Ken Foree
Kentotis Alvin “Ken” Foree (born February 29, 1948) is an American actor probably most famous as the hero Peter in the George Romero classic ‘Dawn of the Dead’.
Foree was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He began acting in the 1970s, appearing in the 1976 film ‘The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings’ (No, I haven’t seen it), ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978) and ‘The Wanderers’ (1979). He also had roles in the films ‘Knightriders’ (1981), ‘From Beyond’ (1986) and ‘Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III” (1990). In 1995 he starred in an X-Files episode.
He had a cameo in the remake of Dawn of the Dead in 2004. In 2005, he played Charlie Altamont in the Rob Zombie film ‘The Devil’s Rejects’, starring opposite Sid Haig and Bill Moseley, as the adopted brother of Haig’s character.
He appeared in director Rob Zombie’s 2007 film, ‘Halloween’ a remake of the 1978 classic horror film. Foree’s upcoming roles include another appearance for Zombie in ‘The Lords of Salem’.
He has appeared in numerous low-budget horror over the last few years, ‘Brotherhood of Blood’ (2005), ‘The Devil’s Den’ (2005), ‘Splatter Disco’, ‘Black Santa’s Revenge’, ‘Brutal Massacre: A Comedy’ and ‘Live Evil’ (all 2007); as well as ‘Dead Bones’ (2008) and ‘Zone of the Dead’ (2009).
The horror film comedy ‘Shaun of the Dead’, a parody of the zombie movie genre, has a subtle reference to him. The film’s main character is an employee of “Foree Electronics”. He regularly appears at horror festivals and even has an event named in his honour: Foree Fest
Ken Foree appeared as himself in the 2008 novel Bad Moon Rising by Jonathan Maberry. Foree is one of several real-world horror celebrities who are in the fictional town of Pine Deep when monsters attack. Other celebrities include Tom Savini, James Gunn, Debbie Rochon and blues man Mem Shannon.
Dick Smith – Honorary Academy Award
The most important Oscar awarded at this years ceremony was an Honorary Award for Dick Smith.
The haunting leer of a demonically possessed girl in “The Exorcist” (1973) is one of the more terrifying examples of the work of makeup artist Dick Smith. Widely considered the 20th century’s maestro of movie makeup and affectionately called the Godfather of Makeup, Smith has influenced and inspired generations of artists. He has gladly shared his secrets with up-and-comers in the field as well as elevated the standards of the craft, both of which helped to establish makeup as a respected discipline of the cinematic arts.
Filmmakers have consistently turned to Smith for persuasive renderings of time’s effects on the human body. For artfully aging F. Murray Abraham from his forties to his eighties in “Amadeus” (1984), Smith shared the Academy Award® for Makeup with Paul LeBlanc. He earned his second Oscar® nomination for making a spry 65-year-old Jack Lemmon a persuasive octogenarian in “Dad” (1989), and created an iconic masterpiece with the jowly look of Marlon Brando in “The Godfather” (1972).
Though his fantastical creations for such films “Altered States” (1980), “Scanners” (1981) and “Starman” (1984) pack a punch, Smith steadfastly believes in making movie magic look natural. His artistry is often unnoticed – and that’s just the way he wants it. “A good makeup doesn’t look like makeup,” he has said.
After spending his early childhood in suburban Larchmont, New York, Smith was pre-med at Yale University, majoring in zoology. In his sophomore year, his life took a dramatic turn when he happened to pick up a textbook detailing makeup tricks used in Hollywood. Smith began doing makeup for the theater group at Yale and roamed the campus at night in comical monster makeup of his own design, giving the unwary a playful scare.
Smith got his professional start as the first staff makeup artist for the fledgling NBC television network, pioneering techniques using foam latex and plastic for what were initially live broadcasts. His tenure as makeup director spanned from 1945 to 1959 and he expanded from a staff of one to 25.
After 14 years, Smith moved on to movies. In short order he was sculpting the face of Anthony Quinn’s battered boxer in “Requiem for a Heavyweight” (1962), making a dozen stunt doubles resemble the stars of “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (1963) and helping Peter Sellers become strikingly handsome for “The World of Henry Orient” (1964). Remarkably, for almost 40 years he would create all of his effects in his basement studio in Larchmont, flying to the set with the makeups whenever shooting began.
In 1965, Smith penned the seminal Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-up Handbook, which protégé Rick Baker credits as inspiration for his own illustrious career. By 1967, Smith had returned to television, working on such projects as Dan Curtis’s classic vampire series “Dark Shadows.”
Smith’s method of gluing on multiple foam latex appliances in overlapping pieces permits actors their full range of facial expressions. His technique was demonstrated to marvelous effect in “Little Big Man” (1970), which transformed Dustin Hoffman from a man in his early 30s to age 121. At that time, single-mold masks were still widely used and Smith became a Galileo of sorts, shunned within the insular community of professional makeup artists. Today, he is recognized as one of those rare artists who opened new avenues of expression for others.
Ali Larter
Alison Elizabeth “Ali” Larter (born February 28, 1976) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing the dual roles of Niki Sanders and Tracy Strauss on the NBC science fiction drama ‘Heroes’ as well as her roles in several horror films.
Born in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; she attended Carusi Middle School and later graduated from Cherry Hill High School West during her time as a model. Larter began her modelling career at the age of 14 when a modelling scout discovered her on the street and was asked to star in a Phillies commercial, this led to a modelling contract with the prestigious Ford Modeling Agency in New York. Larter subsequently skipped her senior year to model in Australia, Italy and Japan.
While modelling in Italy, Larter met fellow model and aspiring actress Amy Smart and the two “became instant friends”, according to Larter. A modelling job later took her to Los Angeles, whilst there, she decided to take acting classes with Smart.
