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Classic Hollywood and classic rock often collided in exciting ways. For example, The Eagles wrote a song called “James Dean.” A member of The Eagles explained why his band was compelled to write that song. “James Dean” became part of an absolutely massive album.

The Eagles’ ‘James Dean’ was not inspired by 1950s nostalgia

Dean was a cinematic icon who made a huge mark despite only appearing in three movies: Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, and Giant. He tragically died in a car accident at the age of 24. His public image and untimely death gave him an image as one of pop culture’s most prominent rebels. He’s still considered one of the most famous celebrities of the 1950s, so his visage will grace the walls of 1950s diners alongside those of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley for decades to come.

During a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone,...

It's hard to think of a sitcom that typecast its actors more severely than "Gilligan's Island." Even though it only aired for three seasons, the slapstick comedy series about seven castaways marooned on a desert island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean proved inescapable professionally for its entire ensemble.

This was partly due to the albatross of syndication. After its cancellation, "Gilligan's Island" quickly became a favorite with undiscriminating couch potatoes, who got off on the show's laughably simple formula, inane gags, and colorful locale. They loved watching Bob Denver's blundering Gilligan repeatedly sabotage every single effort to get off the island, Ginger doing just about anything, and the Howells somehow living in the lap of bamboo luxury.

The show's enduring popularity was understandably bad news for the future endeavors of its younger performers, particularly Denver, Tina Louise, and Dawn Wells, all three of whom lacked a strong enough pre-...

A new movie is in development that will take an in-depth look at a hidden chapter from iconic actor James Dean’s life. The biopic, tentatively called “Surviving James Dean,” focuses on Dean’s college years and his previously undisclosed romantic involvement with his male roommate.

The film is based on the 2006 memoir “Surviving James Dean” by William Bast. According to the book, Bast and Dean met as 19-year-olds attending the University of California, Los Angeles’ theater program. They developed a close friendship that eventually turned romantic. Guy Guido acquired the rights to Bast’s story and plans to both write and direct the upcoming movie.

Guido has enjoyed Dean’s acting and has studied his life for over 20 years. He saw value in exploring Dean and Bast’s relationship, which Hollywood had tried to cover up. The biopic will depict how their romance evolved from their freshman year of...

Late actor James Dean has been one of the most noted pop culture icons in Hollywood history. The actor was known for his roles in Rebel Without A Cause, Giant, and East of Eden, two of which were released posthumously. The actor became a symbol of rebellion and masculinity for a whole new generation after his untimely death at the age of 24.

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Dean was his sexuality. Many have speculated that he was gay or even bisexual. Several biographers have made the claim, including some claiming that he and Marlon Brando had a s*xual relationship. However, one statement from an old interview with Dean can put all the rumors to rest.

James Dean’s Statement From An Old Interview Squashes Gay Rumors James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause | Credits: Warner Bros. Pictures

When James Dean became the symbol of masculinity for a whole new generation,...

The moniker of 'icon' is bandied about pretty readily in Hollywood these days, but when it comes to James Dean, the star of Giant, East Of Eden, and Rebel Without A Cause who tragically died at just 24 years of age in 1955, it's one that's well deserved. And as our cultural fascination with the actor continues to endure, so too do new works based on his life. Now, per THR's reporting, it looks like the latest is set to be Surviving James Dean, a movie from writer-director Guy Guido based on William Bast's eponymous 2006 memoir.

Bast's second book about Dean having already been his close friend's first biographer way back in 1956, Surviving James Dean offers a more personal insight into the duo's relationship. Bast's book chronicles the two men's evolving bond as they went from UCLA roommates to close friends to lovers, their romantic ties kept quiet at the...

The offer couldn’t even be refused because it was never made. But though Paramount passed him over for the role of Sonny Corleone in the “The Godfather” in favor of James Caan, Robert De Niro’s audition for the doomed eldest Corleone son is something that still impresses Francis Ford Coppola to this day.

“He had an unforgettable audition for Sonny Corleone, that, uh, was so in advance of what I even could imagine because he really nailed that kind of a guy,” Coppola said at a Q&a before the New York premiere of “Megalopolis” September 23. Seated beside him were De Niro and Spike Lee with moderating duties performed by New York Film Festival artistic director Dennis Lim.

Earlier this summer, Coppola actually shared clips of that audition footage and remarked that he had offered De Niro, then an unknown, the part of Paulie Gatto in the film...

Akira is not only famous in the anime and manga sphere but also pop-culture in general. Critics and movie directors alike refer to Akira as one of the greatest and most influential films of the past 30 years. So it’s no wonder fans discredited Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas for turning the film down because it wouldn’t suit western audiences.

