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Physical media culture is alive and thriving thanks to the home video tastemakers hailing everywhere from The Criterion Collection to Kino Lorber and the Warner Archive Collection. Each month, IndieWire highlights the best recent and upcoming Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K releases for cinephiles to own now — and to bring ballast and permanence to your moviegoing at a time when streaming windows on classic movies close just as soon as they open.

Get started on putting together your very own Criterion Closet with these eight physical media recommendations each month, comprising recent releases as well as what’s coming in the given month. This month, we highlight Criterion restorations Masahiro Shinoda’s classic kabuki tale of horror “Demon Pond” as well as Harmony Korine‘s breakout slice of a broken-down Midwest “Gummo,” plus John Mackenzie’s crime classic “The Long Good Friday,” and a couple of newer soon-to-be-classics worth having in your library.

Looks like cinephiles will need to make a little more space on their shelves. As has become customary, The Criterion Collection announced its four upcoming December releases today, and you may just need to make room for all of them on your holiday shopping lists. First up, set to be available on December 3, the new 4K restoration of Wim Wenders’ Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece “Paris, Texas,” starring Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell, and Nastassja Kinski.

In his 1984 review of the reflective western drama, film critic Roger Ebert wrote, “‘Paris, Texas’ is a movie with the kind of passion and willingness to experiment that was more common fifteen years ago than it is now. It has more links with films like ‘Five Easy Pieces’ and ‘Easy Rider’ and ‘Midnight Cowboy,’ than with the slick arcade games that are the box-office winners of the 1980s. It is true, deep, and brilliant.”

On...

Although somewhat tame by today’s standards, when Monty Python’s Life of Brian was released in 1979, it was considered to be among the most offensive — and blasphemous — films ever made. While no strangers to controversy, Monty Python faced a backlash like never before with their third film, in which they relentlessly mocked organized religion via a biblical epic parody about a man named Brian who is mistaken for the messiah just because he’s Jesus’ neighbor.

Forty-five years after its initial release, Life of Brian is still regarded as a classic, and many consider it to be the best, most sophisticated work the Pythons ever did. Here’s how it all came about, how angry it made everybody and why it’s stood the test of time…

45 Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory

Life of Brian was first conceived when the Pythons were on the publicity tour for Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The casting in 20th Century Fox's "X-Men" movies was always a mixed bag. Some picks were perfect at bringing the comic character to life — Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, etc. Others were swings and misses — Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse (but really any actor would have struggled inside that makeup), etc. Then there were some in the middle — actors who didn't really match the character on paper but still worked well due to the strength of their performances, like Sir Ian McKellen as Magneto and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.

Marvel first started pursuing an "X-Men" movie in the 1980s, more than a decade before it was finally released. In 1990, Stan Lee and longtime "X-Men" comic book writer Chris Claremont met with James Cameron about him directing the movie, but Cameron was more interested in a "Spider-Man" movie (which...

There have been a lot of questions surrounding HBO's upcoming "The Penguin" series. The show will see Colin Farrell step into the spotlight after he wowed everyone with his performance as Oswald "Oz" Cobblepot a.k.a. the Penguin in Matt Reeves' "The Batman." Playing a cross between Joe Pesci's Tommy DeVito in "Goodfellas" and Bob Hoskins' Harold Shand in "The Long Good Friday," Farrell was almost unrecognizable in the role. The actor had "unbridled fun" with the character, disappearing behind the extensive prosthetics to bring us a version of the infamous Batman rogue that was much more of a wise guy/crime boss and less of a "hideous penguin man of the sewer" (to borrow a phrase used to describe Danny DeVito's Penguin in "Batman Returns").

But while Farrell was undeniably one of the best things about "The Batman," whether he can sustain an entire premium drama remains to be seen.

Because Hollywood won’t rest until it’s turned every Terry Gilliam movie into a TV show, Apple TV+ will soon be releasing a Time Bandits series, starring Lisa Kudrow as a temporal plunderer.

