News

The Russo brothers once again join forces with Avengers: Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for Netflix’s grandeur project The Electric State. The film is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Simon Stålenhag, whose artwork formed the basis of the Prime Video series, Tales from the Loop. However, the budget of the ambitious project has irked many fans as Netflix has allocated $300 million for the project.

Netflix allocates a massive $300 million to its new film The Electric State

The huge budget makes fans question all the other great projects on which the streaming platform pulled the plug. What makes them even more angry is the poor track record of the Russo brothers after their all-time hit Infinity Saga films.

Fans Hate That Russo Brothers Get $300 Million From Netflix While Other Great Projects Get Canceled The first look from Netflix’s The Electric State | Skybound Entertainment...

Rochelle Oliver, who starred on Broadway in Lillian Hellman’s Toys in the Attic and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and taught acting at New York’s respected Hb Studio since the 1970s, has died. She was 86.

Oliver died April 13, the Hb Studio announced. “Those who knew Rochelle will know what a luminous artist, sensitive and passionate teacher she was,” it said in an Instagram post. She died two days shy of her birthday.

For the big screen, Oliver starred in the Horton Foote-written 1918 (1985) and Courtship (1987) and appeared in such other films as The Happy Hooker (1975), Paul Mazursky‘s Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), John Sayles’ Lianna (1983), An Unremarkable Life (1989), Martin Brest’s Scent of a Woman (1992) and Woody Allen’s Hollywood Ending (2002).

She also recurred as Judge Grace Larkin on Law & Order from 1993-03.

A protégé of Uta Hagen — who also taught for decades at Hb and...

As 2023 comes to a close, we here at JoBlo.com would like to take a moment to pay tribute to some of the people who sadly passed away this year. Our deepest respect goes out to everyone in the industry we have lost, and our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of those who died in 2023. These talented individuals will always be remembered for their impact on the world of film and television.

In Memory Of…

Earl Boen

Earl Boen died at the age of 81 on January 5th. The actor was best known as Dr. Peter Silberman in The Terminator, a role he reprised in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, making him the only other actor aside from Arnold Schwarzenegger to appear in the first three movies.

Boen always wanted to inject a little more humour into his performance, but director James Cameron kept telling him no…...

Arthur Hill is launching a new podcast, Mummy’s Boy where he returns to his childhood to spend quality time with his long-suffering mum, Lisa Hill. Arthur is best-known for his impression-filled comedy sketches across his social media channels, including covertly filmed dinner table interactions featuring his mum that have helped him amass over 1.5 million TikTok followers and over 67 million likes on the platform.

Arthur Hill is launching a new podcast with award-winning production company Audio Always.

Fans will know Arthur for his impression-filled comedy sketches across his social media channels, including covertly-filmed dinner table interactions featuring his mum that have helped him amass over 1.5 million TikTok followers and over 67 million likes on the platform.

In new podcast Mummy’s Boy, Arthur is returning to his childhood home to spend some quality time around the kitchen table with his long-suffering mum, Lisa Hill, as he brings her up to speed on his life as a TikTok comedy star and budding musician.

Alongside guiding his mum through the world of social media, viral videos and celebrities, Arthur will also be receiving some much needed advice that only a mother can give as he returns home for an hour every week.

There’s also room for Arthur to invite some friends from his online world around for tea.

What do the 76th annual Tonys have in common with the 17th annual awards?

Stephen Sondheim.

The late, great influential composer is represented in this year’s Tonys with the acclaimed, popular revivals of his 1979 classic “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Street” earning eight nominations and 1987’s “Into the Woods” receiving six.

Sixty years ago, it was Sondheim’s musical comedy “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” which dominated the Tony Awards with six wins: best musical, best producer for Harold Prince, best director for George Abbott, best author for Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, leading actor for Zero Mostel and featured actor for David Burns. Ironically, Sondheim failed to earn a nomination for best original score (music and/or lyrics) written for the theater. He would not win for his tunes until “Company” in 1971. Vying in that category were “Stop the World I Wanted...

Sharon Acker, the Canadian actress who portrayed Lee Marvin’s unfaithful wife in the 1967 neo-noir classic Point Blank and the right-hand woman Della Street opposite Monte Markham on a rebooted Perry Mason in the 1970s, has died. She was 87.

