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Last year, legendary filmmaker John Carpenter teamed up with Shout! Factory to host a kaiju movie marathon called Masters of Monsters, which consisted of the original Godzilla film, Rodan; Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, and The War of the Gargantuas. That marathon was re-run earlier this month. Now the folks at Far Out magazine have dug up a 1996 article from Film Comment magazine in which Carpenter named The War of the Gargantuas as “the ultimate Japanese monster movie” – and included it on a list of his seventeen favorite “guilty pleasure” movies. It’s a fun list, so we have it included below, with thanks to this site.

Carpenter started out the Film Comment guilty pleasures article by saying, “I wasn’t raised a Catholic, so guilt never played much of a role in my life. We Methodists don’t worry about guilt all that much. In terms of cinema, however, guilt has always been very important.

SXSW has unveiled William Shatner, Jen Psaki and Tilda Swinton as among the latest additions to the speaker lineup for the upcoming conference and festival in Austin, Texas. The 37th annual edition of SXSW will celebrate the convergence of film, television, music and technology from March 10-19.

Other notables joining the lineup include Chef José Andrés, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kristen Bell, Dax Shepard, Chelsea Manning and New Order band members Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert.

Hugh Forrest, SXSW’s chief programming officer and co-president said, “Today’s speaker announcement is a fantastic milestone for the 2023 event and spotlights four additional Keynotes and numerous Featured Speakers, including influential icons and up and coming innovators.” Forrest added, “We are extremely proud to have assembled a diverse, comprehensive conference program for SXSW, and we can’t wait to share it with our community in March.”

See the full list of newly...

Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Tilda Swinton and chef José Andrés are among the next round of keynote speakers announced for South by Southwest 2023.

Event organizers announced Tuesday the next round of keynote speakers, featured speakers and keynote sessions confirmed for SXSW, which celebrates the convergence of technology, film, television, and music.

Members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-nominated rock band New Order, Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris, and Gillian Gilbert, as well as Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and producer Margo Price join Chopra Jonas and Swinton as keynotes. Additional featured speakers will include Kristen Bell, Dax Shepard, Chelsea Handler, William Shatner, Chelsea Manning and more.

Previously announced Keynote speakers include Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert in conversation with Katie Couric.

Set as featured speakers for the 37th edition of the annual conference are Chair and CEO of General Motors Mary Barra; CEO, Cto, President, and co-founder of Cruise and co-founder of Twitch Kyle Vogt...

The disc of the year has finally arrived and it’s 1000 worth the wait. William Cameron Menzies’ flight into schoolboy paranoia now really looks like it ought to hang in the Louvre; the entire show is inspired Modern Art. When Martians conduct a brain-snatching takeover of Middle America little David MacLean must save the day, with an assist from an astronomer buddy and a sexy city nurse. The review is mostly concerned with how the new Ignite release looks and sounds. The rejuvenation of this fantasy masterpiece will turn fans of the 1950s sci-fi boom back into delighted ‘Gee Whiz’ kids.

Invaders from Mars

Blu-ray

Ignite Films

1953 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 81 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 that was the plan … delivery expected . . . ? / Available from Ignite Films / 55.00

Starring: Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke, Morris Ankrum, Max Wagner, William Phipps, Milburn Stone, Janine Perreau, Barbara Billingsley, Peter Brocco, Richard Deacon,...

Hollywood’s most macho liberals pack this action western with cheating, double crosses, rampant greed, uncouth heroes and decadent sneering villains… and that’s not counting the wall-to-wall revolutionary carnage. Toothy Burt Lancaster and philosophical Gary Cooper double-deal with cannon-fodder Juaristas and Cesar Romero’s decadent Frenchman, to steal a fortune in gold. Francois Truffaut called it ‘the first cynical western.’ Robert Aldrich’s direction emphasizes wince-inducing violence. The ‘dirty dozen’- like supporting freebooters include Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jack Elam and Archie Savage. This eye-opening blockbuster strongly influenced Sergio Leone’s Italo westerns made ten years later.

Vera Cruz

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 1:2.0 widescreen (Superscope) / 94 min. / Street Date October 12, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper, Sarita Montiel, George Macready, Denise Darcel, Morris Ankrum, Charles Buchinsky (Bronson), Ernest Borgnine. Jack Elam, Henry Brandon, Archie Savage, Jack Lambert.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Production Designer: Alfred Ybarra...