According to Manga Entertainment co-creator Andy Frain, Akira shaped modern sci-fi as people know it today. Films like Midnight Special, Looper, The Matrix, Chronicle, Inception, and even the TV show Stranger Things, all borrowed thematically and stylistically from Akira. In fact, two of those five movies even feature a child with destructive telekinetic powers as one of the main plot points.

Keanu Reeves in The Matrix | Credits: Warner Bros.

On the other hand, the creator of Akira admitted that he used not only Japanese media but also Hollywood movies...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks to filmmakers Toby Poser & John Adams about their 3rd horror movie Where the Devil Roams and “3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life,” which includes:

Toby Poser’s choices:

Bad News Bears (1976) Rebel Without A Cause (1955) Jaws (1975)

John Adams’ choices:

Barry Lyndon (1975) Phantasm (1979) First Blood (1982)

“3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life” is about those films that made you fall in love with film. The guest selects their trio of movies and we talk for 5 minutes, against the clock. When the alarm goes off for five minutes we move on to the next film.

Where the Devil Roams is available to watch now on Tubi.

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According to tradition, debutante balls are designed to introduce young ladies to polite society. But in Australian comedy star Rebel Wilson’s rowdy directorial debut, “The Deb,” there isn’t really anything that resembles “polite society.” Wilson’s characters run the gamut from uncouth to in-your-face offensive — none more than the tacky small-town beautician Wilson embodies in a brash, John Waters-esque musical satire, situated where overzealous progressive values meet old-school pageantry at its most patriarchal.

It’s unfortunate that the film’s Toronto Film Festival closing-night premiere is overshadowed by legal disputes between Wilson and three of her producers, since “The Deb” delivers where it counts. The project pokes fun at all parties while rewriting the codes of teenage romance for the 21st century. Right out of the gate, it’s “Hairspray” meets “High School Musical,” as the elaborately choreographed, radio-inappropriate opening number, “Fml,” sets the tone for all that follows.

Some sitcom actors only ever get one really great role, but Jim Backus had several. The actor, who played wealthy Wall Street regular Thurston Howell III on the popular castaway series "Gilligan's Island," had already made a name for himself by the show's premiere in 1964. He'd appeared regularly on the radio before TV was the dominant media of the time, and voiced the nearly blind cartoon character Mr. Magoo beginning in 1949. Backus also played a key role in Nicholas Ray's 1955 teen movie "Rebel Without A Cause," portraying the father who falls short when James Dean's angsty antihero Jim Stark needs him.

A few years before "Gilligan's Island," Backus even got his own show, aptly named "The Jim Backus Show" in the style of the time. In the Backus-led series, which was also called "Hot Off the Wire," the actor played a man named Mike O'Toole, who was attempting...

A John Steinbeck novel and classic James Dean film, East Of Eden is set for a Netflix TV adaptation starring Florence Pugh and Christopher Abbot.

James Dean famously only made three films, one of them being a film adaptation of East Of Eden. The original novel was by John Steinbeck, that giant of American literature, and his transplanting of the Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel Biblical tale into a sprawling early 20th Century Californian epic remains a wonderful read.

The 1955 film was responsible for building James Dean’s status as a Hollywood legend, a status that would be forever confirmed by his death the same year, shortly before the release of Rebel Without A Cause. Steinbeck’s book covers a significantly longer period than the 1955 film, so much in fact that it would take a TV series to do it justice. Rejoice then, because that’s exactly what we’re getting.

It’s hard to believe, but the concept of the teenager is younger than film as a medium. According to historians, American culture first began thinking of the period between 13 to 19 as a specific bridge between childhood and adulthood in the 1940s, in part due to marketing executives looking to define people in that age range as a new demographic. And shortly afterwards, that demographic became ubiquitous on TV and films.

The first teen films began popping up in earnest during the 1950s, with landmark titles like “The Wild One,” “Blackboard Jungle,” and the enduringly iconic “Rebel Without a Cause.” Each film featured a bonafide screen legend — Marlon Brando in “The Wild One,” Sidney Poitier in “Blackboard Jungle,” and James Dean in his most iconic role in “Rebel Without a Cause” — and established films that took the emotional turmoil of teen life seriously as a vibrant subgenre. Since then, teens...

All together now: “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.”

