News

As we move closer to a world of telecommuting and online collaboration, film editors are jumping on the bandwagon. As a group they’ve been traditionally somewhat removed from the day-to-day moviemaking process, working in dark suites far from the set. But it’s one thing to work across town and quite another to work on a different continent.

Take Langdon Page, who has edited feature documentaries “Salinger” (2013), “Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures” (2016) and this year’s “Inventing Tomorrow” from Chile, the South American country to which he relocated in 2011 for family reasons. (He did have to travel to Los Angeles to edit 2017’s “The Final Year,” about President Obama’s last year in office, because it was “politically sensitive.”)

“Between 2012 and now I’ve cut six documentaries remotely,” says Page, who received a grant from the Chilean government to start a production company. “At that point, the technology was...

Paramount Music will release the 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi – Music from the Motion Picture digitally on January 15, 2016. The album features the film’s original score by Lorne Balfe (Terminator Genisys, Penguins Of Madagascar).

“The film is really about the soldiers’ ordeal and how they coped with the situation at hand,” said Balfe. “Michael (Bay) does a great job keeping the film from becoming political. The film is really here to honor the soldiers and the men and women who ultimately had to step up and do everything they could to save as many people as possible.”

From director Michael Bay, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi is the gripping true story of six elite ex-military operators assigned to protect the CIA who fought back against overwhelming odds when terrorists attacked a U.S. diplomatic compound on September 11, 2012. When everything went wrong, six men had the courage to do what was right.

From Ruby Dee to Robin Williams, Mike Nichols, Unbroken protagonist Louis Zamperini, Ben Bradlee, Homeland‘s James Rebhorn and so many others, the list of people who passed in 2014 somehow just hits you in the gut harder than recent years. Perhaps none as hard as Philip Seymour Hoffman. His death was as shocking as that of Williams, who took his life after a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.

Like Williams, Nichols and others on the list, Hoffman’s professional accomplishments were outsized, from his Oscar-winning turn in Capote to the gut-wrenching stage turn in the Nichols-directed Death Of A Salesman. Unlike most of those others, Hoffman’s best work seemed squarely to be in front of him, before he was found dead of a drug overdose.

I don’t know that I’ll ever see a better stage turn than Death Of A Salesman. Looking back on it, I can...

It was recently revealed James Cameron had brought on board screenwriters Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno to write the screenplays for Avatar 2, 3 and 4, but it wasn't clear who was writing which screenplay or if it was one massive collaboration. Today, in an article in the New York Times he get confirmation of who will be credited for what: The first sequel, Jon Landau, James Cameron's business partner confirmed, will be written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, a husband-and-wife team known for their work on Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The second, he said, will come from Josh Friedman, who worked with Lightstorm on the television series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." The third is being written by Shane Salerno, who also worked previously with Mr. Cameron, and who was already blocking out his Avatar script while promoting the release of his documentary Salinger last year.

It's been known for some time now that director James Cameron plans to shoot three sequels to his 2009 hit Avatar back-to-back-to-back, but he's never opened up about how he has managed to handle writing all three movies at the same time, until now. We know that last year Cameron assembled a team of writers to help him pen the screenplays, including Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds), Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planets of the Apes), and Shane Salerno (Savages, Salinger), and speaking this weekend at the Hero Complex Film Festival (via /Film), Cameron opened up about the writing process on these highly-anticipated sequels.

Danny Strong, the screenwriter who penned the scripts for The Butler and the next two Hunger Games films, will make his directorial debut with Salinger’s War.

As first reported by the Hollywood Reporter, Strong had optioned Kenneth Slawensk’s biography about the Catcher in the Rye author, J.D. Salinger: A Life, and wrote the screenplay on spec. The adaptation will focus on a younger Salinger, an ambitious New York writer who is pulled into World War II after Pearl Harbor and encounters horrors in Europe that will forever change him and his writing.

Strong won two Emmys for the HBO movie Game Change,...

Richard Ayoade shot to fame as Moss in The It Crowd but it was Submarine, his debut behind the camera, that won him critical acclaim. As his new film, The Double, is released, he talks about pride, performing and giving up his pop dreams

The premise of Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1846 novella The Double is simple but ingenious: a man lives an entirely unremarkable existence until one day his exact doppelganger shows up. This incongruous situation fast becomes insufferable for two reasons: first, the new guy is slick where he is stammering, popular where he's forgettable, Day-Glo to his beige; and, second, because no one else notices any likeness at all between the pair of them.