Yes, sometimes a producer could earn ‘auteur’ status making B pictures. A name that’s never going to be uttered in the same breath as Val Lewton is Sam Katzman, who for the 1950s settled into a profitable tenure making Columbia program pictures. They pretty much stayed in the category of ‘obvious junk’ yet include a number of endearing favorites. And Katzman deserved to slip through the pearly gates just for helping get Ray Harryhausen’s feature career into motion. Besides their minimal production outlay, Katzman’s horror/sci fi attractions have one strange thing in common: they don’t carry Columbia torch Lady logos. Part One of this review takes on two of the four features in Arrow’s gorgeously appointed boxed set; reviewer Charlie Largent will follow with a review of the second pair of creature features.

Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman

Part 1: Zombies of Mora Tau...

The Wade Williams Collection yields another ’50s sci-fi notable, Monogram Pictures’ ambitious space travel movie filmed in glorious green-challenged Cinecolor. Cameron Mitchell and Arthur Franz sign up for a semi-suicidal space expedition, but instead of murderous Bat-Rat-Spider-Crabs, waiting for them on Mars is the glamorous, mini-skirted Marguerite Chapman. It’s core sci-fi fun from early in the Golden Era. The Film Detective adds a commentary, two new featurettes and an insert booklet; the film itself is lovingly restored to its original Cinecolor brilliance.

Flight to Mars

Blu-ray

The Film Detective

1951 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 72 min. / Street Date July 20, 2021 / Available from The Film Detective / 24.95

Starring: Marguerite Chapman, Cameron Mitchell, Arthur Franz, Virginia Huston, John Litel, Morris Ankrum, Richard Gaines, Lucille Barkley, Robert Barrat, Russ Conway, Edward Earle, Everett Glass.

Cinematography: Harry Neumann

Production Designer: Ted Haworth

Film Editor, Associate Producer: Richard Heermance

Special Effects: Jack Cosgrove, Irving Block, Jack Rabin

Original Music:...

The Arthur Freed MGM musical unit gives this 1927 musical remake the old College Try! It’s a vehicle for the wartime sweetheart June Allyson, aided by Peter Lawford, who is quite good if not real musical material. The fun original tunes are joined by a couple of new ones, including an all-time terrific song & dance number staged by Robert Alton and performed by the incredible Joan McCracken. The new restoration does wonders with the 1947 Technicolor and the Wac adds hilarious, eye-opening musical excerpts from the crazy 1930 early talkie version with Penny Singleton. Good news indeed. With Patricia Marshall, Mel Tormé and Tommy Rall.

Good News

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1947 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 93 min. / Street Date January 26, 2021 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Joan McCracken, Patricia Marshall, Ray McDonald, Mel Tormé, Robert E. Strickland, Donald MacBride, Tom Dugan, Clinton Sundberg, Loren Tindall, Connie Gilchrist, Morris Ankrum, Tommy Rall,...

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By John M. Whalen

At the opening of “Taza, Son of Cochise,” (1954), it’s 1875 and the great Apache Chief Cochise (Jeff Chandler) is dying. At his side are his two sons, Taza (Rock Hudson) and Naiche. He asks them to continue the peace he made with the White Eyes after his death. Naturally, if the two sons were in agreement the movie would have ended right there. But in fact, they don’t agree. Taza wants to do as his father said. But Naiche hates the white man and intends to side up with Grey Eagle (Morris Ankrum) and Geronimo (Ian MacDonald) and start the war up again. If that isn’t enough complication to make a movie out of, writers George Drayson Adams and George Zuckerman add in a rivalry between the two brothers over the affections of Oona (Barbara Rush), Grey Eagle’s beautiful daughter.

¡Ai Caramba! It’s the best movie ever made about a killer Spanish Conquistador from beyond the grave. This is probably the most satisfying of Richard Cunha’s monster romps despite being rudimentary in all respects. The script is dire and the monster just a generic bogeyman, but the actors are pleasant and the locations attractive. The filmmakers had the last laugh anyway, as the plain-wrap show garnered a nationwide theatrical release. The Film Detective wisely brought on Tom Weaver to front the extras, as he had the picture fully documented years ago.