Larter’s screen debut came in the 1999 film ‘Varsity Blues’, followed by the horror films ‘House on Haunted Hill’, the movie was panned by critics, but grossed $15 million on its opening weekend and went on to earn over $40 million overall. This was followed by ‘Final Destination’.
Larter starred as one of the main characters, Clear Rivers, in the teen supernatural horror film; the movie’s premise followed several teenagers who survive a plane crash but are stalked and killed by death itself. Final Destination made $112 million by the end of its theatrical run which ensured 4 sequels! She reprised her role as Clear Rivers in the immediate sequel ‘Final Destination 2.’
Larter moved back to Los Angeles in 2005. Her first audition was for the NBC science-fiction television series ‘Heroes’. Larter played the characters of Niki Sanders, who suffered from dissociative identity disorder, and Tracy Strauss. Larter’s initial character Niki Sanders, was a wife, mother, and a former internet stripper from Las Vegas who exhibits superhuman strength and alternate personalities who go by the names of Jessica and Gina. The series collected a number of accolades in its first season including a Peoples Choice Award and nominations from the Emmy and Golden Globes.
Larter achieved wider fame after her portrayal of video game heroine Claire Redfield in the successful Resident Evil franchise, co-starring in the films, ‘Resident Evil: Extinction’ and ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife’.
The latter movie was not well received by critics with the Philadelphia Enquirer stating the movie “lacks the humanity – interesting characters, funny one-liners – that made its predecessors enjoyable B-movies.” The movie was an international success nonetheless, earning $296 million worldwide and becoming Larter’s highest grossing picture to date
The Moth Diaries – Trailer
Since the release of American Psycho in 2000, director Mary Harron has made only one feature, the 2005 release The Notorious Bettie Page. She’s hardly been idle, and has put a great amount of television work on her resume in the past decade. But now Harron returns to the big screen as the director of a gothic thriller called The Moth Diaries.
Harron scripted the film based on Rachel Klein‘s 2001 novel in which the boarding school friendship of Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) and Lucy (Sarah Gadon) is fractured by the arrival of Ernessa (Lily Cole). Adolescence is and always will be a time of intense emotional confusion, especially if you spend it in a closed environment. That’s the case with Rebecca, a young girl haunted by her father’s suicide, who is a student at an exclusive female boarding school. She pours her heart out in a diary, much of it focused on Lucy, her beloved roommate. Their relationship changes drastically with the arrival of a mysterious new student, Ernessa. As Lucy abandons her for this new girl, Rebecca becomes consumed with thoughts of jealousy and suspicion — Ernessa is dangerous, evil, a vampire. Is there any truth to all this or is Rebecca slipping into insanity?
LEGO – Bill the Butcher
Cool LEGO model of Bill the Butcher from Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.
LEGO – The Avengers
More cool LEGO images, this time for the forthcoming movie of ‘The Avengers’ from Marvel.com
Terence Fisher
Terence Fisher (23 February 1904 – 18 June 1980) was a film director who worked for Hammer Films. He was born in Maida Vale, a district of London, England.
Fisher was one of the most prominent horror directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, while mild by modern standards, were unprecedented in his day. His first major gothic horror film was ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ (1957), which launched Hammer’s long association with the genre and made British actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee into leading horror stars of the era.
Fisher’s career and Hammer would become inextricably linked. When Hammer decided in the mid-1950s to remodel itself as a horror factory, Fisher became its main director. He was part of the team that produced all the ‘classic’ Hammer horrors – including the aforementioned The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), as well as ‘Dracula’ (1958), ‘The Mummy’ (1959), ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ (1959) and ‘The Curse of the Werewolf’ (1961).
Given the low budgets involved and the breakneck production schedules, the quality of these films was inevitably uneven, but some of them, and especially Dracula, were remarkable achievements, albeit ones that were not generally feted by critics at the time of their initial appearance. After the box-office failure of The Phantom of the Opera (1962), Fisher worked less often for Hammer, although his later Hammer films arguably comprise his best work, reflecting as they do both a technical maturity and a willingness to innovate. Although Fisher is regularly accused of representing a conservative moralistic force within British horror, films like ‘Frankenstein Created Woman’ (1967) and ‘The Devil Rides Out’ (1968) show a tentative and questioning attitude to social authority and morality.
It is only in recent years that Fisher has become recognised as an auteur in his own right. His films are characterised by a blend of fairy-tale, myth and sexuality. They may have drawn heavily on Christian themes, and there is usually a hero who defeats the powers of darkness by a combination of faith in God and reason, in contrast to other characters, who are either blindly superstitious or bound by a cold, godless rationalism (as noted by critic Paul Leggett in Terence Fisher: Horror, Myth and Religion, 2001). For a detailed discussion of Fisher’s works, see The Charm of Evil: The Films of Terence Fisher by Wheeler Winston Dixon.
Dwight Frye
Dwight Iliff Frye (February 22, 1899 – November 7, 1943) was an American stage and screen actor, noted for his appearances in the classic horror films ‘Dracula’ (1931), ‘Frankenstein’ (1931), ‘The Invisible Man’ (1933), and ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ (1935).
Frye was born in Salina, Kansas. Nicknamed “The Man with the Thousand-Watt Stare” and “The Man of a Thousand Deaths”, he specialized in the portrayal of mentally unbalanced characters, including his signature role, the madman Renfield in Tod Browning’s 1931 version of Dracula. Later that same year he also played the hunchbacked assistant in the film Frankenstein. (This character, named Fritz, is often mistakenly referred to as Ygor, a character originated by Bela Lugosi in the later film Son of Frankenstein.)
Frye also portrayed Wilmer Cook (the “gunsel”) in the original movie version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon in 1931, the role later played by Elisha Cook, Jr. in the remake a decade later.