So goes the oft quoted maxim of producer Sam Goldwyn, speaking not in malapropism mode but properly enunciating a straightforward commandment for Hollywood filmmakers: keep your personal politics off screen and remember that the public comes to the motion picture theater for entertainment not lectures. Goldwyn’s rule was a guiding principle throughout the classical Hollywood era.*

The sentiment behind the saying is making a comeback. After being whiplashed by critics who’ve persistently linked box office disappointments to liberal political messaging, the success of the relatively talking points-free Twisters, A Quiet Place: Day One and Deadpool & Wolverine has revived the ancient wisdom.

Of course, Hollywood cinema has always telegraphed messages — often most effectively when it was unaware of sending them. In promoting the benefits of postwar capitalist democracy, no flag-waving lecture from an on-screen patriot...

Natalie Wood was the former child actress who racked up three Oscar nominations before she was 25, Wood’s life ended in a tragedy that often overshadows her movie career. Yet many of her titles remain classics, so let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1938 in San Francisco, Wood snagged her first starring role when she was just nine years old in the holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947), playing a precocious girl who tugs on Santa Claus’ beard. She earned her first Oscar nomination when she was 17 for the juvenile delinquent drama “Rebel Without a Cause” (Best Supporting Actress in 1955), which made an icon out of James Dean, who died before its release. Wood added two more Best Actress bids to her resume with the romantic melodramas “Splendor in the Grass” (1961) and “Love with the Proper Stranger” (1963).

Though she never won an Academy Award,...

Editor’s note: this list was originally published in May 2024. It has since been updated in honor of Father’s Day.

Every family relationship is fertile material for any film, but none have been pillaged quite as extensively as the father/son dynamic. Blame the patriarchy, perhaps, for centering the male experience far more extensively in fiction, resulting in films where daughters and mothers tend to fall by the wayside in favor of drama between the men of the family.

Still, filmmakers and their work respond to the imperfect culture we all live in, and the relationship between a father and son can act as a vehicle to explore powerful ideas on screen. Familial expectations, pressures to uphold legacies, and the emotional repression that often defines heterosexual male relationships inform many of cinema’s greatest father stories, which can frequently be boiled down to the (somewhat reductive) label of “daddy issue” dramas.

Will You Be My Ride or Die?: Chevrollier Ramps Up the Chaos in Portrait of Sons & Missing Fathers

Exploring themes of rebellion, shame, and unresolved anguish, La Pampa (aka Block Pass) delves into the profound challenges of articulating inner turmoil. This setup resembles Rebel Without a Cause, but with dirt bikes as the chosen mode of death-defying delinquency with daddy and in-the-closet issues to boot. Actors Sayyid El Alami and Amaury Foucher embody blood-brother dynamics in Antoine Chevrollier’s stagey, coming-of-age drama feature debut and while the film excels at portraying teenagers navigating an adult world, it sometimes fetiches the turmoil and silly wrong turns that the collective make.…...

Jim Backus' first major acting gig was playing a snotty millionaire named Dexter Hayes on the 1940 radio serial "Society Girl." This was to kick off a decades-long career in radio, film, and television, wherein Backus invented multiple indelible characters that remain a part of the pop fabric to this very day. He appeared on "The Jack Benny Program" and even briefly had his own TV show, "The Jim Backus Show" in 1957. He famously played the voice of Mr. Magoo from 1949 until his death in 1989, and starred in "Rebel Without a Cause." He was adept at playing clueless weirdos and self-absorbed egotists, although he had a great deal of comedic range. Be sure to listen to his hit comedy single "Delicious!" sometime. He elicits laughter without saying anything. I could list more credits, but we'd be here all day; Backus starred in over 100 films and shorts, and several dozen TV shows.

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: Discovering the Power of a Dick… Ahead of Its Time

Non-monogamy became a common topic of conversation this spring as Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” made any mention of pro tennis the conversational equivalent of a three-way sex invite.

On dating apps, searches for “open relationships” continued to rise in popularity just as reality television embraced multi-partnered dynamics through shows like Peacock’s “Couple to Throuple.” Even in 2024, polyamory isn’t outright “mainstream” by any stretch of the imagination(s). But as far as contemporary relationships are concerned, the “three’s...

Dennis Hopper was the Oscar-nominated performer who experienced many ups-and-downs throughout his career, with his off-screen antics often overshadowing his onscreen talent. Yet many of his movies have stood the test of time. Let’s take a look back at 15 of Hopper’s greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1936, Hopper made his movie debut at the age of 19 in “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955), where he became fast friends with James Dean. He had an even bigger role in “Giant” (1956), which would be Dean’s last film before his untimely death in 1955. Hopper struggled for several years trying to find his voice, making small appearances in such films as “Cool Hand Luke” (1967) and “True Grit”(1969).

