News

Exclusive: British agency Host Talent Group has signed singer-actress Lulu, Strictly Come Dancing professional Michelle Tsiakkas and Peleton instructor Bradley Rose.

British entertainment icon Lulu is know for a six-decade career in which she has worked with everyone from The Beatles to Take That, and released hits such as “Shout” and “To Sir With Love.” On the acting front, her recent projects include the Diane Keaton-starring Arthur’s Whisky, which Arclight Films shopped in Cannes last year before it premiered on Sky in January. She has also appeared in To Sir With Love and performed the title song for The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974.

Host said she is gearing up for more acting roles, live performances and media ventures.

Tsiakkas is known as a dancer on BBC entertainment show Strictly Come Dancing, which returned to screens over the week amid several ongoing controversies relating to former stars of the program.

They shape our minds, they inspire our souls, they change our lives. When it comes to teachers, no amount of words do justice to the impact they have in our journeys. But, where words fall short, art can always do the trick!

This Teacher’s Day, the best way to commemorate our beloved teachers could be by dedicating a film or series to them. Here are 5 films and audio series that celebrate the hard work, grit and spirit of teachers across the world:

To Sir, with Love ( Amazon Prime Video)

An all time classic starring late Hollywood icon Sidney Poitier, ‘To Sir, with Love’ has all the makings of an unforgettable viewing experience. From the very first scene, once we meet Mr. Thackeray (Poitier), we root for the man to transform the lives of some wayward and roguish students. The journey of one determined teacher who refused to give up...

Hell yeah! HBO and Max’s new releases for July include the two-episode debut of Harley Quinn spinoff series Kite Man: Hell Yeah! (July 18) that follows the titular villain and his girlfriend the Golden Glider as they take their relationship to the next logical step – opening a bar for supervillains together. Hilarious hijinks are bound to ensue as Gotham’s hottest new bar takes off.

Football fans will get to follow the New York Giants in this season of Hard Knocks: Offseason starting July 2. This non-scripted series will follow the team as they prepare for their highly anticipated 100th season.

Notable movie releases this month include Love Lies Bleeding (July 19), the Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart-starring feature about the love affair between a reclusive gym owner Lou (Stewart) and bodybuilder Jackie (O’Brian). Anyone wanting to rewatch the original Twister before its sequel premieres in theaters this month are in luck,...

An iconic woman needs an apt setting.

So, to mark its 100th anniversary, Columbia Pictures has teamed with the Municipality of Cannes to put the studio’s instantly recognizable Torch Lady and roster of legendary actresses on full display as part of a free photographic exhibit in the historic city’s town square, just off the Croisette and with the Palais and Mediterranean Sea serving as a backdrop.

The exhibit, dubbed “Lighting the Way: From the Torch Lady to Leading Ladies,” includes outdoor installations emblazoned with Columbia’s longstanding symbol as well as more than 30 rare photographs from the studio’s archive spanning Hollywood’s Golden Age through present day, The photographs include ones of Katherine Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, Claudette Colbert, Ann-Margret, Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Julia Roberts, Michelle Yeoh, and, naturally, “Gilda” star Rita Hayworth. A restored version of that film is screening this year as part of the festival’s Cannes Classics program.

Exclusive: To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures, the municipality of Cannes will present a free photographic exhibition titled “Lighting the Way: From the Torch Lady to Leading Ladies.” The photos will be on display for the general public on Cours Félix Faure in Cannes from May 13 to June 10.

Led by Columbia Pictures’ iconic Lady with the Torch, the exhibition will consist of over 30 rare photographs from Columbia’s archive and highlighting legendary actresses from Hollywood’s Golden Age and beyond, including Katherine Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, Claudette Colbert, Ann-Margret, Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Julia Roberts, Michelle Yeoh and Rita Hayworth. A restored version of Hayworth’s Gilda is screening as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Cannes Classics program this year.

Said Tom Rothman, Chairman & CEO of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, “Columbia Pictures may have been founded by men, but women have always been vital to its growth and impact.

Zorro and Expats are the big shows coming to Prime Video in January. The former is what Amazon are calling a “bold reinterpretation” of the classic hero El Zorro for 2024. Starring Miguel Bernardeau as Diego de la Vega and Renata Notni as Lolita Marquez, it’s definitely an intriguing-sounding action-adventure series, with a ten-episode first season based on the iconic character originally created by Johnston McCulley all the way back in 1919.

Meanwhile, upcoming drama series Expats is based on the bestselling 2016 novel The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee, and follows “the vibrant lives of a close-knit expatriate community” in Hong Kong. Nicole Kidman has been known for picking the right kind of shows to lead in the past, so let’s hope this is another banger for the actress, who is also on board as an executive producer here.

Here’s everything coming to Amazon Prime Video and Freevee this month.

Sky Cinema has debuted the trailer for the comedy ‘Arthur’s Whiskey.’

The movie is a feel-good comedy about living in the moment. When Joan’s (Hodge) husband dies, she discovers he had invented an anti-ageing elixir that takes the years off. Sharing it with her two friends Linda (Keaton) and Susan (Lulu), the three rejuvenated women waste no time in painting the town red, but they soon realise it’s a very different world to the one they remember. Starring Academy Award® winner Diane Keaton, Olivier Award winner Patricia Hodge OBE and the legendary Lulu. The film also stars Screen Actors Guild Award winner David Harewood OBE, Grammy nominated music superstar Boy George, Hayley Mills (The Parent Trap), Bill Paterson (House of the Dragon), Adil Ray (Blithe Spirit) and winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Lawrence Chaney. The film also features Genevieve Gaunt, Esme Lonsdale and Hannah Howland as...

