In the 1970s, at a time when he was being feted as one of the young lions of the ‘new Hollywood’, Martin Scorsese was a man beset by deep anxieties and forebodings. Fragile in health and temperament, he was convinced that every breath might be his [...]

For some reason, it just now occurred to me that the last line of Shutter Island and the key closing line of The King of Comedy are almost identical.
“Now, tomorrow you’ll know I wasn’t kidding… and you’ll think I was crazy. But, look, I figure it this way. Better to be king for a night than schmuck [...]

Director Oliver Stone was shocked when he revisited the world of high finance for the sequel to his 1987 hit movie “Wall Street”, describing what was happening there as the “collapse of capitalism.”
“Why did I go back?…Because it’s important. It’s the collapse of capitalism and the collapse of our society. It is. Our way of life is [...]

Give Ron Howard credit. He’s tenacious.
Back in 1990, the actor/director created a television version of his 1989 feature film “Parenthood” with Leonardo DiCaprio, Thora Birch and David Arquette in the cast. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” mastermind Joss Whedon was one of the writers.
Even with all that fire power, the show lasted 11 episodes.
That hasn’t stopped [...]

Opening on February 26 is The Crazies, Overture Films’ remake of the 1973 George Romero film of the same name.  Starring Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, and Danielle Panabaker, it centers on a small town whose residents become infected by a virus that causes them to go…well, you know.  Recently, I got the opportunity to do a phone interview [...]

History will likely be made when the envelope revealing the best director Oscar winner is opened at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.
Most insiders know that Kathryn Bigelow (”The Hurt Locker”) would become the first woman to take home that prize. And Lee Daniels (”Precious”) would be the first black winner.
But even if the Academy opts [...]

Brooklyn-born Noah Baumbach turns to Los Angeles for the first time for the setting of his new film ”Greenberg.” Using an original story he devised with his wife, actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, the film follows a forty-something character, Roger Greenberg, played by Ben Stiller, who claims to be “doing nothing.” He’s given up on his early [...]

Roman Polanski’s new thriller The Ghost has its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival tomorrow. The director will not be there, of course. Instead he is wearing an electronic ankle bracelet, under house arrest in Switzerland, fighting extradition to America. Meanwhile, in London, Polanski’s great friend and collaborator the British screenwriter Ronald Harwood is running up [...]

Lee Daniels, the Academy Award-nominated director of Precious, hailed Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison as a role model who inspired a generation of black directors at a panel discussion in Toronto
Jewison made his 1967 film In the Heat of the Night at a time when the issue of race in the U.S. was almost buried.
His courage in creating [...]