There are few if any pieces of "Star Wars" lore quite as infamous as that of the elusive "Star Wars Holiday Special." The made-for-tv special, produced at the height of the franchise's initial wave of popularity after "A New Hope" hit theaters, was created with the cooperation of George Lucas and aired on CBS. But it aired once and only once, gaining a reputation as notoriously terrible -- so much so that Lucas did his best to wipe its memory from the face of the Earth. Now, a pair of filmmakers have chronicled the journey of the train wreck that is the "Star Wars Holiday Special" in a new documentary titled "A Disturbance in the Force."
The documentary is making its premiere at SXSW in Austin, Texas this week after years of development. It features interviews with many, many people involved, as well as noted fans of a galaxy far,...
The documentary is making its premiere at SXSW in Austin, Texas this week after years of development. It features interviews with many, many people involved, as well as noted fans of a galaxy far,...
- 3/12/2023
- by Ryan Scott
- Slash Film
Today in film history, August 23, 1996, Mario Van Peebles’ “Universal Soldier”/”Terminator”/”Robocop” mash-up movie, aka “Solo,” was released in USA theaters. The Columbia/Tristar Studios picture was directed by Norberto Barba, who has since primarily produced television series. The film was… Continue Reading →...
- 8/23/2016
- by shadowandact
- ShadowAndAct
Following The Book of Eli scribe Gary Whitta’s departure from Godzilla director Gareth Edwards’ upcoming Star Wars spinoff, a new screenwriter has been recruited to explore the galaxy far, far away – About a Boy co-director/co-writer Chris Weitz (who received an Oscar nomination for his work on that screenplay).
Whitta left the untitled project after working on and completing a first draft over the course of a year, but it’s unclear how much of his vision for the spinoff will actually make it to theaters. The prolific Simon Kinberg was rumored to have replaced him as scribe, but it now appears that Weitz has been tapped to pick up the pen and take a swing at the Star Wars spinoff.
In addition to his work on About a Boy, Weitz is known for writing the upcoming Cinderella adaptation, directing and penning The Golden Compass, helming mega-blockbuster The Twilight Saga: New Moon...
Whitta left the untitled project after working on and completing a first draft over the course of a year, but it’s unclear how much of his vision for the spinoff will actually make it to theaters. The prolific Simon Kinberg was rumored to have replaced him as scribe, but it now appears that Weitz has been tapped to pick up the pen and take a swing at the Star Wars spinoff.
In addition to his work on About a Boy, Weitz is known for writing the upcoming Cinderella adaptation, directing and penning The Golden Compass, helming mega-blockbuster The Twilight Saga: New Moon...
- 1/27/2015
- by Isaac Feldberg
- We Got This Covered
Echo of the Mountain also scoops a top prize at the film festival in Mexico.Scroll down for full list of winners
Matias Lucchesi’s debut feature Natural Sciences (Ciencias naturales) scooped a top prize, the Golden Mayahuel and €14,700 ($20,000) in cash, in the Ibero-American competition of the 29th Guadalajara Film Festival (Ficg), March 21-30.
The Argentinian production follows an adolescent girl’s quest to reconnect with her estranged father and was launched last month at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Generation Kplus Grand Prix.
Sold by Urban Distribution, it beat competition from 18 other titles to take the top prize and also received the best screenplay award and the Feisal (Latin American Film Schools) trophy.
Lead stars Paula Herzog and Paola Barrientos shared the best actress prize.
Echo of the Mountain (Eco de la Montana), a documentary directed by veteran Nicolas Echevarria, won the prize for best Mexican film, which included...
Matias Lucchesi’s debut feature Natural Sciences (Ciencias naturales) scooped a top prize, the Golden Mayahuel and €14,700 ($20,000) in cash, in the Ibero-American competition of the 29th Guadalajara Film Festival (Ficg), March 21-30.
The Argentinian production follows an adolescent girl’s quest to reconnect with her estranged father and was launched last month at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Generation Kplus Grand Prix.
Sold by Urban Distribution, it beat competition from 18 other titles to take the top prize and also received the best screenplay award and the Feisal (Latin American Film Schools) trophy.
Lead stars Paula Herzog and Paola Barrientos shared the best actress prize.
Echo of the Mountain (Eco de la Montana), a documentary directed by veteran Nicolas Echevarria, won the prize for best Mexican film, which included...