Giant from the Unknown

Blu-ray

The Film Detective

1958 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 78 min. / Street Date January 15, 2021 / Available from The Film Detective / 24.95

Starring: Ed Kemmer, Sally Fraser, Bob Steele, Morris Ankrum, Buddy Baer, Gary Crutcher, Oliver Blake, Jolene Brand, Billy Dix.

Cinematography: Dick Cunha

Makeup: Jack P. Pierce

Original Music: Albert Glasser

Written by Frank Hart Taussig, Ralph Brooke

Produced by Marc Frederick,...

In 2001 I wrote, ‘Someday I’ll get to see a good copy of Robert Aldrich’s great movie Apache.’ Kino’s excellent new Blu-ray of a recent MGM remaster brings back the color and the correct screen shape, and even cleans up some wicked frame damage that’s been there for sixty years. The athletic Burt Lancaster will make every man and boy feel like running across whatever landscape is available, leaping like a gymnast from rock to rock. Properly restored, the tale of the rebellious Massai plays better than a dozen politically revisionist westerns, even with Burt as a blue-eyed Apache. The movie solidified Lancaster’s producing career and Robert Aldrich earned his first box office hit.

Apache

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date December 1, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Jean Peters, Charles Bronson, John McIntire, John Dehner, Walter Sande, Paul Guilfoyle.

Cinematography:...

Available in Blu-ray & DVD, the 1958 Science-Fiction Cult Classic Giant From The Unknown Returns in Limited-Edition. Giant Cult Film Collector’s Box Set for the Holidays; General Release Scheduled for Jan. 19th. Check out the Trailer:

The Film Detective (Tfd), a classic media streaming network and film archive that restores and distributes classic films for today’s cord-cutters, announces the release of Richard E. Cunha’s science-fiction classic, Giant from the Unknown(1958),on limited-edition Blu-ray and DVD. The Giant from the Unknownrelease comes as the latest in a series of restorations in collaboration with The Wade Williams Collection.

For the first time ever, Tfd presents film fans with the ultimate cinematic experience, offering Giant from the Unknown in a Limited-Edition Giant Cult Film Box Set, available to order now through Nov. 13 from Tfd store via Imagen, delivered by Dec. 17 in time for the holidays.

Cult classic fans who order the Limited-Edition...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

Great 3-D thrills — Hollywood was working to perfect 3-D movies just as the craze died out. An impeccable Blu-ray 3-D restoration, the glory of young Rock Hudson and some of the best Utah scenery in depth makes this a very enjoyable disc. Director Douglas Sirk was itching to do a western, and the swiftly rising star Rock Hudson wanted to work for him again, even though it meant playing another Indian role. Were these men that desperate to get out of Hollywood for a month? At least they avoided filming in nuclear test sites…

Taza, Son of Cochise

3-D Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 2.00:1 widescreen / 79 min. / Street Date May 26, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, Gregg Palmer, Rex Reason, Morris Ankrum, Eugene Iglesias, Richard H. Cutting, Ian MacDonald, Robert Burton, Joe Sawyer, Lance Fuller, Charles Horvath, Jeff Chandler, William Leslie, Barbara Burck, most of Utah.

Cinematography:...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

Gee whiz, sci-fi sure was simple in the early ‘50s, wasn’t it? Slap a little Red Scare subtext here, a damsel in distress there, scientists, the military, and of course aliens rounding out the films that beamed from every drive-in on a Saturday night. One of the earliest (and best) of the bunch is Invaders from Mars (1953), which sets itself apart by employing a unique viewpoint and having spectacular and surreal production design. Don’t write this off as a cheap time waster, you whippersnappers.

Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox near the end of April, this independent production received some favorable notices and made a swift return on its $290,000 budget, for good reason – seen through a child’s eyes, it captures that imagination and runs with it for 78 minutes, shoddy getups and all. Invaders from Mars is told with the fervor of an excited youth playing catch up with an exploding imagination.

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

The ‘other’ Hollywood studio version of the Alamo story is quite good, with strong production values, exciting stunt battle action and something Republic Pictures didn’t manage very often, a solid screenplay. Sterling Hayden is Jim Bowie, this version’s central hero, with great backup from Anna Maria Alberghetti, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish, and Ben Cooper. But best of all is that old hay-shaker Arthur Hunnicutt, as the movies’ best and most natural Davy Crockett.