He burst onto the scene with the counterculture phenomenon “Easy Rider” (1969), which he also directed and co-wrote (with co-star Peter Fonda and Terry Southern). The story of two bikers (Hopper and Fonda) traveling across...

For as long as “teenager” has been a demographic, there have been stories about teens breaking free from the status quo. While a lot of the modern great teen rebellion media is confined to the world of TV — where shows like “Euphoria” attract constant buzz — the archetypal troubled teen story remains 1955’s “Rebel Without a Cause.” Starring James Dean in unquestionably his defining role, a rebellious teen struggling with his demons in L.A., Nicholas Ray’s film spoke to young people at the time with its story of high schoolers struggling with, and going against, the social pressures that bring them down. Over the years it became a touchstone because its themes and its honesty transcends generations.

As the teen film has evolved and morphed as a genre, there’s always been room for stories of iconoclastic youth who don’t fit in with the status quo. Oftentimes, these...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has linked up with Fandango to add 30 classic films from the TCM catalog to the ticketing service’s streaming platform, Fandango at Home, as Deadline reports. All 30 films are available for purchase or rental now, and select films will be available to stream for free, rotating on a weekly basis.

Including iconic flicks like Rebel Without a Cause, The Dirty Dozen, and Cool Hand Luke, the first round of free movies is set to arrive later this week, with the promotion extending through May.

The new partnership arrives ahead of the 15th anniversary of the TCM Classic Film Festival, which is set to take place from April 18th to April 21st. As part of the initiative, Fandango is a presenting sponsor for the upcoming event.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Turner Classic Movies to provide fans access to beloved classic films, some for free for the first time,...

VOD streaming outlet Fandango at Home, formerly known as Vudu, has set a new partnership with Turner Classic Movies.

In addition to offering TCM titles available for rental or purchase on demand, the new digital storefront will allow viewers to watch a rotation of 30 titles available for free through the end of May. The first batch of films will arrive later this week, with the storefront’s free offerings then refreshed each week.

The free streaming initiative is tied to the 15th anniversary of the TCM Classic Film Festival. During this year’s edition, which runs April 18 to 21, Fandango at Home is setting up a “living room” promotional space at the Tcl Chinese on Hollywood Boulevard.

The 30 free films have all screened at the TCM festival over the years. Drawn from TCM’s collection of Warner Bros, MGM and Rko films, the list includes Cool Hand Luke, The Dirty Dozen,...

By racking up three Best Actress Oscar notices between the ages of 26 and 32, previous teenage supporting nominee Jodie Foster proved it possible to earn academy recognition more than twice during adulthood after initially charming them as a child. Now, nearly three decades later, she has improved upon that distinction by landing her fifth career bid for “Nyad,” thus entering the Best Supporting Actress arena for the first time as an adult. Since her two featured bids are separated by 47 years, she now holds the record for longest span between consecutive Oscar nominations in a single acting category.

Foster, who first caught the academy’s attention at 14, belongs to the 18% minority of child nominees who went on to contend as adults. She was preceded in that regard by 17-year-old “Rebel Without a Cause” (1956) cast mates Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood and has only been followed by Saoirse Ronan, who competed for...

The moment Elvis Presley stepped in front of the camera for his second appearance on "The Milton Berle Show" in 1956, there was no doubt that this young man was destined for more than pop music superstardom. Much more.

Conversationally, he was downright adorable with his boyish good looks and aw-shucks Southern shyness, but once the music kicked in he was transformed into a hunk of burning lust. That gyrating pelvis and run-riot voice spurred sexual awakenings in living rooms across the country (in full view of outraged parents). To teenagers, Elvis belted out a call to rebellion. To parents, he was a pompadoured incubus. To Hollywood, he was singing, swaggering box-office gold.

Between 1956 and 1972, Elvis starred in 31 features and two concert films. There were lulls (particularly when his popularity faded prior to his 1968 comeback special), but for the most part Elvis reliably packed 'em in. According to producer Hal B. Wallis...

Although today we think of the "Fast and Furious" movies as a massively successful, popular franchise, it's worth remembering that its roots were fairly humble. The 2001 movie "The Fast and the Furious" was mostly small-scale and self-contained, focusing almost entirely on Paul Walker's Brian, who works as an undercover cop and discovers an unlikely friendship with the noble criminal Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). The movie enjoyed a good (but not amazing) box office performance and received less-than-stellar reviews. Odds were, it would probably get one or two sequels max before it faded into irrelevancy.

But even before critics started bashing the movie for being "'Rebel Without a Cause' without a cause," there were still plenty of reasons for the relatively unknown Paul Walker to be concerned about the project. When he first signed onto it in 1998, "The Fast and the Furious" didn't even have a screenplay, and...