- 3/30/2014
- by alexisgrivas@yahoo.com (Alexis Grivas)
- ScreenDaily
With several other old TV shows being remade as feature films (most recently, the announcement that 1970s comedy series Good Times, will be getting the big screen treatment), why not this one? My Mario Van Peebles Solo flashback post earlier this week reminded me of another short-lived, late 1980s detective TV series, Sonny Spoon, which starred Mario as Sonny, described as "a hip, black private investigator who used his street smarts and 'cool' persona to solve crimes." He was also a master of disguises, and Mario's father, Melvin Van Peebles, had a part in the series as well. You folks remember this? I barely do actually; I was too young at the time to even...
- 4/18/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
So I'm sitting here re-watching Mario Van Peebles' Universal Soldier/Terminator/Robocop mash-up movie, aka Solo, and I'm having a good time... laughing a lot. Not a good flick, but you can call it a guilty pleasure. I haven't seen it in awhile, and had completely forgotten about Adrien Brody's pivotal role in it, as Solo's designer. This was some 6 years before his Academy Award-winning performance in The Pianist. We all have to start somewhere right? Solo was based on a 1989 science fiction novel by Robert Mason titled Weapon. But it got me thinking... despite how painfully derivative it is, I couldn't immediately name another similar sci-fi flick that featured a...
- 4/16/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Mumford & Sons, Gotye & Kimbra, Kelly Clarkson, Zac Brown Band and Fun. were just a few of the big winners at the 55th annual Grammy Awards telecast, hosted by LL Cool J and broadcast live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Read on for the recap...
For the Complete List of Winners Click Here.
The Winners
Album of the Year went to Babel by Mumford & Sons; Record of the Year went to Gotye & Kimbra's Somebody That I Used To Know; Fun. won Best New Artist, and their We Are Young (featuring Janelle Monae) was named Song of the Year; Kelly Clarkson's Stronger was named Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Country Album was awarded to Zac Brown Band's Uncaged.
Other big accolades handed out during Sunday night's telecast went to Carrie Underwood (Best Country Solo Performance: Blown Away); Frank Ocean was the Best Urban Contemporary Album Winner for Channel Orange; The Black Keys earned Best Rock...
For the Complete List of Winners Click Here.
The Winners
Album of the Year went to Babel by Mumford & Sons; Record of the Year went to Gotye & Kimbra's Somebody That I Used To Know; Fun. won Best New Artist, and their We Are Young (featuring Janelle Monae) was named Song of the Year; Kelly Clarkson's Stronger was named Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Country Album was awarded to Zac Brown Band's Uncaged.
Other big accolades handed out during Sunday night's telecast went to Carrie Underwood (Best Country Solo Performance: Blown Away); Frank Ocean was the Best Urban Contemporary Album Winner for Channel Orange; The Black Keys earned Best Rock...
- 2/11/2013
- Entertainment Tonight
Of all the upcoming blockbusters for The Asylum to do a mockbuster of, I commend the gutsy call made to ride the coattails of one that has already been the subject of much snickering and eye-rolling. Then again, they’re used to snickering and eye-rolling. But by hiring Sonny Spoon and Apollo Creed, their American Battleship already has the cooler cast.
He’s nearly been eaten by Jaws, been beheaded by a Highlander, played a werewolf cop, and co-starred in and directed New Jack City. Now Mario Van Peebles enters The Asylum to board an American Battleship to save the planet from alien invaders.
Those aliens have even bigger problems because Apollo Creed himself, Carl Weathers, is also onboard, and you just know after how things ended for him in Predator, he’s got a chip on his one remaining shoulder when it comes to fighting aliens.
Synopsis:
When a...
He’s nearly been eaten by Jaws, been beheaded by a Highlander, played a werewolf cop, and co-starred in and directed New Jack City. Now Mario Van Peebles enters The Asylum to board an American Battleship to save the planet from alien invaders.
Those aliens have even bigger problems because Apollo Creed himself, Carl Weathers, is also onboard, and you just know after how things ended for him in Predator, he’s got a chip on his one remaining shoulder when it comes to fighting aliens.
Synopsis:
When a...
- 12/17/2011
- by Foywonder
- DreadCentral.com
In this corner….!
Though I hate to recommend anything in place over Regina King’s Southland, tonight on FX is the debut of the new boxing drama Lights Out starring Holt McCallany (who was wonderful as the right-hand baddie in 2010′s The Losers) as Patrick ‘Lights Out’ Leary, an aging former heavyweight boxing champion who struggles to find his identity and support his wife and three daughters after retiring from the ring. Financial problems leave him at a perilous crossroads – battling the urge to return to boxing or reluctantly accepting a job as a brutal and intimidating debt collector.
