News

In the weeks since the 2024 Academy Awards, figures throughout Hollywood have continued to declare their support for director Jonathan Glazer. While accepting the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for The Zone of Interest, a film that centers on the Holocaust, the Jewish director criticized the dehumanization of “victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza.”

The most recent show of support comes from an open letter signed by more than 150 Jewish creatives, including Joaquin Phoenix, Elliott Gould, Ilana Glazer, Chloe Fineman, Todd Haynes,...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker 4K Uhd from Severin Films

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on May 28 via Severin Films. The 1981 psychosexual horror film has been newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negative.

Also known as Night Warning, the film is directed by William Asher (Bewitched) and written by Steve Breimer, Alan Jay Glueckman, and Boon Collins. Jimmy McNichol, Susan Tyrrell, Bo Svenson, Bill Paxton, and Julia Duffy star.

Special features include: commentary by McNichol; commentary by Breimer and Glueckman; commentary by co-producer Eugene Mazzola; and interviews with McNichol, Tyrrell, Svenson, Breimer, actor Steven Eastin, makeup artist Allan A. Alpone, director of photography Robbie Greenberg, and editor Ted Nicolaou.

Updated with more signatories: Reaction continues to The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer’s acceptance speech after his film won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film this month.

Some 1,215 Jewish show business professionals now have signed a letter denouncing the filmmaker’s speech, in which he decried the “dehumanization” of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. See the updated full list below.

“We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination,” the letter states (read it in full in full below).

This list includes among its signatories Eli Roth and Amy Sherman-Palladino, Amy Pascal, Debra Messing, Gail Berman, Hawk Koch, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gary Barber, Lawrence Bender, Tovah Feldshuh and Rod Lurie.

You can watch Glazer’s speech here,...

More than 1,000 Jewish creatives, executives and Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter denouncing Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” Oscar speech.

The list of co-signees provided to Variety Monday morning covers a broad swath of the industry including actors, executives, creators (Amy Sherman-Palladino), directors, producers and representatives. About 500 more individuals have added their names to the nearly 500 who signed on when the open letter was first published.

The group’s statement says: “We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination.”

Glazer declined to comment.

With such high-profile co-signees as Jennifer Jason Leigh, “La La Land” producer Gary Gilbert and “The Americans” creators Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, the statement adds, “The use of words like ‘occupation’ to describe an...

AMC Entertainment has rejiggered is board, announcing the election of two new directors and one who is exiting.

The former Sundance Institute chief and Miramax production president Keri Putman, a big advocate for independent film, as well as Dee Clark, who has worked in information technology at Hasbro, Mattel, Warner Music and Apple, will join as directors effective Jan. 1 for a one-year term, up for reelection in 2023. Lee Wittlinger of Silver Lake, on the board since 2018, will resign, as is general practice following the firm’s exit from its investment in the company in Jan. of 2021.

“With the appointments of Ms. Clark and Ms. Putnam, along with Mr. Wittlinger’s resignation, AMC has made significant progress in reaching its diversity goals,” the company said. Three of AMC’s nine directors will be women, versus one of eight currently.

Putnam founded and runs Putnam Pictures, to produce film and television from...

The Academy needs to create new revenue streams that do not rely on the Oscars show, but it also needs to bring the Oscars to a position of “power, honorability and importance,” Academy leaders told the organization’s membership in an all-members meeting on Saturday.

The meeting, led by new Academy CEO Bill Kramer and new president Janet Yang, took place in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and was available to be attended virtually by members not in Los Angeles.

In some ways, the gathering was reminiscent of the all-members meeting held by then-president Hawk Koch and CEO Dawn Hudson in May, 2013, which took place simultaneously in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. At that point, the Academy consisted of about 6,000 members and was predominantly white and male; the #OscarsSoWhite protests had yet to push the organization to become more diverse, while the Academy Museum was in the planning stages.

The new Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer said in an interview Tuesday that he has big ideas for the Oscars, one of which is having a producer who can handle the show across “multiple years.”