Acker died March 16 in a retirement home in her native Toronto, her daughter Kim Everest, a casting director, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Star Trek fans know Acker for her January 1969 turn as Odona, a desperate woman from an overpopulated planet, on the third-season episode “The Mark of Gideon.”

She also starred on a 1976-77 CBS adaptation of Executive Suite, playing the wife of Mitchell Ryan‘s Dan Walling. (Acker and Ryan assumed the parts performed by William Holden and June Allyson in the 1954 MGM film directed by Robert Wise.)

In John Boorman’s Point Blank, Acker’s character takes up with John Vernon’s Mal Reese after he shoots Walker (Marvin...

Sad news today as it’s been reported that Melinda Dillon, best known for her roles in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and A Christmas Story, has died at the age of 83.

Melinda Dillon played Jillian Guiler in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a mother whose child is abducted by aliens. She was cast in the role just three days before filming began on the recommendation of Hal Ashby, who had directed her in Bound for Glory. Dillon’s performance would earn her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also played Ralphie’s mother in Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story, memorably telling him that he would shoot his eye out if he got a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle. She received another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Sydney Pollack’s Absence of Malice.

Melinda Dillon, who received supporting Oscar nominations for her turns in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice and portrayed the doting mom in the holiday perennial A Christmas Story, died Jan. 9, her family announced. She was 83.

Right out of the gate, Dillon earned a Tony nomination and Theatre World award in 1963 for her debut performance on Broadway as the childlike wife Honey in the original production of Edward Albee‘s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Later, the Arkansas native played two characters opposite David Carradine — Woody Guthrie’s first wife, Mary, and a dark-haired folk singer named Memphis Sue — in the biopic Bound for Glory (1976), directed by Hal Ashby; was a lesbian hockey wife in George Roy Hill’s Slap Shot (1977); and portrayed John Lithgow’s wife in the family film Harry and the Hendersons (1987).

Her big-screen résumé also included Norman Jewison’s F.I.S.T. (1978), as...

A small town in New Mexico is decimated by an alien organism in Robert Wise’s The Andromeda Strain, based on the first book by Michael Crichton (Westworld, Jurassic Park) to be brought to the screen. Though Wise’s film was advertised as a wall-to-wall nail-biter (“The suspense will last a lifetime!”) the movie is largely inert with a buttoned-down cast (including Arthur Hill and David Wayne) that only adds to the general lethargy. The comparatively mild scenes of violence and nudity caused some to question the film’s “G” rating in 1971.

The Andromeda Strain: 71 Split Diopter Shots on Vimeo

The post The Andromeda Strain appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Sally Kellerman, who was Oscar nominated for her supporting role as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s “Mash” feature film, died Thursday in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 84.

Her publicist Alan Eichler confirmed her death, and her daughter Claire added that she had been suffering from dementia for the past five years.

Among her other roles were a cameo in Altman’s “The Player,” a professor in Rodney Dangerfield’s “Back to School” and a Starfleet officer in the “Star Trek” episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”

The willowy blonde actress with the characteristically throaty voice appeared in two Altman films in 1970; the other was the more experimental “Brewster McCloud,” in which she starred with Bud Cort and Michael Murphy. In this film, which did not have a conventional narrative, Kellerman played Louise, the mother of Cort’s bewinged character, Brewster.

She next starred opposite Alan Arkin...

Reni Santoni, who played Poppie in “Seinfeld” and appeared in “Dirty Harry” and other films, died on Aug. 1. He was 81.

According to a Facebook post written by his friend and TV writer-producer Tracy Newman, Santoni died on Saturday morning. He had been “sick for quite a while.”

“Those of you who knew him know how funny he was, what a terrific actor, improviser, performer, etc.,” the post read. “So brilliant. I loved him very much and will miss him terribly. Another great one is gone. I have a lot of wonderful pictures of him, and will post them over the next week. My heart goes out to his son, Nick, who has been such a comfort to Reni over that past five years or more.”

Born in New York City, Santoni built his acting career from off-Broadway theatre, starring in “The Umbrella” and “The Mad Show.” His first significant film...

Jumpin’ gingivitis! Vicious microbes from space threaten the world, and our only hope is a team of scientists in an underground lab in Nevada. But the sneaky germ from the cosmos is a-mutatin’ faster than a mess o’ jackrabbits, to a form that doesn’t just kill people, but totally consumes our flesh! No, it’s not David Cronenberg or Nigel Kneale, but the ultra-literal director Robert Wise that put this slick, expensive Sci-fi thriller on the screen, from the best-seller by the commercially savvy Michael Crichton.