“You cannot take katana sword by stealing. It is very special sword, you must earn it.” Or you can bid on it, as the sword from Bloodsport is one of many pieces of movie memorabilia up for auction beginning this week. Joining it are items from Back to the Future II, The Shining, Star Wars, The Godfather, and so many more.

Some notable items hitting the online auction block on Wednesday include the hoverboard from Back to the Future II and Jack Torrance’s ax from The Shining. Also on the horror front is Hannibal Lecter’s mask from The Silence of the Lambs, which won’t exactly pair stylistically with Dirty Harry or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sunglasses from Dirty Harry and the first two Terminator movies, respectively. Even Arnold’s one-time rival, Sylvester Stallone, is represented, with his machete from the fourth Rambo also on the block. Those looking to channel a galaxy far,...

2023 did not lack for good-to-great original horror movies. You can't hate a year that gave us "When Evil Lurks," "Skinamarink," "Talk to Me" and "M3GAN" (among several others). So who cares if Hollywood persists in remaking horror classics, even if it's already been remade (and remade well)?

Irvin Yeaworth's 1958 "The Blob" is hardly a sacred text. It's an effective monster movie that gets surprisingly decent mileage out of its gelatinous, slow-moving creature. Yeaworth tries the viewer's patience by trying to shoehorn in a rebellious teen storyline (which was the rage at the time thanks to hit films like "Rebel Without a Cause"), though who could blame him with first-time leading man Steve McQueen doing the rebelling? All that matters is that he sticks the landing with a fun, movie-theater-set finale. The awful 1972 sequel, "Beware! The Blob," is notable for being the only feature directed by Larry Hagman, who would later...

For better or worse, Elvis Presley and Jesse James are two of America’s rebel icons. Elvis lost out on the opportunity to play the Western outlaw for reasons beyond his control. Another famous actor of the era replaced him. Regardless, the Western genre became a significant part of the singer’s career.

The director of ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ wanted Elvis Presley to play Jesse James

Nicholas Ray was a film director known for making movies about outcasts. His filmography includes King of Kings, In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, and, most famously, Rebel Without a Cause. According to the book Elvis Films Faq: All That’s Left to Know About the King of Rock’ n’ Roll in Hollywood, Ray wanted the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll to star in his movie The True Story of Jesse James. The director wanted James to come across as a sex symbol,...

In his fascinating book about Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino said Elvis Presley almost appeared in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, one of the most beloved Westerns of the 1960s. Another source says the director’s claim is dubious. Regardless, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid inspired one of the best movie themes of its era.

Warren Beatty and Elvis Presley could have been ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’

In his 2022 book Cinema Speculation, Tarantino discussed the making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. “After [Steve] McQueen dropped out of the role of the Sundance Kid, before [Robert] Redford, it was offered to Warren Beatty,” he said. “Naturally, if Beatty did it he wanted to play Butch Cassidy (a nonstarter because that role had always been Newman’s). But if they had gone for it, Beatty wanted to do it with Elvis Presley as Sundance.”

The book Elvis Films Faq: All...

The holidays are upon us, so whether you looking for film-related gifts or simply want to pick up some of the finest the year had to offer in the category for yourself, we have a gift guide for you. Including must-have books on filmmaking, the best from the Criterion Collection and more home-video picks, subscriptions, magazines, music, and more, dive in below.

Giveaways

In celebration of our holiday gift guide, we’ll be doing a number of giveaways! First up, we’re giving away My First Movie Vol. 2, a three-part ‘lil cinephile series by Cory Everett and illustrator Julie Olivi, featuring My First Spaghetti Western, My First Yakuza Movie, and My First Hollywood Musical.

Enter on Instagram (for My First Yakuza Movie), Twitter (for My First Hollywood Musical), and/or Facebook (for My First Spaghetti Western) by Sunday, November 26 at 11:59pm Et. Those that enter on all three platforms...

Patrick Stewart's audition process for "Star Trek: The Next Generation" involved a lot of excitement, a lot of uncertainty, and many, many flights from Lax to Heathrow and back again. 

In his new autobiography "Making It So: A Memoir," Stewart remembered his jet lag well. His audition was a whirlwind of activity. Stewart recalls reading script pages in front of a slew of Paramount executives and in front of creator Gene Roddenberry ("who did not address me at all"), learning later that he was reading the lines for Q, the impish trickster deity that actor John De Lancie would eventually play. After reading for Q, Stewart was called back to read for a character that was, at the time, just called "captain." Things were getting more intriguing by the day for the then-out-of-work actor.

Then, once the good news of his hiring came through, his preparation for the role became a somewhat fraught experience.