Frye had a prominent role in the horror film ‘The Vampire Bat’ (1933), starring Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas, and Fay Wray, in which he played Herman, a half-wit suspected of being a killer.
He also had memorable roles in The Invisible Man (1933) as a reporter, The Crime of Dr. Crespi (1935), and in the classic Bride of Frankenstein (1935), in which he played Karl. The part of Karl was originally much longer and many extra scenes of Frye were shot as a sub plot but were edited out of the final version to shorten the running time as well as to appease the censor boards. The most memorable of these “cut scenes” was that of Karl killing the Burgomaster portrayed by E. E. Clive. No known prints of these scenes survive today, but photographs of the scene were used to illustrate the scene’s synopsis and are included in the recent Universal Studios DVD release of the film.
During the early 1940s, Frye alternated between film roles and appearing on stage in a variety of productions ranging from comedies to musicals, as well as appearing in a stage version of Dracula. In 1924 he played the Son in a translation of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. There was a Dwight Frye Fan Club at one time, but it is currently dormant. He also made a contribution to the war effort by working nights as a tool designer for Lockheed Aircraft.
Frye’s strong resemblance to former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker helped land him what would have been a substantial role in the biopic Wilson (1944), based on the life of U. S. President Woodrow Wilson, but he died of a heart attack while riding on a bus in Hollywood a few days before filming was to have begun. Frye was interred in Glendale’s Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.
Sam Peckinpah – The Autumn Years
Based on the screenplay by Rudolph Wurlitzer, ‘Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid’ offered Peckinpah the opportunity to explore themes that appealed to him: two former partners forced by changing times onto opposite sides of the law, manipulated by corrupt economic interests. Peckinpah rewrote the screenplay, establishing Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as friends, and attempted to weave an epic tragedy from the historical legend. Numerous production difficulties, including an outbreak of influenza and malfunctioning cameras, combined with Peckinpah’s growing problems with alcohol, resulted in one of the most troubled productions of his career. The film finished 21 days behind schedule and $1.6 million over budget. Enraged, MGM head James Aubrey severely cut Peckinpah’s film from 124 to 106 minutes, resulting in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid being released in a truncated version largely disowned by cast and crew members. Critics complained that the film was incoherent, and the experience soured Peckinpah forever on Hollywood. In 1988, however, Peckinpah’s director’s cut was released on video and led to a reevaluation, with many critics hailing it as a mistreated classic and one of the era’s best films.
In the eyes of his admirers, ‘Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia’ (1974) was the last true “Peckinpah film.” The director himself claimed that it was the only one of his films to be released exactly as he intended it. An alcohol-soaked fever dream involving revenge, greed and murder in the Mexican countryside, the film featured Warren Oates as a thinly disguised self-portrait of Peckinpah, and co-starred a leather bag containing the severed head of a gigolo being sought by a Mexican patrone for one million dollars. The macabre drama was part black comedy, action and tragedy, with a warped edge rarely seen in Peckinpah’s works. Generally hated by the critics, the film’s reputation has grown in recent years, with many noting its uncompromising vision as well as its anticipation of the violent black comedy which became famous in the works of such directors as David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino.
His career now suffering from back-to-back box office failures, Peckinpah once again was in need of a hit on the level of The Getaway. For his next film, he chose ‘The Killer Elite’ (1975), an action-filled espionage thriller starring James Caan and Robert Duvall as rival American agents. Peckinpah allegedly discovered cocaine for the first time, this led to increased paranoia and his once legendary dedication to detail deteriorated. Through it all, the film was completed and did decent box office business, though critics panned it. Today, the film is considered one of Peckinpah’s weakest films, and an example of his decline as a major director.
Peckinpah was offered the opportunity to direct the eventual blockbusters, but he turned them down and chose instead the bleak and vivid World War II drama ‘Cross of Iron’ (1977). The screenplay was based on a novel about a platoon of German soldiers in 1943 on the verge of utter collapse on the Crimean Peninsula. While not suffering from the cocaine abuse which marked The Killer Elite, Peckinpah continued to drink heavily causing his direction to become confused and erratic. The production abruptly ran out of funds, and Peckinpah was forced to completely improvise the concluding sequence, filming the scene in one day. Despite these obstacles, the film’s war footage was stunning and James Coburn, in the lead role of Rolf Steiner, gave one of the finest performances of his career. Cross of Iron was noted for its opening montage utilizing documentary footage as well as the visceral impact of the unusually intense battle sequences. The film was a huge box office success in Europe, but performed poorly in the U.S., eclipsed ultimately by the space adventure Star Wars, though today it is highly regarded and considered the last gasp of Peckinpah’s once-great talent.
Hoping to create the elusive blockbuster, Peckinpah decided to take on ‘Convoy’ (1978). The film was an attempt to capitalize on the huge success of Smokey and the Bandit (1977). Addictions or not, Peckinpah still felt compelled to turn the genre exercise into something more significant. Convoy turned out to be yet another troubled Peckinpah production. The director’s health became a continuing problem, so James Coburn was brought in to serve as second unit director, and he filmed many of the scenes while Peckinpah remained in his on-location trailer. The film wrapped 11 days behind schedule and $5 million over budget. Surprisingly, Convoy was the highest-grossing picture of Peckinpah’s career, notching $46.5 million at the box office. But his reputation was seriously damaged. For the next three years, Peckinpah remained a professional outcast.