Sony Pictures Entertainment is marking Columbia Pictures’ 100th anniversary with a new centennial logo inspired by the historic “Lady With the Torch” iconography.

Ahead of Columbia’s anniversary celebration on Jan. 10, 2024, the new logo has an enhanced glow to the torch to symbolize the vibrancy of the Hollywood studio’s history, Sony said in a statement.

“There is one thing that separates a major studio from all other content producers: history. At Columbia, that history is reflected in the countless cultural talismans created by thousands of people over now 100 years. All of us at Columbia are proud of that legacy and honored to celebrate it,” Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The studio behind classic Hollywood movies like It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and You Can’t Take it With You was founded by brothers...

“The Exorcist” stars Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair are remembering just how much of a powerful force of talent the late director William Friedkin was.

Following his death on Monday at age 87, Burstyn, 80 and Blair, 64, who scared audiences worldwide with their mother-daughter performances in 1973’s iconic “The Exorcist”, sang their high praises to the late director.

Read More: ‘The Exorcist’ Director William Friedkin Says There’s No Plan For A Reboot: ‘It’s A Flat-Out Lie’

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Burstyn remembered Friedkin for his “genius” talent, raving: “My friend Bill Friedkin was an original; smart, cultured, fearless and wildly talented. On the set, he knew what he wanted, would go to any length to get it and was able to let it go if he saw something better happening. He was undoubtedly a genius.”

Blair took to Instagram to commemorate the loss of the director who...

Yesterday, we had to share the sad news that director William Friedkin has passed away at the age of 87. While Friedkin made numerous popular films – The French Connection, Sorcerer, Cruising, and To Live and Die in L.A., among others – his most popular is probably the one that’s celebrating its 50th anniversary this year: The Exorcist (watch it Here). And The Exorcist star Linda Blair has taken to social media to share a tribute to Friedkin.

Blair wrote, “Like Sidney Poitier‘s famous movie To Sir with Love, how do you put into words appreciation to the person that changed your life forever, along with the world? Billy Friedken was a game changer, thought outside the box, was a genius with an incredibly bold personality and extraordinary imagery that electrified colleagues and moviegoers alike and remained a true maverick throughout his career in the film industry.

Every actor wanted to...

Linda Blair, whose performance as the demonically possessed Regan MacNeil in William Friedkin’s iconic 1973 horror film The Exorcist earned her an Oscar nom, is remembering the late director as a genius, a maverick, a game changer and the man who “changed my life forever.”

Friedkin died Monday at 87.

In a lengthy Instagram post — read the entire statement below — Blair, who was just 14 when she delivered the unforgettable performance, begins her remembrance by recalling another film classic.

“Like Sidney Poitier‘s famous movie To Sir, with Love, how do you put into words appreciation to the person that changed your life forever, along with the world?,” she writes.

“Billy Friedken was a game changer, thought outside the box, was a genius with an incredibly bold personality and extraordinary imagery that electrified colleagues and moviegoers alike and remained a true maverick throughout his career in the film industry,” Blair writes.

Linda Blair and William Friedkin,...

”We’ve got to rally right now. People need to escape, be entertained and inspired.”

In a rare CinemaCon address by the head of a big media company Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav took to the stage ahead of Tuesday’s Warner Bros presentation and told attendees, “We believe in full windowing of motion pictures.”

In a stirring address in whch he portrayed himself as a man of the people, Zaslav touched on his own childhood going to the cinema with his father in Brooklyn every Saturday, being inspired by Sidney Poitier in To Sir With Love, and characterised...

Refresh for updates: Big stuff expected here this morning at CinemaCon in Las Vegas as Warner Bros struts its 2023 slate.

Teeing off this morning was Warner Bros Domestic Distribution Chief Jeff Goldstein and Internatioinal Distribution Cheif Andrew Cripps jogging onstage all clad in pink suits, in celebration to the studio’s late summer anticipated hit, Barbie.

“By a show of hands who wore it better, Andrew or me?” beamed Goldstein

“As Barbie says, everybody looks better in pink!” the distrib exec added.

“I’m not sure, Jeff, ” added Cripps.

“Hello, everybody, we’re both tickled pink,” Goldstein continued to pun.

The two touted the success of this past weekend’s Evil Dead Rise, which made its pivot from Max streaming service to an exclusive theatrical window. They also took time to reflect on the legacy of former distrib colleague, MGM’s Erik Lomis. This led into a 100 Years studio sizzle reel with flashes of Elvis,...

The star with the gorgeous calypso voice was also a naturally passionate actor who appeared in heists, colonial confrontations – and even the last love triangle on Earth

In the middle of the 20th century, Harry Belafonte was at the dizzying high point of his stunning multi-hyphenate celebrity: this handsome, athletic, Caribbean-American star with a gorgeous calypso singing voice was at the top of his game in music, movies and politics. He was the million-selling artist whose easy and sensuous musical stylings and lighter-skinned image made him acceptable to white audiences. But this didn’t stop him having a fierce screen presence and an even fiercer commitment to civil rights. He was the friend and comrade of Paul Robeson and Martin Luther King Jr – and his crossover success, incidentally, never stopped him being subject to the ugliest kind of bigotry from racists who saw his fame as a kind of infiltration.