The Last Command

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1955 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date December 11, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Richard Carlson, Arthur Hunnicutt, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish, Ben Cooper, John Russell, Virginia Grey, Jim Davis, Eduard Franz, Otto Kruger, Russell Simpson, Roy Roberts, Slim Pickens, Hugh Sanders, Morris Ankrum, Argentina Brunetti, Robert Burton.

Cinematography: Jack A. Marta

Film Editor: Tony Martinelli

Original Music: Max Steiner

Special Effects: Howard...

It’s time to celebrate the Irwin Allen disaster epics for what they are — huge, indigestible spectacles that first seem funny and then congeal into a cinematic badness that words cannot describe. This sprawling ordeal tortures good actors and shatters every limit of audience patience. I alone have survived to tell thee. Is a fair review even possible?

The Swarm

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1978 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 156 116 min. /Extended Edition / Street Date September 25, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, José Ferrer, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Cameron Mitchell, Christian Juttner, Alejandro Rey.

Cinematography: Fred J. Koenekamp

Film Editor: Harold F. Kress

Visual Effects: L.B. Abbott

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Written by Stirling Silliphant, from the novel by Arthur Herzog

Produced and Directed by Irwin Allen

“I never dreamed that it would...

It’s a review. No, it’s a rant. Stop, you’re both right. CineSavant’s overt mission is to demonstrate that old movies, especially old Science Fiction movies, are more relevant than ever. There is at present no authorized home video release of this amazing 1952 politico-religious pretzel of a movie. The surprise is that it accurately presages the media hysteria that underpins our present day Info Wars. Fake News comes from the sky, and a major world revolution results — for the better? Will religious fundamentalism rule all? This may be the most radical faith-based picture ever made.

Red Planet Mars

Revival Screening Review

Not on DVD

1952 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 87 min.

Starring: Peter Graves, Andrea King, Herbert Berghof, Walter Sande, Marvin Miller, Willis Bouchey, Morris Ankrum, Orley Lindgren, Bayard Veiller, Vince Barnett, Lewis Martin.

Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc

Film Editor: Francis D. Lyon

Production assistant: Robert H. Justman

Original...

Don’t worry if you can’t make it to see Thunder from Down Under perform live in Las Vegas — the group is back with their famous annual calendar shoot so you can enjoy eye candy every day in 2018.

With exclusive behind-the-scenes shots of the Australia-based men’s dance revue, performers Ben Clearly and Stephen Morris tell People exclusively what really goes into preparing for the steamy photo shoot.

“You know, all of the hard work is done by this point,” Morris told People while on set in Las Vegas. “So all those times where you wanted to eat those donuts or chocolates,...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

It's a different Bogart -- a character performance in a Nicholas Ray noir about distrust anxiety in romance. Gloria Grahame is the independent woman who must withhold her commitment... until a murder can be sorted out. Which will crack first, the murder case or the relationship? In A Lonely Place Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 810 1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 93 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 10, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid, Art Smith, Jeff Donnell, Martha Stewart, Robert Warwick, Morris Ankrum, William Ching, Steven Geray, Hadda Brooks. Cinematography Burnett Guffey Film Editor Viola Lawrence Original Music George Antheil Written by Andrew Solt, Edmund H. North from a story by Dorothy B. Hughes Produced by Robert Lord Directed by Nicholas Ray

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Which Humphrey Bogart do you like best? By 1950 he had his own production company, Santana, with a contract for release through Columbia pictures.

Just days after New Order kicked off their U.S. tour in support of new LP Music Complete with a joyous show at New York's Radio City Music Hall, the dance-rock icons visited The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform a muscular take on "Singularity," the latest single off the group's first studio album in 10 years.

"As I understand it, is the point at which artificial intelligence overtakes human intelligence," singer Bernard Sumner told Rolling Stone of the song's title. "And then there's 'singularity,' which refers to the beginning of the universe.

Stop! Don't touch that dial... if you like your atom-age propaganda straight up, MGM has the movie for you, an expensive 1946 docu-drama that became 'the official story' for the making of the bomb. The huge cast includes Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, Tom Drake, Audrey Totter, Hume Cronyn, Hurd Hatfield, and Joseph Calleia. How trustworthy is the movie? It begins by showing footage of a time capsule being buried -- that supposedly contains the film we are watching. Think about that. Mom, Apple Pie, the Flag and God are enlisted to argume that we should stop worrying and love the fact that bombs are just peachy-keen dandy. The Beginning or the End DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 112 min. / Street Date September 22, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, Tom Drake, Beverly Tyler, Audrey Totter, Hume Cronyn, Hurd Hatfield, Joseph Calleia, Godfrey Tearle, Victor Francen,...