By 1982, however, Peckinpah’s health was in poor shape. Producers Peter S. Davis and William N. Panzer were undaunted, as they felt that having Peckinpah’s name attached to ‘The Osterman Weekend’ (1983) would lend the suspense thriller an air of respectability. Multiple actors in Hollywood auditioned for the film, intrigued by the opportunity. Many of those who signed on, including John Hurt, Burt Lancaster and Dennis Hopper, did so for less than their usual salaries for a chance to work with the legendary director. Peckinpah brought in the film on time and on budget, delivering his cut to the producers. Davis and Panzer were unhappy with Peckinpah’s version, which included a grossly distorted opening sequence of two characters making love. The producers changed the opening and also deleted other scenes they deemed unnecessary. The Osterman Weekend had some effective action sequences and some strong supporting performances, but Peckinpah’s final film was critically panned.
Peckinpah was seriously ill during his final years, as a lifetime of hard living caught up with him. Regardless, he continued to work until his last months. He died of heart failure on December 28, 1984. At the time, he was in preparation for shooting an original script by Stephen King entitled The Shotgunners, which later became a book called The Regulators.
Sam Peckinpah – ‘Bloody Sam’
He caught a lucky break in 1966 when producer Daniel Melnick needed a writer and director to adapt Katherine Anne Porter’s short novel Noon Wine for television. Taking place in turn of the century West Texas, ‘Noon Wine’ was a dark tragedy about a farmer’s act of futile murder which leads to suicide. The film was a critical hit, with Peckinpah nominated by the Writers Guild for Best Television Adaptation and the Directors Guild of America for Best Television Direction.
The surprising success of Noon Wine laid the groundwork for one of the most explosive comebacks in film history. In 1967, William Goldman’s screenplay ‘Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid’ had recently been purchased by 20th Century Fox; Warner Bros were interested in having Peckinpah rewrite and direct a similar adventure film, The Diamond Story. An alternative screenplay written by Roy Sickner and Walon Green was called, The Wild Bunch.
It was quickly decided that The Wild Bunch, which had several similarities to Goldman’s work, would be produced in order to beat Butch Cassidy to the theaters. By the fall of 1967, Peckinpah was rewriting the screenplay into what became ‘The Wild Bunch’. Filmed on location in Mexico, Peckinpah’s epic work was inspired by his hunger to return to films and what he perceived to be the utter lack of reality seen in Westerns up to that time. He set out to make a film which portrayed not only the vicious violence of the period, but the crude men attempting to survive the era. The film detailed a gang of veteran outlaws on the Texas/Mexico border in 1913 trying to exist within a rapidly approaching modern world. The Wild Bunch is framed by two ferocious and infamous gunfights, beginning with a failed robbery of the railway company office and concluding with the outlaws battling the Mexican army in suicidal vengeance due to the death of one of their members. Irreverent and unprecedented in its explicit detail, the 1969 film was an instant success. Many critics denounced its violence as sadistic and exploitative. Other critics and filmmakers hailed the originality of its unique rapid editing style, created for the first time in this film and ultimately becoming a Peckinpah trademark, and praised the reworking of traditional Western themes. It was the beginning of Peckinpah’s international fame, and he and his work remained controversial for the rest of his life. When The Wild Bunch was re-released for its 25th anniversary, it received an NC-17 rating, proving the film’s continued impact after so many years. Peckinpah received his only Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for this film. Unfortunately a remake is in the offing.
Defying audience expectations, as he often did, Peckinpah immediately followed The Wild Bunch with the elegiac, funny and mostly non-violent 1970 Western ‘The Ballad of Cable Hogue’. The film covered three years in the life of small-time entrepreneur Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) who decides to make a fortune after discovering water in the desert. He opens his business along a stagecoach line, only to see his dreams end with the appearance of the first automobile on the horizon. Shot on location in the Nevada desert, the film was plagued by poor weather, Peckinpah’s renewed drinking and his brusque firing of 36 crew members. Largely ignored upon its initial release, The Ballad of Cable Hogue has been rediscovered in recent years and is often held up by critics as exemplary of the breadth of Peckinpah’s talents. Over the years, Peckinpah cited the film as one of his favorites.
His alienation of Warner Brothers once again left him with a limited number of directing jobs. Peckinpah was forced to do a 180-degree turn and traveled to England to direct ‘Straw Dogs’ (1971), one of his darkest and most psychologically disturbing films. Starring Dustin Hoffman as David Sumner, a timid American mathematician who moves to Cornwall, England, to live with his young wife Amy (Susan George). Resentment of David’s presence by the locals slowly builds to a shocking climax when the mild-mannered academic is forced to defend his home. Peckinpah entirely rewrote the existing screenplay, inspired by the books African Genesis and The Territorial Imperative by Robert Ardrey, which argued that man was essentially a carnivore who instinctively battled over control of territory. The character of David Sumner, taunted and humiliated by the town locals, is eventually cornered within his home where he loses control and kills several of the men during the violent conclusion. Straw Dogs deeply divided critics, some of whom praised its artistry and its confrontation of human savagery, while others attacked it as a mysogynistic and fascist celebration of violence. The film was for many years banned on video in the UK, although some critics have come to hail it as one of Peckinpah’s greatest films.
Despite his growing alcoholism and controversial reputation, Peckinpah was extremely prolific during this period of his life. He returned to the United States to begin work on ‘Junior Bonner’ (1972). The story covered a week in the life of aging rodeo rider Junior “JR” Bonner (Steve McQueen) who returns to his hometown to compete in an annual rodeo competition. Promoted as a Steve McQueen action vehicle, reviews were mixed and the film performed poorly at the box office. Peckinpah remarked, “I made a film where nobody got shot and nobody went to see it.”
Eager to work with Peckinpah again, Steve McQueen presented him Walter Hill’s screenplay to ‘The Getaway’. McQueen played Doc McCoy, an imprisoned mastermind robber whose wife Carol (Ali McGraw) conspires for his release on the condition they rob a bank in Texas. A doublecross follows the crime, and the McCoys are forced to flee for Mexico with both the police and criminals in hot pursuit. Replete with explosions, car chases and intense shootouts, the film became Peckinpah’s biggest financial success to date earning more than $25 million at the box office.