The Double, it's said, is meant as an allegory: the straight man is Dostoevsky in real life, shy and often awkward; the arriviste is the author 2.0, the person he sometimes wished he was, who is quick-witted and irresistible to women.

After all the twists and turns on the Shane Salerno-directed docu Salinger that began with a January 2010 Deadline reveal that the film had been shot, how did the documentary do? The American Masters version totaled 2 million viewers, including repeat broadcasts and DVR viewers. This was strong considering the film had been released by The Weinstein Company and was in the top 10 of the year’s theatrical docus, and that it was viewable on Netflix at that time. The Simon & Schuster companion book written by David Shields and Salerno hit both the New York Times and La Times bestseller lists. And Salerno more than made back the $2 million he invested to make the film, after he made three 7-figure deals with TWC, S&S and American Masters. It didn’t hurt the Salinger estate either, as Catcher In The Rye hit the bestseller charts again, 62 years after its publication in...

After all the twists and turns on the Shane Salerno-directed docu Salinger that began with a January 2010 Deadline reveal that the film had been shot, how did the documentary do? The American Masters version totaled 2 million viewers, including repeat broadcasts and DVR viewers. This was strong considering the film had been released by The Weinstein Company and was in the top 10 of the year’s theatrical docus, and that it was viewable on Netflix at that time. The Simon & Schuster companion book written by David Shields and Salerno hit both the New York Times and La Times bestseller lists. And Salerno more than made back the $2 million he invested to make the film, after he made three 7-figure deals with TWC, S&S and American Masters. It didn’t hurt the Salinger estate either, as Catcher In The Rye hit the bestseller charts again, 62 years after its publication in...

Lindsay Lohan has reunited with former Mean Girls co-star Daniel Franzese as the cult film approaches its 10th anniversary.

We take a rather fond and fetch trip down memory lane to see what the comedy's central stars - including Lacey Chabert and Lizzy Caplan - have gone on to do a decade later:

Lacey Chabert

Lacey Chabert plays runt of The Plastics litter and Toaster Strudel princess Gretchen Wieners.

The 31-year-old star, who famously played Claudia Salinger in cult series Party of Five from 1994 to 2000, has also appeared in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past with Matthew McConaughey and provided the voice of Family Guy's Meg Griffin before Mila Kunis took over.

Tim Meadows

Tim Meadows stars as democratic principal Mr Duvall, who attempts to restore calm when pages of the infamous Burn book rear their ugly heads.

Following the film's release, 53-year-old comedy writer and actor Meadows has starred in...

Set in a quiet New Hampshire town, Labor Day is the story of single mom Adele (Kate Winslet), her son Henry (Gattlin Griffith), and Frank (Josh Brolin), a fugitive that the two initially house against their will. As they begin to see more of his true character, he starts to fill in the role of husband and father. Based on the 2009 novel by Joyce Maynard, the film is written and directed by Jason Reitman.

With her novel “To Die For” previously adapted into a film by Gus Van Sant, Labor Day marks the second adaptation of Maynard’s work. She was recently seen discussing her relationship with J.D. Salinger in the 2013 documentary Salinger, which she has also written about.

I sat down with Maynard in a roundtable interview to discuss her perspective of the film adaptation, how the original story came to her, her love for New Hampshire, and more.

Chicago – She has had two of her books adapted by top modern directors – Gus Van Sant directed “To Die For” (1995), and Jason Reitman is just about to release “Labor Day,” starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. But the journey of author Joyce Maynard extends even beyond these accomplishments, affecting literary history.

From an early age, Joyce Maynard knew she was a writer. After winning several student awards while as a teenager, and writing regularly for “Seventeen” magazine, Maynard was featured in 1971 on one of “The New York Times Magazine” most famous covers – “An Eighteen Year Old Looks Back on Life.” This caught the attention of another author, the reclusive J.D. Salinger (author of “Cather in the Rye” and other classics). The then 53-year-old literary legend wrote Maynard 25 letters, and they eventually had a live-in relationship that lasted about a year. Salinger broke up with Maynard when she published her first book,...

Tonight at 9 Pm, American Masters for its 200th episode unveils the Shane Salerno-directed documentary on the life of J.D. Salinger, followed by Charlie Rose’s interview with the filmmaker who spent a decade and his own money uncovering secrets of the reclusive author. The PBS version of Salinger is 15 minutes longer than the version released theatrically by The Weinstein Company last fall, and here is a fascinating new clip in which Tom Wolfe describes an encounter between Salinger and a young Charles Portis, who went on to write True Grit: Click here to view the embedded video.