“I think bringing on producers for multiple years is advisable and we are working on that, as well,” Kramer told the Academy’s A.Frame digital magazine on Tuesday. “The 95th gives us a great opportunity to knit together the incredible legacy of the Oscars, the diverse and powerful work we do across the Academy, and our vision for the future.”

This would be a shift for the Academy. For years, the Academy has typically cycled through various guest producers of the Oscars show, including the likes of Will Packer (with Shayla Cowan) earlier this year and Steven Soderbergh (with Jesse Collins and Stacey Sher) the year before that during...

The first Oscars of the weekend were handed out last night in Hollywood, and you can bet no one is going to argue about the worthiness of these four new recipients of the industry’s highest award.

The Governors Awards, always a great evening, came back after last year’s pandemic-related cancellation, and Samuel L. Jackson, Elaine May, and Liv Ullmann were awarded Honorary Oscars for their illustrious careers, while Danny Glover received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. As Academy President David Rubin said in his opening remarks, these selections were essentially no-brainers. In fact, he said it was the shortest Board Of Governors meeting ever convened with the purpose of choosing those who pass the exacting test of the Board in order to receive these Oscars. As he noted when their names were proposed there was unanimous support in the room.

What wasn’t as easy, in light of...

Exclusive: Oscar-nominated Saving Private Ryan screenwriter Robert Rodat is set to write Semper Fi, the true story of Marine Maj. Thomas Schueman and his extraordinary Afghan interpreter Zainulla Zaki.

During fierce fighting in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, the two men formed an unbreakable brotherhood that transcended the differences in their cultures and ethnicities. After Schueman’s return to the U.S. he tried, with no success, to help Zaki and his family get out of Afghanistan. This summer, as the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan, Zaki and his family were targeted for execution by the Taliban due to his involvement with U.S. Forces. Schueman’s devotion to his comrade and his struggle to save him, his wife and four children led to a harrowing escape and a daring rescue at Kabul’s airport.

The project is being developed by producers Flashlight Films managing partner Allyn Stewart and veteran movie producer Hawk Koch,...

To the public, Alec Baldwin’s Colt .45 stands as a symbol of perhaps criminal incompetence, but to insiders it also represents a pathetic epitaph to that mythic genre, the “indie” movie.

The indie Western already was in dire straits because of lack of funding and distribution until Baldwin came along as both star and producer of Rust – a sort of Dennis Hopper of the 2020s. The film was under-budgeted at $7 million on a 21-day shooting schedule. Its crew was rebellious, inexperienced and seemingly oblivious to the protocols governing movie weaponry.

Besides all this, no one seemed to be running the show among the usual cluster of producers and executive producers (including Baldwin’s manager).

By contrast, indie producers traditionally were proud to take their bows. Upon completing Easy Rider, Hopper once boasted proudly that his film crew was essentially “a dysfunctional family.” The dysfunction worked for him in the ’60s...

Exclusive: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Dawn Hudson said Monday that her current term will be her last. She signed a new deal in March of 2020 for what was expected to be three years through May of 2023, but a statement to be released later today does not specify an actual date of her departure, saying simply “when this term concludes.” Sources added nothing further on the exact timing of her exit.

A search for a new CEO will be starting shortly.

“After more than ten years and the incredibly successful opening of our new museum, I’ve decided, when this term concludes, it will be time for me to explore other opportunities and adventures as this can hardly be topped,” said Hudson. “We’ve achieved so much together that’s been most important to me — our ongoing commitment to representation and inclusion; adapting the Academy into a...

At today’s monthly meeting of the Board of Governors the leadership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences presented a new resolution making yearly AMPAS membership meetings official.

Sources tell me the Board enthusiastically approved the resolution that will require annual meetings – virtually and/or in person – of the full membership now numbering over 10,000 + members that will be held in the second quarter of each calendar year (in other words after the Oscar show). It can be virtually or in person as the Bog may designate with the stated purpose being to consider “the affairs of the Academy”. Members may submit written questions in advance, and a recorded version of the presentation will be posted on the member portal afterwards.

The only caveat is that if the Board deems the meeting cannot be held “conveniently” in the second quarter it shall be empowered to call said meeting at...