Sam Peckinpah – Early Work
David Samuel “Sam” Peckinpah (February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic ‘The Wild Bunch’ (1969). He was known for the innovative and explicit depiction of action and violence, as well as his revisionist approach to the Western genre.
Peckinpah’s films generally deal with the conflict between values and ideals, and the corruption of violence in human society. He was given the nickname “Bloody Sam” owing to the violence in his films. His characters are often loners or losers who desire to be honorable, but are forced to compromise in order to survive in a world of nihilism and brutality.
Peckinpah’s combative personality, marked by years of alcohol and drug abuse, has often overshadowed his professional legacy. Many of his films were noted for behind-the-scenes battles with producers and crew members, damaging his reputation and career during his lifetime. Many of his films, such as ‘Straw Dogs’ (1971), ‘Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid’ (1973) and ‘Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia’ (1974), remain controversial.
Frequent fighting and discipline problems while at Fresno High School caused his parents to enroll him in the San Rafael Military Academy for his senior year. After joining the US Marine Corps in 1943, his battalion was sent to China with the task of disarming Japanese soldiers and repatriating them following World War II. After discharge, he attended Fresno State College, studying history. In 1948, Peckinpah enrolled in graduate studies in drama at University of Southern California. He spent two seasons as the director in residence at Huntington Park Civic Theatre near Los Angeles before obtaining his master’s degree.
Peckinpah began working as a stagehand at KLAC-TV in the belief that television experience would eventually lead to work in films. In 1954, Peckinpah was hired as “dialogue director” for the film Riot in Cell Block 11. Director Don Siegel’s location work and his use of actual prisoners as extras in the film made a lasting impression on Peckinpah. He worked as an assistant to the director on four additional films including Private Hell 36 (1954), An Annapolis Story, (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Crime in the Streets (1956). Peckinpah’s association with Siegel established him as an emerging screenwriter and potential director.
On the recommendation of Siegel, Peckinpah established himself during the late 1950s as a scriptwriter of Western series of the era; he also wrote a screenplay from the novel The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones, a draft that evolved into the 1961 Brando film ‘One-Eyed Jacks’. His writing led to directing, and he directed a 1958 episode of Broken Arrow (generally credited as his first official directing job) and several 1960 episodes of Klondike).
In 1958, Peckinpah wrote a script for Gunsmoke that was rejected due to content. He reworked the screenplay, and it became the television series The Rifleman, starring Chuck Connors. Peckinpah directed four episodes of the series, but left after the first year. During this time, he also created the television series The Westerner. From 1959 to 1960, Peckinpah acted as producer of the series, having a hand in the writing of each episode and directing five of them.
After cancellation of The Westerner, series star Brian Keith was cast as the male lead in the 1961 Western film ‘The Deadly Companions‘. He suggested Peckinpah as the director and producer Charles B. Fitzsimons accepted the idea. By most accounts, the low-budget film was a learning process for Peckinpah, who feuded with Fitzsimons over the screenplay and staging of the scenes. Reportedly, Fitzsimons refused to allow Peckinpah to give direction to star Maureen O’Hara. Unable to rewrite the screenplay or edit the picture, Peckinpah vowed to never again direct a film unless he had script control. The Deadly Companions passed largely without notice and is the least known of Peckinpah’s films.
His second film, ‘Ride the High Country’ (1962), was all Peckinpah’s work. He did an extensive rewrite of the screenplay, including personal references from his own childhood and he based the character of Steve Judd, on his own father David Peckinpah. In the screenplay, Judd and old friend Gil Westrum are hired to transport gold from a mining community through dangerous territory. The film initially went unnoticed in the United States but was an enormous success in Europe. The film was hailed by foreign critics as a brilliant reworking of the Western genre. By some critics, the film is admired as one of Peckinpah’s greatest works.
Peckinpah’s next film, ‘Major Dundee’ (1965), was the first of Peckinpah’s many unfortunate experiences with the major studios that financed his productions. The sprawling screenplay told the story of Union cavalry officer Major Dundee who commands a New Mexico outpost of Confederate prisoners. When an Apache war chief wipes out a company and kidnaps several children, Dundee throws together a makeshift army, including unwilling Confederate veterans, black Federal soldiers, and traditional Western types, and takes off after the Indians. Dundee becomes obsessed with his quest and heads deep into the wilderness of Mexico with his exhausted men in tow. Filming began without a completed screenplay, and Peckinpah chose several remote locations in Mexico, causing the film to go heavily over budget. Peckinpah reportedly drank heavily each night after shooting. Shooting ended 15 days over schedule and $1.5 million more than budgeted with Peckinpah and his producer no longer on speaking terms. The movie, was taken away from him and substantially reedited. An incomplete mess which today exists in a variety of versions, Major Dundee performed poorly at the box office and was thrashed by critics (though its standing has improved over the years). Peckinpah held for the rest of his life that his original version of Major Dundee was among his best films, but his reputation was severely damaged.
Peckinpah was next signed to direct The Cincinnati Kid, a gambling drama about a young prodigy who takes on an old master during a big New Orleans poker match. After four days of filming, which reportedly included some nude scenes, Ransohoff disliked the rushes and immediately fired him. Eventually directed by Norman Jewison and starring Steve McQueen, the film went on to become a 1965 hit. Peckinpah found himself banished from the film industry for several years.