The Andromeda Strain

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1971 / Color / 2:35 / 131 min. / Street Date June 4, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95

Starring: Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid,

Paula Kelly, George Mitchell, Ramon Bieri.

Cinematography: Richard H. Kline

Production Designer: Boris Leven

Film Editors: Stuart Gilmore, John W. Holmes

Original Music: Gil Melle

Special Effects: James Shourt, Albert Whitlock, John Whitney Sr., Douglas Trumbull

Written by...

The small screen is always an interesting place for sequels to land; much less money usually means a smaller vision, but excitingly it can also provide a different one. I’m a big sucker for “what if?” scenarios and Revenge of the Stepford Wives (1980) builds off the downbeat tone of the 1975 theatrical film The Stepford Wives to arrive at a place of satisfying resolution. Yes, you can take that title literally.

Originally airing Sunday, October 12th as part of NBC’s The Big Event, Revenge duked it out with The ABC Sunday Night Movie while CBS was kissing all the grits with their impenetrable lineup of Alice/The Jeffersons/Trapper John, M.D. That’s all well and good if you were in the mood for snarky comedy and lifesaving surgeons, but if you wanted to see suppressed women get their comeuppance, NBC was where you wanted to lay your bonnet that night.

Ross Macdonald’s Cool Cat detective — originally Lew Archer — comes alive in Jack Smight’s smart SoCal kidnapping mystery, thanks to a charismatic Paul Newman and a hot cast of bright, smart actors. It’s the first screenplay sale for the celebrated William Goldman, and the crisp cinematography by ace cameraman Conrad Hall doesn’t hurt either.

Harper

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date February 27, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Shelley Winters, Harold Gould, Roy Jenson, Strother Martin, Martin West, Jacqueline deWit.

Cinematography Conrad Hall

Art Direction Alfred Sweeney

Film Editor Stefan Arnsten

Original Music Johnny Mandel

Written by William Goldman from The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald

Produced by Jerry Gershwin, Elliott Kastner

Directed by Jack Smight

Gumshoe detective movies (as opposed to police movies about detectives) suffered a dip in the 1960s,...

Turner Classic Movies' 2017 Gay Pride film series comes to a close this evening and tomorrow morning, Thursday–Friday, June 29–30, with the presentation of seven movies, hosted by TV interviewer Dave Karger and author William J. Mann, whose books include Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines and Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969. Among tonight's movies' Lgbt connections: Edward Albee, Tony Richardson, Evelyn Waugh, Tab Hunter, John Gielgud, Roddy McDowall, Linda Hunt, Harvey Fierstein, Rudolf Nureyev, Christopher Isherwood, Joel Grey, and Tommy Kirk. Update: Coincidentally, TCM's final 2017 Gay Pride celebration turned out to be held the evening before a couple of international events – and one non-event – demonstrated that despite noticeable progress in the last three decades, gay rights, even in the so-called “West,” still have a long way to go. In Texas, the state's – all-Republican – Supreme Court decided that married gays should be treated as separate and unequal. In...

'Making Love': Groundbreaking romantic gay drama returns to the big screen As part of its Anniversary Classics series, Laemmle Theaters will be presenting Arthur Hiller's groundbreaking 1982 romantic drama Making Love, the first U.S. movie distributed by a major studio that focused on a romantic gay relationship. Michael Ontkean, Harry Hamlin, and Kate Jackson star. The 35th Anniversary Screening of Making Love will be held on Saturday, June 24 – it's Gay Pride month, after all – at 7:30 p.m. at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. The movie will be followed by a Q&A session with Harry Hamlin, screenwriter Barry Sandler, and author A. Scott Berg, who wrote the “story” on which the film is based. 'Making Love' & What lies beneath In this 20th Century Fox release – Sherry Lansing was the studio head at the time – Michael Ontkean plays a...

Few ideas survive the times that spawned them, but Westworld, the 1973 Michael Crichton movie about an Old West amusement park populated by lifelike robots, is good enough that Hollywood's been coming back to it for more than 40 years. The original film, which was MGM's biggest box-office success of the year, spawned a sequel and a short-lived TV series; talk of a remake had been floated around for years, with everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Quentin Tarantino being namedropped around the project at various points. (There was even a porn version,...