Deadline has reported that an eight-part miniseries based on the 1984 film The Pope of Greenwich Village is in development, with original producers Hawk Koch and Gene Kirkwood teaming up with Nick Vallelonga (Green Book), George Gallo (Midnight Run), and Chazz Palminteri (A Bronx Tale). The Pope of Greenwich Village centered around two cousins, played by Mickey Rourke and…...

Exclusive: The Pope of Greenwich Village is headed to the small screen.

Hawk Koch and Gene Kirkwood, producers of the 1984 film, have teamed with Oscar-winning writer Nick Vallelonga (Green Book), writer/director George Gallo (Midnight Run), and Oscar-nominated actor/writer/playwright Chazz Palminteri, (A Bronx Tale) to develop an eight-hour miniseries based on Vincent Patrick’s best-selling 1979 book The Pope of Greenwich Village and its 1984 feature adaptation.

The Pope of Greenwich Village film starred Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts and Daryl Hanna. It revolved about two cousins, Charlie and Paulie, played by Roberts and Rourke respectively, who unknowingly rob the mob and face dangerous consequences.

Vallelonga, Gallo and Palminteri are all native New Yorkers, and Vallelonga has a personal connection to the film.

“My father, Tony Lip, who Green Book was about, played the role of Frankie Shy in the opening scene of the original film, and I was an extra in the stickball scene,...

Stephanie Allain has been selected as this year’s recipient of the PGA/UCLA Vision Award for her work championing visionary filmmakers of color and women.

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television made the announcement Monday. The award, presented by the UCLA Tft Producers Program in consultation with the Producers Guild of America, is being presented to Allain in recognition of a career that “exemplifies an extraordinary vision as a producer in all aspects of film, art, and business, and who leaves an indelible mark on the industry.”

Allain’s producing credits include “Hustle & Flow,” “Something New,” “Beyond the Lights” and “Dear White People.” She also co-produced the 2020 Oscars, becoming the first African American woman to do so in the 92-year history of the awards ceremony.

Allain is a member of the producers branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Writers Guild of...

What a difference a decade makes.

At the beginning of the 2010s, the Oscars were already showing signs of change: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had expanded the Best Picture category from five to 10 nominees and given the Best Director award to a woman for the first time ever, while also looking for new income sources as Oscar show ratings fell and the economic downturn hit AMPAS investments.

Even so, nobody could have foreseen just how dramatically the awards, and the Academy that hands them out, would be transformed over the next 10 years. While the 1930s saw the Oscars grow from seven categories decided by committee to 20 categories and thousands of voters, and the 1950s put the Oscars on television, it’s hard to find a more transformational decade than the 2010s.

Here’s a look at the changes, which have included the profound impact of #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo,...

Hawk Koch has had an interesting life to say the least, one as Howard W. Koch Jr., son of famous producer and industry heavyweight Howard W. Koch, and another that started with his Bar Mitzvah at age 50 and a new name, Hawk, that liberated him and enabled him for the first time in his life to forge his own identity away from his father’s.

As the producer or executive producer of numerous films including The Idolmaker, Primal Fear, Gorky Park, Wayne’s World, The Pope of Greenwich Village, The Long Walk Home, Keeping The Faith and many more, Koch has had a long, successful career. That career includes stints as president of Rastar Productions; president of the Producers Guild, where he considers the creation (with fellow president Mark Gordon) of the p.g.a. mark a career highpoint; and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

Helen Mirren is opening up about a “lesson in embarrassment” she was taught during tea with Queen Elizabeth.

On Friday, the actress explained during her “Helen Mirren and Hawk Koch Discuss The Magic of Movies” event hosted by PGA East and SAG-aftra Foundation that the Queen had invited her over for tea when The Good Liar star found herself completely stumped on royal protocol.

“She invited me for tea,” Mirren, 74, began, adding that she was under the impression it would be a large gathering, but instead it was an intimate affair.

“I thought it was going to be in a room with 200 other people,...