Ray Winstone – Part 2
Winstone was asked to appear in Mr Thomas, a play written by his friend and fellow-Londoner Kathy Burke. The reviews were good, and led to Winstone being cast, alongside Burke, in Gary Oldman’s drama ‘Nil By Mouth’. He was widely lauded for his performance as an alcoholic wife-batterer, receiving a BAFTA nomination (17 years after his Best Newcomer award for That Summer). He continued to play “tough guy” roles in the likes of ‘Face’ and ‘The War Zone’ — the latter especially controversial, as he played a man who rapes his own daughter — but that obvious toughness would also allow him to play decent men softened by love in romantic comedies like Fanny and Elvis and ‘There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble’. In Last Christmas, he played a dead man, now a trainee angel, who returns from Heaven to help his young son cope with his bereavement, written by Tony Grounds, with whom Winstone worked again on Births, Marriages & Deaths and Our Boy, the latter winning him the Royal Television Society Best Actor Award. They worked together again in 2006 on ‘All in the Game’ where Winstone portrayed a football manager.
In 2000 Winstone starred along side Jude Law in the hit cult film ‘Love, Honour and Obey’, then snagged the lead role in ‘Sexy Beast’ that brought him great acclaim from UK and international audiences, and brought him to the attention of the American film industry. Winstone plays “Gal” Dove, a retired and happily married former thief dragged back into London’s underworld by a psychopathic former associate (Ben Kingsley, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance).
After a brief role alongside Burke again in the tragi-comic ‘The Martins’, he appeared in ‘Last Orders’, where he starred alongside fellow British stars Michael Caine, Helen Mirren, Bob Hoskins, David Hemmings and Tom Courteney. Next up, Winstone would get a prime part in ‘Ripley’s Game’, the sequel to ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’, in which he once again played a gangster. He followed up with Lenny Blue, the sequel to Tough Love, and the short The Bouncer.
In 2000, he also starred on stage in To Green Fields Beyond at the Donmar Warehouse (directed by Sam Mendes). In 2002 he performed at the Royal Court as Griffin in The Night Heron. Two years later, he joined Kevin Spacey for 24 Hour Plays at the Old Vic, a series of productions that were written, rehearsed and performed in a single day. Now internationally known, Winstone was next chosen by Anthony Minghella to play Teague, a sinister Home Guard boss, in the Civil War drama ‘Cold Mountain’.
Perhaps inspired by Burke and Oldman, Winstone has now decided to direct and produce his own movies, setting up Size 9 and Flicks production companies with his long-time agent Michael Wiggs. The first effort was ‘She’s Gone’, in which he plays a businessman whose young daughter disappears in Istanbul (filming was held up by unrest in the Middle East). He followed it up with ‘Jerusalem’, in which he played poet and visionary William Blake.
Winstone made his action movie debut in ‘King Arthur’, starring Clive Owen, directed by Antoine Fuqua. In that film, Fuqua proclaimed him as “the British De Niro.” He then provided the voice of Soldier Sam in the screen version of ‘The Magic Roundabout’.
In 2005, he appeared opposite Suranne Jones in the ITV drama ‘Vincent’ about a team of private detectives. He returned to the role in 2006 and was awarded an International Emmy. In 2005 he also portrayed a 19th century English policeman trying to tame the Australian outback in ‘The Proposition’. A complete change of pace for Winstone was providing the voice for the plucky Mr. Beaver in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’, also in 2005.
Winstone appeared in Martin Scorsese’s 2006 film ‘The Departed’ as Mr. French, an enforcer to Jack Nicholson’s mob boss. He also provided motion capture movements and voice for the title character in the Robert Zemekis’ film ‘Beowulf’. He then co-starred in the awful ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull’. He returned to television drama in ‘Compulsion’, originally shown in May 2009. He followed that up with ‘The Tracker’ as ‘Arjan’ with Temuera Morrison. His latest releases included ’44 Inch Chest’, alongside John Hurt, and Ian McShane; and a role as CIA agent Darius Jedburgh in the ‘Edge of Darkness’ remake, as a late replacment for Robert De Niro.
He is set to play the role of iconic Detective Inspector Jack Regan in a remake of ‘The Sweeney’ and star in the slasher-thriller film ‘Red Snow’, directed by Stuart St. Paul and based on a short film by Adam Mason. Whatever he does next, he’ll be as watchable as ever… “Who’s the Daddy?”
Ray Winstone – Part 1
Raymond Andrew “Ray” Winstone (born 19 February 1957) is an English film and television actor. He is mostly known for his “tough guy” roles, beginning with that of Carlin in the 1979 film ‘Scum’ and as Will Scarlet in the cult television adventure series ‘Robin of Sherwood’. He has also become well known as a voice actor. More recently he has branched out into film production. His film résumé includes ‘Cold Mountain’, ‘Nil By Mouth’, ‘King Arthur’, ‘The Proposition’, ‘The Departed’, ‘Beowulf’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ and ‘Edge of Darkness’.
Winstone was born in Hackney Hospital, London, the family moved via Plaistow to Enfield when he was seven, and grew up on a council estate just off the A10. Winstone had an early affinity for acting; his father would take him to the cinema every Wednesday afternoon. Later, he would witness Albert Finney in ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’ and the bug would bite: “I thought ‘I could be that geezer'” he said later. Other major influences included John Wayne, James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson.
Winstone was also a fan of boxing. At the age of 12, Winstone joined the famous Repton Amateur Boxing Club and, over the next 10 years, won 80 out of 88 bouts. At welterweight, he was London schoolboy champion on three occasions, fighting twice for England. The experience gave him a perspective on his later career: “If you can get in a ring with 2,000 people watching and be smacked around by another guy, then walking onstage isn’t hard.”
One of his first TV appearances came in the 1976 “Loving Arms” episode of the popular police series ‘The Sweeney’ where he was credited as “Raymond Winstone” and played a minor part as an unnamed young thug.
