The Good Fight's return has an official date.
CBS All Access' original drama series, a spinoff of The Good Wife, will kick off its sophomore season on Sunday, March 4, CBS' streaming service announced Tuesday. New episodes of the 13-episode season will premiere weekly on Sundays for subscribers.
In the second season of The Good Fight, the world is going insane and the Chicago murder rate is on the rise. Amid the insanity, Diane (Christine Baranski), Lucca (Cush Jumbo), Maia (Rose Leslie) and the rest of their law firm find themselves under assault when a client from another firm kills his lawyer for overcharging. After a copycat murder, the firm begins to investigate its clients.
But that's not all the drama facing Diane and company, as Diane goes toe-to-toe with a new partner at the firm, Liz Reddick-Lawrence (Audra McDonald), Maia toughens up after her parents' very public scandal puts her on the hot seat and Lucca...
CBS All Access' original drama series, a spinoff of The Good Wife, will kick off its sophomore season on Sunday, March 4, CBS' streaming service announced Tuesday. New episodes of the 13-episode season will premiere weekly on Sundays for subscribers.
In the second season of The Good Fight, the world is going insane and the Chicago murder rate is on the rise. Amid the insanity, Diane (Christine Baranski), Lucca (Cush Jumbo), Maia (Rose Leslie) and the rest of their law firm find themselves under assault when a client from another firm kills his lawyer for overcharging. After a copycat murder, the firm begins to investigate its clients.
But that's not all the drama facing Diane and company, as Diane goes toe-to-toe with a new partner at the firm, Liz Reddick-Lawrence (Audra McDonald), Maia toughens up after her parents' very public scandal puts her on the hot seat and Lucca...
- 12/12/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
Following reports that CBS All Access was developing a reboot of The Twilight Zone, it's now been officially announced that the streaming service is moving forward with a new take on the Rod Serling series, this time with Jordan Peele on board as an executive producer.
CBS All Access has yet to announce a premiere date and number of episodes for the new Twilight Zone series, but Peele, Simon Kinberg, and Marco Ramirez will executive produce the series and team up creatively for the first episode.
We'll keep Daily Dead readers updated as more details are revealed, and in the meantime we have the official press release below. What do you want to see in a new Twilight Zone series? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Press Release: Dec. 6, 2017 – CBS All Access, the CBS Television Network’s digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, today announced...
CBS All Access has yet to announce a premiere date and number of episodes for the new Twilight Zone series, but Peele, Simon Kinberg, and Marco Ramirez will executive produce the series and team up creatively for the first episode.
We'll keep Daily Dead readers updated as more details are revealed, and in the meantime we have the official press release below. What do you want to see in a new Twilight Zone series? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Press Release: Dec. 6, 2017 – CBS All Access, the CBS Television Network’s digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, today announced...
- 12/6/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
The Twilight Zone lives again.
The classic horror anthology series, which originally ran on CBS from 1959 to 1964 and spawned several revivals, as well as a movie, will be rebooted once again as a new series for CBS All Access, CBS’ subscription streaming service announced Wednesday.
Get Out director Jordan Peeleand his production company, Monkeypaw Productions, will spearhead the latest revival, alongside Simon Kinberg and Marco Ramirez. The trio will serve as executive producers and collaborate on the first episode.
“Too many times this year it’s felt we were living in a twilight zone, and I can’t think of a better moment to reintroduce it to modern audiences,” Peele said in a statement.
“The original The Twilight Zone bridged science-fiction, horror and fantasy together to explore human nature and provide social commentary in a way that audiences had never seen before,” said Julie McNamara, Executive Vice President, Original Content at CBS All Access. “Under the auspices...
The classic horror anthology series, which originally ran on CBS from 1959 to 1964 and spawned several revivals, as well as a movie, will be rebooted once again as a new series for CBS All Access, CBS’ subscription streaming service announced Wednesday.
Get Out director Jordan Peeleand his production company, Monkeypaw Productions, will spearhead the latest revival, alongside Simon Kinberg and Marco Ramirez. The trio will serve as executive producers and collaborate on the first episode.
“Too many times this year it’s felt we were living in a twilight zone, and I can’t think of a better moment to reintroduce it to modern audiences,” Peele said in a statement.
“The original The Twilight Zone bridged science-fiction, horror and fantasy together to explore human nature and provide social commentary in a way that audiences had never seen before,” said Julie McNamara, Executive Vice President, Original Content at CBS All Access. “Under the auspices...
- 12/6/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
Veteran 20th Century Fox television business executive Sandra Ortiz, most recently head of BA for Fox 21 TV Studios, has joined Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment in a strategic position, overseeing the independent company’s business affairs and production business. Since recently coming on board, she spearheaded Kapital Entertainment’s negotiations with CBS All Access for a straight-to-series order to the Kevin Williamson drama Tell Me a Story and with YouTube Red for…...
- 12/1/2017
- Deadline TV
Kayti Burt Dec 4, 2017
CBS All-Access is looking to add to its Star Trek: Discovery success with Tell Me A Story, from Vampire Diaries creator Kevin Williamson.
So far, CBS All-Access has had relatively little when it comes to new material to lure subscribers past its pay wall. Star Trek: Discovery has been a good start to bringing paying customers into the fold, but one hit show does not an on-demand service make.
Perhaps CBS All-Access' new planned drama from The Vampire Diaries' Kevin Williamson will help. According to Deadline, the streaming service has given a straight-to-series order to Tell Me A Story, an adaptation of a Spanish TV series that puts a dark psychological twist on classic fairy tales.
Set in modern-day New York City, the first season of Tell Me A Story will weave elements of The Three Little Pigs, Jack And The Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood...
CBS All-Access is looking to add to its Star Trek: Discovery success with Tell Me A Story, from Vampire Diaries creator Kevin Williamson.
So far, CBS All-Access has had relatively little when it comes to new material to lure subscribers past its pay wall. Star Trek: Discovery has been a good start to bringing paying customers into the fold, but one hit show does not an on-demand service make.
Perhaps CBS All-Access' new planned drama from The Vampire Diaries' Kevin Williamson will help. According to Deadline, the streaming service has given a straight-to-series order to Tell Me A Story, an adaptation of a Spanish TV series that puts a dark psychological twist on classic fairy tales.
Set in modern-day New York City, the first season of Tell Me A Story will weave elements of The Three Little Pigs, Jack And The Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood...
- 12/1/2017
- Den of Geek
Lay your head down on your pillow. CBS All Access has just ordered the Tell Me a Story TV show. The new TV series comes from writer and executive producer Kevin Williamson of Dawson's Creek and The Vampire Diaries fame. Move over, Once Upon a Time. The new Tell Me a Story TV series takes classic fairy tales and gives them a dark, psychological twist. Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment is producing the drama for CBS All Access. No cast has been announced thus far, but when we know more, you will, too. Read More…...
- 11/30/2017
- by TVSeriesFinale.com
- TVSeriesFinale.com
Kevin Williamson's next project will have him adding a dark twist to some of the world's most well-known stories.
CBS All Access ordered Williamson's psychological thriller Tell Me a Story to series, TV Guide has learned. Taking place in present-day New York City, the show will turn classic fairy
...
Read More >...
CBS All Access ordered Williamson's psychological thriller Tell Me a Story to series, TV Guide has learned. Taking place in present-day New York City, the show will turn classic fairy
...
Read More >...
- 11/30/2017
- by Keisha Hatchett
- TVGuide - Breaking News
CBS All Access is moving from space to storybooks, with the mind behind the “Scream” franchise and “Dawson’s Creek” at the helm. The home of “Star Trek: Discovery” has picked up a series order for Kevin Williamson’s haunting new tale, “Tell Me a Story,” CBS’ Svod and live streaming service announced Thursday. The original series, “takes the world’s most beloved fairy tales and reimagines them as a dark and twisted psychological thriller.” The show is set in modern-day New York City, with the first season of the drama interweaving the stories “The Three Little Pigs,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Jack and.
- 11/30/2017
- by Jennifer Maas
- The Wrap
Kevin Williamson is going to spin some scary stories — as if you’d expect any other kind — for CBS All Access.