What's in a name? Not much, unless you're Hawk Koch. The 73-year-old producer of such films as Wayne's World and Primal Fear — and now the author of Magic Time: My Life in Hollywood, a memoir about his four decades in the business — was born Howard W. Koch Jr., after his father, the much-admired producer of The Manchurian Candidate and Airplane!

As if living in his dad's shadow wasn't hard enough, there was a third Howard Koch in Hollywood: the one who co-wrote Casablanca. So, 23 years ago, at age 50, this Howard Koch adopted his ...

What's in a name? Not much, unless you're Hawk Koch. The 73-year-old producer of such films as Wayne's World and Primal Fear — and now the author of Magic Time: My Life in Hollywood, a memoir about his four decades in the business — was born Howard W. Koch Jr., after his father, the much-admired producer of The Manchurian Candidate and Airplane!

As if living in his dad's shadow wasn't hard enough, there was a third Howard Koch in Hollywood: the one who co-wrote Casablanca. So, 23 years ago, at age 50, this Howard Koch adopted his ...

Pop Oscars. Off-screen awards. A host-free ceremony. What will they think of next at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences?

In truth, it’s hard to know, because the Academy has been fairly successful in dropping a veil of secrecy over its internal deliberations. The next agenda, who backs whom, and who supports what are all treated as confidential matters by the 57-member Board of Governors, and its large staff of helpers. What passes for transparency is the occasional “Dear Member” email, usually sent after a policy has been set. Committee debates are closely held. Missteps, as with the abortive push to move some Oscar awards off the live telecast, only become apparent when members protest a change that’s already on the way.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t always so—at least, not officially. A bit of research at the Academy’s Margaret Herrick library makes clear that...

Cinema Retro has received the following press announcement:

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none

Laemmle’s Royal Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting the 45th anniversary screening of Roman Polanski’s 1974 film Chinatown which itself takes place in the City of Angels. The film will be screened on Thursday, June 27th, 2019 at 7:00 pm. Starring Jack Nicholson in one of the many classics that he made during that phenomenal decade, the film co-stars Faye Dunaway, John Houston, John Hillerman, Diane Ladd, and Bruce Glover. The film runs 131 minutes.

Please Note:

The following cast/crew member(s) are scheduled at press time to appear in person, with the potential for more to be added to the list, so please check the Royal website link at the bottom for updates as the screening day draws closer:

Actor Bruce Glover

Assistant director Hawk Koch

Author Sam Wasson

From the press release:...

Chinatown, Marathon Man, Rosemary’s Baby and Wayne’s World are just a sampling of the films on Hollywood producer and former assistant director Hawk Koch’s resume, and next November the former Motion Picture Academy president will chronicle his career in a memoir titled Magic Time: My Life in Hollywood.

Publishing house Post Hill Press announced the memoir today, describing the book as “the story of his growing up as the namesake son of a legendary producer and how he came to carve out his own successful career. Including Hollywood stories and people that are beyond belief and larger than life.”

Koch’s 2012-13 tenure as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences included initiatives including a call for Academy diversity, and the launch of the first general membership meeting in its history. The Academy during Koch’s tenure secured major fundraising for the new Academy Museum.

The most fascinating part of Tuesday’s Oscar nominations announcement will be watching to see whether someone, anyone, pops out of the bunker to say something, anything, about the issues afflicting the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of late.

In the best of circumstances, Hollywood’s film Academy is about as transparent as dirty dishwater. Policy blocks the group’s governors from discussing business conducted in their closed-door meetings. Membership assemblies, dabbled with under former president Hawk Koch in 2013, never became a regular thing. Increasingly, under President John Bailey and Chief Executive Dawn Hudson, controversy has met with official silence.

When SAG-AFTRA last week issued an extraordinary public rebuke of the Academy for supposedly pressuring Oscar presenters to stay off the stage at competing awards shows, the complaint passed without a public response.

In early December, Kevin Hart announced his own appointment as the Academy Awards host via Instagram,...

Kevin Hart is ready for his Oscar close-up.

And now the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president John Bailey tells Variety that he’s “very excited” to see what the funny man will do when he makes his hosting debut next year.