Even more than his long-time colleague and friend, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas is the boy who never grew up. For one, Star Wars is so inspired by sci-fi serials like Flash Gordon and the WWII dogfight movies that his imagined sci-fi universe feels oddly antiquated, and befitting its setting in a moment “a long, long time ago.” No less fitting is that American Graffiti, Lucas’s breakout hit, is a love letter to his youth in the 1950s and ’60s, and that it’s become the ur-text of the nostalgia movie as a subgenre. Everything from Happy Days to The Big Chill lives in its shadow, though given the shininess of the film’s surfaces, from the neon-lit drive-ins to chrome-plated cars that have been buffed to perfection, perhaps it’s more accurate to say that the film’s descendants are illuminated by its gleaming glow.

American Graffiti has the most threadbare of plots.

Celebrate a century of Warner Bros. Discovery’s with the new 30-film Studio Collection Box Set, arriving on 4K Ultra HD from 16th October 2023. To celebrate this release, we are giving one lucky UK winner the chance to get their hands on a copy of the 4K Ultra HD.

Featuring unique, premium packaging, a set of 8x Pin Badges of the WB Shield across the studio’s history, WB100 poster, and booklet with production notes and trivia, the Warner Bros. 100 Year Studio Collection provides the ultimate way to celebrate 100 years of the studio’s history. The collection will contain 3 Layflat Books, each holding 10 4K discs, split into the Classic Hollywood, New Hollywood, and Modern Blockbuster eras. These also include timelines detailing the studio’s impact on Hollywood across three key eras. Limited to 1,200 units globally, the collection is a perfect collector’s item.

Enjoy some of Warner Bros. defining blockbusters...

Full disclosure: This essay is being written by an avowed Bender (Aka Judd Nelson’s character in “The Breakfast Club”) apologist. And yes, nearly four decades since the release of the classic John Hughes teen dramedy, I’m well-aware of how problematic that is by our contemporary standards. While (sigh) the fingerless gloves, shredded denim vest, and studs made Bender the epitome of swoon-worthy bad boy chic, it took close to a decade for my still-forming teenage brain to realize that no, that is not, in fact, the ideal form of sensitive masculinity….because Bender is kind of a creep.

But this just goes to show how deeply the ’80s-era sexist, problematic dreamboat bad boy character has permeated culture. It’s the patriarchy of romance, by way of Reagan era sensibilities still relevant fifty years later. Broken boys will be broken boys in need of healing; but why has it...

Blind Beast.You could start cradled like the kidnapped woman in the undulating foam curves that resemble a gigantic female torso in Blind Beast (1969). You could make your approach via the swing of a Super-8 camera towards the steps of a courthouse at the beginning of A Wife Confesses (1961). You could drift into A Cheerful Girl (1957) through the kitchen window, onto a table laden with groceries and bottles of fluorescent orange soda-pop. You could inject yourself like morphine into Red Angel (1966), seep like body ink into the skin of Spider Tattoo (1966), or slide into the fevered bloodstream of All Mixed Up (1964) like powdered poison swallowed from a kite-paper pouch. Whether you arrive on the tip of a blade or the cusp of a kiss, there is no wrong place to start with Yasuzo Masumura, the postwar Japanese director whose astonishing accomplishment should by rights have him mentioned in the same...

In the 1950s, Elvis Presley began dating Natalie Wood. He’d long admired her as he’d grown up watching her films, and she couldn’t help but feel charmed by him. After growing up in Hollywood, Wood found his earnestness refreshing, at least at first. Her feelings changed after she visited his home in Memphis. According to Wood’s sister, she found Elvis’ relationship with his mother unnerving. She cut her visit and their relationship short.

Elvis Presley alarmed Natalie Wood when she visited his family home

After Wood’s Rebel Without a Cause co-star Dennis Hopper introduced her to Elvis, she began dating him. While the romance was going well enough for her to fly to Memphis to meet his family, things quickly fell apart. Elvis’ mother, Gladys, was reportedly not a fan of the young actor.

“Natalie wore a very flimsy nightgown around the house,” Elvis biographer Ray Connolly told Closer Weekly.

With its list of new releases for July 2023, Prime Video is going to help you stay safe from the oppressive July sun.

Highlighting the Amazon Originals on the TV side this month are two heavy hitters. The first is The Horror of Dolores Roach on July 7. Based on a podcast of the same name, this series could best be described as a modern day Sweeney Todd? Why, you ask? Well you know why. Think about it. Then season 2 of Neil Gaiman adaptation Good Omens premieres on July 28. This season will follow angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and demon Crowley (David Tenant) as they seek to keep the Archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) away from both heaven and hell.