Tonight at 9 Pm, American Masters for its 200th episode unveils the Shane Salerno-directed documentary on the life of J.D. Salinger, followed by Charlie Rose’s interview with the filmmaker who spent a decade and his own money uncovering secrets of the reclusive author. The PBS version of Salinger is 15 minutes longer than the version released theatrically by The Weinstein Company last fall, and here is a fascinating new clip in which Tom Wolfe describes an encounter between Salinger and a young Charles Portis, who went on to write True Grit: Click here to view the embedded video.

Zap2it: When "Hart of Dixie" co-star Josh Cooke asked about your mother, novelist Joyce Maynard, having lived briefly with reclusive author J.D. Salinger (to whom she lost her virginity as a Yale freshman) in the early '70s, you quipped, "I just call him Dad." When Cooke said, "But he's not, so ... ," you said, "I'll let you decide." Does that mean you'll be watching when PBS' "American Masters" airs the documentary "Salinger," in which Maynard appears, on Tuesday, Jan. 21?

Wilson Bethel: I've seen the preview for it. I didn't realize it was going to be on PBS. But yeah, it looks great. I know my mom felt invested in it, because (filmmaker Shane Salerno) had been trying for so long. So, yeah, I'll probably end up watching it. If nothing else, I'm a fan of Salinger's work.

(A couple of weeks after this conversation, Maynard attended the...

News is slowly starting to creep out of the production for James Cameron’s Avatar sequels. We know that he’s planning three of them, and that they will be shot back-to-back-to-back. But we can now report that shooting won’t begin until Dec 2014/Jan 2015, as they look to stay on schedule for a December 2016 release for the first film. Deadline is reporting that the current plan would be to shoot all of the sure-to-be extensive motion capture work first, then shift to live-action.

We also know that Cameron has enlisted the talents of several other writers to help him make his next three films as strong as possible. He’s currently collaborating with Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds) on the second film, with Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planets of the Apes) on the third, and he’ll be completing the fourth with Shane Salerno (Savages,...

This is news? Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana are all set to reprise their roles in the next three films in James Cameron's Avatar franchise.Three more films from Avatar is pushing the limit visually. I'm not sure how much of these big blue people I can take. The first film, which is the highest grossing of all time, pulled that off due to revolutionary 3D filmmaking at the expense of poor writing. The next films have a silver lining in some strong scribes on board to elevate the film past having only visual effects as an audience puller. Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planets of the Apes), and Shane Salerno (Savages, Salinger) are working with Cameron on the scripts for all follow-up, as well as Josh Friendman, the very same guy who massacred the War of the World remake and offered us the awful Black Dahlia.

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana have agreed to return to the Avatar movies.

The duo will appear in the next three films of the James Cameron-directed franchise. Stephen Lang has also confirmed his return as the villainous Colonel Miles Quaritch.

Fox recently announced that there will be three - not two - more sequels and that Cameron had hired screenwriters Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds), Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planets of the Apes), and Shane Salerno (Savages, Salinger) to collaborate with on the screenplays for the second, third and fourth movies.

Cameron has also said that his three Avatar sequels will be shot in New Zealand.

He projected that the first 3D Avatar sequel will be in cinemas by Christmas 2016, with the ensuing movies to be released in 2017 and late 2018 respectively.

The director added that all three films will be shot concurrently beginning in 2015.

Photo...

On Tuesday, January 21st at 9pm, PBS's "American Masters" documentary series will air the never-before-seen director's cut of Shane Salerno's divisive film "Salinger," about the life and influence of reclusive "Catcher in the Rye" author J.D. Salinger, who passed away three years ago. The premiere will be both the series' 200th episode and the premiere of its 28th season. It'll be the first without creator and executive producer Susan Lacy, who left PBS for HBO in September, on board, though Lacy engineered the "Salinger" deal with Wnet VP of Programming Stephen Segaller and is the executive producer of most of the films in the upcoming season. The director's cut will include 15 minutes of new material. PBS has shared an outtake from the film featuring interviewee David Shields, who co-authored an accompanying book on Salinger with Salerno, on the impact of World War II on J.D. Salinger's writing, including...