When Sidney Poitier was honored as the first African American male to win a competitive acting Oscar in 1964 for his lead performance in “Lilies of the Field,” it had been 24 years since Hattie McDaniel became the Jackie Robinson of the Academy Awards with her breakthrough triumph in 1940 for “Gone With the Wind.” And it would be another 19 years before there was a third: Louis Gossett Jr.’s supporting actor victory in 1983 for “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

Wins for three performers of color in 43 years didn’t exactly represent a trend. But in the 39 years after that, there would be 19 more, including a pair of African American actors (Denzel Washington and Mahershala Ali) who won twice apiece. Poitier’s ’64 triumph proved as surprising as it was stirring, and undeniably political. Leading up to that historic event, his inscrutable countenance and the almost regal way he carried himself made Poitier a...

Sundance 2023: ‘Radical’ directed by Christopher ZallaChristopher Zalla returns to Sundance (‘Padre Nuestro’, U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize 2007) thanks to one of Hollywood’s most innovative producers, Ben Odell and Eugenio Derbez, the top star of Mexico. Their company 3Pas has consistenly created entertainment for the Latinx community in new ways and now this powerfully inspiring story about a teacher deserves to be put to the test to see how it stands with a public along side with education classics as ‘Blackboard Jungle’, ‘Goodbye Mr. Chipps’, ‘Dead Poets’ Society’ and ‘To Sir With Love’. And yes, ‘Stand and Deliver’ as well, Edward James Olmos’ breakthrough and best film.

Director Christopher Zalla. Courtesy of Sundance Institute, photo by Erynne Dowe

With Mr. Zalla in Sundance is Mexican Superstar Eugenio Derbez, who appeared at Sundance in 2021 as Bernardo in Sian Heder’s Coda, top prize winner at Sundance and winner of three Oscars including Best Picture. InCoda he played an inspirational high school music teacher, and in Radical he is again such a teacher.

Every student in K -12 should be given the opportunity to see this film on the educational non-theatrical circuit as well as theatrical and streaming platforms. This is the film that will inspire children to become teachers like Sergio Juarez as played with all his heart by Eugenio Derbez, Mexico’s top comedian and movie star. The discovery of the joy of learning for the children on Matamorros, Mexico, a place where kids live in a world where they can’t be kids, was based upon a true story.

Eugenio Derbez — Co-Founder, 3Pas Studio — Lead Actor & Producer, Radical speaking at Illuminative’s Indigenous House, courtesy of the social justice organization IllumiNative, a Native woman-led racial and social justice organization dedicated to challenging the narrative about Native peoples:

“I started as a comedian in television. When I made the transition to cinema, I always tried to bring joy into each of my movies. Even though it’s drama, it’s part of our brand. I have a production company called Tripas Studios. Tripas means guts, so when you do everything with your guts, you can make all the decisions with your guts. When we are looking for a project, we always look for the three H’s: Humanity, Humor, and Heart. We need at least two of these elements to be in the movie. But I always need to put in some humor. Even though ‘Radical’ is a drama and a really sad and true story, you’re going to laugh a couple of times because humor makes everything easy. When you show me drama and a true story, I put in a little bit of joy, so you can digest the information much better.”

Eugenio Derbez at the Illuinative panel. Photo Credit: INDÍGENA for IllumiNative

[When asked what he wanted viewers to take away from Radical] “I want to celebrate education. I think education is the base for future generations. I feel that right now education, not just in my country, but worldwide, has been the same for the last 200 years. The same kind of structure, it’s twisted, we’re teaching kids to obey, sit down, shut up, do this, do that, memorize this. We’re teaching them to obey, we’re teaching them to memorize and we need to teach them how to learn.”

Radical shines a light on the incredible potential children can manifest when an innovative teacher empowers them to think for themselves. The Wired article by Joshua Davis (also a producer here) explains it is based on the life of teacher Sergio Juárez Correa, who with his students was the subject of a 2013 Wired magazine cover story titled A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses. The article details Juárez’ rather incredible story as an unorthodox teacher in a poor Mexican border town called Matamoros. It is a forgotten poor city with little hope for its kids, particularly in the elementary school, where he uses a teaching method he stumbled upon seeing a Ted Talks video in which the students lead the curriculum in learning what they want to learn, not what officials dictate through testing and other methods.

Eugenio Derbez conducting a class on the solar system. Courtesy o Sundance Institut

After establishing the To Sir, with Love nature of this school and who the kids in the sixth-grade class are, we meet Sergio. He has turned over all the desks in his classroom and tries to convince the incredulous students to come aboard these “lifeboats” in the make-believe ocean for the kind of off-the-wall lesson they have never encountered before.

As we learn to know the students: Paloma (the nascent shining star Jennifer Trejo), who aspires to be a rocket scientist (That is true and her story is more incredible), Nico, Lupe and others surrounded by cartel culture and bullies, their fates take shape.

Derbez never has been better than in this film, one that’s for sale and, if there is any justice, will be picked up immediately by a distributor looking for a feel-good true story with real potential to make a difference. It co-stars Daniel Haddad, Jennifer Trejo, Mia Fernanda Solis and Danilo Guardiola.

Radical was produced by 3Pas Studios (Derbez’s label run by Benjamin Odell), in association with Epic Magazine and The Lift, and financed by TelevisaUnivision/ViX.

The film is seeking worldwide distribution in all territories, save Mexico. Andrew Herwitz of The Film Sales Company is representing the film.

Eugenio Derbez. Courtesy of Sundance Institute photo by Mateo Londono

“Three Steps” says Ben Odell, co-founder of 3Pas (as in 3Pas, Tripas or tripe, or Guts as Eugenio decribes them), when explaining to me the meanng of the pun. 3Pas in Spanish means three steps, but is also a play on words, something Mexicans like a lot. Personally, I too love tripas y menudo. Delicioso!

