal - star of such 1980s/1990s action hits as "Under Siege," "Executive Decision," "Hard to Kill" and "Above the Law".
In a new interview with The Big Issue, he was asked straight up why he hasn't done one of them yet. His reasoning seems to be entirely personal, though he wouldn't name names:
"I just didn't like some of the people involved... Life is too short to work with funny people... There's good and bad people everywhere and a lot of people in The Expendables I like too. So it's okay... I like Jason Statham. I like Jet Li, people like that."
He also touched upon one of the biggest action stars of today, Liam Neeson, and Hollywood's change from straight action films to ones driven by special effects:
"Times change. There are a...
In a new interview with The Big Issue, he was asked straight up why he hasn't done one of them yet. His reasoning seems to be entirely personal, though he wouldn't name names:
"I just didn't like some of the people involved... Life is too short to work with funny people... There's good and bad people everywhere and a lot of people in The Expendables I like too. So it's okay... I like Jason Statham. I like Jet Li, people like that."
He also touched upon one of the biggest action stars of today, Liam Neeson, and Hollywood's change from straight action films to ones driven by special effects:
"Times change. There are a...
- 6/17/2014
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Sometimes Hollywood charms us and hypnotizes us with its magic. And sometimes it’s so damned capricious with talent that you want to start a national shin-kicking campaign to change the tide. Between celebrities built up and then thrust into obscurity, and talents that never quite see the light of fame, Hollywood is a wasteland of actors who could give the current who’s who a run for their dramatic money. The lucky few get that extra ten minutes of fame that turns them into a split-second repeat whirlwind a la Mickey Rourke, but most live the life of a character actor with the occasional reminder role, or the television guest star who makes Kevin Bacon’s Hollywood web seem a little smaller. Here are nine of the many, the ones that have had me grumbling about their trajectories in recent months: Joe Morton Few actors offer the depth and powerful gravitas of Joe Morton. This...
- 5/8/2014
- by Monika Bartyzel
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Through films like Flightplan, Soul Plane, and White House Down, it has taken over a decade for Hollywood to arrive at Non-Stop.
Showing the vitality of Liam Neeson carrying a gun and a broken heart, Non-Stop recently gave the new action hero one of his biggest box office weekends so far. Involving an air marshal using a particular set of skills to hunt and kill someone threatening his plane (to paraphrase Taken), the film may seem like a generic Neeson actioner. But while his character might be a composite of previous roles, the anxiety he tackles within this film is fresh. Considering its box office success (and my mother’s intense experience in watching the movie), Non-Stop works efficiently as a thriller in 2014 because it provides viewers with imagery of in-flight chaos not seen since before 9/11. It is also the indication of a natural progression for how Hollywood films are...
Showing the vitality of Liam Neeson carrying a gun and a broken heart, Non-Stop recently gave the new action hero one of his biggest box office weekends so far. Involving an air marshal using a particular set of skills to hunt and kill someone threatening his plane (to paraphrase Taken), the film may seem like a generic Neeson actioner. But while his character might be a composite of previous roles, the anxiety he tackles within this film is fresh. Considering its box office success (and my mother’s intense experience in watching the movie), Non-Stop works efficiently as a thriller in 2014 because it provides viewers with imagery of in-flight chaos not seen since before 9/11. It is also the indication of a natural progression for how Hollywood films are...
- 3/7/2014
- by Nick Allen
- The Scorecard Review
Murder on the Familiar Express: Collett-Serra’s Airborne Caper a Watchable Throwback
Director Jaume Collet-Serra has jumped aboard the Liam Neeson renaissance train, reuniting with star for Non-Stop after their 2011 effort, Unknown (and, they’ve recently wrapped a third feature due out next year). With Neeson’s insistent return to the action fold, his latest outing fares well in comparison, a glossy whodunit that feels like a familiar (and fun) Agatha Christie narrative thrust onto a plane, filled with moments you’ll question later but offering a generous amount of engagement generally lacking in many recent big budget offerings. A host of recognizable faces admirably (though not entirely successfully) warps the process of elimination via casting choices, and while it doesn’t quite manage a smooth landing in a rather truncated finale, it offers enough mainstream enjoyment to at least avoid making you angry with it.