Though for our purposes here, it also stars Billy Brown as ‘Death Row’ Reynolds, Leary’s rival, his Apollo Creed if you will. Brown has been in the acting game for some time now. His most most recent film was, Race to Witch Mountain, alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He also...
Though I hate to recommend anything in place over Regina King’s Southland, tonight on FX is the debut of the new boxing drama Lights Out starring Holt McCallany (who was wonderful as the right-hand baddie in 2010′s The Losers) as Patrick ‘Lights Out’ Leary, an aging former heavyweight boxing champion who struggles to find his identity and support his wife and three daughters after retiring from the ring. Financial problems leave him at a perilous crossroads – battling the urge to return to boxing or reluctantly accepting a job as a brutal and intimidating debt collector.
Though for our purposes here, it also stars Billy Brown as ‘Death Row’ Reynolds, Leary’s rival, his Apollo Creed if you will. Brown has been in the acting game for some time now. His most most recent film was, Race to Witch Mountain, alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He also...
- 1/11/2011
- by Curtis the Media Man
- ShadowAndAct
So… I’m sitting here watching Mario Van Peebles’ Universal Soldier/Terminator/Robocop movie, aka Solo, and I’m having a good time, in the worst way… laughing a lot, but whatever; It’s a silly bad flick; just call it a guilty pleasure. I haven’t seen it in awhile, and had completely forgotten about Adrien Brody’s pivotal role in it, as Solo’s designer. This was some 6 years before his Academy Award-winning performance in The Pianist. We all have to start somewhere right?
Solo was based on a 1989 science fiction novel by Robert Mason titled Weapon. Never read it.
Anywho… it got me thinking… despite how painfully derivative it is, I couldn’t immediately name another similar sci-fi flick that featured a cyborg/robot star character of “African descent.” Looking at all the influences I mentioned above (the Universal Soldier/Terminator/Robocop franchises) and others, they’ve...
Solo was based on a 1989 science fiction novel by Robert Mason titled Weapon. Never read it.
Anywho… it got me thinking… despite how painfully derivative it is, I couldn’t immediately name another similar sci-fi flick that featured a cyborg/robot star character of “African descent.” Looking at all the influences I mentioned above (the Universal Soldier/Terminator/Robocop franchises) and others, they’ve...
- 1/6/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Winners of the 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Awards were announced Monday night in a ceremony hosted by Lisa Kron at Cooper Union. The It Awards celebrate the stars of the Off-Off-Broadway community. The event was available for streaming and was live-blogged by theatre critics Doug Strassler and Aaron Riccio at www.nyitawards.com/live, where a rebroadcast is available. The list of nominees follows with the winners' names in bold.Outstanding Ensemble Marc Bovino, Joe Curnutte, Michael Dalto, Stephanie Wright Thompson, Samuel and Alasdair: "A Personal History of the Robot War"Christine Rebecca Herzog, Itsuko Higashi, Jubil Khan; "Fêtes de la Nuit" Kaela Crawford, Julia Giolzetti, Caitlin Mehner, Alison Scaramella, Stephanie Strohm; "Pink!" Jenny Bennett, Melissa D. Brown, John Graham, John J. Isgro, Courtney Kochuba, Kyle Minshew, Amanda Nichols, Katherine Nolan Brown, Jed Peterson, Sean Reidy, Miranda Shields, Douglas Taurel, Nate Washburn; "The Disorder Plays" Joie Bauer, David Bishins, Gina Nagy Burns,...
- 9/21/2010
- backstage.com
The following is a list of Los Angeles-area stage and film acting schools, teachers, and coaches organized by category and alphabetically.Each of the entries contains the following information, if applicable: name of teacher or school; address; phone and fax numbers; email address and/or website; average number of students per class; whether beginning, intermediate, or advanced students are taught; whether auditing is permitted; whether a work/study program is offered. Descriptions of the class, school, or coaching are provided by the instructor of institution and edited by Back Stage.Schools of teacher who have been omitted may contact, in writing, Listing, c/o Back Stage, 5055 Wilshire Blvd., 6th floor, Los Angeles, CA 90036, so that we may include you in our next list. Acting Technique/Scene StudyAARON McPherson STUDIOWest Hollywood, CA aaron@aaronmcphersonstudio.comwww.aaronmcphersonstudio.com310-918-5335Class size varies, 12 max. for auditioning class, 40 max. for scene study; day...
- 6/18/2010
- backstage.com
Lady Antebellum took the lead this year with seven Country Music Award nominations, while Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood came in second with six each. The 45th annual star-studded event, produced by Dick Clark Productions, will air live on CBS from the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino on April 18.