Breaking: Wnet’s American Masters will open its 28th season by showing a director’s cut of Shane Salerno’s feature documentary Salinger that will be 15 minutes longer than the theatrical version. The prestige program has promised that the longer cut will bare more previously unseen photos, testimony and secrets about reclusive author J.D. Salinger, including his harrowing days fighting the Nazis in WWII. American Masters was the first to close a deal for the movie, followed by a book deal with Simon & Schuster and then a theatrical pact with The Weinstein Company. The latter later announced it would work with Salerno to develop a narrative movie about the life of the author of such literary classics as The Catcher In The Rye. Related: Weinstein Co Plans Feature Film Based On ‘Salinger’ Documentary American Masters: Salinger airs January 21. I’ve watched this documentary come together over the past five...

Breaking: Wnet’s American Masters will open its 28th season by showing a cut of Shane Salerno’s feature documentary Salinger that will be 15 minutes longer than the theatrical version. The prestige program has promised that the longer cut will bare more previously unseen photos, testimony and secrets about reclusive author J.D. Salinger, including his harrowing days fighting the Nazis in WWII. American Masters was the first to close a deal for the movie, followed by a book deal with Simon & Schuster and then a theatrical pact with The Weinstein Company. The latter later announced they would work with Salerno to develop a narrative movie about the life of the author of such literary classics as The Catcher In The Rye. American Masters: Salinger airs January 21. I’ve watched this documentary come together over the past five years (back when I saw an early cut) and I didn’t...

American Masters launches its 28th season with the series' 200th episode: the exclusive director's cut of Shane Salerno's documentary, Salinger, premiering nationally Tuesday, January 21, 2014, 9-11:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) with 15 minutes of new material not seen in theaters. American Masters: Salinger The doc will debut on American Masters Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at 9 p.m. on PBS. Filmmaker Shane Salerno's 10-year investigation culminates in the first work to get beyond The Catcher in the Rye author's impenetrable wall of privacy and seclusion. American Masters presents the exclusive, never-before-seen director's cut of Salinger as the series' 200th episode, featuring 15 minutes of new material. Salinger is an intricately structured mystery that reveals the author's private...

James Cameron has confirmed he will shoot the three Avatar sequels in New Zealand, taking advantage of increased rebates from the Kiwi government.

The government said the combined production spend, including most of the live action shooting and visual effects, would be at least $NZ500 million.

The trilogy will qualify for a rebate of 25% assuming it complies with the guidelines set out in an MoU with Cameron and Jon Landau.s Lightstorm Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

The government announced it is raising the baseline rebate for overseas and New Zealand productions from 15% to 20%. In addition, qualifying productions will get points for specific benefits to New Zealand.

The higher rebate may put pressure on the Australian government to lift the location offset from an uncompetitive 16.5%. Ausfilm has called for the rebate to be raised to 30%.

New Zealand productions will continue to access the 40% rebate but that will be...

One hundred fourteen scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2013 will be vying for nominations in the Original Score category for the 86th Oscars®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today.

A Reminder List of works submitted in the Original Score category will be made available with a nominations ballot to all members of the Music Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five achievements. The five achievements receiving the highest number of votes will become the nominations for final voting for the award.

Nomination voting in all Oscar categories begins Friday, December 27 and ends Wednesday, January 8.

The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below, in alphabetical order by film title:

“Admission,” Stephen Trask, composer

“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” Daniel Hart, composer

“All Is Lost,” Alex Ebert, composer

“Alone Yet Not Alone,” William Ross, composer

“The Armstrong Lie,...

Senior executives at the Academy announced on Dec 12 that 114 scores have been submitted for the original score Oscar category.Scroll down for full list

A reminder list of works submitted will be made available with a nominations ballot to all members of the music branch, who will vote in the order of their preference for up to five scores.

Those five that receive the highest number of votes will be announced as nominees on January 16 2014.

According to the rules, to be eligible the original score must be a “substantial body of music that serves as original dramatic underscoring, and must be written specifically for the motion picture by the submitting composer.

Scores diluted by the use of tracked themes or other preexisting music, diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs, or assembled from the music of more than one composer shall not be eligible.”

Admission, Stephen Trask

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Daniel Hart

[link...

Exclusive: In what might be the last big material sale of the year, Skydance Productions has acquired in a pre-emptive seven-figure deal an untitled science fiction project based on an original idea by Shane Salerno, who is currently co-writing one of the three Avatar sequels for James Cameron at Fox. Salerno will write the screenplay, and Skydance’s David Ellison and Dana Goldberg will produce. Paul Schwake will be executive producer. Skydance confirmed the deal, but would not comment on its size or the film’s logline. “The second we heard Shane’s pitch, we immediately wanted to partner with him on this project,” Ellison offered. “We are thrilled to be on board.” Salerno wrote and directed the feature documentary Salinger, which was released theatrically by The Weinstein Company, and makes its TV debut as the 200th episode of American Masters on PBS. It airs January 21. A book by the...