“First of all, he’s a very kind of warm and loving and lovable person,” Bailey said at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures celebration of the restored Saban Building. “He’s also wanted to do this for many years. He’s been very clear how he felt about it and that’s very heartening to us.”

Bailey dismissed nay-sayers who believe that the hosting gig is a thankless job. “I’m sorry, but there are a lot of people like Kevin who have dreamed of doing this,” he said. “Life is a risk. You go out on that stage and you don’t know whether...

Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group has failed to deliver the financing for “Arc of Justice,” a drama produced by Hawk Koch and Mark Gordon, TheWrap has learned. The film was set to star David Oyelowo as a doctor charged with murder in 1925 Detroit who was defended by the NAACP and attorney Clarence Darrow (Russell Crowe). Jose Padilha was lined up to direct based on the book “Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age” by Kevin Boyle. Rodney Barnesa and Max Borenstein adapted the screenplay. A Wanda representative did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s.

Exclusive: Last year, Dailan Wanda Group joined with veteran filmmakers Hawk Koch and Mark Gordon to create an independent/awards-caliber film division called The O Project. The first film was to be the $12.5M-budgeted drama that had Russell Crowe and David Oyelowo negotiating to star. Arc of Justice, which was to go before the cameras on October 1 with helmer José Padilha, has just run aground. That gritty courtroom drama based on the book Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race…...

Bernie Styles, who cast actors and extras for such films as The Manchurian Candidate, Up the Sandbox and Outrageous Fortune, has died. He was 99.

Styles died Wednesday at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., producer and former Motion Picture Academy president Hawk Koch told The Hollywood Reporter.

Working out of New York City, Styles owned the Central Casting Talent Agency and for a time lived above the now-defunct Stage Deli on Seventh Avenue near Carnegie Hall (the restaurant had a prominent place in the 1984 Woody Allen movie Broadway Danny Rose).

<br...

The Academy Board of Governors convenes Tuesday night to pick their next president. Three major candidates have emerged from the 54-member body, although anything can happen.

Dern would be the first actress since Bette Davis’s notoriously short two-month 1941 tenure. (She quit when she realized the all-male board would give her no power.) While movie stars like Gregory Peck and Douglas Fairbanks have served as president, only two women have served since Davis: Screenwriter Fay Kanin presided effectively from 1979 to 1983, and publicity executive Cheryl Boone Isaacs (the first African-American to hold the post) is exiting at the end of a tumultuous four-year term. During that time, she and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson spearheaded a concerted drive to add more diversity to the Academy, urging the 17 branches to actively recruit a younger and more inclusive membership from all over the world.

Isaacs also presided over the infamous last Oscar show, with...

The Academy Board of Governors convenes Tuesday night to pick their next president. Three major candidates have emerged from the 54-member body, although anything can happen.

Dern would be the first actress since Bette Davis’s notoriously short two-month 1941 tenure. (She quit when she realized the all-male board would give her no power.) While movie stars like Gregory Peck and Douglas Fairbanks have served as president, only two women have served since Davis: Screenwriter Fay Kanin presided effectively from 1979 to 1983, and publicity executive Cheryl Boone Isaacs (the first African-American to hold the post) is exiting at the end of a tumultuous four-year term. During that time, she and Academy CEO Dawn Hudson spearheaded a concerted drive to add more diversity to the Academy, urging the 17 branches to actively recruit a younger and more inclusive membership from all over the world.

Isaacs also presided over the infamous last Oscar show, with...

Earlier today, the Academy sent an email to all members with the final list of Board of Governors candidates. Conspicuously absent is Netflix CEO and Ted Sarandos, who hosted a recent Academy museum fundraiser and was hoping to get a chance to run for the board.

Also absent is Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the current president of AMPAS, who’s stepping down this August and not seeking a third three-year term on the 54-member board. You have to be on the board in order to run for President. Others no longer in the running are Sony Pictures Classics and CBS Films executives Michael Barker and Terry Press, producer Paula Wagner, director Brett Ratner and actors Queen Latifah and Lou Diamond Phillips. Actress Laura Dern is one current board member who is backed by Academy CEO Dawn Hudson and gaining support.