Ben and Tripas also won the 2007 Grand Jury Prize Winner at Sundance with the art house Spanish language thriller, Padre Nuestro. IFC changed the title to Sangre de mi sangre for its U.S. release. It also played at New Directors/ New Films at Museum of Modern Art in New York in the Spring of 2007, received two Independent Spirit Awards nominations, for Best First Feature (for which Odell was nominated) and Best Screenplay.

Ben is sure that his producing partner Eugene will go way beyond his current core Latinx market “He is so lovable to watch. He has a magic about him that is undeniable and transcends language and culture.”

When Ben and Eugenio decided to go together they knew it was The-One-Time-In-a-Career-To-Capitalize moment. It happened while Eugenio was making his breakout film Instructions not Included. They formed 3Pas to focus on brand-building based upon Eugenio’s popularity. They planned to go beyond his own work, in English and Spanish. 3Pas Studios signed a first-look deal with Pantelion in August 2014. Neither Eugenio nor Ben had any idea Instructions not Included would be so big. It was released in 2013 by Pantelion and grossed $44.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. It grossed another $55 million overseas making it the number one Spanish language movie in the world.

Before I met Ben, I always pictured him as my other friend whose last name is Odell, a slight and wiry, dark haired type. How surprised I was to see this big, handsome blond who exuded warmth and a good-willed wit and storytelling skill. Love at first sight! And I am sure I am not the only one who is smitten with him. I wish I could convey his spirit, humor and strength as he recounted his life and career(s) to me in the hour we spent together in his new spacious, airy and bright Santa Monica office where Ben Shalom-Martinez was the third person in the new company, manning a phone system not yet working.

I told Ben I had read his mini bio in IMDb, and it made me want to know how he had gotten into the Latinx side of the business. I expected him to reveal that, in fact, and in spite of his name, he was Latino.

One year out of college, Ben said,

“I worked in editing with the Maysles Brothers. I was a P.A. on the first film John Turturro directed called “Mac”, and I was a reader for Art Linson. And that was my degree in Liberal Arts in Film. I wanted to be a screenwriter but I didn’t feel I had enough life experience. A family friend offered me a job in commercial production in Colombia. It was 1992 and my dad said: “if you love all things Latino, go learn Spanish and become an expert in the Latino market. It’s going to need people that understand it. No one was really talking about its importance then but that piece of advice changed my life. I moved to Colombia to learn Spanish and start what would be a life long journey in all things Latino, from U.S. Latino to Latin America. It’s not a single market but there is a connectivity between all of it.”

Ben grew up in Pennsylvania and when he was six years old, neighbors, who had old friends from Colombia, did an exchange of one of their children with a Colombian child. “My father ended up basically adopting that child for the year he lived with our neighbors and from that grew a friendship with this Colombian family.”

When he was 12 years old the whole Colombian family moved to Philadelphia. “I wanted them to adopt me. They were crazy, emotional, passionate, loving. It was a warmth and lust for life I hadn’t really experienced in suburban white America. And then I realized there was a whole country full of them.” At 15 he went with a friend to Colombia and loved it.

His father eventually married someone from that family. So Ben’s connection to Colombia, if not to all of Latin America was very organic. Colombia is not part of the “U.S. Latino market” per se, but Colombia and the rest of Latin America share certain characteristics and commonalities — views on life and death, family, spirituality — that end up working their way into storytelling that are shared throughout the U.S. Latino market and Latin America along with a larger emotional scale in the tone of their storytelling.

Odell lived in Colombia from 1992 to 2000. He also worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a Spanish language television writer and screenwriter there.

When he was in Colombia working in commercials, he met Tom Quinn, a journalist Iiving there for 25 years, working for Time Magazine and running an English language rag called The Colombian Post. In his youth, Tom had run with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. He had lots of adventures and lots of stories of those days.

Ben asked Tom what was the most compelling story they could make into a movie that wasn’t about narcotrafficking, and Tom said one word: “Emeralds.” Colombia supplies 60% of the world’s emeralds. The mines in the Emerald Zone have strong drug laundering connections as well, as one might guess. The land is leased by the government to the three or four mining companies and they control everything with no supervision by the government.

Ben thought this was a great story to develop into a movie, and so he went back to New York to the contacts he had made including an exec at Tribeca Films. “They all said the same thing, great story but you are not a writer. Go write the script and then we’ll talk.” Ben returned to Colombia to do research.

In the meanwhile he began writing for Colombian TV. He had never written a feature film script, nor did he speak Spanish. He had, however, taken a course in feature film screenwriting with Robert McKee. And he had a girlfriend who was bilingual. He knew about Colombian TV and he saw the potential for legitimizing the story first as a TV show and then making it into a feature later.

Tom Quinn was very well known in Colombia as he was the Time News correspondent there at a moment when the magazine had a lot of power; the drug wars were one of its most consistent cover stories. They pitched it to Rti TV, and structured it like The Fugitive.

There is a drug, called burandanga, scientifically known as Scopolamine. It comes from a plant that grows wild in Colombia. The drugged one loses control of his or her will. Ben once heard a story about a man in a bar who wakes up in jail accused of a murder he can’t remember. This became the basis of the story. The lead goes into the Emerald Zone and drugged by burundanga, he kills one on the wrong side in a war going on there. He wakes up with no recollection and a full on civil war going on around him. He can’t get out of the Emerald Zone until he finds the man who drugged him. The title of this series that Tom and he pitched and in 1998 created was Fuego verde, like the 1954 Hollywood movie, Green Fire starring Grace Kelly and Stewart Grainger.