On Sunday, Gene Wilder died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 83. His nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman confirmed the news in a statement. "He was eighty-three and passed holding our hands with the same tenderness and love he exhibited as long as I can remember. As our hands clutched and he performed one last breath, the music speaker, which was set to random, began to blare out one of his favorites: Ella Fitzgerald. There is a picture of he and Ella meeting at a London Bistro some years ago that are among each of our cherished possessions. She was singing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,...

On Sunday, Gene Wilder died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 83. His nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman confirmed the news in a statement. "He was eighty-three and passed holding our hands with the same tenderness and love he exhibited as long as I can remember. As our hands clutched and he performed one last breath, the music speaker, which was set to random, began to blare out one of his favorites: Ella Fitzgerald. There is a picture of he and Ella meeting at a London Bistro some years ago that are among each of our cherished possessions. She was singing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,...

Constance Cummings: Stage and film actress ca. early 1940s. Constance Cummings on stage: From Sacha Guitry to Clifford Odets (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Flawless 'Blithe Spirit,' Supporter of Political Refugees.”) In the post-World War II years, Constance Cummings' stage reputation continued to grow on the English stage, in plays as diverse as: Stephen Powys (pseudonym for P.G. Wodehouse) and Guy Bolton's English-language adaptation of Sacha Guitry's Don't Listen, Ladies! (1948), with Cummings as one of shop clerk Denholm Elliott's mistresses (the other one was Betty Marsden). “Miss Cummings and Miss Marsden act as fetchingly as they look,” commented The Spectator. Rodney Ackland's Before the Party (1949), delivering “a superb performance of controlled hysteria” according to theater director and Michael Redgrave biographer Alan Strachan, writing for The Independent at the time of Cummings' death. Clifford Odets' Winter Journey / The Country Girl (1952), as...

By David S. Schow

Hall: “Where’s the library?”

Dutton: “No need for books — everything’s in the computer.”

One of the few regrets of my adult life is that I never got to meet Michael Crichton, who died too young, November 2008. Eminently emulatable, he had conquered publishing, film and television and remains a personal hero. I was hooked from the moment my father returned from his Arctic DEWLine duties bearing a paperback first printing of The Andromeda Strain, which I plowed through while in high school. Then immediately re-read, and re-read again.

I still have that paperback.

Subsequently I devoured everything Crichton wrote — the “John Lange” potboilers written to pay his way through medical school; the landmark A Case of Need (written as “Jeffrey Hudson;” a stingingly strong pro-choice novel done prior to the Roe v. Wade decision); even the dope fantasia Dealing, written with his brother as “Michael Douglas.

Today on Trailers from Hell, "Paranormal Activity" writer/director Oren Peli appraises Robert Wise's understated 1971 diseased panic film "The Andromeda Strain." A small town in New Mexico is decimated by an alien organism in Robert Wise's "The Andromeda Strain," based on the first book by Michael Crichton to be brought to the screen. Though Wise's film was advertised as a wall-to-wall nail-biter ("The suspense will last a lifetime!") the movie is largely inert with a buttoned-down cast (including Arthur Hill and David Wayne) that only adds to the general lethargy. The comparatively mild scenes of violence and nudity caused some to question the film's "G" rating in 1971.

A small town in New Mexico is decimated by an alien organism in Robert Wise's The Andromeda Strain, based on the first book by Michael Crichton (Westworld, Jurassic Park) to be brought to the screen. Though Wise's film was advertised as a wall-to-wall nail-biter ("The suspense will last a lifetime!") the movie is largely inert with a buttoned-down cast (including Arthur Hill and David Wayne) that only adds to the general lethargy. The comparatively mild scenes of violence and nudity caused some to question the film's "G" rating in 1971.

The post The Andromeda Strain appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf has been an essential part of American theater - even more to the point, American culture - for over half a century. When we talk about long-ago stage productions of great plays, most of us have to imagine. In the case of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, we have something far better in the winter of 1963, a few months after the play opened, Columbia Records took the unusual step of bringing the original cast - Uta Hagen, Arthur Hill, Melinda Dillon and George Grizzard - into the studio to perform the entire play for an audio recording. It has been unavailable since the LP era, but now Masterworks Broadway proudly releases this important recording for the first time in the digital era. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfwill be available for purchase exclusively via MasterworksBroadway.com on February 18 in a limited quantity of...