Venerable Us publication puts Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups 2 at the top of its miss list, which also includes films from Ridley Scott and Nicolas Winding Refn

• Pick your top 10 films of 2013

A sequel to execrable Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups, a documentary about the life of iconic Us author Jd Salinger and the big screen adaptation of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer's latest teen-orientated tome have been named among the worst movies of the year by Time magazine.

The magazine's annual list of the top 10 most awful films also features a joint venture by M Night Shyamalan and Will Smith, an action movie starring Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds and a thriller based on the much-hyped but ultimately poorly-reviewed debut original screenplay from acclaimed author Cormac McCarthy.

No 1 on the top 10 is Grown Ups 2, in which Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade and Kevin James reunite for more ageing frat-boy comedy.

The first thing to know about Dear Mr. Watterson, Joel Allen Schroeder’s documentary about Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, is that it’s not really a movie about Bill Watterson. No, it’s a movie about Calvin & Hobbes. That may sound like a pointlessly subtle distinction, but it’s an important one. Watterson notoriously shuns the spotlight: He wasn’t a very public person when he was writing and drawing Calvin from 1985 to 1995, and, now that it’s over, he’s even less so.This poses something of a problem for Schroeder, a longtime devotee of the comic strip about a young dreamer and his imaginary (or maybe real, but just unseen by others) tiger. He doesn’t want to go down the road of recluse-spotting, trying to dig into Watterson’s private life — sort of a variation on what Shane Salerno did (awkwardly) in Salinger. Instead, being the loyal,...

Press Release: PBS announced today its slate of Winter/Spring 2014 programs, including the long-awaited return of Masterpiece “Sherlock, Season 3” starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the legendary British sleuth, on Sunday, January 19 at 10 p.m. Et. The highly acclaimed “Sherlock” follows Season 4 of “Downton Abbey,” which debuts with eight new episodes January 5 on Masterpiece. The two shows bolster Sunday night as a hallmark of British drama on PBS, whose ratings that night have grown 26 percent (8-11 pm, 2011-12 season: 9/19/2011-9/23/2012 to 2012-13 season: 9/24/2012-9/22/2013) season over season. The schedule also reinforces PBS’ move into 10 p.m. programming on several key nights.

PBS also announced a number of new programs, including the real-life adventure series Chasing Shackleton, the broadcast premieres of biopics “Salinger” on American Masters (about the reclusive Catcher in the Rye author) and Hawking, an intimate portrait of physicist Stephen Hawking’s extraordinary life and career, along with a roster of...

Yo, didn’t Stephen Lang get killed in the first Avatar film?

Apparently not because according to Mike Fleming over at Deadline, Stephen Lang will be back in the Avatar sequels. How? James Cameron has revealed that Lang is not only returning for the sequel, he’s going to be part of the next three blockbuster films.

“Steven was so memorable in the first film, we’re privileged to have him back,” James Cameron said in a statement. “I’m not going to say exactly How we’re bringing him back, but it’s a science fiction story, after all. His character will evolve into really unexpected places across the arc of our new three-film saga. I really look forward to working with such a gifted actor, who’s also become a good friend.”

Cameron is going to shoot three movies one after the other, and that he had set...

James Cameron has revealed that Stephen Lang is to return for the upcoming Avatar sequel.

Despite his character Colonel Miles Quaritch seemingly being killed in the 2009 movie, the director has told Deadline that he is expected to return in the next three instalments of the sci-fi series.

Lang's character has been described as similar to Darth Vader in Star Wars and Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator character.

"Steven was so memorable in the first film, we're privileged to have him back," Cameron said. "I'm not going to say exactly How we're bringing him back, but it's a science fiction story, after all.

"His character will evolve into really unexpected places across the arc of our new three-film saga. I really look forward to working with such a gifted actor, who's also become a good friend."

Avatar 2, Avatar 3 and the prequel Avatar 4 will shoot simultaneously in 2014.

War of the Worlds...

So what’s the latest on the Avatar sequels? For starters, I don’t care what Arnie and his team tell ya. He is still playing the bad guy general in the Avatar sequels. Watch. Time will vindicate me.

But that is not all. According to actor Sam Worthington who played Jake Sully in the first Avatar film, production should begin in October 2014. How do I know? Because he said so during an interview during an Australian radio show. He also added that most of the script has already been written by director James Cameron and that the recent screenwriters hired were only for polishing purposes.