There aren’t any Amazon Original movies of note this month and that’s alright as the influx of library titles is more than enough. July 1 sees the arrival of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, No Country for Old Men,...

While summer starts in June, things truly heat up in July, and that includes all the hot new drops on streamers. Amazon’s Prime Video has refreshed its slate of content with over 60 new movies, like Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” and the 1973 animated adaption of the children’s book “Charlotte’s Web.”

Prime Video kicks off the start of the month with Doug McHenry’s “Jason’s Lyric,” “Father of the Bride,” and “Little Nicky.”

Plus, if you’re a Reese Witherspoon fan, Prime Video sets you up with her very first film and her breakout role as Dani in “Man in the Moon.” And the entire “Legally Blonde” trilogy is also available, for those who bend and snap.

Prime Video is also giving watchers some ultimate film classics like “Free Willy,” ”Gladiator,” and “Dances With Wolves.”

Last but absolutely not least, Season 2 of “Good Omens” will land on...

Amazon originals like season two of The Summer I Turned Pretty and Good Omens, as well as The Horror of Dolores Roach, are just some of the titles hitting Prime Video this July.

Blockbusters like Fast X, 80 for Brady, Till, Knock at the Cabin, Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, Men in Black 1-3, Saving Private Ryan, Scarface and more will also be coming to the streamer this month.

The fourth and final season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan sees the titular character, played by John Krasinski, on his most dangerous mission yet, against a foreign and domestic enemy. Two new episodes of the thriller drop on the streamer every Friday until July 14.

Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty returns with its second season on July 14 and picks up where season one left off at Cousins Beach. When an unexpected visitor threatens the future...

Clockwise from top left: Gladiator (DreamWorks), The Portable Door (MGM+), Valley Girl (MGM), Scarface (Universal Pictures) Image: The A.V. Club Summer is here! So to quote Maximus from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator—which is being added to Amazon Prime Video in July—“Are you not entertained?” The answer, of course,...

Clockwise from top left: Gladiator (DreamWorks), The Portable Door (MGM+), Valley Girl (MGM), Scarface (Universal Pictures)Image: The A.V. Club

Summer is here! So to quote Maximus from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator—which is being added to Amazon Prime Video in July—“Are you not entertained?” The answer, of course,...

Prime Video has adapted the one-woman podcast “Empanada Loca” into a new series. “The Horror of Dolores Roach” will begin streaming on the service on July 7. Buckle up, because this one is gruesome. Roach (Justina Machado) returns to a gentrified Washington Heights after a long prison sentence and works as a masseuse in the basement of a friend’s empanada shop. But when her security is threatened, Roach is driven to extremes to survive.

Watch “The Horror of Dolores Roach” trailer:

Season 2 of “Good Omens” also will premiere on Prime Video in July. Arriving July 28, the series focuses on the friendship between Aziraphale (Michael Sheen), a fussy angel and rare-book dealer, and the snarky demon Crowley (David Tennant). While the Apocalypse has been averted, the pair are back living their lives in London, until the archangel Gabriel shows up. The series is based on the novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

Warner Bros. Discovery has been going all out for its 100-year anniversary, starting by reimagining classics from their catalog such as "A Star is Born" and "Rebel Without a Cause." Even beloved Warner brand TCM is getting in on the action, with a slate of remasters of classic films being announced in March of this year. And now, it looks like we're getting a full retelling of the whole Warner Bros. story, with four documentary specials set to hit the revamped Max service (which replaces HBO Max).

"100 Years of Warner Bros.," narrated by Morgan Freeman (naturally) and directed by Leslie Iwerks, will arrive starting on May 25, 2023, the same date Warner Discovery debuts the new Max service. The first two specials are set to arrive on that date, followed by the third and fourth on June 1. According to a release from the studio, the series will explore, "the impact of Warner Bros.

Items signed by James Dean, including the 1954 studio contract that made him a star, go up for auction on May 25, Nate D. Sanders Auctions announced on Tuesday. The document, which secured Dean his brief, era-defining acting career, is appropriately described as “one of the most important acting contracts in the history of Hollywood.”

The Warner Bros. contract, dated April 7, 1954, was for Dean’s first film, Elia Kazan’s “East of Eden.” It gave the studio the option to extend Dean’s contract for several more films. Sadly, his tragic death at age 24 meant he only made two more features, 1955’s “Rebel Without a Cause” and 1956’s “Giant,” which permanently cemented his status as a movie icon on par with Marilyn Monroe.