RelatedStar Trek: Discovery Renewed for Season 2 at CBS All Access
The streaming service has given a straight-to-series order to Tell Me a Story, which puts a dark psychological twist on classic fairy tales, our sister site Deadline reports.
Set in present-day New York, the drama’s first season will incorporate elements of The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood, weaving them together into “an epic and subversive tale of love, loss, greed revenge and murder.
RelatedStar Trek: Discovery Renewed for Season 2 at CBS All Access
The streaming service has given a straight-to-series order to Tell Me a Story, which puts a dark psychological twist on classic fairy tales, our sister site Deadline reports.
Set in present-day New York, the drama’s first season will incorporate elements of The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood, weaving them together into “an epic and subversive tale of love, loss, greed revenge and murder.
- 11/30/2017
- TVLine.com
Exclusive: Kevin Williamson, who launched his career by putting his spin on the horror genre with the hit Scream franchise, is now giving classic fairytales a dark treatment with psychological thriller Tell Me a Story. In a very competitive situation, with multiple streaming platforms pursuing, CBS All Access, CBS’ Svod and live streaming service, has landed the project, from Williamson and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, with a straight-to-series order. Written by…...
- 11/30/2017
- Deadline TV
It was a busy year for me at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival, as I had the opportunity to watch 16 films (17, including the 10th anniversary screening of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon). Here are my thoughts on the final three films that I had a chance to see while in Austin: Like Me, Game of Death, and The Honor Farm.
Like Me: I had absolutely no idea what to expect from first-time director Robert Mockler’s Like Me, but after seeing what he could do with his cautionary tale about the dangers of social media obsession, and how it can affect those unable to cope with the isolation it often leads to, I’m an instant fan of Mockler. Like Me ended up being the most unpredictably wonderful movie-going experience I had during all of SXSW 2017.
Like Me opens at a drive-thru window of a small-town convenience store,...
Like Me: I had absolutely no idea what to expect from first-time director Robert Mockler’s Like Me, but after seeing what he could do with his cautionary tale about the dangers of social media obsession, and how it can affect those unable to cope with the isolation it often leads to, I’m an instant fan of Mockler. Like Me ended up being the most unpredictably wonderful movie-going experience I had during all of SXSW 2017.
Like Me opens at a drive-thru window of a small-town convenience store,...
- 3/22/2017
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
The most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly featured an article about and interview with Emma Watson, playing Belle in the upcoming live-action Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. She may be best known for playing Hermione in the Harry Potter films. In addition to being very talented, Ms. Watson is also very smart and very articulate. As the article notes, she has also been a leader in feminist causes.
In the article, she’s asked why it is hard for some male fans to enjoy a female hero. (Witness the fanboy furor at the all-female remake of Ghostbusters and the female leads in the last two Star Wars films.) She replied: “It’s something they [some male fans] are not used to and they don’t like that. I think if you’ve been used to watching characters that look like, sound like, think like you and then you see someone [unexpected] up on the screen,...
In the article, she’s asked why it is hard for some male fans to enjoy a female hero. (Witness the fanboy furor at the all-female remake of Ghostbusters and the female leads in the last two Star Wars films.) She replied: “It’s something they [some male fans] are not used to and they don’t like that. I think if you’ve been used to watching characters that look like, sound like, think like you and then you see someone [unexpected] up on the screen,...
- 2/26/2017
- by John Ostrander
- Comicmix.com
To all cinephiles! This one is for you!
What a surprise was in store for us when we went to see “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves. Neorealism” on its opening night of its qualifying run for Oscar submission in the documentary category.
The footage!
It took two and a half years to clear it all! The best scenes of Neorealistic cinema illustrate points on how Neorealism changed the lexicon and language of film in the same way that the Renaissance changed the visual language of art with linear perspective and its humanistic point of view.
The commentary!
Speaking about the influence of the Italian post-war Neorealism upon their filmmaking choices are Bertolucci, the Taviani Brothers, Scorsese, Olmi, Umberto Eco, Gabriel Garcia Marquez… the only reason Antonioni and Fellini did not speak was because they were no longer living when the movie was made. The interviews were not “talking heads”; they were conversations in which the great directors expressed their connections with Neorealism as they spoke to Carlo Lizzani.
Carlo Lizzani, the narrator and host of this documentary is an elegant 91 year old man who worked as scriptwriter, assistant director to every Neorealistic director and director in his own right. He starred in movies 1939-1954.
I loved him dancing in "Bitter Rice" (which he cowrote) with the women workers. That was the first Neorealistic movie I saw, dubbed on TV, when I was about eight. It was so puzzling to me, seeing this woman in a rice field with her skirt hiked up in a very provocative way, calling to someone with her words not matching her lips.
I really did not understand what sort of movie I was seeing… Similar to the first time I saw Chantal Akerman’s "Jane Dielman" which was rather Neorealistic too, though a product of the early ‘70s.
The production value!
The room, a fascinating “study” filled with objects of Neorealistic movies where the Lizzani seemed to belong was actually a room built from scratch by production designer Maurizio di Clemente within the walls of the oldest film school in Italy, Centro Sperimentale de Cine. When Lizzani opened windows, they looked out upon landscapes of these great Neorealistic movies. The technology of today was used in service of high art. Opening windows itself was a Neorealistic device.
The book!
You will want to read it all and show it off on your coffee table. Interviews, philosophic discussions, pictures and detailed listings of all the Neorealistic movies are splendidly displayed.
The education!
My view of cinema — both post war Italian cinema and today’s cinema shifted into an informed appreciation of how much Neorealism changed our vision of what a film could be.
Neorealism came to fruition with the rebirth of Italy after the war and lasted to 1954. Actually as Carlo Lizzani explains, it began in 1939 “with the first rumblings of an anti-fascist rebellion… as well as among many intellectuals and cineastes, increasingly unanimous in their refusal of so-called “White Telephone” cinema.”
“Before Neorealism, films were called ‘Bianchi Telefono’ after the white telephones that Hollywood movies showed in the so-called ‘White Telephone’ cinema for the way they featured Hollywood-style living rooms where that status symbol was invariably set center stage. It may have been a typical object in certain Hollywood mansions or Middle-European villa, but hardly in the average Italian home,” says Lizzani.
The interview!
Gianni Bozzacchi, the film’s director, writer and producer is a Renaissance man and his stories are funny, deeply moving and extremely interesting! This is someone you want to talk to for hours.
Watching this labor of love was an experience I will always treasure.
Rarely do we see a film about the art of film…Todd McCarthy’s "Visions of Light" comes to mind but others fade into PBS TV memories. This is a cinematic, highly technological and artistic feat. The Dp was Fabio Olmi the son of Ermanno Olmi.
After the screening, Bozzacchi stayed for a Q+A and the next day I continued to question him in the home of producer Jay Kanter where he was staying. After two and a half hours, I still wanted more. But the issue of condensing it all to a blog was weighing on me.
“Everything was planned and laid out in great detail, scripted and planned to the second so that filming 91 year old Lizanni for two hours a day took exactly 8 days to complete.”
Bozzacchi had previously made movies and in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He worked in Los Angeles with Greg Bautzer, who, for nearly 50 years, was one of the premier entertainment attorneys in Hollywood and with Kirk Kerkorian who needs no introduction. He wrote, directed and produced “I Love N.Y.” which was sold internationally by Walter Manley. It presold widely including to Australia where it played six weeks. But for the U.S. release, Manley edited it, and Bozzacchi moved away from it and took the DGA pseudonym, the credited name Alan Smithee.
Why did you leave filmmaking for so long?
I still remember that film, starring Christopher Plummer, Virna Lisi, Scott Baio, Jennifer O’Neill, but that was my last until “Neorealism”.
In 1986 I saw the industry was changing and I chose to step out in order to watch it as an outsider. What was ‘Show Business” was becoming a 'Business Show’. Marketing led to creating a show which led to creating a sales industry. “
“I decided to change direction and do only what I really wanted to do. I took ten years developing a big project ‘Oh Brave New World: The Renaissance’ for TV. It is now in pre-production. I thought of the Neorealism project and of The Enzo Ferrari story for which I now have a deal with Tribeca and Robert De Niro.