“We are going to start this time next year and we will do two, three and four,” he told Australia radio station NovaFM. “In one shot, we’ll do them simultaneously. I’ll be grateful if it finishes.”

Fox recently announced that there would...

Shane Salerno’s much-hyped J.D. Salinger documentary Salinger starts off promisingly enough – a man sits in his car staring at a small post office with a long-lens camera in his hand, narrating a story about the last time he sat in his car staring at a small post office with a long-lens camera in his hand (well, presumably it’s the last time he did this). Photographer Michael McDermott leads off the film with a story about how, in 1979, he traveled to New Hampshire with one aim and one assignment – photograph the elusive Salinger for Newsweek. His only tip? The author receives his mail at a local post office, just across the state line, in tiny Windsor, Vermont. McDermott waited outside the post office for hours, days, until he finally saw the man, ultimately capturing one of the first known photographs of the extremely private writer in the latter portion of his life. For...

Shane Salerno, director of popular Weinstein doc "Salinger," has provided a never-before-seen letter to Variety, penned by none other than reclusive author J.D. Salinger himself. In the letter, Salinger refutes the rumor that he hated film and Hollywood. According to Salerno, Salinger has admitted he was in correspondence with a number of producers during the high point of his career. He also claims he had interest in adapting a few of his short stories for the screen. This isn't to say that Salinger had a smooth relationship with Tinsel Town. In 1949, Samuel Goldwyn adapted Salinger's New Yorker story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut." Most of Salinger's input was cut from the final film, which received disastrous reviews. So when he published "Catcher in the Rye" two years later in 1951, the legend goes, Salinger was so scarred by his initial bad experience that he wouldn't even pick up the phone,...

Unlike his famous character, Holden Caulfield, from "The Catcher in the Rye," author J.D. Salinger didn't hate movies.

A never-before-published letter -- provided to Variety by "Salinger" documentary director Shane Salerno -- reveals that Salinger's dislike of Hollywood was a myth. In reality, Salerno said that Salinger "loved movies" and that the reclusive writer was open to movie adaptations of some of his short stories.

The letter reads, "It isn't true, at all, that I 'hate' or dislike all films, and it's always more than a little offputting, not to say irritating, to hear that I do. The fact is, I like certain kinds of films inordinately, and even own a 16mm sound projector and a few old prints."

As Salerno told Variety, Salinger's favorite movie was Frank Capra's "Lost Horizon."

Salinger corresponded with a few directors about potential adaptations, but was against getting involved in movie-making in any way himself.

  Earlier this week, Harvey Weinstein and Shane Salerno announced they were adding new material to Salinger, Salerno's documentary about iconic author J.D. Salinger that opened in theaters earlier this month. What the release didn't really explain was why. Some inside sources tell THR that it was done to address the concerns of critics, many --- but certainly not all -- of whom lambasted the film. Sources close to Salerno dispute that, and say it was changed to add additional footage and to prepare a version for broadcast on PBS' American Masters series early next year. The new version -- billed as a

read more...

Chicago – Jerome David Salinger, J.D. to his readers, remains one of the most influential and controversial authors of the 20th Century. Known intuitively for the classic novel “Catcher in the Rye,” he also was known as a reclusive soul. His life and times make up the new documentary, “Salinger.”

Rating: 3.0/5.0

If you know nothing about J.D. Salinger, this document will fill in the gaps. However, there is a sense of redundancy in the piece – readers love his writing! he’s reclusive! – without a feeling of the inner humanity. Virtually all of the “documentary techniques” are thrown against the wall in this film – talking heads, archive footage, reader appreciations, celebrities and actor recreations, and all of this creates a bit of a jumble. Points that are made early in the film are reiterated later, with no perception of purpose. In the end, it feels that J.D. Salinger will remain a mystery,...

Matt Bomer confirmed to take lead in Monty Clift, while candidates canvassed to play Jd Salinger in new film about the author

Magic Mike star Matt Bomer is to play Hollywood icon Montgomery Clift, his representatives have confirmed.

Clift was one of the Us film industry's biggest stars in the late 1940s and 50s. The recipient of four Academy Award nominations, Clift was an acclaimed method actor and a sex symbol whose later career was plagued by misfortune and ill-health.

The new film is currently titled simply Monty Clift. Newcomer Larry Moss will direct a script by actor-turned-screenwriter Christopher Lovick, aiming to shoot next year for a 2015 release date.