A depressed and alcoholic Us Air Marshall,...
Director Jaume Collet-Serra has jumped aboard the Liam Neeson renaissance train, reuniting with star for Non-Stop after their 2011 effort, Unknown (and, they’ve recently wrapped a third feature due out next year). With Neeson’s insistent return to the action fold, his latest outing fares well in comparison, a glossy whodunit that feels like a familiar (and fun) Agatha Christie narrative thrust onto a plane, filled with moments you’ll question later but offering a generous amount of engagement generally lacking in many recent big budget offerings. A host of recognizable faces admirably (though not entirely successfully) warps the process of elimination via casting choices, and while it doesn’t quite manage a smooth landing in a rather truncated finale, it offers enough mainstream enjoyment to at least avoid making you angry with it.
A depressed and alcoholic Us Air Marshall,...
- 2/28/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Neeson Season kicks off today with the release of Non-stop, the lastest high-altitude thriller that joins the ranks of previous genre flicks like Passenger 57, Executive Decision, Turbulence, and more. To celebrate, we've whipped together a listing of the folks you'd most want to have aboard your flight when midair violence threatens your in-flight movie and beverage service. We can't all be heroes, so it's important to remember who we can turn to when the shit hits the engine and this roster...
- 2/28/2014
- by Paul Shirey
- JoBlo.com
Warner Bros.
Cameos are usually fun in films, especially in comedies like Anchorman and Zombieland when actors you don’t expect to see pop in for a few laughs. In those cases the cameos aren’t promoted in order to keep them as funny surprises, but also because it would be a pretty low thing to do if misleading advertising suggested that a popular actor who only makes a token appearance has a significant role in a movie.
But don’t think an industry that charges $5 extra for a 3D movie with hardly any 3D effects and $7 for a “small” popcorn is above ripping you off with misleading advertising. Still, trailers and posters are meant to promote a movie so most rational people are aware that they are always an exercise in overselling since not every comedy can be the “funniest movie of the year!” However, at the very least...
Cameos are usually fun in films, especially in comedies like Anchorman and Zombieland when actors you don’t expect to see pop in for a few laughs. In those cases the cameos aren’t promoted in order to keep them as funny surprises, but also because it would be a pretty low thing to do if misleading advertising suggested that a popular actor who only makes a token appearance has a significant role in a movie.
But don’t think an industry that charges $5 extra for a 3D movie with hardly any 3D effects and $7 for a “small” popcorn is above ripping you off with misleading advertising. Still, trailers and posters are meant to promote a movie so most rational people are aware that they are always an exercise in overselling since not every comedy can be the “funniest movie of the year!” However, at the very least...
- 1/2/2014
- by Chris McKittrick
- Obsessed with Film
Zap2it: The weekly family dinner scene is such a staple of "Blue Bloods," what do you remember about filming the very first one?
Len Cariou: Actors are incredible beings, I think, and we thought we had to figure out a history for ourselves [as the characters]. While they were setting up shots, we were yapping about Donnie's (Wahlberg) and Will's (Estes).
We all have a wonderful relationship, and I think the show has a uniqueness because of those very scenes at the dinner table. We get to know the family as more than cops, everybody is wonderful in their roles, and it's a very pleasant working situation.
Zap2it: Henry has gotten to draw on his police commissioner past quite a bit in recent episodes. Are you pleased with what's been revealed?
Len Cariou: That's the good history of the piece, and it gives the writers something to draw on.
Len Cariou: Actors are incredible beings, I think, and we thought we had to figure out a history for ourselves [as the characters]. While they were setting up shots, we were yapping about Donnie's (Wahlberg) and Will's (Estes).