What did you do before you were a filmmaker?
I quit school at 13. From 1966 to 1974, at 20 I entered the jet set and became a photographer.
Elizabeth Taylor was shooting ‘The Comedians’ in Africa by Graham Greene. In Dahomy (today it’s Benin) they rebuilt part of Haiti. In the photo agency I worked no one wanted to go there, so I went. I knew Elizabeth Taylor’s face very well so I photographed her with light; no retouching was needed. After seeing a photo I took of her, Richard Burton said to me, ‘You want to join our family? Elizabeth needs you.’ I only spoke Roman, no English. I worked with her for 14 years and her two kids were my assistants. I also worked on 162 films as a special photographer, reading the scripts and shooting scenes for magazine layouts, working with “the making of the film” format.
It was when I stopped as a photographer in ‘75 that I began to think of producing films like the cult film “ China 9, Liberty 37” directed by Monte Hellman and starring Sam Peckinpah, Warren Oates and Fabio Testi and I wrote a book ExpoXed Memory about my life.
There is a relationship of all my projects to Neorealism, and of Neorealism to the Renaissance. All our projects are ready to go.
What are you doing in L.A.?
We have formed a new company with producer Jay Kanter and other partners who love film rather than the business of film. “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves: Neorealismo” is the first to come out of the gate.
“The Listener” is the next project I will direct. It is based on the semi-autobiographical book, Operation Appia Way, by the Italian politician Giulio Andreotti. Andreotti served as Prime Minister of Italy seven terms since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
Yes he was the subject of Paolo Sorrentino’s film “Il Divo”. The book is about phone tapping, abuse of power and violations of personal privacy as is so often employed in politic, spying, etc. Andreotti had studied to be a priest but became a politician and this is about the birth of wire tapping which took place in the Roman catacombs and tapped the phones of Pope Pius Xii in conversations with Churchill, Churchill and the King of Italy, Mussolini and Hitler, Roosevelt and the Pope. The scenarios alternate between New York and Rome today and flashbacks to past times.
The production coordinator of “Neorealismo”, Julia Eleanora Rei, also has a project on Eleanora Duse and Gabriel D’Annunzio. Known as ‘Duse’, this Italian actress is known for her words of wit and wisdom, ‘The weaker partner in a marriage is the one who loves the most’ and ‘When we grow old, there can only be one regret – not to have given enough of ourselves’. She is also known for her long romantic involvement with the poet and writer, the controversial Gabriele D’Annunzio. They are now targeting a star for the film, although, says Bozzacchi, ‘Today the script is the star’.
What films are most important to you?
Those shown in this documentary, especially "Open City" where the scene of shooting down Anna Magnani still makes me feel angry.
Every week the Neorealistic filmmakers met in a café or restaurant. They did not have lots of money, had only one camera and not much film. But they created a way to tell a story very realistically, hiding the camera and shooting the people as they are.
Cary Grant pleaded De Sica to star in ‘The Bicycle Thief’, but he would have disrupted the Neorealist aspect; he was too recognizable. In the scene where three men stop the thief , other citizens joined in thinking it was real. If they saw it was Cary Grant, the scene never could have happened. The little boy in the film, played by Enzo Staiola, was scared the mob would turn on him.”
It was surprising to see Enzo Staiola in conversation during the movie. He said that ‘De Sica invented this whole story about how he made me cry. When I looked at him in surprise, he said: ‘Don’t worry, it’s just cinema…you’ll understand later’.
They also changed the way to shoot in sequence, called ‘piano sequenza’. Before a film was done in steps, with a storyboard, with cuts, three camera povs. Actors and the camera depended on the director. Now the camera follows the actor as he or she moves. This went from Rossellini to Fellini who always used the system; but Fellini, who shows a new reborn Italy, did not want direct sound. Fellini directs saying, ‘pick up drink’ or ‘turn right’ or ‘look left’ and then afterward he would add the sound. He showed Italy out of war time in ‘La Dolce Vita’.
What happened after ‘Neorealism’?
Pontecorvo was born in the time of Neorealism and he brought it to Algiers (‘Battle of Algiers’). He was going to make a doc there but then decided on fiction. He wrote notes on his hand.
Who were the French, German and U.S. adherents to Neorealism?
Truffaut and Melville, Wim Wenders with ‘American Friend’ and ‘Paris, Texas’, Coppola with ‘Apocalypse Now’. Cassavetes was a producer of Neorealism; he took it to his era. Scorsese did with ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Mean Streets’.
What do we see about Neorealism today?
If you really love movies, with all of today’s technology, you must bring in realism. With the new technology there will be a new wave of new realism. New filmmakers are very straight. Honesty and realism on the screen will come out. We’re at the sea floor now, coming back. Tell me a story that I can feel and see emotion…that is the legacy of Neorealism.
The final scene was great ...
There was a great sense of collaboration on this film.
What made that so related to Neorealism?
Neorealism also had the full participation of everyone. Directors heard and listened to the community. Clint Eastwood does this too. He would be great directing the Ferrari movie…depending on the script of course.
I love you story about the dog being an actor who allowed for transitions and covered discontinuities in film.
What about catering Italian style?
Take a look at the film's trailer Here.
What a surprise was in store for us when we went to see “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves. Neorealism” on its opening night of its qualifying run for Oscar submission in the documentary category.
The footage!
It took two and a half years to clear it all! The best scenes of Neorealistic cinema illustrate points on how Neorealism changed the lexicon and language of film in the same way that the Renaissance changed the visual language of art with linear perspective and its humanistic point of view.
The commentary!
Speaking about the influence of the Italian post-war Neorealism upon their filmmaking choices are Bertolucci, the Taviani Brothers, Scorsese, Olmi, Umberto Eco, Gabriel Garcia Marquez… the only reason Antonioni and Fellini did not speak was because they were no longer living when the movie was made. The interviews were not “talking heads”; they were conversations in which the great directors expressed their connections with Neorealism as they spoke to Carlo Lizzani.
Carlo Lizzani, the narrator and host of this documentary is an elegant 91 year old man who worked as scriptwriter, assistant director to every Neorealistic director and director in his own right. He starred in movies 1939-1954.
I loved him dancing in "Bitter Rice" (which he cowrote) with the women workers. That was the first Neorealistic movie I saw, dubbed on TV, when I was about eight. It was so puzzling to me, seeing this woman in a rice field with her skirt hiked up in a very provocative way, calling to someone with her words not matching her lips.
I really did not understand what sort of movie I was seeing… Similar to the first time I saw Chantal Akerman’s "Jane Dielman" which was rather Neorealistic too, though a product of the early ‘70s.
The production value!
The room, a fascinating “study” filled with objects of Neorealistic movies where the Lizzani seemed to belong was actually a room built from scratch by production designer Maurizio di Clemente within the walls of the oldest film school in Italy, Centro Sperimentale de Cine. When Lizzani opened windows, they looked out upon landscapes of these great Neorealistic movies. The technology of today was used in service of high art. Opening windows itself was a Neorealistic device.
The book!
You will want to read it all and show it off on your coffee table. Interviews, philosophic discussions, pictures and detailed listings of all the Neorealistic movies are splendidly displayed.
The education!
My view of cinema — both post war Italian cinema and today’s cinema shifted into an informed appreciation of how much Neorealism changed our vision of what a film could be.
Neorealism came to fruition with the rebirth of Italy after the war and lasted to 1954. Actually as Carlo Lizzani explains, it began in 1939 “with the first rumblings of an anti-fascist rebellion… as well as among many intellectuals and cineastes, increasingly unanimous in their refusal of so-called “White Telephone” cinema.”
“Before Neorealism, films were called ‘Bianchi Telefono’ after the white telephones that Hollywood movies showed in the so-called ‘White Telephone’ cinema for the way they featured Hollywood-style living rooms where that status symbol was invariably set center stage. It may have been a typical object in certain Hollywood mansions or Middle-European villa, but hardly in the average Italian home,” says Lizzani.
The interview!