The final election begins Monday, June 19 and closes on Friday, June...

Earlier today, the Academy sent an email to all members with the final list of Board of Governors candidates. Conspicuously absent is Netflix CEO and Ted Sarandos, who hosted a recent Academy museum fundraiser and was hoping to get a chance to run for the board.

Also absent is Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the current president of AMPAS, who’s stepping down this August and not seeking a third three-year term on the 54-member board. You have to be on the board in order to run for President. Others no longer in the running are Sony Pictures Classics and CBS Films executives Michael Barker and Terry Press, producer Paula Wagner, director Brett Ratner and actors Queen Latifah and Lou Diamond Phillips. Actress Laura Dern is one current board member who is backed by Academy CEO Dawn Hudson and gaining support.

The final election begins Monday, June 19 and closes on Friday, June...

Geena Davis, Whoopi Goldberg, Morgan Spurlock, Michael De Luca, Ed Catmull and John Ridley are among the Academy members who have made the final ballot for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors, the Academy informed its members on Friday in an email. Also in the running are Hawk Koch and Rob Friedman, who are expected to contend for the job of Academy president when Cheryl Boone Isaacs finishes her last term in August. Rita Wilson is in the running for a seat representing the Actors Branch; if elected, she will join her husband Tom Hanks as.

Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of the Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, will step down in August. Nor is she seeking a third three-year term on the 54-member Academy Board of Governors. And with that, let the games begin.

The question of who will replace Isaacs is on the table. You have to be on the board in order to run for Academy president, who serves at the pleasure of the board for no more than four one-year terms.

And among those who are eyeing an active role on the board is none other than Ted Sarandos, content czar of Netflix — the same organization that spent the week shaking its fist at the Cannes Film Festival for “closing ranks” with a new ruling that only films that commit to French theatrical distribution may participate in future festivals.

Sarandos is the fox in the Academy henhouse, the disruptor who...

Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of the Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, will step down in August. Nor is she seeking a third three-year term on the 54-member Academy Board of Governors. And with that, let the games begin.

The question of who will replace Isaacs is on the table. You have to be on the board in order to run for Academy president, who serves at the pleasure of the board for no more than four one-year terms.

And among those who are eyeing an active role on the board is none other than Ted Sarandos, content czar of Netflix — the same organization that spent the week shaking its fist at the Cannes Film Festival for “closing ranks” with a new ruling that only films that commit to French theatrical distribution may participate in future festivals.

Sarandos is the fox in the Academy henhouse, the disruptor who...

Author: Zehra Phelan

The Selma and A United Kingdom actor David Oyelowo has signed up to movie adaptation Arc of Justice which tells the groundbreaking story of the Clarence Darrow-Ossian Sweet civil rights cases which also has The Nice Guys actor, Russell Crowe rumoured to be in talks to join on the project.

Based on Kevin Boyle’s book “Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age,” the true story centres on a racial incident in 1925 Detroit that put African-American doctor Ossian Sweet (Oyelowo) on the stand for murder. His defence was funded by the nascent National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and led by Darrow (Crowe).

Jose Padilha, who directed and produced the successful dual language Netflix series Narcos, will take the director’s chair with Max Borenstein and Rodney Barnes having already written the script. Gordon, Borenstein, Hawk Koch,...

José Padilha to direct for Mark Gordon Company.

David Oyelowo will star in the true-life drama Arc Of Justice for producer-financer Mark Gordon.

Sierra/Affinity represents international sales and UTA and CAA packaged the project and jointly handle Us rights.

Oyelowo will play real-life African American doctor Ossian Sweet, who was made to stand trial for murder after he took up arms to defend his new home against a white mob in 1925 Detroit.

The fledgling NAACP funded Sweet’s defence case and assigned him the celebrated lawyer Clarence Darrow.

José Padilha of Narcos and Elite Squad fame will direct Arc Of Justice, which Max Borenstein and Rodney Barnes adapted from historian Kevin Boyle’s book Arc Of Justice: A Saga Of Race, Civil Rights, And Murder In The Jazz Age.