We all have a wonderful relationship, and I think the show has a uniqueness because of those very scenes at the dinner table. We get to know the family as more than cops, everybody is wonderful in their roles, and it's a very pleasant working situation.
Zap2it: Henry has gotten to draw on his police commissioner past quite a bit in recent episodes. Are you pleased with what's been revealed?
Len Cariou: That's the good history of the piece, and it gives the writers something to draw on.
- 12/20/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
Top 10 Ryan Lambie 22 Nov 2013 - 06:42
From zombie outbreaks to food poisoning, here's our selection of the 10 unluckiest fictional airline companies in cinema...
You rarely see real-life airline companies in movies, and for good reason - planes in the movies are always being overrun by snakes, art thieves, the undead, and that actor who plays Hercule Poirot.
Film airline companies are so unlucky, in fact, that even the best efforts of Hollywood's finest actors, heart-throbs and action heroes - from Brad Pitt to Bruce Willis, and Jack Lemmon to Mark Hamill - can't stop their planes from dropping out of the sky or getting into some kind of mishap or other.
To this end, here's a far-from-exhaustive look at what we think are the 10 unluckiest airlines in cinema...
Stevens Corporation As seen in: Airport 77 (1977)
You'd be forgiven for thinking that a company with just one passenger jet to its name...
From zombie outbreaks to food poisoning, here's our selection of the 10 unluckiest fictional airline companies in cinema...
You rarely see real-life airline companies in movies, and for good reason - planes in the movies are always being overrun by snakes, art thieves, the undead, and that actor who plays Hercule Poirot.
Film airline companies are so unlucky, in fact, that even the best efforts of Hollywood's finest actors, heart-throbs and action heroes - from Brad Pitt to Bruce Willis, and Jack Lemmon to Mark Hamill - can't stop their planes from dropping out of the sky or getting into some kind of mishap or other.
To this end, here's a far-from-exhaustive look at what we think are the 10 unluckiest airlines in cinema...
Stevens Corporation As seen in: Airport 77 (1977)
You'd be forgiven for thinking that a company with just one passenger jet to its name...
- 11/21/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Len Cariou has had great successes onstage, but he's happy television is his prime home now.
The star of such hit musicals as "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "A Little Night Music" and "Applause" is in his fourth season as Henry Reagan, family patriarch and former New York police commissioner - the position now occupied by his son Frank (Tom Selleck) - on CBS' Friday drama "Blue Bloods."
Cariou is guaranteed at least one scene a week by the Reagan dinner-table gathering, and he's happy with the job in general.
"It's a great pleasure," he tells Zap2it. "We all have a great relationship, and I think it gives the show a uniqueness for a cop show. We get to know the family members and their different perspectives, and it's a very pleasant working situation. It's like I've gone to heaven."
Cariou credits that in large part to Selleck,...
The star of such hit musicals as "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "A Little Night Music" and "Applause" is in his fourth season as Henry Reagan, family patriarch and former New York police commissioner - the position now occupied by his son Frank (Tom Selleck) - on CBS' Friday drama "Blue Bloods."
Cariou is guaranteed at least one scene a week by the Reagan dinner-table gathering, and he's happy with the job in general.
"It's a great pleasure," he tells Zap2it. "We all have a great relationship, and I think it gives the show a uniqueness for a cop show. We get to know the family members and their different perspectives, and it's a very pleasant working situation. It's like I've gone to heaven."
Cariou credits that in large part to Selleck,...
- 11/1/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
She’s the actress everyone is talking about and is fascinated with - Lupita Nyong’o, who many film insiders are saying is a shoo-in to get a Supporting Actress Oscar Nomination for her performance in 12 Years A Slave. Now you can watch her in the new trailer for the upcoming Liam Neeson action thriller Non-Stop which comes out in February 2014. I don’t need to tell you what’s it’s all about. The trailer explains it all - though you have seen it before, in films such as Executive Decision, Air Force One, Passenger 57, Turbulence, even the comedy Airplane! and any number of “terror on a plane” films. Along with Neeson and Nyong’o in the film's cast, are Julianne Moore and this...