Gianni Bozzacchi, the film’s director, writer and producer is a Renaissance man and his stories are funny, deeply moving and extremely interesting! This is someone you want to talk to for hours.
Watching this labor of love was an experience I will always treasure.
Rarely do we see a film about the art of film…Todd McCarthy’s "Visions of Light" comes to mind but others fade into PBS TV memories. This is a cinematic, highly technological and artistic feat. The Dp was Fabio Olmi the son of Ermanno Olmi.
After the screening, Bozzacchi stayed for a Q+A and the next day I continued to question him in the home of producer Jay Kanter where he was staying. After two and a half hours, I still wanted more. But the issue of condensing it all to a blog was weighing on me.
“Everything was planned and laid out in great detail, scripted and planned to the second so that filming 91 year old Lizanni for two hours a day took exactly 8 days to complete.”
Bozzacchi had previously made movies and in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He worked in Los Angeles with Greg Bautzer, who, for nearly 50 years, was one of the premier entertainment attorneys in Hollywood and with Kirk Kerkorian who needs no introduction. He wrote, directed and produced “I Love N.Y.” which was sold internationally by Walter Manley. It presold widely including to Australia where it played six weeks. But for the U.S. release, Manley edited it, and Bozzacchi moved away from it and took the DGA pseudonym, the credited name Alan Smithee.
Why did you leave filmmaking for so long?
I still remember that film, starring Christopher Plummer, Virna Lisi, Scott Baio, Jennifer O’Neill, but that was my last until “Neorealism”.
In 1986 I saw the industry was changing and I chose to step out in order to watch it as an outsider. What was ‘Show Business” was becoming a 'Business Show’. Marketing led to creating a show which led to creating a sales industry. “
“I decided to change direction and do only what I really wanted to do. I took ten years developing a big project ‘Oh Brave New World: The Renaissance’ for TV. It is now in pre-production. I thought of the Neorealism project and of The Enzo Ferrari story for which I now have a deal with Tribeca and Robert De Niro.
What did you do before you were a filmmaker?
I quit school at 13. From 1966 to 1974, at 20 I entered the jet set and became a photographer.
Elizabeth Taylor was shooting ‘The Comedians’ in Africa by Graham Greene. In Dahomy (today it’s Benin) they rebuilt part of Haiti. In the photo agency I worked no one wanted to go there, so I went. I knew Elizabeth Taylor’s face very well so I photographed her with light; no retouching was needed. After seeing a photo I took of her, Richard Burton said to me, ‘You want to join our family? Elizabeth needs you.’ I only spoke Roman, no English. I worked with her for 14 years and her two kids were my assistants. I also worked on 162 films as a special photographer, reading the scripts and shooting scenes for magazine layouts, working with “the making of the film” format.
It was when I stopped as a photographer in ‘75 that I began to think of producing films like the cult film “ China 9, Liberty 37” directed by Monte Hellman and starring Sam Peckinpah, Warren Oates and Fabio Testi and I wrote a book ExpoXed Memory about my life.
There is a relationship of all my projects to Neorealism, and of Neorealism to the Renaissance. All our projects are ready to go.
What are you doing in L.A.?
We have formed a new company with producer Jay Kanter and other partners who love film rather than the business of film. “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves: Neorealismo” is the first to come out of the gate.
“The Listener” is the next project I will direct. It is based on the semi-autobiographical book, Operation Appia Way, by the Italian politician Giulio Andreotti. Andreotti served as Prime Minister of Italy seven terms since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
Yes he was the subject of Paolo Sorrentino’s film “Il Divo”. The book is about phone tapping, abuse of power and violations of personal privacy as is so often employed in politic, spying, etc. Andreotti had studied to be a priest but became a politician and this is about the birth of wire tapping which took place in the Roman catacombs and tapped the phones of Pope Pius Xii in conversations with Churchill, Churchill and the King of Italy, Mussolini and Hitler, Roosevelt and the Pope. The scenarios alternate between New York and Rome today and flashbacks to past times.
The production coordinator of “Neorealismo”, Julia Eleanora Rei, also has a project on Eleanora Duse and Gabriel D’Annunzio. Known as ‘Duse’, this Italian actress is known for her words of wit and wisdom, ‘The weaker partner in a marriage is the one who loves the most’ and ‘When we grow old, there can only be one regret – not to have given enough of ourselves’. She is also known for her long romantic involvement with the poet and writer, the controversial Gabriele D’Annunzio. They are now targeting a star for the film, although, says Bozzacchi, ‘Today the script is the star’.
What films are most important to you?
Those shown in this documentary, especially "Open City" where the scene of shooting down Anna Magnani still makes me feel angry.
Every week the Neorealistic filmmakers met in a café or restaurant. They did not have lots of money, had only one camera and not much film. But they created a way to tell a story very realistically, hiding the camera and shooting the people as they are.
Cary Grant pleaded De Sica to star in ‘The Bicycle Thief’, but he would have disrupted the Neorealist aspect; he was too recognizable. In the scene where three men stop the thief , other citizens joined in thinking it was real. If they saw it was Cary Grant, the scene never could have happened. The little boy in the film, played by Enzo Staiola, was scared the mob would turn on him.”
It was surprising to see Enzo Staiola in conversation during the movie. He said that ‘De Sica invented this whole story about how he made me cry. When I looked at him in surprise, he said: ‘Don’t worry, it’s just cinema…you’ll understand later’.
They also changed the way to shoot in sequence, called ‘piano sequenza’. Before a film was done in steps, with a storyboard, with cuts, three camera povs. Actors and the camera depended on the director. Now the camera follows the actor as he or she moves. This went from Rossellini to Fellini who always used the system; but Fellini, who shows a new reborn Italy, did not want direct sound. Fellini directs saying, ‘pick up drink’ or ‘turn right’ or ‘look left’ and then afterward he would add the sound. He showed Italy out of war time in ‘La Dolce Vita’.
What happened after ‘Neorealism’?
Pontecorvo was born in the time of Neorealism and he brought it to Algiers (‘Battle of Algiers’). He was going to make a doc there but then decided on fiction. He wrote notes on his hand.
Who were the French, German and U.S. adherents to Neorealism?
Truffaut and Melville, Wim Wenders with ‘American Friend’ and ‘Paris, Texas’, Coppola with ‘Apocalypse Now’. Cassavetes was a producer of Neorealism; he took it to his era. Scorsese did with ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Mean Streets’.
What do we see about Neorealism today?
If you really love movies, with all of today’s technology, you must bring in realism. With the new technology there will be a new wave of new realism. New filmmakers are very straight. Honesty and realism on the screen will come out. We’re at the sea floor now, coming back. Tell me a story that I can feel and see emotion…that is the legacy of Neorealism.
The final scene was great ...
There was a great sense of collaboration on this film.
What made that so related to Neorealism?
Neorealism also had the full participation of everyone. Directors heard and listened to the community. Clint Eastwood does this too. He would be great directing the Ferrari movie…depending on the script of course.
I love you story about the dog being an actor who allowed for transitions and covered discontinuities in film.
What about catering Italian style?
Take a look at the film's trailer Here.
- 10/21/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Cinema is recovering its superiority over the small screen by rediscovering strengths its junior rival cannot match
Over the last year or two, newspaper columnists, festival speechmakers and bus-stop sages have concurred in a damning judgment. To the point of tedium and beyond, they've insisted that television has displaced film as the home of involving drama and grownup comedy. Nowadays, supposedly, it's the small screen that provides convincing characters, credible plots and incisive wit; the senior medium offers only crude stories, infantile rudery and mindless spectacle. What's more, cinema's failings reflect not mere passing weakness but intrinsic deficiencies that will leave it forever eclipsed by its impudent offspring.
The fate of Steven Soderbergh's Behind the Candelabra crystallises this narrative. This project, featuring Michael Douglas as Liberace, was rejected by Hollywood for being too edgy, but picked up by HBO. It aired in America in May to rapture from TV...