Mark Gordon Company is financing the project and producers are Mark Gordon, Hawk Koch, Max Borenstein and Gordon’s colleague Matt Jackson.

Josh Clay Phillips...

Exclusive: Narcos helmer José Padilha is at the center of a deal by The Mark Gordon Company to give feature treatment to Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, the 2004 nonfiction National Book Award winner by historian Kevin Boyle. The Mark Gordon Company will finance an adaptation that Padilha will direct, with a script completed by Max Borenstein and Rodney Barnes. Gordon, Hawk Koch, Borenstein and Matt Jackson will produce and Josh…...

Production designer and art director Paul Sylbert, who won an Academy Award for “Heaven Can Wait,” has died. He was 88. Sylbert died Saturday in a hospital near his home in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, producer Hawk Koch announced. Also Read: 'Star Wars' Actor Peter Sumner Dies at 74 In addition to “Heaven Can Wait” (1978), Sylbert also received an Oscar nomination for designing Barbra Streisand’s “The Prince of Tides” (1991). Sylbert had recently served on the faculty of the Film & Media Arts Department at Temple University in Philadelphia. He and his twin brother, the late Richard Sylbert who won Oscars for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?...

Paul Sylbert, an Oscar-winning set decorator and production designer who worked with such top directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, Mike Nichols, Robert Benton and Milos Forman during his half-century career, has died. He was 88. Producer and former Movie Academy president Hawk Koch told Deadline that Sylbert, won an Academy Award for Heaven Can Wait and scored a nom for The Prince of Tides, died Saturday. Koch said Sylbert and his twin brother Richard were among the…...

Paul Sylbert, the famed production designer and art director who worked on the best picture Oscar winners One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Kramer vs. Kramer and won an Academy Award for Heaven Can Wait, has died. He was 88.

Sylbert died Saturday in a hospital near his home in Jenkintown, Pa., producer Hawk Koch announced. Recently, Sylbert had served on the faculty of the Film & Media Arts Department at Temple University in Philadelphia.

He and his twin brother, the late Richard Sylbert (he won Oscars for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Dick Tracy), were two of the...

On Monday evening, Dalian Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin made a speech, “Navigating Business in China,” to a large cross-section of Hollywood packed into the Los Angeles County of Museum of Art’s Bing Theatre. Was it intended to appear arrogant and critical of the Hollywood studios?

Wang (pronounced “Wong”) suggested that many people in Hollywood trying to do business in China don’t understand their potential partners. “There needs to be more Chinese elements in films,” he reminded. And he criticized the studios for making so many sequels.

Said Wang:

In recent years, Hollywood’s capabilities for innovation are fading, possibly due to financial constraints or a number of other reasons. Many films are just sequels based on original intellectual properties. It isn’t unheard of to make 5 or 6 or even 9 or 20 sequels. Hollywood sometimes relies more on technology and visual factors, rather than a good story. Hollywood, which is famous for its storytelling,...

On Monday evening, Dalian Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin made a speech, “Navigating Business in China,” to a large cross-section of Hollywood packed into the Los Angeles County of Museum of Art’s Bing Theatre. Was it intended to appear arrogant and critical of the Hollywood studios?

Wang (pronounced “Wong”) suggested that many people in Hollywood trying to do business in China don’t understand their potential partners. “There needs to be more Chinese elements in films,” he reminded. And he criticized the studios for making so many sequels.

Said Wang:

In recent years, Hollywood’s capabilities for innovation are fading, possibly due to financial constraints or a number of other reasons. Many films are just sequels based on original intellectual properties. It isn’t unheard of to make 5 or 6 or even 9 or 20 sequels. Hollywood sometimes relies more on technology and visual factors, rather than a good story. Hollywood, which is famous for its storytelling,...

Cheryl Boone Isaacs has been re-elected to a fourth term as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy announced on Tuesday night. Other officers elected by the AMPAS Board of Governors are: Jeffrey Kurland, first vice president; John Bailey, Kathleen Kennedy and Nancy Utley, vice presidents; Jim Gianopulos, treasurer; and David Rubin, secretary. Boone Isaacs, the third woman and first African American to serve as president of the Academy, has been in office since 2013, when she succeeded single-term president Hawk Koch, who was forced off the board by AMPAS term limits. She has presided over the.