- 10/17/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Now that the kids have gone back to school, things have gotten relatively quiet in the streaming wars. One thing that alarms though is in looking at the list below, you see the usual titles from late last year being added to Now TV, Lovefilm etc, but where is the new stuff on Netflix? Sure they have added some good catalogue stuff but Gambit is their only title? Really?
It’s not looking good for Netflix which sucks because as I have said before, their software and its reliability and ease of use would mean they would have this war all sewn up if they could just land the big films the way Lovefilm and Now TV are doing, The Hobbit and Breaking Bad are their only recent big wins since Orange is the New Black. With the other big ones averaging at least one huge new title a week,...
It’s not looking good for Netflix which sucks because as I have said before, their software and its reliability and ease of use would mean they would have this war all sewn up if they could just land the big films the way Lovefilm and Now TV are doing, The Hobbit and Breaking Bad are their only recent big wins since Orange is the New Black. With the other big ones averaging at least one huge new title a week,...
- 9/9/2013
- by Chris Holt
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The "Fast and Furious" franchise might have gotten a little more Stuntman Mike. According to Variety, Kurt Russell is negotiating with Universal to star in "Fast Seven," where he would play an undisclosed role that the studio initially pegged for Denzel Washington. (As Deadline.com reported on Aug. 1, Washington had turned down the role.)
Little else is known about Russell's involvement, but it's expected that the part would carry over to the eighth film in the series -- something that would mimic what Universal did with Jason Statham's "Fast and Furious Six" cameo. (Statham is set up as the villain in "Fast Seven.")
Russell is an action veteran, having starred in "Escape From New York," "Big Trouble in Little China," "Tango and Cash," "Tombstone" and "Executive Decision," among other films. He also played the aforementioned Stuntman Mike in Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof," a section of the Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez...
Little else is known about Russell's involvement, but it's expected that the part would carry over to the eighth film in the series -- something that would mimic what Universal did with Jason Statham's "Fast and Furious Six" cameo. (Statham is set up as the villain in "Fast Seven.")
Russell is an action veteran, having starred in "Escape From New York," "Big Trouble in Little China," "Tango and Cash," "Tombstone" and "Executive Decision," among other films. He also played the aforementioned Stuntman Mike in Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof," a section of the Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez...
- 8/30/2013
- by Christopher Rosen
- Huffington Post
In today's Indie Beat, the upcoming biopic on Nikola Tesla, which is currently heavy into pre-production has now found it's cast members. Come inside to check out who has signed on to the project from director Michael Anton.
Here at Cinelinx we like to talk about all aspects of filmmaking and movie news. To that end, we have Indie Beat where we highlight some of the latest news, trailers, and PR releases from the indie filmmaker scene. So if you're an independent filmmaker and want some coverage on our site, be sure to drop us a line at jordan@cinelinx.com.
Director Michael Anton is currently in advanced pre-production with his biopic Tesla about the iconic Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla.
The film will follow the life of Tesla following his arrival in America in 1884, as he battled with Thomas Edison, befriended Mark Twain and invented products that would change the world forever.
Here at Cinelinx we like to talk about all aspects of filmmaking and movie news. To that end, we have Indie Beat where we highlight some of the latest news, trailers, and PR releases from the indie filmmaker scene. So if you're an independent filmmaker and want some coverage on our site, be sure to drop us a line at jordan@cinelinx.com.
Director Michael Anton is currently in advanced pre-production with his biopic Tesla about the iconic Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla.
The film will follow the life of Tesla following his arrival in America in 1884, as he battled with Thomas Edison, befriended Mark Twain and invented products that would change the world forever.