Most classic sci-fi movie fans should remember Westworld, but have you seen the sequel? 1976′s Futureworld will be making its Blu-ray debut, courtesy of Shout! Factory, and we have all the details:

“Do you remember that disaster at Delos a few years ago when the “Westworld” robots went out of control and killed a few guests? Well, the entire resort has now been rebuilt and redesigned to be completely fail-safe.

To combat the lingering adverse publicity, Duffy, the Delos representative, has offered the Imc Communication Network exclusive rights to the “new” Delos story. Tracy Ballard (Blythe Danner), the network’s top commentator, has been assigned the story with Chuck Browning (Peter Fonda), the newspaper reporter who broke the original “Westworld” disaster story. But as Tracy and Chuck’s private tour starts, they get the feeling the entire resort might not be as safe as Delos thinks…”

Special Features:

Theatrical...

"Frankenstein" (1931): Since it involves a scientist's (Colin Clive) creation of a synthetic man (Boris Karloff), this most legendary movie version of Mary Shelley's story has to be considered one of the classic examples of this genre.

"The Satan Bug" (1965): An ex-government agent's (George Maharis) pursuit of two missing vials of a deadly virus fuels this gripping adaptation of an Alistair MacLean novel.

"The Andromeda Strain" (1971): In giving life (or, in the cases of some characters, death) to Michael Crichton's novel, director Robert Wise wisely uses a cast of frequent supporting players -- including Arthur Hill, David Wayne and Kate Reid -- as scientists fighting a lethal germ from a high-tech underground lab.

"Coma" (1978): Remade this week as an A&E Network miniseries, Robin Cook's best-seller -- first brought to the screen by the aforementioned Crichton -- casts Genevieve Bujold as a headstrong Boston...

Sad news today as actor Jeff Conaway has died from complications from pneumonia and sepsis, after being placed in a medically-induced coma. Conaway was 60 years-old when he died. Conaway was a staple of 1970s sitcom "Taxi," playing the street savvy charismatic taxicab driver Bobby Wheeler, along with Christopher Lloyd, Marilu Henner, Judd Hirsch, Tony Danza, Danny DeVito and the late Andy Kaufman. He also appeared in "Grease" with Olivia Newton-John. Conaway came from an acting family and won his first role he auditioned for which was a Broadway play called "All The Way Home", starring Lillian Gish, Colleen Dewhurst and Arthur Hill. Conaway, who had a history of chemical addictions, was hospitalized earlier this month after...

Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — which earned accolades in Chicago and Washington this winter (check out our A review) — will bow on Broadway next year. Its Oct. 13, 2012 opening marks the 50th anniversary of the drama’s first turn on the Great White Way, when Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill hashed it out as Albee’s most famous feuding alcohol-soaked marrieds, Martha and George. (Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin portrayed the pair in the most recent 2005 revival.) This time around, the original Steppenwolf cast of Tracy Letts and Amy Morton (the writer and star,...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

This Week’s New Instant Releases…

Promised Lands (1974)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Documentary

Director: Susan Sontag

Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.

Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles

Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

This Week’s New Instant Releases… Title: Black Heaven (2010)

Streaming Available: 04/12/2011

Cast: Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Louise Bourgoin, Melvil Poupaud, Pauline Etienne, Pierre Niney, Ali Marhyar, Patrick Descamps, Pierre Vittet, Swann Arlaud, Francesco Merenda

Director: Gilles Marchand

Synopsis: While searching for the owner of a missing mobile phone with his girlfriend, Marion (Pauline Etienne), Gaspard (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) falls for the mysterious Sam (Louise Bourgoin), who draws him into a dangerous virtual-reality video game, where she provokes unsuspecting victims into killing themselves. Directed by Gilles Marchand, this intense French drama alternates between real-life events and those within the simulated computer world. Title: Heartless (2009)

Streaming Available: 04/12/2011

Cast: Jim Sturgess, Clémence Poésy , Noel Clarke, Luke Treadaway, Justin Salinger,...