Shall we sing the praises of actress Marie Windsor? A self--assessed Queen of the Cheapies, she was anything but cheap, gracing some of the better films noirs and delivering some of the most deliciously acidic dialogue ever heard on screen. The woman doesn't just have bedroom eyes, she has bedroom everything, and a wicked smile to go with it.

No Man's Woman Blu-ray Olive Films 1955 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 70 min. / Street Date October 27, 2015 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring Marie Windsor, John Archer, Patric Knowles, Nancy Gates, Jil Jarmyn, Richard Crane, Louis Jean Heydt, Percy Helton, Morris Ankrum. Cinematography Bud Thackery Film Editor Howard A. Smith Original Music R. Dale Butts Written by John K. Butler story by Don Martin Produced by Rudy Ralston Directed by Franklin Adreon

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Marie Windsor is really something in Abraham Polonsky's Force of Evil, lounging around in an effort to seduce John Garfield.

Katharine Hepburn movies. Katharine Hepburn movies: Woman in drag, in love, in danger In case you're suffering from insomnia, you might want to spend your night and early morning watching Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" series. Four-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn is TCM's star today, Aug. 7, '15. (See TCM's Katharine Hepburn movie schedule further below.) Whether you find Hepburn's voice as melodious as a singing nightingale or as grating as nails on a chalkboard, you may want to check out the 1933 version of Little Women. Directed by George Cukor, this cozy – and more than a bit schmaltzy – version of Louisa May Alcott's novel was a major box office success, helping to solidify Hepburn's Hollywood stardom the year after her film debut opposite John Barrymore and David Manners in Cukor's A Bill of Divorcement. They don't make 'em like they used to Also, the 1933 Little Women...

The Academy has announced the new class of invited members for 2014 and, as is typical, many of which are among last year's nominees, which includes Barkhad Abdi, Michael Fassbender, Sally Hawkins, Mads Mikkelsen, Lupita Nyong'o and June Squibb in the Actors branch not to mention curious additions such as Josh Hutcherson, Rob Riggle and Jason Statham, but, okay. The Directors branch adds Jay and Mark Duplass along with Jean-Marc Vallee, Denis Villeneuve and Thomas Vinterberg. I didn't do an immediate tally of male to female additions or other demographics, but at first glance it seems to be a wide spread batch of new additions on all fronts. The Academy is also clearly attempting to aggressively bump up the demographics as this is the second year in a row where they have added a large number of new members, well over the average of 133 new members from 2004 to 2012. As far as...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 271 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures.

Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2014.

“This year’s class of invitees represents some of the most talented, creative and passionate filmmakers working in our industry today,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “Their contributions to film have entertained audiences around the world, and we are proud to welcome them to the Academy.”

The 2014 invitees are:

Actors

Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”

Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”

Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”

Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”

Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”

Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”

Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”

Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,...

Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong’o of 12 Years a Slave were two of the 271 artists and industry leaders invited to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which determines nominations and winners at the annual Oscars. The entire list of Academy membership—which numbers about 6,000—isn’t public information so the annual invitation list is often the best indication of the artists involved in the prestigious awards process. It’s worth noting that invitations need to be accepted in order for artists to become members; some artists, like two-time Best Actor winner Sean Penn, have declined membership over the years.

Pop quiz: What do Chris Rock, Claire Denis, Eddie Vedder and Josh Hutcherson all have in common? Answer: They could all be Oscar voters very soon. The annual Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences invitation list always makes for interesting reading, shedding light on just how large and far-reaching the group's membership is -- or could be, depending on who accepts their invitations. This year, 271 individuals have been asked to join AMPAS, meaning every one of them could contribute to next year's Academy Awards balloting -- and it's as diverse a list as they've ever assembled. Think the Academy consists entirely of fusty retired white dudes? Not if recent Best Original Song nominee Pharrell Williams takes them up on their offer. Think it's all just a Hollywood insiders' game? Not if French arthouse titans Chantal Akerman and Olivier Assayas join the party. It's a list that subverts expectation at every turn.

Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...

Fred MacMurray movies: ‘Double Indemnity,’ ‘There’s Always Tomorrow’ Fred MacMurray is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" today, Thursday, August 7, 2013. Although perhaps best remembered as the insufferable All-American Dad on the long-running TV show My Three Sons and in several highly popular Disney movies from 1959 to 1967, e.g., The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, Boy Voyage!, MacMurray was immeasurably more interesting as the All-American Jerk. (Photo: Fred MacMurray ca. 1940.) Someone once wrote that Fred MacMurray would have been an ideal choice to star in a biopic of disgraced Republican president Richard Nixon. Who knows, the (coincidentally Republican) MacMurray might have given Anthony Hopkins a run for his Best Actor Academy Award nomination. After all, MacMurray’s most admired movie performances are those in which he plays a scheming, conniving asshole: Billy Wilder’s classic film noir Double Indemnity (1944), in which he’s seduced by Barbara Stanwyck, and Wilder...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away last month at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson,...

New Order have announced the release date of The Lost Sirens. The long-awaited eight-track LP will arrive on January 14. The songs were written at the same time as the band's 2005 album Waiting for the Sirens' Call. "Lost Sirens? Well, it's not really lost," drummer Stephen Morris said in a statement. "I remember that Martin Hannett once had an idea of making a record and burying it in his garden, so that one day someone would dig it up, like a time capsule. We just stuck our record in a cupboard. And now we've got it out. "When we did the first one we had 20 ideas for songs - we were going through a particularly prolific phase - but we couldn't make a double concept album out of them all, so we thought we'd just do two instead. "The (more)...

New Order have added additional dates in London and Manchester to their upcoming UK tour. As previously announced, the current lineup of the band - which does not include original bassist Peter Hook - will play a series of dates in April and May. The newly-updated tour details are as follows:

April 26 - Manchester, O2 ApolloApril 27 - Manchester, O2 Apollo - New DATEApril 29 - Birmingham, BallroomMay 2 - London, O2 Brixton AcademyMay 3 - London, O2 Brixton Academy - New DATEMay 5 - Glasgow, O2 AcademyThe current New Order lineup includes founding members Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, together with (more)...

New Order have added a second Manchester date to their upcoming UK tour. As previously announced, the current lineup of the band - which does not include original bassist Peter Hook - will play a series of dates in April and May. The newly-updated tour details are as follows:

April 26 - Manchester, O2 ApolloApril 27 - Manchester, O2 Apollo - New DATEApril 29 - Birmingham, BallroomMay 2 - London, O2 Brixton AcademyMay 5 - Glasgow, O2 AcademyThe current New Order lineup includes founding members Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, together with Bad Lieutenant musicians (more)...

Disney has removed a Joy Division-inspired T-shirt from its stores, it has been announced. The T-shirt in question incorporates a Mickey Mouse head into the sleeve of the British band's 1979 debut album Unknown Pleasures. The original artwork was adapted by Peter Saville from a visual representation in the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy of the first pulsar discovered. However, Disney has confirmed that the T-shirt - which was priced at $$24.99 - is no longer available to purchase, reports Pitchfork. "As soon as we became aware there could be an issue, we pulled it from our shelves and our online store to review the situation further," a Disney representative said. Bids for the unavailable T-shirt have risen as high as $$255 on eBay as of January 26. Joy Division members Peter Hook and Stephen Morris were split on (more)...

Peter Hook and Stephen Morris have offered different opinions on a new Disney T-Shirt inspired by their former band Joy Division. The T-shirt incorporates a Mickey Mouse head into the sleeve of the post-punk band's 1979 debut album Unknown Pleasures. The cover itself was adapted by Peter Saville from a visual representation in the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy of the first pulsar discovered. "Inspired by the iconic sleeve of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album, this Waves Mickey Mouse Tee incorporates Mickey's image within the graphic of the pulse of a star," the Disney Store website said. "That's appropriate given few stars have made bigger waves than Mickey!" Bassist Hook told NME: "From a legal point of view, the image is in the public domain, as Disney know (more)...