- 8/30/2013
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Jordan Maison)
- Cinelinx
In the right hands, an epic movie death can be one of the defining aspects of a given film, bringing finality to a situation, or on a more basic level, simply thrilling the Hell out of us. In other instances, the mere shock value of the death, either through its speed, unexpected arrival or bizarre nature, can lodge a film far deeper in our consciousness than it otherwise would be.
What these 10 deaths have in common is that in some way or another they defied expectations, and therefore shifted that we would come to expect from the film thereafter. If nothing else, these 10 films made it clear that all bets were off…
10. Steven Seagal – Executive Decision
It’s a long, distant memory now, but once upon a time, Steven Seagal was a bankable action star, and in this goofy 1996 thriller, the actor was billed second only to Kurt Russell. Given...
What these 10 deaths have in common is that in some way or another they defied expectations, and therefore shifted that we would come to expect from the film thereafter. If nothing else, these 10 films made it clear that all bets were off…
10. Steven Seagal – Executive Decision
It’s a long, distant memory now, but once upon a time, Steven Seagal was a bankable action star, and in this goofy 1996 thriller, the actor was billed second only to Kurt Russell. Given...
- 6/4/2013
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
Warning: Spoilers!
Just because you're a movie star doesn't necessarily mean you're going to survive past the first reel.
In honor of Channing Tatum's early exit from "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" (hey, we said Spoilers!, didn't we?), we've prepared a rather macabre infographic that reveals other quick cinematic deaths, from Drew Barrymore's untimely demise in "Scream" to Steven Seagal's fall from a plane just when things we're getting interesting in "Executive Decision" to Jennifer Lopez's Wtf drop-dead act in "Jersey Girl." As you can see, no overpaid celebrity is safe from the Reaper!
[Click on the infographic for a larger version ... if you dare.]...
Just because you're a movie star doesn't necessarily mean you're going to survive past the first reel.
In honor of Channing Tatum's early exit from "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" (hey, we said Spoilers!, didn't we?), we've prepared a rather macabre infographic that reveals other quick cinematic deaths, from Drew Barrymore's untimely demise in "Scream" to Steven Seagal's fall from a plane just when things we're getting interesting in "Executive Decision" to Jennifer Lopez's Wtf drop-dead act in "Jersey Girl." As you can see, no overpaid celebrity is safe from the Reaper!
[Click on the infographic for a larger version ... if you dare.]...
- 4/1/2013
- by Nick DeSantis
- NextMovie
Feature Ryan Lambie 2 Apr 2013 - 06:27
As Gerard Butler fights terrorists in Olympus Has Fallen, Ryan wonders, have videogames inspired a new breed of more violent action hero?
Olympus Has Fallen is a noisy throwback to an 80s and 90s era of action movies such as Executive Decision, Air Force One, or Under Siege; films that riffed on Die Hard's thrilling hero-in-a-confined-space plot. In fact, Olympus Has Fallen’s Die Hard-in-the-White-House concept has probably kicking around in the heads of Tinseltown movie producers for years - it’s just been a matter of waiting until the time was right.
In the 80s and 90s, special effects probably weren’t good enough to make an audience believe that the most famous house in America was under attack from terrorists. After 9/11, the technology was there, but the concept would almost certainly have been deemed in horrifically poor taste. And so...
As Gerard Butler fights terrorists in Olympus Has Fallen, Ryan wonders, have videogames inspired a new breed of more violent action hero?
Olympus Has Fallen is a noisy throwback to an 80s and 90s era of action movies such as Executive Decision, Air Force One, or Under Siege; films that riffed on Die Hard's thrilling hero-in-a-confined-space plot. In fact, Olympus Has Fallen’s Die Hard-in-the-White-House concept has probably kicking around in the heads of Tinseltown movie producers for years - it’s just been a matter of waiting until the time was right.