While recycling ‘80s films for modern audiences doesn’t always work (I’m looking at you 2014’s RoboCop), this show is produced by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, and judging from the recently-released trailer, it looks like a lot of fun.

Gilliam’s original 1981 Time Bandits was a box-office success when it first came out, and it’s generally regarded to be one of the best children’s fantasy films of its era. But, like much of Gilliam’s work, it was a huge pain in the ass to get made.

As Monty Python fans are well aware, George Harrison put up his own money to fund Life of Brian, mortgaging his home and office when...

Back in 2020, it was announced that Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again director Ol Parker would be following that film up by taking the helm of The Thursday Murder Club, an adaptation of the debut novel by Richard Osman (creator and co-presenter of the BBC quiz show Pointless), for Amblin. Given that Parker’s involvement was announced just days before the pandemic lockdowns, it’s not surprising to hear that iteration of the project didn’t hold together… but The Thursday Murder Club is still moving forward. A couple months ago, word came out that Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye), Helen Mirren (The Queen), and Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3) were being eyed for lead roles in the film, which is now coming our way from Home Alone and Harry Potter director Chris Columbus. Now Deadline confirms that Brosnan, Mirren, and Kingsley are on board to star in the film alongside Celia Imrie...

Marking one of their biggest 4K months yet, Criterion has announced a September lineup led by Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse trilogy of The Doom Generation, Nowhere, and Totally F***ed Up in a rather full set, and all but the last in 4K. One of Criterion’s earliest titles, John Mackenzie’s The Long Good Friday, is receiving a sizable 480-to-2,160 upgrade; a more recent addition, Repo Man, also gets upgraded, hopefully fueling further interest for Alex Cox’s recently announced sequel.

On the new-film front, Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers makes the most-enviable home debut possible. And with regard to films I never thought would be presented in such profound resolution, Todd Solondz’s Happiness is given the 4K treatment, at long last supplying a companion to Life During Wartime.

See artwork below and find more details at Criterion:

The post The Criterion Collection’s September Lineup Includes Gregg Araki,...

One of the finest films ever made about organized crime, “The Long Good Friday” (1980) sees the world of a London gangster abruptly destabilized by bomb attacks and murders of his associates. He and his henchmen attempt to uncover the attackers’ identities, all whilst trying not to worry their visitors in town for the weekend, who are members of the American mafia looking to invest in redevelopment in the area. This British mob classic may seem an odd film to evoke up top in a review of a French-language, Corsica-set debut feature. But one of the main strengths of director Julien Colonna’s “The Kingdom” is how it successfully pulls off a loosely similar, paranoia-driven fall-of-an-empire story within the context of a condensed time period.

The time frame in question is not quite as tight as “The Long Good Friday’s” 24-ish hours of mayhem, but instead a few weeks of...

Clockwise from left: The Godfather Part II, Bonnie And Clyde, Goodfellas, The Departed (all images courtesy Warner Bros.)Graphic: The A.V. Club

Gangster movies are loaded with inherently alluring qualities: the vicarious thrill of watching an antihero buck the establishment and take what they want with impunity; the glamorous trappings...

Gangsters, mobsters, thugs, and mugs. Organized crime holds the upper tier of the international cinematic commission. “Crime pays,” Edward G. Robinson, who played Rico Bandello in the seminal gangster film Little Caesar (1931), is famous for saying. “But only in the movies.” When a good mob movie is on the table, it is an offer no filmmaker can refuse. There is more intrigue, suspense, violence, mayhem, and madness to be found in the criminal element than any other genre.

“Gone are the days of the gangsters,” audiences heard for years, usually in movies about mobsters. They always rise up, even if they are splattered across the ornate fountains of their gangland mansions in the last frame, like Al Pacino’s Tony Montana in Brian DePalma’s Scarface (1983), or rolling down the steps of a church, dead from a hail of bullets. That’s how James Cagney’s Eddie Bartlett went out in The Roaring Twenties (1939). Now,...