As a television writer, he eventually created and wrote over 300 hours of Spanish-language narrative television including Fuego Verde — the first-ever action series. It was one of the highest rated series on Colombian television. He also co-wrote the Colombian political satire feature film, Golpe de estadio, which was nominated for Spain’s Academy Award, the Goya in 1999, and was Colombia’s nomination to the Oscar in 2000. It is still one of the highest grossing Colombian films of all time.

In the film, Golpe de estadio, (Golpe de Estado means “Coup d’état”but it also could mean “Coup de Stadium”), an oil company has set up a camp for geological research in a small village in Colombia that has been named New Texas. It becomes the target of the guerrillas who are constantly clashing with police in the area. The confrontation is put on hold however during the TV transmission of the world Cup qualifiers.

For more about this and Ben, read my blog from several years ago here.

In summary, Tripas has created a feel-good story that has great potential to make a difference and is available for distribution.

EducationMexicoFilm FestivalsInternational FilmFemale Empowerment...

Every few years there comes another drama that focuses on a teacher facing seemingly insurmountable odds with a group of students who are challenging to teach. Typically, these movies, such as "To Sir, with Love" starring Sidney Poitier, "Stand and Deliver" with Edward James Olmos, "Lean on Me" led by Morgan Freeman, or "Dangerous Minds" with Michelle Pfeiffer, take place in urban settings where the school is overridden with crime and drugs, resulting in students who have no respect for authority and no interest in learning. Of course, that all changes when each film's respective teacher offers up some kind of revelatory lesson that sparks the interest of the young minds who maybe just need an opportunity to leave their rough upbringing behind. 

The new Sundance-selected drama "Radical," written and directed by Christopher Zalla and starring Eugenio Derbez, is one of those movies, but there's something a bit different about...

Tl;Dr:

A star once said The Beatles’ “Love Me Do” was inspired by Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog.”She also felt the song was inspired by Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What I Want).”Paul McCartney and John Lennon discussed how the song came together. The Beatles | Bettmann / Contributor

A star once said The Beatles‘ “Love Me Do” was inspired by Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog.” In addition, she felt the song was different from its inspirations. Notably, Paul McCartney and John Lennon both gave fans insight into the composition of “Love Me Do.”

Singer Lulu said she liked The Beatles when she was young because they looked cute without looking threatening

Lulu is a singer known for her hits “To Sir with Love” and “Boom Bang-a-Bang,” as well as the title song from the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun. During a 2022 interview with The Guardian,...

Idealistic teachers propel some of the most shamelessly schmaltzy tearjerkers of cinema, but whether we like it or not, we all respond to them at some sincere, emotional level. Christopher Zalla’s resolute crowdpleaser “Radical” is a heart-tugger in the mold of such old-school “inspiring teacher changes everything” tales as “To Sir With Love,” “Dead Poets Society” and even recent Oscar winner “Coda,” with which it shares star Eugenio Derbez. It’s a conventional film with broad audience appeal — watch it without tissues at your own risk — and hits all the expected notes.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing for a film centered on time-honored themes. Based on a true story, Zalla’s script is inspired by a decade-old Wired article titled “A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses” — the writer of which, Joshua Davis, serves as a producer here. In the piece, Davis zeroed in on...

Although the holidays have come and gone, a new slate of movies on Prime Video gives us the perfect excuse to continue our movie marathon into January.

Whether you’re in the mood for wild adventure — from a perilous journey to protect a sacred religious relic from Nazi forces to finally letting loose on the eve of your high school graduation — a heartfelt romance, or something to take you back to spooky season, we have your streaming plans covered.

Read on for the best new movies on Amazon Prime Video this January.

“If Beale Street Could Talk” (Available Jan. 1) Annapurna Pictures

Hailing from “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins and based on the transformative 1974 novel by James Baldwin, “If Beale Street Could Talk” follows an evocative love story embattled by injustice in the 1970s. KiKi Layne and Stephan James star as best friends turned lovers, Tish and Fonny, respectively, as they struggle...

Click here to read the full article.

Ian Whittaker, the British actor turned Oscar-winning set decorator known for his work on such films as Alien, Howards End, Tommy and Anna and the King, died Oct. 16 of prostate cancer, The Guardian reported. He was 94.

Whittaker also served as set dresser on Charlie Chaplin’s A Countess From Hong Kong (1967), James Clavell’s To Sir, With Love (1967), Tony Richardson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) and Jim Sharman’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and as art director on Michael Ritchie’s Downhill Racer (1969) and Derek Jarman’s The Tempest (1979).

He collaborated with director Ken Russell on nine features, from the 1971 releases The Music Lovers, The Boy Friend and The Devils to Tommy (1975), Lisztomania (1975) — both featuring The Who’s Roger Daltrey — and the Rudolf Nureyev-starring Valentino (1977).

Whittaker received his Oscar — shared with his production designer Luciana Arrighi, with whom he...

The great acting legend Sidney Poitier died in January at age 94. He did not live to see the thrilling new documentary on his life and career, Sidney, which had its world premiere Saturday night at the Toronto Film Festival. However, it had its blessing, and that of his family, for a film that has been percolating and in development and then production for five years. And although Poitier himself didn’t get to see the finished work, everyone else will beginning on September 23 when it begins streaming on Apple TV+ and playing in selected theaters.

With Oprah Winfrey on board as a producer (with Derik Murray) and Reginald Hudlin as director, Poitier gets an extraordinarily comprehensive and wide-ranging look at his life told in linear fashion and narrated by himself through the use of eight hours of interview footage done in 2012 with Winfrey, as well as other archival interviews. This...