Over the last year or two, newspaper columnists, festival speechmakers and bus-stop sages have concurred in a damning judgment. To the point of tedium and beyond, they've insisted that television has displaced film as the home of involving drama and grownup comedy. Nowadays, supposedly, it's the small screen that provides convincing characters, credible plots and incisive wit; the senior medium offers only crude stories, infantile rudery and mindless spectacle. What's more, cinema's failings reflect not mere passing weakness but intrinsic deficiencies that will leave it forever eclipsed by its impudent offspring.
The fate of Steven Soderbergh's Behind the Candelabra crystallises this narrative. This project, featuring Michael Douglas as Liberace, was rejected by Hollywood for being too edgy, but picked up by HBO. It aired in America in May to rapture from TV...
- 10/21/2013
- by David Cox
- The Guardian - Film News
Recently, a good friend of mine said something brilliantly important for both the future of digital entertainment and advertising -- he said, impressions are bought, views are earned. Well, he kind of said that. I took his brilliance and turned it into a pithy one-liner, but, I digress. To clarify, an impression is the amount of times an ad is displayed. It doesn’t matter if I click it, it doesn’t matter if I go buy Coke after seeing it, an impression is like a billboard – just a thing that’s kind of there, ruining nature. A view is actual interaction with an ad. A view is, essentially, what every mama brand wants their baby impression to eventually grow into. Right now, the major issue for advertisers is that it’s very, very easy for us, as viewers, to completely ignore their ads. Unfortunately, because many brands are still very scared of new media,...
- 7/25/2013
- by Yuri Baranovsky
- Tubefilter.com
Polari and Stateside Independent present the Austin premiere of Any Day Now on Monday night at 7 pm at the Stateside Theatre. Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt star as a gay couple who take in and provide a loving home to an abandoned teenager with Down syndrome. More information, including how to buy tickets, is available here.
The Austin Film Society celebrates the 20th anniversary of Dazed and Confused (pictured above) on Wednesday night at the Marchesa Hall & Theatre, with screenings at 7 and 9:30 pm and a cast Q&A and after-party. Purchase tickets here.
This week's Austin Film Society Essential Cinema offering is Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story. An Egyptian female talk show host stirs up political controversy when she focuses her on-air discussions on the topic of women's issues. Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story screens Tuesday at 7 pm at Alamo Drafthouse Village.
And don't forget the Slamdance on the Road event on Saturday,...
The Austin Film Society celebrates the 20th anniversary of Dazed and Confused (pictured above) on Wednesday night at the Marchesa Hall & Theatre, with screenings at 7 and 9:30 pm and a cast Q&A and after-party. Purchase tickets here.
This week's Austin Film Society Essential Cinema offering is Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story. An Egyptian female talk show host stirs up political controversy when she focuses her on-air discussions on the topic of women's issues. Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story screens Tuesday at 7 pm at Alamo Drafthouse Village.
And don't forget the Slamdance on the Road event on Saturday,...
- 3/1/2013
- by Debbie Cerda
- Slackerwood
Tags: Notes on a Fandomfan fictionfemslashIMDbGLEEGrey's AnatomyRizzoli & Isles
Notes on a Fandom is a regular column dedicated to lesbian/bi fandom in it’s various incarnations. It will also feature thoughts and comments from you, the fans. Follow @DanaPiccoli on Twitter and Tumblr to keep up with the latest topics and questions.
Whether you consider yourself a flailing fangirl, or a more casual kind of fan, chances are you have come across a piece of fan fiction. Fan fiction (also fanfic or fic), or is one of the cornerstones of the fandom universe. Plentiful to say the least, it comes in many varieties. Some are brilliantly moving; some can make us blush. Some are, well, less than stellar. If Twitter is the mouthpiece fandom uses to try and influence or appeal to the powers that be, then fan fiction is its beating heart. It’s a medium used and created by fans,...
Notes on a Fandom is a regular column dedicated to lesbian/bi fandom in it’s various incarnations. It will also feature thoughts and comments from you, the fans. Follow @DanaPiccoli on Twitter and Tumblr to keep up with the latest topics and questions.
Whether you consider yourself a flailing fangirl, or a more casual kind of fan, chances are you have come across a piece of fan fiction. Fan fiction (also fanfic or fic), or is one of the cornerstones of the fandom universe. Plentiful to say the least, it comes in many varieties. Some are brilliantly moving; some can make us blush. Some are, well, less than stellar. If Twitter is the mouthpiece fandom uses to try and influence or appeal to the powers that be, then fan fiction is its beating heart. It’s a medium used and created by fans,...
- 2/13/2013
- by DanaPiccoli
- AfterEllen.com
'American Idol' winner Phillip Phillips releases 'The World From the Side of the Moon' track listing
"American Idol" Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips is ready to release his debut album, "The World From the Side of the Moon." (Couldn't you tell from the way Fox hired him to sing the national anthem at Game 1 of the World Series?) To get fans excited, he released the track listing for the disc on his Twitter the day of his baseball debut.
Wanna know what tunes you'll be jamming to come Nov. 19? Check out the list:
1. Man on the Moon
2. Home
3. Gone, Gone, Gone
4. Hold On
5. Tell Me a Story
6. Get Up Get Down
7. Where We Came From
8. Drive Me
9. Wanted Is Love
10. Can't Go Wrong
11. A Fools Dance
12. So Easy
If that's not enough Pp for you, you can buy the deluxe version, which comes with three extra songs:
13. Hazel
14. Wicked Game
15. Home (Live)
Still not enough for you? Then you'll want the Target deluxe album, which will also...
Wanna know what tunes you'll be jamming to come Nov. 19? Check out the list:
1. Man on the Moon
2. Home
3. Gone, Gone, Gone
4. Hold On
5. Tell Me a Story
6. Get Up Get Down
7. Where We Came From
8. Drive Me
9. Wanted Is Love
10. Can't Go Wrong
11. A Fools Dance
12. So Easy
If that's not enough Pp for you, you can buy the deluxe version, which comes with three extra songs:
13. Hazel
14. Wicked Game
15. Home (Live)
Still not enough for you? Then you'll want the Target deluxe album, which will also...
- 10/25/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Director Ang Lee was given a reported $100 million to make this trippy, gut-wrenching, and moving picture. An adaptation of Yann Martel‘s novel of the same name, Life of Pi is an epic art house film that was somehow granted big studio treatment. How could this happen, you ask? If any excuse could be made, it’s likely that Fox knew Lee had something this special up his sleeve. Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan) is given a lofty request by a visiting writer at the beginning of the film: “Tell me a story that will make me believe in God.” What follows is a story that may not make you run to church but at least will make you reach for a tissue. Pi tells this man, played by Rafe Spall, a tale full of suffering and hope. As a boy, he and his family are forced to move out of India, along...
- 9/29/2012
- by Jack Giroux
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Concerns have been raised this week after censors stepped in to ban three of the films submitted for this year's Cairo Film Festival. Although censorship was rife under the now ousted Mubarek regime, its approach had been growing more relaxed, particularly in relation to social taboos. Now filmmakers fear that the religious focus of the new regime may lead to further restrictions on the subjcts they are able to tackle.
Although the names of the three banned films have not yet been released, it is understood that one of them contained a sex scene, one dealth with the subject of adultery and the other had a gay theme. Films with sexual imagery have previously been restricted at the festival, with only critics allowed to see them, but it is unusual for one to be banned altogether. Following the success of films like The Yacoubian Building and Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story.
Although the names of the three banned films have not yet been released, it is understood that one of them contained a sex scene, one dealth with the subject of adultery and the other had a gay theme. Films with sexual imagery have previously been restricted at the festival, with only critics allowed to see them, but it is unusual for one to be banned altogether. Following the success of films like The Yacoubian Building and Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story.
- 9/5/2012
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Details below on the 6th African Diaspora International Film Festival (Adiff) In Washington, DC, starting today, at the Goethe Institute, and ending on Sunday, the 26th. Included in the lineup are a number of films we've profiled in previous posts, like The Story Of Lovers Rock, Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story and others. General admission is $11 per screening, except the opening night screening which is $15. You can also purchase a weekend pass, which gets you into all the films, for just $40. Click Here for further ticket info. Read on for all the details: Since 1993, the African Diaspora International Film Festival (Adiff) has been an event...