Clift starred in classics such as 1951's A Place in the Sun and 1953's From Here to Eternity, but also turned down roles in Sunset Boulevard and East of Eden, which brought fame to William Holden and James Dean respectively. His...

Salinger

Directed by: Shane Salerno

Documentary

Running Time: 2 hrs

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: September 20, 2013 (Chicago)

Plot: A documentary about the life of J.D. Salinger, who wrote The Catcher in the Rye, and then disappeared.

Who’S It For? Those who can accept a documentary’s many flaws for the abundance of information it provides.

Overall

Salinger fanboy Shane Salerno probably would have preferred that A Perfect Day for Bananafish had more suicides, or that the cruise in Teddy borrowed its final moments from the nautical genocide in The Poseidon Adventure. A rare kind of bad movie treat for both the world of documentaries and the fan universe of J.D. Salinger, his doc Salinger is an absurdly wrong passion project with a presentation spiritually and intellectually unrecognizable to Salinger’s work, or even the author’s attitude about his work. Salinger is a not a documentary that complements the life-story of its hero,...

Review by Michael Haffner

There are some who will argue that pulling back the curtain takes away from the mystique that surrounded the author over the years. However, J.D. Salinger is more than just a writer who lets his work do all his speaking. Salinger is a mystery wrapped in an enigma that’s shrouded in secrecy. Nothing proves this fact more than the documentary itself. Composed of a variety of talking heads, academic figures, and some random celebrities – these Hollywood stars are given as much on screen time as shown in the trailer – Salinger is a documentary that attempts to tap into what made the mysterious writer tick. Director Shane Salerno seems intent on doing this by combing through the few details that are available about Salinger’s personal life. Thankfully there are some colleagues of his that are willing to speak openly about him which grounds the larger...

An Oscar winner is headed to Mike & Molly.

CBS has announced that Susan Sarandon will guest star on an upcoming episode of this sitcom, coming on board in the role of Jc Small, one of Molly's literary heroes.

Described as "part Jd Salinger with a touch William Faulkner and a sprinkle of Gore Vidal," Sarandon's character will possess a "tortured soul," according to a network press release and give Molly and her family quite the memorable lesson.

Mike & Molly will return at midseason.

The veteran actress, meanwhile, recurred on the final full season of The Big C and also recently appeared on 30 Rock as Frank's girlfriend.

"Mike and Molly" is set to host an Oscar-winner. 

Susan Sarandon is guest-starring in an upcoming episode of the CBS sitcom, the network announced on Thursday (Sept. 19).

Sarandon will play Jc Small, a literary icon and idol of Molly's (Melissa McCarthy). Jc is part Jd Salinger with a touch William Faulkner and a sprinkle of Gore Vidal, a beautiful mind and a tortured soul. This famed novelist gives Molly a lesson in writing that neither she nor her family are soon to forget.

"So excited to be working with Melissa McCarthy again, this time on Mike and Molly," Sarandon tweeted. "But why am I always playing an alcoholic?"

"Mike and Molly" returns midseason on CBS.

The CBS comedy Mike & Molly has lassoed an Oscar winner for a guest-starring role.

EW has learned that Susan Sarandon will play Jc Small, a literary icon and idol of Molly (Melissa McCarthy). Jc is part Jd Salinger with a touch William Faulkner and a sprinkle of Gore Vidal; a beautiful mind and a tortured soul. This novelist gives Molly a lesson in writing she, nor her family, are soon to forget.

Sarandon and McCarthy just worked together on Tammy, a raunchy movie set for release on July 2, 2014 about a woman who hits the road with her hard-drinking grandmother. It...

Warner Bros has set Oscar winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking) to guest in an upcoming episode of Mike & Molly. She’ll play Jc Small, a literary icon and Molly’s idol, described as part Jd Salinger with a touch of William Faulkner and a sprinkle of Gore Vidal with a beautiful mind and tortured soul. The famed novelist gives Molly a lesson in writing that neither she nor her family are soon to forget. Mike & Molly, starring Melissa McCarthy, Billy Gardell, Katie Mixon, Swoosie Kurtz and Reno Wilson, returns midseason on CBS. Sarandon is repped by ICM Partners.

