Elmore Leonard talks about writing, Westerns, crime fiction, adaptations and Justified. “They made me an executive producer on the show, and executive producers don’t’ really do anything. I thought, ‘How can I sit here and collect money and not do anything?’ So I wrote a book, Raylan.”
“As a Black man in American, I brought something to the screen that hadn’t really been there before.”Jim Brown talks about his film career, making the transition from football to film and producing films in two parts of a documentary by Spike Lee. Here and here.
Jim Emerson ponders what he finds good and bad in Django Unchained and a lot of the good is Christoph Waltz: “Quentin Tarantino has found his actor in Christoph Waltz — someone who can speak Tarantinian fluently and still make it his own.” (via Roger Ebert)
Jelani Cobb considers Django Unchained and history at The New Yorker. “Tarantino’s attempt to craft a hero who stands apart from the other men—black and white—of his time is not a riff on history, it’s a riff on the mythology we’ve mistaken for history. Were the film aware of that distinction, Django would be far [...]
Tales of derring-do! Girl adventurers! Occult mystery! Infernal foes! Secrets revealed! Pirates! Love, loss & betrayal! Intricate art bound in lovely hardcovers! Indie going mainstream! Original creations! It’s been an incredible year for comics. So many good ones that I can’t even begin to claim to know what would be the best comics of 2012. [...]
Tanya Steele watches Lincoln and Django Unchained back to back. “I needed to get a glimpse of what slavery was like in the imagination of white men.” (Thanks, Mike White!)
The Movie Morlocks’ R. Emmet Sweeney shares his favorite film discoveries of 2012.
This week Screen Editor alex MacFadyen and Comics Editor Carol Borden continue discussing The Dark Knight Rises. We both like Batman and we’re fascinated by how many different Batmans there are. Even though there are things we like about the film, we want to figure out what is it about The Dark Knight Rises‘ Batman [...]
“Many decades ago I took a class in English Romantic poetry from a professor who made the peculiar claim that anyone who wants to understand poetry should read or watch Westerns.” Bill Ott writes of appreciating the poetry of Westerns.
Movie Morlocks‘ Kimberly Lindbergs explores Toshiro Mifune’s influence on Westerns, Westerns’ influence on Akira Kurosawa, and Red Sun, a Western directed by Terence Young and starring Toshiro Mifune, Charles Bronson, Alain Delon and Ursula Andress.
Screenwriter and director Frank Pierson has died. Pierson wrote such films as Dog Day Afternoon, Cat Ballou, The Anderson Tapes and Cool Hand Luke. Pierson also wrote teleplays for Have Gun Will Travel, The Naked City, Lakota Woman: The Siege at Wounded Knee, Mad Men and The Good Wife. The Hollywood Reporter has more on [...]
Comic artist Tony De Zuñiga has died. Zuñiga is best known as co-creator of Jonah Hex and Black Orchid. Not only did he leave us with some fine art, but Zuñiga worked hard to get recognition for fellow Filipino artists. Comic Book Resources has an obituary and a gallery of his work. Here’s a video [...]
Trailers for movies playing at ActionFest 2012: Solomon Kane; Manborg; Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines; The Raid; True Romance; Wu Xia; Dragon Eyes; Let The Bullets Fly; A Gang Story; The Lost Bladesman; God Bless America; Goon; The Aggression Scale; The Day; Headhunters; Transit; Sinners and Saints; Bad Ass; The Wild Bunch [...]
“He was a hero to some, a villain to others, and wherever he rode people spoke his name in whispers. He had no friends, this Jonah Hex, but he did have two companions: One was death itself… The other, the acrid smell of gunsmoke…” I’ve meant to write about Jonah Hex for a long time [...]
Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour is the podcast that brings you, the audience, the thrills and suspense you deserve! Live on stage or delivered wirelessly to you in the comfort and safety of your home. The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour is brought to you by Patriot Brand Cigarettes, “They’re good for your [...]
Cowboys & Freddie W. is actiontastic!
Ennio Morricone conducts and soprano Susanna Rigacci solos on themes from three Sergio Leone Westerns: Once Upon A Time In The West, A Fistful of Dynamite and The Good, The Bad, The Ugly–including, “The Ecstasy of Gold.”
SFSignal has Handshake Magazine’s cinematic history of the future. The timecode in the upper right hand corner.
Actress Jane Russell has died at 89. She starred in films and television in every genre from noirs (Macao with Robert Mitchum) to musicals (Gentleman Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe) to Westerns (The Outlaw). KPBS and The New Yorker have tributes.
Wildgrounds breaks down their most anticipated films of 2011.
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What, it’s June already? I’m sure a I had a whole year here a minute ago. In any case, summer means humidity, allergies, and a sad lack of home AC. This year, it also means squirrels in the roof (don’t ask. No, really).