- 8/24/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Once Upon a Time DVD Bonus Feature Clips: Go Behind the Scenes of Season 1
Once Upon a Time turned out to be a freshman hit for ABC. A fun and fresh take on fairytales, children and adults tuned in on Sunday nights to watch the love story of Snow White and Prince Charming, to see Rumplestiltskin commit dastardly deeds, and to watch the Evil Queen try to destroy the fairytale world.
On August 28, Once Upon a Time season 1 will be released on DVD and Blu-ray (pre-order them on Amazon). ABC is giving fans a chance to go behind the scenes of the first season with clips from the box set's bonus materials. The cast and executive producers talk about the purpose of fairytales, why they chose to bring separate characters together and what it's like to step into this world. Watch the clips below. You can also watch two deleted scenes here.
Once Upon a Time turned out to be a freshman hit for ABC. A fun and fresh take on fairytales, children and adults tuned in on Sunday nights to watch the love story of Snow White and Prince Charming, to see Rumplestiltskin commit dastardly deeds, and to watch the Evil Queen try to destroy the fairytale world.
On August 28, Once Upon a Time season 1 will be released on DVD and Blu-ray (pre-order them on Amazon). ABC is giving fans a chance to go behind the scenes of the first season with clips from the box set's bonus materials. The cast and executive producers talk about the purpose of fairytales, why they chose to bring separate characters together and what it's like to step into this world. Watch the clips below. You can also watch two deleted scenes here.
- 8/19/2012
- by Clarissa
- TVovermind.com
My first film of the Festival de Cannes was After the Battle by Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah—whose last feature, Scheherazade Tell Me a Story, I reported on from the Middle East International Film Festival in 2009—and its stable heft of construction and deep understanding of genre conventions and a digital, realist mise-en-scène allows it to move unexpectedly and considerable complexity between engagement with mainstream melodramatic storytelling and integrating, sometimes fluidly, often abruptly, poetic observations and dubiously dramatic, but forceful, socio-political discussions.
Nasrallah centers his story on the historic-nationalist, uncanny figure of an impoverished horseman in Cairo who made his living by tourism until the Egyptian revolution took away his business and his involvement in an anti-revolution, horse-and-camel based riot took away his reputation. The melodrama comes from After the Battle sharing its fascination and attraction with the man with a beautiful, wealthy Egyptian Ngo worker—continually taken for a...
Nasrallah centers his story on the historic-nationalist, uncanny figure of an impoverished horseman in Cairo who made his living by tourism until the Egyptian revolution took away his business and his involvement in an anti-revolution, horse-and-camel based riot took away his reputation. The melodrama comes from After the Battle sharing its fascination and attraction with the man with a beautiful, wealthy Egyptian Ngo worker—continually taken for a...
- 5/17/2012
- MUBI
Nasrallah tackles Tahrir Uprising Barely a Year Later, Will Suffer his own Battle Scars
Taking as its topic the Tahrir Square uprising in February 2011, Yousry Nasrallah’s After the Battle is a melodramatic soap opera has McLuhan-esque formal pretensions and leaves viewers more defeated than fired up. Characters weak and empowered alike have argument after argument over seemingly every social issue in Egypt as it relates to the Mubarek regime’s influence, a fundamental flaw in the script that reduces what should be living, breathing humans into non-descript participants in what resembles the world’s most disorganized debate tournament. When someone does engage in an aspect of life that could be considered banal, it’s quickly escalated to an nth degree of tension and screaming, as if Nasrallah were worried his audience was getting bored with it. Just narratively disjointed enough to be certifiably unconventional, there is little to justify...
Taking as its topic the Tahrir Square uprising in February 2011, Yousry Nasrallah’s After the Battle is a melodramatic soap opera has McLuhan-esque formal pretensions and leaves viewers more defeated than fired up. Characters weak and empowered alike have argument after argument over seemingly every social issue in Egypt as it relates to the Mubarek regime’s influence, a fundamental flaw in the script that reduces what should be living, breathing humans into non-descript participants in what resembles the world’s most disorganized debate tournament. When someone does engage in an aspect of life that could be considered banal, it’s quickly escalated to an nth degree of tension and screaming, as if Nasrallah were worried his audience was getting bored with it. Just narratively disjointed enough to be certifiably unconventional, there is little to justify...
- 5/16/2012
- by Blake Williams
- IONCINEMA.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 28, 2012
Price: DVD $45.99, Blu-ray $79.99
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
ABC’s hit TV show Once Upon a Time blends fairy tales with modern day drama.
The fantasy series follows 28-year-old Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison, Warrior), a bounty hunter who’s found by 10-year-old Henry (Jared Gilmore), her son who she gave up for adoption when he was a baby.
When she returns Henry to his adoptive mother in Storybrooke, she’s told a crazy story: Everyone in the town is a fairy tale character who was cursed years ago. The curse can only be broken by the daughter of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin, Something Borrowed) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas, Thor) — who Henry claims is Emma.
Created by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis (both from TV’s Lost), the television series also stars Lana Parrilla (TV’s 24), Robert Carlyle (TV’s Stargate: Universe) and Eion Bailey...
Price: DVD $45.99, Blu-ray $79.99
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
ABC’s hit TV show Once Upon a Time blends fairy tales with modern day drama.
The fantasy series follows 28-year-old Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison, Warrior), a bounty hunter who’s found by 10-year-old Henry (Jared Gilmore), her son who she gave up for adoption when he was a baby.
When she returns Henry to his adoptive mother in Storybrooke, she’s told a crazy story: Everyone in the town is a fairy tale character who was cursed years ago. The curse can only be broken by the daughter of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin, Something Borrowed) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas, Thor) — who Henry claims is Emma.
Created by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis (both from TV’s Lost), the television series also stars Lana Parrilla (TV’s 24), Robert Carlyle (TV’s Stargate: Universe) and Eion Bailey...
- 5/8/2012
- by Sam
- Disc Dish
DVD Release Dates for ABC Shows: Revenge, Once Upon a Time, Castle and More!
ABC has announced the details and release dates for several shows after the 2011-2012 season. Want to pre-order the DVDs? Click on the titles below.
The River: Season 1
Release Date: May 22, 2012
Revenge: Season 1
Release Date: August 21, 2012
The complete first season features exclusive bonus features including an in-world sit-down interview with the infamous Nolan Ross in "Nolan Ross: Exposed," "Lifestyles of the Rich and Dangerous"; "Hamptons Bound: Preparing for Life at the Shore"; "Haute Hamptons: Femme Fatale Fashion"; bloopers; deleted scenes and insightful episode commentaries.
Once Upon a Time: Season 1 (DVD, Blu-ray)
Release Date: August 28, 2012
The exciting releases include a wealth of bonus material and extras including an exploration of the genesis of this exciting series in "Fairy Tales in the Modern World;" "Welcome to Storybrooke;" cast interviews on childhood memories in "Tell Me A Story;" "Building Character; deleted scenes and bloopers.
ABC has announced the details and release dates for several shows after the 2011-2012 season. Want to pre-order the DVDs? Click on the titles below.
The River: Season 1
Release Date: May 22, 2012
Revenge: Season 1
Release Date: August 21, 2012
The complete first season features exclusive bonus features including an in-world sit-down interview with the infamous Nolan Ross in "Nolan Ross: Exposed," "Lifestyles of the Rich and Dangerous"; "Hamptons Bound: Preparing for Life at the Shore"; "Haute Hamptons: Femme Fatale Fashion"; bloopers; deleted scenes and insightful episode commentaries.
Once Upon a Time: Season 1 (DVD, Blu-ray)
Release Date: August 28, 2012
The exciting releases include a wealth of bonus material and extras including an exploration of the genesis of this exciting series in "Fairy Tales in the Modern World;" "Welcome to Storybrooke;" cast interviews on childhood memories in "Tell Me A Story;" "Building Character; deleted scenes and bloopers.
- 5/8/2012
- by Clarissa
- TVovermind.com
Okay, let's start with what's on TV tonight.
Tonight's episode of Once Upon a Time (8 pm, ABC) was written by Jane Espenson. The synopsis and a bunch of clips are posted below.
