Charlton Heston dies at 84
Charlton Heston, one of Hollywood’s most visible and controversial stars, best remembered for such straight-faced heroic roles as Moses in “The Ten Commandments” and the Oscar-winning title role of...
View ArticleJodie Foster to receive Cecil B. DeMille Award
Jodie Foster will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 70th annual Golden Globes on Jan. 13 from the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.
View ArticleParamount’s Longest Employee A.C. Lyles Celebrates 95th Birthday With Mickey...
“Every day is A.C. Lyles Day,” asserted Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge to a well-attended 95th birthday lunch Friday for the Paramount exec at Musso and Frank’s in Hollywood. LaBonge, who reps...
View ArticleMGM’s ‘Ben-Hur’ Remake Draws Timur Bekmambetov
Timur Bekmambetov (“Wanted”) is in negotiations direct MGM’s reboot of “Ben-Hur,” the studio’s 1959 epic starring Charlton Heston. Sean Daniel and Joni Levin are producing the the remake. Jason Brown...
View ArticleWhen Brando Marched With Heston: How Variety Covered the March On Washington
When Daily Variety covered the March on Washington, the banner headline the day after the historic civil rights event read, “March Tramples on D.C. Boxoffice; Showfolk Figure in Demonstration.” The...
View ArticleA Lesson of the ‘Ben-Hur’ Debacle: Movie Stars Still Matter
Up until recently, when a movie turned out to be a major bomb — not just a financial failure but a symbol of waste, a legend, a stink bomb — there was usually a movie star’s name imprinted on it. The...
View ArticleMadrid Has a Cinematic Shooting Past
Since the late 1950s countless large and sometimes legendary Hollywood films have been shot in or near Madrid. Samuel Bronston-produced blockbusters, Anthony Mann’s “The Fall of the Roman Empire” and...
View Article‘Planet of the Apes’ Filmmakers Worried 1968 Original Wouldn’t Be Taken...
Fox’s “War for the Planet of the Apes” is generating strong buzz before its July 14 launch. When the film series began 50 years ago, nobody imagined it would last this long. In fact, they weren’t even...
View ArticleAndrei Cretulescu Finds New Romanian Rhythm in ‘Charleston’
Like the old-fashioned dance from which it takes its name – in which “one of the rules,” as director Andrei Cretulescu slyly notes, “is that you have to switch partners” – “Charleston” pulls off its...
View Article‘Planet of the Apes’ Timeline Explained, From the 1968 Original to ‘Kingdom’
For a writer, signing on to “Planet of the Apes” is less an assignment than a calling. After all, it’s the longest-running science-fiction series in film history. So when Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver,...
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