He went up to the BBC, where his schoolmates were involved in an audition, and got one of his own by flirting with the secretary. The audition was for one of the most notorious plays in history – Alan Clarke’s ‘Scum’ – and, because Clarke liked Winstone’s cocky, aggressive boxer’s walk, he got the part, even though it had been written for a Glaswegian. The play, written by Roy Minton and directed by Clarke, was a brutal depiction of a young offenders institution. Winstone was cast in the leading role of Carlin, a young offender who struggles against both his captors and his fellow cons in order to become the “Daddy” of the institution. Hard hitting and often violent (particularly during the infamous “billiards” scene in which Carlin uses two billiard balls stuffed in a sock in order to beat one of his fellow inmates over the head) the play was judged unsuitable for broadcast by the BBC, and was not finally shown until 1991. The banned television play was entirely re-filmed in 1979 for cinematic release with many of the original actors playing the same roles. In a recent director’s commentary for the Scum DVD, Winstone cites Clarke as a major influence on his career, and laments the director’s death in 1990 from cancer.
Winstone’s role in Scum seems to have set a mould for many of his other parts; he is frequently cast as a tough or violent man. He has also been cast against type, however, in films in which he reveals a softer side. He had a comedic part in ‘Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Lawrence’, and played the romantic lead in ‘Fanny and Elvis’. His favourite role was in the television biopic on the life of England’s most notorious monarch, King Henry VIII. Helena Bonham Carter co-starred as Henry’s most well-known queen, Anne Boyleyn; Emilia Fox played Jane Seymour, the stellar cast was rounded out by Charles Dance, Emily Blunt, David Suchet, Joss Ackland and Sean Bean.
After a short run in the TV series ‘Fox’, and a role in ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains’ (alongside Diane Lane, Laura Dern and a host of real-life punks like Fee Waybill, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Paul Simonon.). It was at this time that Winstone got another big break, being cast as Will Scarlet in ‘Robin of Sherwood’. He proved immensely popular and enjoyed the role, considering Scarlet to be “the first football hooligan”
During this period, he was increasingly drawn to the theatre, playing in Hinkemannin 1988, Some Voices in 1994 and Dealer’s Choice and Pale Horse the following year.
Miloš Forman
Jan Tomáš Forman (born February 18, 1932), better known as Miloš Forman is a Czech-American director, screenwriter, professor, and an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. Two of his films, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘Amadeus’, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both gaining him the Academy Award for Best Director. He was also nominated for the same award for ‘The People vs. Larry Flynt’. He has also won Golden Globe, Cannes, Berlinale, BAFTA, Cesar, David di Donatello, European Film Academy, and Czech Lion awards.
Forman was born in Caslav, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic), the son of Anna, who ran a summer hotel, and Rudolf Forman, a professor. His parents were Protestants. During the Nazi occupation a member of the anti-Nazi Underground named Forman’s father as a member of the Underground while being interrogated by the Gestapo. His father was arrested for distributing banned books and died in Buchenwald in 1944. His mother died in Auschwitz in 1943. Forman has stated that he did not fully understand what had happened to his parents until he saw footage of the concentration camps when he was 16.
After the war, Forman attended King George College public school in the spa town Podebrady, where his fellow students included Vaclav Havel, and Ivan Passer and Jerzy Skolimowski. He later studied screenwriting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Forman’s first important achievement is the documentary ‘Audition’ whose subject was competing singers. He directed several Czech comedies in Czechoslovakia. However, during the Prague Spring and the ensuing 1968 invasion, he was in Paris negotiating the production of his first American film. His employer, a Czech studio, fired him, claiming that he had been out of the country illegally. He moved to New York, where he later became a professor of film at Columbia University and co-chair of Columbia’s film department.
His debut feature, ‘Loves of a Blonde’ is one of best–known movies of Czechoslovak New Wave and has been rewarded on the Venice and Locarno film festivals. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967; as was his next film, ‘The Fireman’s Ball’, Forman’s first colour film.
The first movie Forman realized in United States, Taking Off was rewarded at Cannes Film Festival. However, his next film is one of the greatest film’s of all time, and the one for which he will always be remembered, the adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. The film won five Oscars, winning (as one of only three in history, (with It Happened One night and The Silence of the Lambs) in the five most important categories: Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, which firmly established Forman’s reputation.
The success of One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest allowed Forman to direct the long-planned film ‘Hair’ a rock opera in 1979, based on the Broadway musical.
Forman’s next important achievement was the adaption of Peter Schaffer’s ‘Amadeus’ in 1984—retelling the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. The film starred Tom Hulce and (for this role rewarded Oscar) F. Murray Abraham. This brought him his second Oscar for Best Director and numerous other awards. The movie won eight Oscars, including Best Picture. Forman and Shaffer call their movie fantasy inspired life and magical death of Mozart.
‘Valmont’, Forman’s adaptation of the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses had its premiere on November 17, 1989. Another film adaptation by Stephen Frears had been released the previous year and received much acclaim. The film starred Colin Firth, Meg Tilly and Annette Bening. It did not earn favorable reviews. However, ‘The People vs. Larry Flynt’ a 1996 biopic of pornographic publisher Larry Flynt brought Forman another Oscar nomination. The film starred Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love and Edward Norton.
The biography of famous actor and comic Andy Kaufman (Golden Globe winning Jim Carrey) had premiere on December 22, 1999. The film starred Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Courtney Love and Paul Giamatti. Goya’s Ghosts, followed, this free biography of Spanish painter Francisco Goya, the American-Spanish co-production premiered on November 8, 2006. The film starred Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgard and Randy Quaid.
The premiere of Forman’s newest historical drama, The Ghost of Munich, in France based on the novel by Georges-Marc Benamou and written by Forman and Georges-Marc Benamou is expected in 2012. The central topic is the Munich Agreement. The movie follows an investigative journalist who, thirty years after the conference, sets out to locate Edouard Daladier, the former French Council president.