"Salinger" writer-director Shane Salerno, behind the book and recent documentary that uncovers the reclusive J.D. Salinger (1919-2010), is penning a feature film biopic about the 20th-century author for the Weinstein Co. It will cover the decade from World War II through the publication of his first novel, "The Catcher in The Rye" (1951), all from when Salinger was 23 to 33. Though reviews of "Salinger" have been mixed since the film (literally) crash-landed at Telluride last month (our Toh! review here), Salerno's doc has undoubtedly renewed interest in the seminal writer long-relegated to high school syllabi and references in Wes Anderson films. The documentary does not shy from his philandering with younger women, his resistance to fame and some of the dark demons swirling in his soul. Who do you think should play the notoriously elusive writer, who was a tall man at 6'2"? Take our poll below: Who should play J.D. Salinger?...

Right now, The Weinstein Company's documentary Salinger from director Shane Salerno is in limited theaters, but with only 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, it doesn't sound like it's faring too well with critics. In addition to inserting new footage into the doc when it expands to more theaters on September 20th, TWC just announced that a separate biopic about the author of The Catcher in the Rye is in the works with Salerno writing the screenplay. The film will focus on J.D. Salinger’s life between World War II and the 1951 release of the aforementioned literary classic, a period that is believed to have inspired the author's praised writing and also his eventual reclusive behavior that made him such a mystery to critics and fans. Of course, since no one really knows much about Salinger's experiences or what really drove his mind, the script will have Salerno doing a lot of...

The Weinstein Company's new J.D. Salinger documentary is, by many accounts, despicable. (New York's David Edelstein: "It’s a good thing J.D. Salinger isn’t around to see Shane Salerno’s bio-documentary Salinger or he’d come after Salerno with a hatchet." Slate's Julia Turner: "This was the single worst movie I've ever seen in my life. It is almost worth seeing to see how bad something can be.") So, what the hell, here goes TWC making an actual biopic and giving Salinger director Shane Salerno — also the screenwriter of Armageddon and one of the upcoming Avatar follow-ups — dibs on the screenplay.

Organisers at the Rio Film Festival have brought in an extra 11 titles ahead of the September 26 opening night gala screening of Thierry Ragobert’s Amazonia 3D.

The late arrivals include Gianfranco Rosi’s fresh Venice Golden Lion winner Sacro Gra as well as Steven Soderbergh’s Behind The Candelabra, Shane Salerno’s Salinger and Kim Ki-duck’s Moebius.

Rounding out the additions are Greg Mottola’s Clear History, Nimrod Antal’s Metallica Through The Never, Hong Sangsoo’s Our Sunhi, Bruce Labruce’s Gerontophilia, Catherine Breillat’s Abuse Of Weakness, Shinji Aoyama’s Backwater and John Maloof and Charlie Siskel’s Finding Vivian Maier.

Festival top brass also announced the full line-up of films in the Latin Première and Environment sections.

The Latin Première selection will present 21 features, of which five will be Latin American premieres. All films in the section are eligible for the Fipresci Best Latin American Film award.

Latin PremièreIl...

Organisers at the Festival do Rio, the Rio Film Festival, have brought in an extra 11 titles ahead of the September 26 opening night gala screening of Thierry Ragobert’s France-Brazil co-production Amazonia 3D.

The late arrivals include Gianfranco Rosi’s fresh Venice Golden Lion winner Sacro Gra as well as Steven Soderbergh’s Behind The Candelabra, Shane Salerno’s Salinger and Kim Ki-duck’s Moebius.

Rounding out the additions are Greg Mottola’s Clear History, Nimrod Antal’s Metallica Through The Never, Hong Sangsoo’s Our Sunhi, Bruce Labruce’s Gerontophilia, Catherine Breillat’s Abuse Of Weakness, Shinji Aoyama’s Backwater and John Maloof and Charlie Siskel’s Finding Vivian Maier.

Festival top brass also announced the full line-up of films in the Latin Première and Environment sections.

The Latin Première selection will present 21 features, of which five will be Latin American premieres. All films in the section are eligible for the Fipresci Best Latin American Film award...

The Weinstein Company modus operandi of late when a film doesn’t receive spectacular notices at a film festival seems to be: add new footage, send out shiny new press releases suggesting a new cut or you’re missing out on something (in the case of Wong Kar-Wai’s “The Grandmaster,” which doesn’t appear to be drastically different from the festival cut, the move seemed like a ploy to receive 2nd-look reviews for a movie that was met with tepid responses in Berlin). And in another maneuver that seems fairly transparent, TWC is releasing the Shane Salerno-directed documentary “Salinger,” with new material added. This special edition version will debut for a national release on Friday, September 20th and will feature “new, never-before-seen material about Salinger's life, his complex relationships with young women, and footage of the iconic author added for its 62-city theatrical expansion.” Of course, this...