Click here to read the full article.

Oprah Winfrey will executive produce and Reginald Hudlin will direct Sidney, a documentary about the artistry and activism of the late Sidney Poitier.

Sidney, the sweeping doc about the Hollywood legend, which will bow in Toronto ahead of a Sept. 23 launch on AppleTV+, got off the ground thanks in large part to the persistence of the film’s Canadian co-producer Derik Murray. “This is a story that in many ways is long overdue, about an individual who really made a difference, who was a leader for all of us in how he approached his life as a role model and a mentor,” Murray tells The Hollywood Reporter.

In summer 2018, the veteran film producer first pitched Poitier and his wife Joanna after being introduced by Hollywood talent agent Barry Krost. “The first time I met him, he walked into his own living room and...

During the school times the first-hand experience of enacting the role of a teacher on the Teacher’s Day (5th September) was an anticipated day as on this day we got a chance to play the role of a teacher. While preparing for that day had a palpable excitement, the occasion during those school times also underlined how did the Teachers enacted their role in moulding the future of the children day in and day out. Hindi cinema has also over the course of 75 years of its journey time and again touched this unique institution and reminded the citizens of the country about the important role a teacher plays in the life of an individual!

Evolution of the character of Teacher on the silver screen has been a study in motion. It has evolved from being an idealist and non-compromising one to being a teacher with his or her human fallibilities as well.

“My Old School” was originally reviewed out of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

In the world of nonfiction filmmaking, it’s not uncommon for a documentary to be acclaimed for how interesting the story is rather than for how accomplished the storytelling is; a crazy, fascinating tale can sometimes seem like a great doc even if it’s a routine piece of work.

And then there’s “My Old School,” which flipped that equation. Director Jono McLeod’s filmmaking itself is inventive and odd, and that’s almost enough – emphasis on the word almost – to make up for the fact that the story itself is something of a letdown.

A classic unreliable-narrator doc, the film is always fun to watch. But unlike, say, Ramin Bahrani’s “2nd Chance” — a 2022 Sundance doc that is intricately constructed to take the viewer through the twists and evasions doled out by its own unreliable narrator...

Sidney Poitier, Betty White and Ivan Reitman received heartfelt tributes on Oscar Sunday.

Tyler Perry paid homage to Poitier before the opening of the annual In Memoriam segment.

“He was the first, and for far too long, the only Black man to win an Oscar for best actor,” Perry said of Poitier, who made history with his win in 1964. “When he stood on that stage, he did more than shatter a barrier. He stood there for all that came before him, and sparked the dreams of all who followed. To quote Mr. Poitier himself, ‘As the cats say in my area, I’m out there wailing for us all.’ I would not be here today without Sidney. All of us are so blessed and honored to have been inspired by him. To you, sir, with all of our love.”

Poitier died on Jan. 7 at 94. His legendary filmography includes “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,...

The late Sidney Poitier had a career that included some truly game-changing films, including "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" and "In The Heat of the Night". Even his lesser-known works, like the supremely underrated Western "Buck and the Preacher," were notable for how they dealt with the topic of race. 

One of Poitier's biggest films, "To Sir, With Love," has him portraying Mark Thackeray, a teacher who takes up work at a school in London's rough-and-tumble East End. Thackeray ends up winning over his students over the course of the film, including Judy Geeson's Pamela Dare. It even gave birth to a whole subgenre of...

The post One of Sidney Poitier's Most Memorable Scenes Was Made Up On The Spot appeared first on /Film.

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(In light of Sidney Poiter's recent passing, we are re-running this article by Eve Goldberg that was originally posted in May, 2021.)

By Eve Goldberg

To Sir, With Love (1967) is a classroom drama set in London’s working-class East End during the swinging 1960s. It’s a well-scripted, well-acted, and well-directed film of the “good teacher vs unruly students” subgenre. But, more than anything else, To Sir, With Love is a Sidney Poitier film. It’s Poitier’s persona and charisma, his decency and humanity, that shine through in every scene. And, it’s Poitier at the apex of his acting career—In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner were also released that same year. The film has aged surprisingly well, and is still enjoyable to watch. But it’s as an artifact of the Sidney Poitier oeuvre...

Updated with latest: Networks are marshaling to set programming this month in tribute of Sidney Poitier, the groundbreaking and Oscar-winning actor and civil rights activist who died last week at age 94.

OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network will feature special programming this Sunday that includes the iconic actor’s 2000 and 2007 appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and an airing of his 1967 film To Sir, With Love. The network also said that it will air the 2015 special Oprah Winfrey Presents: Legends Who Paved the Way featuring Poitier at a gala honoring “some of the legendary men and extraordinary women of the civil rights movement who made history.”

To Sir, With Love and the Oprah Winfrey Show episodes will be available beginning Sunday on the WatchOWN app, the network said.

TCM said today that it will roll out 12 Poitier movies in a marathon programming block Saturday and Sunday, February 19-20. February 20 will mark what...

The legendary Scottish singer Lulu has had a career that’s spanned six decades and is still, as she says, “smashing it onstage.” But she is most associated with a song and a film that she made when she was a teenager: the 1967 Sidney Poitier-starring classic “To Sir, With Love.” The film depicted Poitier as a British Guyanese teacher at a tough East London school and the ensuing racial issues, and featured Lulu not just as a student in his class but also singing the title song to him in a pivotal scene at the end.