Thanks to new rules, this year’s Academy Board of Governors race was more intense than usual. The Academy’s 17 branches each has three governors on the board; they can serve three consecutive three-year terms. One seat is up for reelection every year. The Board of Governors actually runs the show at the Academy, determining the strategy and mission, and keeping tabs on its financial health.

(The full list of Governors is here.)

This year, the race was opened up to allow any of the 6200-plus Academy members to run for the board. Before, the membership voted for 50% of a nominating committee that selected candidates to present to the Board. This yielded the same favorites over and over again.

Now, members of each branch can pick their own contenders. Academy CEO Dawn Hudson clearly sees the benefit of a more diverse board of Governors. In an email to members announcing...

Thanks to new rules, this year’s Academy Board of Governors race was more intense than usual. The Academy’s 17 branches each has three governors on the board; they can serve three consecutive three-year terms. One seat is up for reelection every year. The Board of Governors actually runs the show at the Academy, determining the strategy and mission, and keeping tabs on its financial health.

(The full list of Governors is here.)

This year, the race was opened up to allow any of the 6200-plus Academy members to run for the board. Before, the membership voted for 50% of a nominating committee that selected candidates to present to the Board. This yielded the same favorites over and over again.

Now, members of each branch can pick their own contenders. Academy CEO Dawn Hudson clearly sees the benefit of a more diverse board of Governors. In an email to members announcing...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, having overhauled the way it elects new members to its Board of Governors, has now entered the second phase of the process and has begun sending out the news of who the four candidates are for each open seat in all of its 17 branches to the members in each branch. Steven Spielberg (in the directors branch), Amy Pascal (executives), former Academy president Hawk Koch (producers), James L. Brooks and Robin Swicord (writers) and Bruce Feldman and Tony Angellotti (publicists) are among the finalists. Back in April, the Academy opened up the nomination process for

read more...

The Mark Gordon Company and The Koch Company are partnering with Chinese studio Pegasus Media Group and China Film Group on the English-language Edge Of The World.

David Seidler and Jacqueline Feather wrote the action-filled transcontinental love story based on events from the 1930s when New York socialite Ruth Harkness went to China in search of her missing fiancé.

Seidler won the Oscar in 2011 for writing The King’s Speech.

Pegasus and China Film Group will finance the project and Gordon, Hawk Koch, and Jianjun “Jay” Sun will serve as producers.

Jeff Aghassi is on board as executive producer. Production is anticipated to start in China later this year.

CAA’s Jonah Greenberg brokered the project.

The Mark Gordon Company, Koch Company, China’s Pegasus Media Group and the China Film Group are teaming with The King’s Speech scribe David Seidler and Jacqueline Feather on English-language feature Edge of the World. Pegasus and China Film Group will finance the action-filled transcontinental love story, which will be produced by Mark Gordon, Hawk Koch and Jianjun "Jay" Sun. Jeff Aghassi will serve as an exec producer. The project will shoot in China later this year. The…...

China’s domestic box office may be booming – and Chinese finance flowing into Hollywood movies – but speakers at the China-us Motion Picture Summit (March 25) discussed how successful Chinese co-productions and film exports remain scarce.

China’s domestic box office may be booming – and Chinese finance flowing into Hollywood movies – but speakers at the China-us Motion Picture Summit (March 25) discussed how successful Chinese co-productions and film exports remain scarce.

Once touted as the most effective way for the Us and China to work together, speakers on the summit’s “Cooperation Panel” pointed out that there’s only been around a dozen Sino-us co-productions approved and made in the past five years.

“Budgets have averaged around $20-35m – not modest by local standards, but commercial success has been very mixed,” said Artisan Gateway president Rance Pow. “They haven’t hit their stride yet and that’s a key issue.”

Pow speculated that difficulties may lie in finding stories that resonate...