In the 80s and 90s, special effects probably weren’t good enough to make an audience believe that the most famous house in America was under attack from terrorists. After 9/11, the technology was there, but the concept would almost certainly have been deemed in horrifically poor taste. And so...
- 3/28/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Last night I was trying to come up with some ideas on something I could do in conjunction with the release of Olympus Has Fallen and one idea was to come up with a list of the best political action thrillers. The problem is that word "action" really limits the number of films... at least when it came to the titles my fiancee could come up with last night. The word "action", in this case, almost seems to remove all meaning from the word "political". Sure, Olympus Has Fallen is based on a terrorist takeover at the White House, but just how political will it really be? White House Down and G.I. Joe: Retaliation are working with similar themes as trailers have already shown us, are they too political films? Certainly there is a nugget of politics in there, it's something that gives the narrative added weight over simply being about guns,...
- 3/18/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
0:00 - Intro 3:15 - Review: Chinese Zodiac 27:50 - Other Stuff We Watched: Stoker, Mr. Nobody, Gone with the Wind, Speed 2: Cruise Control, Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), Skyfall, Klute, Executive Decision, Wanderlust, The Man with Two Brains, Argo, Nothing But Trouble, Life of Pi, No, Marathon Man 1:35:50 - Headlines: Academy Member Reveals the Voting Process 1:42:00 - Junk Mail: The Imposter Amazon Reviews, Oscar Categories We'd Like to See Added or Removed, Views on Piracy, Retrofitting Dramas into 3D, Film Junk Special Guests 2:06:20 - Chatroom Q&A 2:23:35 - This Week on DVD and Blu-ray 2:25:10 - Outro
Film Junk Podcast Episode #406: Chinese Zodiac by Filmjunk on Mixcloud
» Download the MP3 (70 Mb) » View the show notes » Rate us on iTunes! Subscribe to the podcast feed: Donate via Paypal: Recurring Donation $2/Month:
For More Daily Movie Goodness, Visit Filmjunk.Com!
Film Junk Podcast Episode #406: Chinese Zodiac by Filmjunk on Mixcloud
» Download the MP3 (70 Mb) » View the show notes » Rate us on iTunes! Subscribe to the podcast feed: Donate via Paypal: Recurring Donation $2/Month:
For More Daily Movie Goodness, Visit Filmjunk.Com!
- 2/26/2013
- by Sean
- FilmJunk
This interview with Halle appeared originally back in the February 2002 edition of Venice Magazine. It was on the eve of her Best Actress win at the 2002 Oscars.
With A Landmark Oscar For Her Searing Portrayal Of The Gritty Belle Of Monster's Ball, Halle Berry'S On A Roll
by Terry Keefe
Halle Berry wasn't looking to take the easy path to fame and fortune when she went in to read for her first movie role in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991). Originally called in for the fairly conventional role of Lee's wife, Berry pushed Lee to cast her in another part - that of Vivian the young crack addict. It was a telling move as to the type of acting career Berry was seeking. This totally unglamorous role was not what most people would have expected from the young and beautiful Ms. Berry, but it presented a challenge for the...
With A Landmark Oscar For Her Searing Portrayal Of The Gritty Belle Of Monster's Ball, Halle Berry'S On A Roll
by Terry Keefe
Halle Berry wasn't looking to take the easy path to fame and fortune when she went in to read for her first movie role in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991). Originally called in for the fairly conventional role of Lee's wife, Berry pushed Lee to cast her in another part - that of Vivian the young crack addict. It was a telling move as to the type of acting career Berry was seeking. This totally unglamorous role was not what most people would have expected from the young and beautiful Ms. Berry, but it presented a challenge for the...
- 2/15/2013
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
"I don't have rage. I'm a happy guy. You see this face? This is a happy face."