Though just 18 at the time, Lulu (real name: Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie) was already a major pop star in Swinging London-era Britain, with a powerhouse voice that got her discovered at the age of 15. She was steered to top chart success by Marion Massey, one of the first female managers in the business...

Sidney Poitier’s two most iconic moments as an actor both occur in the 1967 Oscar-winning drama “In the Heat of the Night.” The first is his famous declaration “They call me Mister Tibbs!” The second arrives when his big-city detective is questioning a Mississippi cotton tycoon, who slaps Tibbs for implying that he’s a criminal. Tibbs slaps him back — an act of shocking-at-the-time defiance that Poitier improvised, and one that gave a jolt to film history. It connected, electrifyingly, with the militancy of the late ’60s, and left no doubt that Poitier was a figure of mythological magnitude.

As the first Black movie star, the Jackie Robinson of cinema, the trailblazer who always felt (by his own admission) that it was his obligation to represent, Poitier changed the movies with the very fact of presence. Yet it was the meaning of his presence, the ferocity and containment of it,...

At the news of Oscar winner Sidney Poitier’s death at age 94, tributes poured in from around the world about his impact as both an entertainer and as an activist. Now, his family has shared a statement, in which they pay honor to the man “who always put family first.” Read the statement in full below. There are no words to convey the deep sense of loss and sadness we are feeling right now. We are so grateful he was able to spend his last day surrounded by his family and friends. To us Sidney Poitier was not only a brilliant actor, activist, and a man of incredible grace and moral fortitude, he was also a devoted and loving husband, a supportive and adoring father, and a man who always put family first. He is our guiding light who lit up our lives with infinite love and wonder. His smile was healing,...

Sidney Poitier’s family remembered the Hollywood giant as a humanitarian, a leader and a devoted artist in a statement issued Friday evening, a day after his death at the age of 94.

The actor, who became the first Black person to win the Oscar for lead actor with 1963’s “Lilies of the Field,” died at his home in Los Angeles on Jan. 6. Poitier was Hollywood’s first major Black box office star, constantly blazing trails with film roles such as Dr. John Wade Prentice in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and Mark Thackeray in “To Sir, With Love,” as well as with his activism in the heart of the Civil Rights era. Along with many prominent Hollywood figures, his family reflected on his legacy of art and compassion.

“There are no words to convey the deep sense of loss and sadness we are feeling right now. We are so grateful...

Refresh for updates… Tributes are pouring in for Oscar-winning actor, director, civil rights activist and humanitarian Sidney Poitier, who has died at age 94.

“For over 80 years, Sidney and I laughed, cried and made as much mischief as we could,” said Harry Belafonte in a statement (the two met in the mid-1940s while working at The American Negro Theatre in New York City). “He was truly my brother and partner in trying to make this world a little better. He certainly made mine a whole lot better.”

In a statement to Deadline, Denzel Washington said, “It was a privilege to call Sidney Poitier my friend. He was a gentle man and opened doors for all of us that had been closed for years. God bless him and his family.”

Sidney Poitier: A Groundbreaking Career In Pictures

Westworld actor Jeffrey Wright was among the first to share his thoughts on Poitier’s passing.

Sidney Poitier, the first Black actor to win an Academy Award (for his performance in 1963’s “Lilies of the Field”), has died at age 94. Tributes from friends and famous fans immediately began to pour in, honoring a trailblazer who forged a way forward for Black performers. Poitier enjoyed a lengthy career, first on Broadway and then starring in films including “In the Heat of the Night,” “A Raisin in the Sun” (in which he reprised his starring role from Broadway), “To Sir, With Love,” “A Patch of Blue,” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”

“What a landmark actor. One of a kind. What a beautiful, gracious, warm, genuinely regal man,” Jeffrey Wright shared on Twitter. Lee Grant, his co-star in “In the Heat of the Night,” tweeted, “Sidney was a force of nature. One of [the] most intelligent, beautiful, and unstoppable human beings I’ve ever known. He made our world,...

Sidney Poitier, the noble leading man whose work in such films as No Way Out, Lilies of the Field and In the Heat of the Night paved the way for minority actors and actresses everywhere, has died. He was 94.

Poitier died Thursday night at his home in Beverly Hills, a rep for his family told The Hollywood Reporter.

Poitier was the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor when he was acknowledged for his portrayal of a good-hearted handyman for Arizona nuns in Lilies of the Field (1963).

He received an earlier best actor nomination for his turn as a convict on the run in The Defiant Ones (1958).

In 2002, he received an honorary Oscar from the Academy “for his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the motion picture industry with dignity, style and intelligence throughout the world.”

Poitier was the first actor...

Sidney Poitier, whose dignity and self-assertion ushered in a new era in the depiction of African-Americans in Hollywood films as the civil rights movement was remaking America, has died, a spokesperson for the Bahamian Prime Minister confirmed to Variety. He was 94. Poitier was the oldest living winner of the best actor Oscar — just one distinction in a career full of distinctions.

“Our whole Bahamas grieves and extends our deepest condolences to his family. But even as we mourn, we celebrate the life of a great Bahamian, a cultural icon, an actor and film director, an entrepreneur, civil and human rights activist and, latterly, a diplomat,” said Phillip Davis, Prime Minister of the Bahamas in a statement. “We admire the man not just because of his colossal achievements, but also because of who he was. His strength of character, his willingness to stand up and be counted, and the way he...

Sidney Poitier, the trailblazing and iconic Black actor, director, civil rights activist and humanitarian, has died, the Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs announced Friday.

Details of his death were not immediately available.