Nerdist has finally posted the Writers Panel podcast with Jane and Douglas Petrie, recorded in late March. Details:
Jane Espenson (Once Upon a Time; Husbands; Buffy; Caprica) and Douglas Petrie (Charlie’s Angels; Buffy; Pushing Daisies) return to the studio to revisit Jane’s old blog, janeespenson.com, and discuss how, while the business may have changed since she was regularly updating it, writing has not.You can listen to the podcast on Nerdist.com.
Once Upon a Time: The Complete First Season will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 28. You can pre-order them on Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray. Special features include audio commentaries, deleted scenes, bloopers and the featurettes "Fairy Tales in the Modern World," "Tell Me a Story,...
Tonight's episode of Once Upon a Time (8 pm, ABC) was written by Jane Espenson. The synopsis and a bunch of clips are posted below.
Nerdist has finally posted the Writers Panel podcast with Jane and Douglas Petrie, recorded in late March. Details:
Jane Espenson (Once Upon a Time; Husbands; Buffy; Caprica) and Douglas Petrie (Charlie’s Angels; Buffy; Pushing Daisies) return to the studio to revisit Jane’s old blog, janeespenson.com, and discuss how, while the business may have changed since she was regularly updating it, writing has not.You can listen to the podcast on Nerdist.com.
Once Upon a Time: The Complete First Season will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 28. You can pre-order them on Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray. Special features include audio commentaries, deleted scenes, bloopers and the featurettes "Fairy Tales in the Modern World," "Tell Me a Story,...
- 5/6/2012
- by fanshawe
- CapricaTV
DVD Release Date: April 24, 2012
Price: DVD $29.95
Studio: Facets
Thought its title refers to the myths and lore of the Middle East, the 2009 Egyptian film drama Scheherazade: Tell me A Story tells a timely tale that could have been ripped from today’s headlines.
Hebba (Mona Zaki), a television talk-show host, produces a successful political program on a privately owned network. Her husband, Karim (Hassan El Raddad), is the deputy editor-in-chief of a government-controlled newspaper. When Karim’s promotion is threatened by his wife’s meddling in opposition politics on her program, he sweet-talks her into avoiding controversy and devoting her program to other topics. She soon begins a series of shows about women’s issues, revealing the stories of strong, resilient women who, like Scheherazade in A Thousand and One Nights, tell their tales to stay alive.
Directed by Yousry Nasrallah, Scheherazade: Tell me A Story played at a handful of international films festival,...
Price: DVD $29.95
Studio: Facets
Thought its title refers to the myths and lore of the Middle East, the 2009 Egyptian film drama Scheherazade: Tell me A Story tells a timely tale that could have been ripped from today’s headlines.
Hebba (Mona Zaki), a television talk-show host, produces a successful political program on a privately owned network. Her husband, Karim (Hassan El Raddad), is the deputy editor-in-chief of a government-controlled newspaper. When Karim’s promotion is threatened by his wife’s meddling in opposition politics on her program, he sweet-talks her into avoiding controversy and devoting her program to other topics. She soon begins a series of shows about women’s issues, revealing the stories of strong, resilient women who, like Scheherazade in A Thousand and One Nights, tell their tales to stay alive.
Directed by Yousry Nasrallah, Scheherazade: Tell me A Story played at a handful of international films festival,...
- 3/2/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Being original is hard. I don’t think we appreciate that as much as we should in modern popular entertainment. Being original is hard mainly because everything has been done. With very few exceptions, every type of story has been told countless times. Unless you’re Charlie Kaufman, frankly, you’re not going to be breaking any ground anytime soon. And as consumers of popular entertainment, we need to accept that and realize that it’s Ok for filmmakers to cover already trodden ground. What matters is not that you tell an original story (of course, that helps), but that you tell it well. Tell me a story well and I won’t nitpick a well-worn cliché you use. Tell me a story well and I’ll be enthralled, simply because of how you’re telling that story.
Pete’s Dragon doesn’t tell its story well. Pete’s Dragon...
Pete’s Dragon doesn’t tell its story well. Pete’s Dragon...
- 1/6/2012
- by Josh Spiegel
- SoundOnSight
The 18th annual ceremony – which pays tribute to notable female stars – also saw the likes of Michelle Pfeiffer, Freida Pinto, Evan Rachel Wood, Viola Davis and Naomi Watts saluted for their efforts in the acting field over the course of the past year.
Elsewhere, actress Elizabeth Olsen – the sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen – was handed the Calvin Klein Collection Emerging Star award.
Introducing Barbra as she collected the L'Oreal Paris Legend award at Beverly Hills' Four Seasons Hotel, Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow said: "She is a world icon and somebody who has mastered virtually every art form imaginable; directing, acting, composing, singing, producing, writing."
'Slumdog Millionaire' actress Freida added: "Even sharing the same oxygen as her is incredible. You're a legend not only in Hollywood but literally all over the world."
Accepting the accolade, Barbra pointed out that only seven per cent of the top 250 films have been directed by women,...
Elsewhere, actress Elizabeth Olsen – the sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen – was handed the Calvin Klein Collection Emerging Star award.
Introducing Barbra as she collected the L'Oreal Paris Legend award at Beverly Hills' Four Seasons Hotel, Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow said: "She is a world icon and somebody who has mastered virtually every art form imaginable; directing, acting, composing, singing, producing, writing."
'Slumdog Millionaire' actress Freida added: "Even sharing the same oxygen as her is incredible. You're a legend not only in Hollywood but literally all over the world."
Accepting the accolade, Barbra pointed out that only seven per cent of the top 250 films have been directed by women,...
- 10/19/2011
"The sleeper hit of the 2010 film-festival and indie-awards circuit, Mike Ott's moody micro-budget Littlerock patiently observes the California road trip of college-aged Japanese siblings Atsuko (Atsuko Okatsuka, also the film's co-writer) and Rintaro (Rintaro Sawamoto)." Karina Longworth in the Voice: "En route to Manzanar (the filmmakers leave viewers to draw on their own knowledge, if any, of what that destination portends until the film's very end), their car breaks down in the tiny desert town of Littlerock, where they soon fall in with a local crowd of young layabouts."
"Amid the keggers and daytime bike rides is plenty of drug use, an overdue loan, and a menacing alpha-male bigot (Ryan Dillon)," notes Bill Weber in Slant, "but Ott uses the threat of violence as a mere layer of mood, keeping his focus on the mutable, and often unspoken, themes of identity and the nature of attempts to explore and redefine it…...
"Amid the keggers and daytime bike rides is plenty of drug use, an overdue loan, and a menacing alpha-male bigot (Ryan Dillon)," notes Bill Weber in Slant, "but Ott uses the threat of violence as a mere layer of mood, keeping his focus on the mutable, and often unspoken, themes of identity and the nature of attempts to explore and redefine it…...
- 8/12/2011
- MUBI
You may be asking yourself: why is the esteemed Shadowlocked.com, home to the most geekness, reviewing a family film feast? I had to wonder myself when our Editor asked me to cover this. The idea of a talking Blue Parrot (unless it was part of a dark mass hysteria) was not the most appealing subject. But it helps to consider it in the case for and against 3D films and the state of the art of animation. On those grounds, dear friends, I ask you to consider this piece.
Throughout Rio the things that stood out for me were the beautiful lighting and scenery, along with meticulous attention to detail in just about everything. The feats of natural animal behavior that Blu, Jewel, Nigel and the other birds were developed to do were outstanding. The amount of work that must have gone into researching animal movement was obvious at all times.
Throughout Rio the things that stood out for me were the beautiful lighting and scenery, along with meticulous attention to detail in just about everything. The feats of natural animal behavior that Blu, Jewel, Nigel and the other birds were developed to do were outstanding. The amount of work that must have gone into researching animal movement was obvious at all times.
- 4/8/2011
- Shadowlocked
Veronika London Veronika London, the bad girl, the Megan Fox of Canada. One day you might read in the tabloids that she's dating Shane West (A Walk To Remember) or James Franco (127 Hours) the next. While these magazines are busy gossiping away on who she is having an affair with or what she's up to next, one thing they forget to mention is that this indie scream queen of horror films, has got a sizzling screen presence. Known for her edgy style and in your face attitude, Veronika London has that "it" quality that so hard to come by. She just has a way of owning whatever frame she appears in. Deemed one of the potential breakout stars of 2011 by this very site, Veronika London is making waves with racy Maxim photo shoots and a bold role in Ryan M. Andrews slasher Black Eve. In Black Eve, a Halloween party is disrupted by a killer.