Peter Hook has said that he hopes to make peace with his former New Order bandmates. The 55-year-old bassist claimed that he is no longer "determined to f*** [the band] over", after Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert decided to reunite without him. Speaking on Sky Arts' Jo Whiley Music Show, he commented: "I would like to get on with my life to be honest. "I have come to the conclusion that it would be better to bury the hatchet and sort it all out and get on with it. Unfortunately the other side, don't seem to be doing that." Referencing (more)...

New Order have announced that they will play a live show in London in December. The band, who reformed for two charity concerts without founding member Peter Hook last month, will play the Troxy venue on December 10. New Order split for a second time in 2007 after a falling out between Hook and guitarist/singer Bernard Sumner. The current lineup, which will play the band's first UK date in five years, features Sumner, drummer Stephen Morris and original keyboard player Gillian Gilbert. Gilbert originally quit the band in 2001 and was replaced by Phil Cunningham, who remains in the new lineup. Tom Chapman, who was in post-New (more)...

Peter Hook has criticised the other members of New Order for reforming without him. Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert have joined with Phil Cunningham and Bad Lieutenant bassist Tom Chapman to play a pair of charity shows in Paris and Brussels next month. Hook said: "I first I heard about this on Monday and it has taken me completely by surprise! "Everyone knows that New Order without Peter Hook is like Queen without Freddie Mercury, U2 without The Edge, Sooty without Sweep!" He added: "On a more serious note, I do not understand the decision The Other (more)...

New Order have reunited for a pair of shows in October, but it won't be the lineup that fans are used to. Bassist Peter Hook will be absent from the crew, which hasn't played out live in five years. Frontman Bernard Sumner, guitarist Phil Cunningham and drummer Stephen Morris have added Gillian Gilbert back in; this will mark the first time in 10 years the keyboardist performed with the group. Additionally, the bassist from New Order side project Bad Lieutenant -- Tom Chapman -- will fill Hook's shoes, says BBC 6. New Order will perform at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on...

New Order have reformed for two live shows without founding member Peter Hook. The band split for a second time in 2007 after comeback albums Get Ready and Waiting For The Sirens' Call but will play two benefit shows next month for film producer Michael Shamberg. Shamberg worked on a number of the band's promo videos but has been suffering from illness since 2005. Guitarist and singer Bernard Sumner, drummer Stephen Morris and original keyboard player Gillian Gilbert will play the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on October 17 and La Bataclan in Paris on October 18. Tom Chapman of Bad Lieutenant will replace Hook on the bass. Gilbert previously retired from the band in 2005 to look after her and Morris's children and was replaced by Phil Cunningham. Cunningham will return to play guitar at the upcoming shows. "Michael has been with (more)...

Ian Curtis famously sang "Love Will Tear Us Apart," his voice haunting through radios as he rested, finally, in a grave of his own tragic making. The lead singer of Joy Division, the 1980 single became the band's biggest hit, a post-humous reminder of what could have, should have been.

Curtis' bandmates, Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, would go on to form mega-success and pioneering band New Order, but the memory of their friend, an epileptic and tortured soul who took his own life at the age of 23, has always haunted and inspired them.

The death of the icon checked in at number 22 on The Guardian's list of the 50 biggest events in the history of indie music, a sad distinction for which Hook, the band's bassist, penned a wistful article to commemorate.

"Ian was very ill with epilepsy when we were recording the 'Closer' album. He was having a lot of blackouts,...

Long-term Comic Relief supporter and pop legend George Michael is set to release a new single ‘True Faith’ in support of this year’s Red Nose Day.

The pop legend arranged and produced the single which was originally a hit for New Order in 1987, and the writers, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Hague are also giving their royalties to Comic Relief.

“Over the years, George has been the most tremendous supporter of Comic Relief,” said Co-founder and Vice Chairman of Comic Relief, Richard Curtis. "Out of the blue one year he gave us all the cash from the release of ‘As’, his single with Mary J. Blige. Then he did a brilliant Little Britain ‘Lou and Andy’ sketch – which ended with the inevitable insult slung at him – “I don’t like him.” But most excitingly, he’s giving Comic Relief all his royalties from his new single,...

New Order have announced the release of a live DVD.

Despite the group splitting in 2007, New Order: Live in Glasgow will be available from June 2.

They formed in 1980 when Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris vowed to continue making music after Ian Curtis, the lead singer of their band Joy Division, committed suicide.

The forthcoming disc will include material from the . . .