The first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor — for 1964’s Lilies of the Field — Poitier was towering figure in Hollywood and beyond, starring in such classics as A Raisin in the Sun, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and To Sir With Love, to name a select few, while taking on a global profile for his unceasing calls for civil rights, racial equality and human dignity.

Offscreen, Poitier’s work and support for civil rights in the 1960s put him at the forefront of the movement and made him one of its most prominent public faces. He attended, along with his lifelong friend Harry Belafonte, the 1963 March on Washington,...

HollyShorts Film Festival Announces Dates and Lineup

Short films starring Taika Waititi, Jessica Chastain, Tiffany Haddish and those produced by Octavia Spencer and Leonardo DiCaprio are among highlights of the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival, running Sept. 23-Oct. 1 at the Tcl Chinese Theatres and online.

Selections include Spencer Susser’s “Save Ralph,” starring Zac Efron, Waititi and George Lopez; Aneil Karia’s “The Long Goodbye” starring Riz Ahmed; Orlando von Einsiedel’s “Into Dust” produced by DiCaprio; Aidan Tanner’s “The Sands Between” starring Chastain; Minsun Park and Teddy Tenenbaum’s “Koreatown Ghost Story,” starring Margaret Cho; Zeberiah Newman’s “Right to Try,” produced by Spencer.

Other films on the slate are: Geoff Dunbar’s “When Winter Comes”; Lindiwe Suttle Müller-Westernhagen’s “Desmond’s Not Here Anymore;” Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman’s “Life Unexpected,” Julien Joslin’s “No Longer Suitable for Use,” Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe’s Oscar-Winning “Two Distant Strangers,...

Sidney Poitier — who turns 94 on Feb. 20 — has received virtually every showbiz award possible: An Oscar, Grammy, Golden Globe, plus Life Achievement Awards from AFI, BAFTA, NAACP Image Awards, SAG and Kennedy Center Honors, to name a few. Though the kudos have been plentiful, they aren’t enough to convey the depth of his lasting impact on the entertainment industry, starting with being the first Black winner of best actor Oscar for the 1963 film “Lilies of the Field.”

The film industry’s lack of diversity is still an issue in the 21st century. But diversity was nearly non-existent when Poitier made his film debut in the 1950 “No Way Out.” There had been other Black actors in lead film roles, including James Edwards and Harry Belafonte, but they were extremely rare. And Poitier captured the public imagination like no one before him, with his soft but powerful voice and, crucially, his integrity.

“Critical Thinking” is one of those up-from-the-streets high-school competition movies where just mentioning the true story it’s based on kind of gives the game away. Set in 1998, it’s about the five chess wizards from Miami Jackson High who became the first inner-city chess team to win the National Championship. Boom! But, of course, it’s how they got there that matters, and even if this movie weren’t based on a true story, you’d know more or less know where it’s going. “Critical Thinking” has some appealing young actors, and it’s been directed, by John Leguizamo (who costars as the film’s tough-saint teacher), in a way that gives them the space to clown around and then get serious.

Leguizamo plays Mario Martinez, who teaches an elective class in chess at Miami Jackson, where his students call him “Mr. T.” They’re a rowdy, bellicose,...

A coming-of-age drama, set in a suburban school with a bunch of unruly students, invariably finds its lead character in a (preferably not very old) teacher who'll walk in brimming with confidence, tossing ideas that will transform the campus into a happy place.

The template works everywhere -- from Bollywood (random recall: "Sir" or "Hip Hip Hurray") to Hollywood - and the formula can be moulded to suit whatever socio-political or cultural context a filmmaker may wish to convey.

This French-Arabic film, originally titled "La Vie Scolaire", draws its context from the racial factor of the locality in which it is based -- Saint-Denis, which is a Paris suburb mostly populated by migrants of colour.

For viewers in India that societal mapping may not hold much interest, unless you consider it is rendered with an autobiographical edge. Saint-Denis is the home turf of the film's writer-director duo of slam poet...

“No Way Outâ€. (1950)

In his big-screen debut, Sidney Poitier makes a memorable impression as a pioneering African American physician who runs afoul of a racist thug (Richard Widmark) whose brother died in his care.

“Blackboard Jungleâ€. (1955)Â

In this melodrama, the first Hollywood feature to include rock songs, Glenn Ford plays a new teacher at a troubled inner-city school where Poitier is music-loving rebel.

“The Defiant Onesâ€. (1958)

Poitier starred opposite Tony Curtis in Stanley Kramer’s Oscar-winning drama about two escaped convicts who — since they are still chained together — reluctantly agree to cooperate despite their differences.

“A Raisin in the Sunâ€. (1961)

Reunited with much of the cast of the 1960 Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry’s play, Poitier plays the ambitious young Chicago man squabbling with his family over how best to spend their late father’s insurance money.

“Lilies of the Fieldâ€. (1963)

Poitier plays a former G.I. who agrees to...

In the mid-1970s, ABC introduced a pair of unique comedies that tried to shake things up a little bit. One was the Hal Linden cop sitcom Barney Miller, while the other was stand-up comedian Gabe Kaplan’s high school-set Welcome Back, Kotter. The premise of the latter (which introduced John Travolta to the world) had Gabe playing Gabe Kotter, a teacher with a sense of humor who takes a job at his alma mater, James Buchanan High School, located in Brooklyn, New York. He’s given a classroom of juvenile delinquents known as the Sweathogs, and assigned by school assistant principal Michael Woodman to keep them “contained” until they either drop out or somehow manage to graduate. But, instead, Kotter, who was one of the original Sweathogs in his youth, tries to connect with them to make them better people in the process. It sounds more like a serious drama (going way back,...