“To say this collection is unprecedented is an understatement – while a few individual letters or signed documents have been sold, a James Dean collection of this size and quality...

Jane Fonda is calling out late French filmmaker René Clément over on-set sexual harassment.

The “Book Club: The Next Chapter” actress revealed to “Watch What Happens Live” host Andy Cohen that Clément propositioned her while filming 1964 thriller “Joy House.” The film also starred Alain Delon and Lola Albright, featuring both American and French actors under Clément’s agreement with MGM. Natalie Wood was originally set to star before dropping out; Fonda replaced the “Rebel Without a Cause” actress.

Host Cohen asked Fonda to name “one man in Hollywood that tried to pick you up once that you turned down,” to which Fonda replied, “The French director René Clément.”

The Oscar winner continued, “Well, he wanted to go to bed with me because he said the character had to have an orgasm in the movie and he needed to see what my orgasms were like. He said it in French and...

Paul Newman admitted that his career could have been overshadowed by James Dean if the Rebel Without a Cause star hadn’t been killed in a car crash.

The Hollywood actor’s thoughts on his career and personal life are being published posthumously in a memoir, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, which will be released on 27 October.

Newman, who died in 2008, remarked: “I know there are some people who attribute my career breakthroughs to Jimmy’s death. Yes, there were elements of luck— and a lot of my success has indeed involved what I call ‘Newman’s luck’.

“Luck recognised me. If Jimmy hadn’t been killed, half of me says, ‘You could have done it anyway. It would have been a hair slower, but it would have happened.”

Newman took over Dean’s role as the fighter in the TV drama, The Battler, when Dean was killed...

To celebrate its century-long run as one of Hollywood's biggest movie studios, Warner Bros. is releasing 20-minute-long remakes of six of its most classic films. The company, which is now called Warner Bros. Discovery after a merger with Discovery, Inc., plans on developing the short film series through its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team and stated that the series will reimagine these stories through "representative casting, storytelling, and narrative."

The six films on the slate are the recently remade "A Star is Born," the swashbuckling "The Adventures of Robin Hood," the Western "Calamity Jane," the Abbott and Costello comedy "Jack and the Beanstalk," the much-adapted "The Prince and the Pauper," and the James Dean drama "Rebel Without a Cause." Production is slated to begin this summer, with Ali Afshar ("American Wrestler: The Wizard" and a whole slew of Christmas-related material) serving as consulting producer. "We can't think of a better...

As part of its ongoing celebration of the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. Studios, parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has commissioned short film adaptations of six classic movies from its vault.

These 20-minute shorts, which will be available to stream on Max later this year, will update the films through today’s more diverse and inclusive understanding of the world, with what Wbd’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team calls “representative casting, storytelling and narrative.”

Six filmmakers have already been chosen by a committee that includes Wbd senior vp Dei in North America Karen Horne alongside individuals from Warner Bros. Pictures, Visual Communications, Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, Urban World, Sundance Indigenous Lab, Outfest and ReelAbilities Film Fest. The filmmakers, who will receive a budget through which they can derive their own compensation, will begin production this summer and be mentored by a group of established producers and directors,...

William Hopper, the actor who played the stalwart private detective Paul Drake on the hit 1957 legal drama "Perry Mason," was a notoriously prolific smoker, often seen with a cigarette hanging from his lips on camera. In 1970, Hopper suffered a stroke and succumbed to smoking-related health issues a month later. He was 55 years old. 

As Paul Drake, Hopper was a cynic, a more grizzled presence built to balance Perry Mason's serious intellect. He was the Dr. McCoy to Perry Mason's Spock. For those unfamiliar with the series, "Perry Mason" was about a Los Angeles defense lawyer, played brilliantly by Raymond Burr, who was always careful to investigate the clients he was hired to defend. Typically, innocent people came to Mason, and he was always curious about the details of their case. Mason would always face off against the L.A. District Attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman), who never won a case against him.

Warner Bros. has already celebrated its centennial with a segment during the Academy Awards, the publication of a studio-supported book (Warner Bros.: 100 Years of Storytelling) and, most recently, a barrage of festivities emanating from Turner Classic Movies. TCM’s programming for all of April is being devoted to Warners films, and at the 14th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, running April 13-16, many studio masterpieces, some recently restored and remastered, will be shown on big screens around town. Here are 10 that this THR Hollywood history buff highly recommends.

Footlight Parade (1933)

Ninety years ago, during the depths of the Great Depression, Americans sought escape from their troubles with light movies like this backstage musical. Directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler and highlighted by some of choreographer Busby Berkeley’s most kaleidoscopic dance numbers, it was a giant hit at the box office.