The second season of True Justice kicked off with a bang — and a thud, crunch, slice, thwack, and several booms — on Friday, with Elijah Kane (Steven Seagal) and his new team racking up some serious numbers. In celebration of the return of Seagal's own personal brand of, ahem, justice to ReelzChannel, we decided this would be a great time to look back at his action-packed movie career. Put on your gi, focus your chi, and help us choose Seagal's best movies.
Rate the Top 10 Best Steven Seagal Movies >>
Next Showing:
Link | Posted 1/8/2013 by BrentJS
True Justice | Steven Seagal | Under Siege | Under Siege 2: Dark Territory | Above The Law | Hard to Kill | Out for Justice | Marked for Death | Executive Decision | On Deadly Ground | Machete | The Glimmer Man | Exit Wounds | Fire Down Below | Half Past Dead...
The second season of True Justice kicked off with a bang — and a thud, crunch, slice, thwack, and several booms — on Friday, with Elijah Kane (Steven Seagal) and his new team racking up some serious numbers. In celebration of the return of Seagal's own personal brand of, ahem, justice to ReelzChannel, we decided this would be a great time to look back at his action-packed movie career. Put on your gi, focus your chi, and help us choose Seagal's best movies.
Rate the Top 10 Best Steven Seagal Movies >>
Next Showing:
Link | Posted 1/8/2013 by BrentJS
True Justice | Steven Seagal | Under Siege | Under Siege 2: Dark Territory | Above The Law | Hard to Kill | Out for Justice | Marked for Death | Executive Decision | On Deadly Ground | Machete | The Glimmer Man | Exit Wounds | Fire Down Below | Half Past Dead...
- 1/8/2013
- by BrentJS Sprecher
- Reelzchannel.com
If you thought the Expendables franchise couldn’t explode any more with testosterone, action heroes, and, um, explosions...well, you’re wrong.
Nicolas Cage has now been cast in The Expendables 3. And wait, there’s more! Talking to Total Film, producer Avi Lerner says:
“We’ve approached Clint Eastwood to be one of the guys, we’ve got a character in mind for him. We’re talking to Harrison Ford. [And we want] Wesley Snipes when he comes back from prison. I’ll give you one more name, we’ve got Nicolas Cage to play [one of the characters].”
“And we’re going to bring Mickey Rourke back, if he won’t be too crazy. I like Mickey. And of course, all the existing stars (will return)”
Yes, that’s right: Stanley Goodspeed, The Man With No Name, Indiana Jones, and Blade could be *in the same movie*! In addition to the already impressive cast of…as all those other guys.
Nicolas Cage has now been cast in The Expendables 3. And wait, there’s more! Talking to Total Film, producer Avi Lerner says:
“We’ve approached Clint Eastwood to be one of the guys, we’ve got a character in mind for him. We’re talking to Harrison Ford. [And we want] Wesley Snipes when he comes back from prison. I’ll give you one more name, we’ve got Nicolas Cage to play [one of the characters].”
“And we’re going to bring Mickey Rourke back, if he won’t be too crazy. I like Mickey. And of course, all the existing stars (will return)”
Yes, that’s right: Stanley Goodspeed, The Man With No Name, Indiana Jones, and Blade could be *in the same movie*! In addition to the already impressive cast of…as all those other guys.
- 8/13/2012
- Shadowlocked
A 2005 graduate of USC’s School of Cinema and Television, Lee Toland Krieger made his feature film debut in 2008 with “The Vicious Kind,” starring Adam Scott, from his own original screenplay. His latest film is Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg’s bittersweet “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” releasing this week and platforming throughout August. For ShockYa, Brent Simon had a chance to speak to Krieger one-on-one recently, about his new movie, the difficulties of mounting or landing an indie directing gig, ”Back to the Future,” the story he heard about Steven Seagal getting kicked off of “Executive Decision,” and the rudeness in some of his encounters with the press. The conversation is excerpted below: ShockYa: Your [ Read More ]...
- 8/4/2012
- by bsimon
- ShockYa
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