DVD Playhouse—March 2011

By

Allen Gardner

127 Hours (20th Century Fox) Harrowing true story of Aron Ralston (James Franco, in another fine turn), an extreme outdoorsman who finds himself trapped in a remote Utah canyon, his arm pinned between two boulders, with no help nearby, no communication to the outside world, and dim prospects for survival, to say the least. Director Danny Boyle manages to prove again that he’s one of the finest filmmakers working today by making a subject that is seemingly uncinematic a true example of pure cinema. Inventive, breathtaking, funny, and horrifying, often all at once. Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara make a memorable, brief appearance as hikers who connect with Ralston during his journey. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Boyle, producer Christian Colson, co-writer Simon Beaufoy; Deleted scenes; Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.

Amarcord (Criterion) Federico Fellini’s Oscar-winning, autobiographical classic might...

Between them, they have nearly a century’s worth of TV programming experience, and were part of a generation of Home Box Office management which helped turn company into the premier subscription television service not only in the U.S., but in the world. Their longevity has given them the opportunity to live through their company’s change from a raucously-growing enterprise to a mature business, evolving from what had primarily been a movie service to a programmer just as identified with such acclaimed, high-profile original programming as The Sopranos, Band of Brothers, True Blood, and, most recently, Boardwalk Empire.

Still, they have spent most of their professional lives dealing with movies. A production executive at a major studio might deal with two dozen released films a year. Programmers at HBO (and its sister channel Cinemax) easily deal with over a thousand. They appraise them, try to understand what people...

Say your husband's a big jerk. He yells at you and he's mean. But, on the other hand, he's rich and powerful and you're kind of superficial so you don't want to live without money or power. But still, he's a jerk and you hate him a lot.

Then imagine that one day you're out in the desert on some sort of mineral scouting trek with your meanie husband and a hot scruffy down-home cowboy type who is acting as your guide. (Also, I should mention that it's the 70s, so your idea of fashion is a polyester pantsuit and the hottie cowboy mineral speculator for sure has a mustache.) Your husband, in true form, drinks and is mean to you and the cowboy. This bugs you immensely. So when, due to his general jerk nature, your hubby spooks his horse, the horse throws him and he tumbles down a...

Actor who was at his best in shadowy roles

The actor Maury Chaykin, who has died aged 61 after a heart-valve infection, was an American and a Canadian citizen, and his career reflected his dual nationality. In the Us, he was a familiar face, if not a recognisable name, playing small but telling roles in major films. His breakthrough came in Dances With Wolves (1990), playing Major Fambrough, who sends Kevin Costner on his frontier assignment and then kills himself. Chaykin's only leading role was in the cable TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001), as the titular detective who refuses to leave his house, delegating that to his assistant (Timothy Hutton).

In Canada, Chaykin was something of a national treasure. He won a Genie award for best actor for his performance as a Brian Wilson-like burned-out rock star in Whale Music (1994), gave remarkable performances in three films directed by Atom Egoyan...

Arthur Hill, a Tony winner who also starred in the TV series Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, has died. He was 84.

Hill died Sunday at a Pacific Palisades, Calif., care facility after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, his friend Walter Seltzer said Thursday.

Hill won a Tony Award in 1962 for his performance as George in the original production of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" He played the embattled character for 15 months on Broadway and an additional three months in London.

In Owen Marshall, which ran from 1971-74, he starred as an earnest, congenial lawyer who ran a small law office with one younger partner, played by Lee Majors.

Throughout his career, the actor, who was born in Melfort, Saskatchewan, in 1922, was most recognizable playing distinguished, affable characters. He moved to the U.K. in 1948 and performed in a variety of stage productions, then moved to New York 10 years later and established himself on Broadway.

Arthur Hill, a Tony winner who also starred in the TV series Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, has died. He was 84.

Hill died Sunday at a Pacific Palisades, Calif., care facility after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, his friend Walter Seltzer said Thursday.

Hill won a Tony Award in 1962 for his performance as George in the original production of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" He played the embattled character for 15 months on Broadway and an additional three months in London.

In Owen Marshall, which ran from 1971-74, he starred as an earnest, congenial lawyer who ran a small law office with one younger partner, played by Lee Majors.

Throughout his career, the actor, who was born in Melfort, Saskatchewan, in 1922, was most recognizable playing distinguished, affable characters. He moved to the U.K. in 1948 and performed in a variety of stage productions, then moved to New York 10 years later and established himself on Broadway.