- 3/13/2011
- by Big Daddy aka Brandon Sites
- Big Daddy Horror Reviews - Interviews
I couldn't resist the juxtaposition of this review of a historical novel about Katherine of Aragon and yesterday's review of a historical novel about Thomas Cromwell. -Tu
I remember the very instant when this book turned me off. I remember the exact moment when I put the book down and sighed as I understood exactly what this book- about Katherine of Aragon, erstwhile wife of Henry VIII - was going to be like. I knew right then that I wouldn't like it and that it would probably end up making me angry. I knew I would finish it, and I wouldn't enjoy it the process.
It was about four chapters in, when Henry VII, the aging King of England, looks at his son's fiance and thinks about Katherine's "sexy mouth." That word. "Sexy." In a historical novel about Tudor England.
That simple, stupid word brought all my knowledge of bad...
I remember the very instant when this book turned me off. I remember the exact moment when I put the book down and sighed as I understood exactly what this book- about Katherine of Aragon, erstwhile wife of Henry VIII - was going to be like. I knew right then that I wouldn't like it and that it would probably end up making me angry. I knew I would finish it, and I wouldn't enjoy it the process.
It was about four chapters in, when Henry VII, the aging King of England, looks at his son's fiance and thinks about Katherine's "sexy mouth." That word. "Sexy." In a historical novel about Tudor England.
That simple, stupid word brought all my knowledge of bad...
- 1/26/2011
- by Tamatha Uhmelmahaye
While you were sleeping, innovation was doing great things--including delivering your BBC iPlayer-read iPad a day early if you live in Europe. Hurrah!
1. Open memo to Hollywood studios. If you're going to kvetch about piracy, then don't do it yourselves. Peter Serafinowicz, as far as we're concerned, doesn't complain, so he's exempt--but maybe that's because he makes us laugh.
2. Apple's Wwdc event next month may well have a Blue Scream of Death: the theory is that Steve Ballmer will be taking seven minutes of time to present Visual Studio 2010. Even after Apple surpassed Microsoft in market cap? It's a miracle, given that some usability gurus are slamming the iPad (known henceforth as executive's friend) for its inconsistency.
3. All eyes are on the Gulf of Mexico and Bp's last-ditch attempt to cut off the Deepwater well. Project Top Kill is going as planned, says the firm which, in an oil company first,...
1. Open memo to Hollywood studios. If you're going to kvetch about piracy, then don't do it yourselves. Peter Serafinowicz, as far as we're concerned, doesn't complain, so he's exempt--but maybe that's because he makes us laugh.
2. Apple's Wwdc event next month may well have a Blue Scream of Death: the theory is that Steve Ballmer will be taking seven minutes of time to present Visual Studio 2010. Even after Apple surpassed Microsoft in market cap? It's a miracle, given that some usability gurus are slamming the iPad (known henceforth as executive's friend) for its inconsistency.
3. All eyes are on the Gulf of Mexico and Bp's last-ditch attempt to cut off the Deepwater well. Project Top Kill is going as planned, says the firm which, in an oil company first,...
- 5/27/2010
- by Addy Dugdale
- Fast Company
The las "Final Fantasy" came out at the tail end of the last console cycle, meaning that many gamers ended up missing out on one of the strongest entries in the series from a gameplay perspective. The story fell somewhat short, but the vast open world, more action-oriented combat mechanics and open-ended level progression kept things entertaining through many tens of hours, in true "Final Fantasy" fashion.
It's an even greater shame for those who missed it when you consider that "Final Fantasy Xiii" is such a gigantic backward step that it's rendered almost unrecognizable as a new entry in the long-running RPG series. Until you come to 25-hour mark, that is.
The Basics
If you've been following the development of "Ffxiii" then you already know the basic setup. I won't spoil the story here, one of the game's stronger bits, beyond the basic setup. We join the action on Cocoon,...
It's an even greater shame for those who missed it when you consider that "Final Fantasy Xiii" is such a gigantic backward step that it's rendered almost unrecognizable as a new entry in the long-running RPG series. Until you come to 25-hour mark, that is.
The Basics
If you've been following the development of "Ffxiii" then you already know the basic setup. I won't spoil the story here, one of the game's stronger bits, beyond the basic setup. We join the action on Cocoon,...
- 3/15/2010
- by Adam Rosenberg
- MTV Multiplayer
Yousry Nasrallah cleverly re-imagines the Arabian Nights for the age of post-modernism, exhaustive politics, and female rights in Scheherazade Tell Me a Story. Utilizing conventions of soap operas and the flamboyant look but cunningly uncertain tone of Almodóvarian melodrama, Nasrallah and screenwriter Wahid Hamid fold three stories of female oppression into the meta-story of a highly polemic talk show hostess (Mona Zaki) being bullied by her husband's need to please the government in order to get a high level promotion. Like the most famous delayed-ending story in literary history, Scheherazade Tell Me a Story subsumes and postpones the hostess's inner turmoil of ethics and love by dramatizing the supposedly apolitical stories of “real women” as the hostess tries to steer her television show away from the unwanted attention and general misery of political commentary.
Beautifully brought to life by Nasrallah's double belief in but sly exaggeration and tweaking of melodramatic forms,...
Beautifully brought to life by Nasrallah's double belief in but sly exaggeration and tweaking of melodramatic forms,...
- 10/19/2009
- MUBI
My comments on the film selection and the festival's new initiatives follow below. The hot links connect the reader directly to the online catalog of Toronto International Film Festival which will be September 10-17 and will screen 273 features. Last year it screened 249. 242 are world, international or North American premieres, and 71 are first features.
First off, my thanks go to the Toronto International Film Festival for the new City To City Section's selection of Tel Aviv which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Ten films have just been announced and there will be a public forum for filmmakers and thinkers from Tel Aviv and Toronto.
I do more than hope that we will not see the "Ken Loach experience" of Edinburgh and Melbourne repeat itself in uglier colors reminding us that September 11, 2001 happened in Toronto as it did everywhere else in the world. “The Ken Loach experience” happened when Ken Loach...
First off, my thanks go to the Toronto International Film Festival for the new City To City Section's selection of Tel Aviv which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Ten films have just been announced and there will be a public forum for filmmakers and thinkers from Tel Aviv and Toronto.
I do more than hope that we will not see the "Ken Loach experience" of Edinburgh and Melbourne repeat itself in uglier colors reminding us that September 11, 2001 happened in Toronto as it did everywhere else in the world. “The Ken Loach experience” happened when Ken Loach...
- 8/29/2009
- by Sydney@SydneysBuzz.com (Sydney)
- Sydney's Buzz
My comments on the film selection and the festival's new initiatives follow below. Toronto International Film Festival, September 10-17, will screen 271 features. Last year it screened 249. 242 are world, international or North American premieres, and 71 are first features. The festival website (tiff.net/the festival) will go live on June 23.
First off, my thanks go to the Toronto International Film Festival for the new City To City Section's selection of Tel Aviv which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Ten films have just been announced and there will be a public forum for filmmakers and thinkers from Tel Aviv and Toronto. First off, my thanks go to the Festival for the new City To City Section's selection of Tel Aviv which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Ten films have just been announced and there will be a public forum for filmmakers and thinkers from Tel Aviv and Toronto.
First off, my thanks go to the Toronto International Film Festival for the new City To City Section's selection of Tel Aviv which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Ten films have just been announced and there will be a public forum for filmmakers and thinkers from Tel Aviv and Toronto. First off, my thanks go to the Festival for the new City To City Section's selection of Tel Aviv which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Ten films have just been announced and there will be a public forum for filmmakers and thinkers from Tel Aviv and Toronto.
- 8/24/2009
- by Sydney@SydneysBuzz.com (Sydney)
- Sydney's Buzz
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