Check out the full list of nominees:
Entertainer of the Year
Kenny Chesney
Toby Keith
Brad Paisley
George Strait
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood
Keith Urban
Zac Brown Band...
Check out the full list of nominees:
Entertainer of the Year
Kenny Chesney
Toby Keith
Brad Paisley
George Strait
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood
Keith Urban
Zac Brown Band...
- 3/3/2010
- Extra
DVD Playhouse—January 2010
By
Allen Gardner
The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment) Absorbing character study follows the leader (Jeremy Renner) of a bomb squad unit in Iraq and his growing addiction to the adrenaline-fueled life and death edge that he and his men must walk on a daily basis. Director Kathryn Bigelow, an unheralded great filmmaker for nearly two decades, has finally hit paydirt with this gut-wrenching examination of war as drug, as opposed to hell. That said, The Hurt Locker is 2/3 of a great movie that takes a wild left turn in a subplot involving Renner’s character and that of a local boy to whom he takes a shine, and never quite recovers its momentum. In spite of that hiccup, it remains one of the best films of 2009 and, thus far, the finest cinematic exploration of America’s war in the Middle East. Also available on Blu-ray disc, in...
By
Allen Gardner
The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment) Absorbing character study follows the leader (Jeremy Renner) of a bomb squad unit in Iraq and his growing addiction to the adrenaline-fueled life and death edge that he and his men must walk on a daily basis. Director Kathryn Bigelow, an unheralded great filmmaker for nearly two decades, has finally hit paydirt with this gut-wrenching examination of war as drug, as opposed to hell. That said, The Hurt Locker is 2/3 of a great movie that takes a wild left turn in a subplot involving Renner’s character and that of a local boy to whom he takes a shine, and never quite recovers its momentum. In spite of that hiccup, it remains one of the best films of 2009 and, thus far, the finest cinematic exploration of America’s war in the Middle East. Also available on Blu-ray disc, in...
- 1/19/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
First off I need to apologize for the tardiness of this entry. I was infected with the swine pandemic and was unable to do anything but utter “Bbbbraaaiiinsssss…” feebly from my bed. Now I’m up and about again, so here we go.
One of the first things to do when making your movie is figure out who your main character is going to be. Now, you may pick your plot first and then figure what kind of protagonist you want or you may pick your characters and write about what they do – it all depends on your style of writing. In either case, understanding your protagonist(s) is very important since these are the people whom the plot revolves around, who we will come to know and love and who we will follow for the next 120 minutes. They will be our tour guides through your movie so you have...
One of the first things to do when making your movie is figure out who your main character is going to be. Now, you may pick your plot first and then figure what kind of protagonist you want or you may pick your characters and write about what they do – it all depends on your style of writing. In either case, understanding your protagonist(s) is very important since these are the people whom the plot revolves around, who we will come to know and love and who we will follow for the next 120 minutes. They will be our tour guides through your movie so you have...
- 11/1/2009
- by Marco Duran
- Atomic Popcorn
Black Eyed Peas' member Stacy Ferguson a.k.a Fergie will be collaborating with Slash for his solo debut album. Breaking the news to the media is his wife Perla Hudson during an interview with The Rockerrazzi.
Beside Fergie, another artist mentioned to be the former Guns N' Roses' guitarist's collaborator is Ozzy Osbourne. "It's going to be Slash and friends, with everyone from Ozzy (Osbourne) to Fergie," Perla said in a statement.
When asked about Slash's feeling over Guns N' Roses' latest LP "Chinese Democracy", Perla stated that he "feels great about it." She explained, "He feels great about it ('Chinese Democracy'). It's long-awaited. Our kids like it but they also like Elmo, so that goes without saying."
In related news, Fergie will take a hosting job with Ryan Seacrest at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. Aired on ABC on December 31, the event will feature performances from Ne-Yo,...
Beside Fergie, another artist mentioned to be the former Guns N' Roses' guitarist's collaborator is Ozzy Osbourne. "It's going to be Slash and friends, with everyone from Ozzy (Osbourne) to Fergie," Perla said in a statement.
When asked about Slash's feeling over Guns N' Roses' latest LP "Chinese Democracy", Perla stated that he "feels great about it." She explained, "He feels great about it ('Chinese Democracy'). It's long-awaited. Our kids like it but they also like Elmo, so that goes without saying."
In related news, Fergie will take a hosting job with Ryan Seacrest at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. Aired on ABC on December 31, the event will feature performances from Ne-Yo,...
- 12/2/2008
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
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