Redd Inc. – Premiere
Redd Inc. It’s about a warped office where six people are chained to their desks by a demented boss… sound familiar? Nicholas Hope (Bad Boy Bubby) is outstanding as Redd, the boss from hell.
Redd Inc. the film will be released theatrically in late April/early May but there’s a special chance to see it in its very first public showing (world premiere) coming up in Sydney next month. Saturday March 17th the movie will close the Australian Film Festival at the Randwick Ritz. Click on this LINK to buy tickets: They have an early bird price of only $13 each until March 1st. Check out the trailer here.
There will also be a Q&A afterwards with producer Jonathon Green, colleagues and cast (including Mr Hope) as well an after party.
Be warned! There are a number of gory scenes (it IS a horror movie) it’s unrated but treat it as borderline MA15+ / R18+. You may want to look away at times but for the most part you should be entertained by a creepy but fun story that rocks along with twists and turns and a satirical undertone. Although if you just absolutely HATE horror movies then you probably shouldn’t come.
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE (16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was an English film and stage director and actor; born in London into a middle-class Jewish family.
Schlesinger’s acting career began in the 1950s and consisted of supporting roles in British films such as ‘The Divided Heart’ and ‘Oh… Rosalinda!!’, and British television productions such as BBC Sunday Night Theatre. He began his directorial career in 1956 with the short documentary ‘Sunday in the Park’ about London’s Hyde Park. In 1959 he was credited as exterior or second unit director on 23 episodes of the TV series ‘The Four Just Men’ and four 30-minute episodes of the series of ‘Danger Man’.
By the 1960s, he had virtually given up acting to concentrate on a directing career, and another of his earlier directorial efforts, the British Transport Film’s documentary ‘Terminus’ (1961), gained a Venice Film Festival Gold Lion and a British Academy Award. His first two fiction movies, ‘A Kind of Loving’ (1962) and ‘Billy Liar’ (1963) were set in the North of England. A Kind of Loving won the Golden Bear award at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival in 1962. His third feature film, ‘Darling’ (1965), tartly described the modern urban way of life in London and was one of the first films about “swinging London”. Schlesinger’s next film was the period drama ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ (1967), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s popular novel. Both films featured Julie Christie as the female lead.
It is Schlesinger’s next film, ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969), filmed in the United States, for which he will be remembered, it was internationally acclaimed then and to this day. A story of two hustlers living on the fringe in the bad side of New York City, Texas greenhorn Joe Buck (Jon Voight) arrives in New York for the first time. Preening himself as a real ‘hustler’, he finds that he is the one getting ‘hustled’ until he teams up with a down-and-out but resilient outcast named Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman). The initial ‘country cousin meets city cousin’ relationship deepens. In their efforts to bilk a hostile world rebuffing them at every turn, this unlikely pair progress from partners in shady business to comrades. Each has found his first real friend. it was Schlesinger’s first movie shot in the U.S., and it won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture.
During the 1970s, he made an array of movies about loners, losers, and people outside the clean world. ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ (1971), ‘The Day of the Locust’ (1975), ‘Marathon Man’ (1976), ‘Yanks’ (1979). Later, after ‘Honky Tonk Freeway’ (1981), he worked on films that attracted mixed responses from the public, and few dollars; ‘The Falcon and the Snowman’ (1985), ‘Pacific Heights’ (1990), the TV play ‘A Question of Attribution’ (1991), ‘The Innocent’ (1993) and ‘The Next Best Thing’ (2000). In Britain, he did better with films like ‘Madame Sousatzka’ (1988) and ‘Cold Comfort Farm’ (1995).
Schlesinger also directed Timon of Athens (1965) for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the musical I am Albert (1972) at London’s Piccadilly Theatre. From 1973 he was an associate director of the Royal National Theatre, where he produced Shaw’s Heartbreak House (1975). He also directed several operas, beginning with Les contes d’Hoffmann (1980) and Der Rosenkavalier (1984), both at Covent Garden.
Schlesinger also directed a notable party political broadcast for the Conversative Party in the UK General Election of 1992 which featured Prime Minister John Major returning to Brixton in South London, where he had spent his teenage years, which highlighted his humble background, atypical for a Conservative politician. Schlesinger admitted to having voted for all three main political parties in the UK at one time or another.
Schlesinger underwent a quadruple heart bypass in 1998, before suffering a stroke in December 2000. He was taken off life support at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs on 24 July 2003 by his life partner of over 30 years, photographer Michael Childers. Schlesinger died early the following day at the age of 77.
The Walking Dead – Online Adventure Game
When Rick wakes from a coma, he finds his wife Lori and his partner Shane gone and the police station abandoned. (Sure, former deputy Leon Bassett is still around but he’s a walker.) Where are Shane and Lori? How did Leon end up like that? Get some real answers via the complete adventure game, The Walking Dead: Dead Reckoning. Finally, a chance to take on the role Shane Walsh as you discover… Who’s a threat? Who’s worth saving? Who must be sacrificed for the greater good?
Beyond the Black Rainbow – Trailer
Beyond the Black Rainbow, written and directed by Panos Cosmatos, is a Reagan-era fever dream inspired by hazy childhood memories of midnight movies and Saturday morning cartoons. Cosmatos brings a bold, Kubrickian vision to the screen in stunning detail in this sci-fi fable of a young woman imprisoned in an experimental laboratory and the enigmatic scientist who is her captor. Set in a futuristic 1983, Elena finds herself held against her will in a mysterious facility under the watchful eye of the sinister Dr. Barry Nyle. Pushed to her limits, Elena is left with no choice but to navigate an escape from her labyrinthine prison, in the process revealing its hidden secrets.