John McVicar died on 6 September 2022 of a heart attack, aged 82. He was a seasoned ex-convict who turned his hand from armed robbery to a career in journalism, writing about crime and justice for the Guardian, the New Statesman and Spiked. However, this biopic is not about McVicar, the autodidact. Instead, it is a crime film about McVicar’s 1968 prison break that’s told with an austere, turn-of-the-’80s aesthetic comparable to Scum, The Black Panther and The Long Good Friday.

Roger Daltrey’s presence may raise questions about McVicar’s seriousness, but this isn’t a lazy rock star vehicle — Daltrey assumes the role with a sinewy attitude that doesn’t want for credibility. Credible too are McVicar’s fellow inmates and the staff who corral them at Hmp Durham, where life is stark but not without goodwill. There is a fair amount of camaraderie, in fact, with conflict rarely going beyond coarse words.

With the festival kicking off tomorrow, Telluride Film Festival has now unveiled its lineup, featuring new films from Jeff Nichols (the first image from which can be seen above), Emerald Fennell, Annie Baker, Andrew Haigh, Yorgos Lanthimos, Justine Triet, Wim Wenders, Kitty Green, Ethan Hawke, and many more.

“Fifty years is a long time to do anything. And while we might be a little biased, we feel the work that Tff does is pretty important,” comments Telluride Film Festival director Julie Huntsinger. “We take the charge of preserving the theatrical experience and promoting film seriously, but with necessary winks here and there. We’re ecstatic to share a program we feel reflects so much of the past fifty years, naturally and organically, films old and new, which stand as a testament to our beloved co-founders Tom Luddy and Bill Pence who are no longer with us.”

• All Of US Strangers...

2023 Festival dedicated to founders Tom Luddy, Bill Pence, Stella Pence, James Card.

Telluride Film Festival has announced its 2023 50th anniversary line-up with Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall, and Steve McQueen’s Occupied City on the roster.

The selection, which will play in the Colorado Rockies locale from August 31 to September 4, includes Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, Jonathan Glazer’s Cannes sensation The Zone Of Interest, Pablo Larrain’s El Conde, Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel, George C. Wolfe’s Rustin, Nyad from Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin,...

Cliff Twemlow is an obscure figure even by British B-movie standards, a handsome, no-nonsense former Manchester nightclub doorman who attempted to create a Hollywood of the north in the early ’80s and ’90s. Born in 1937, a fact he tried to cloud for many years, he was something of a renaissance man: He acted in soaps, he composed lucrative library music, he wrote a novel about a killer pike, and, after a wounding experience with a botched adaptation of his autobiographical novel Tuxedo Warrior, he decided to become a filmmaker himself.

His first production, G.B.H. (1982), was shot on video — the grainy, ugly, analog kind — and it rode on the coattails of the recent hit The Long Good Friday. Twemlow starred as a handsome, no-nonsense Manchester nightclub doorman, hired to protect a local nightclub from a protection racket after returning from a stretch in prison.

I’ve loved gangster movies since I was four years old and saw Humphrey Bogart and Sylvia Sidney in Dead End (1937) on TV, and Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) at the movies (My dad pinched a lobby card for me). Every Friday night, a local NYC station ran old crime flicks on a slot called “Tough Guys.” Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and George Raft were the faces over the title. Today that might be Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, and James Gandolfini.

The gangster and crime genre produced some of the most influential films in cinema history. Mervyn LeRoy’s Little Caesar (1931), William A. Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931), and Howard Hawks’ Scarface (1932), get a lot of credit for breaking ground in topics beyond criminality, shattering sexual taboos as well as the boundaries of acceptable visual violence. High Sierra (1941) and White Heat...

Shepka Productions and Flickering Myth have announced that veteran British actors Paul Barber and Annabelle Lanyon have joined the cast of the upcoming gothic horror feature The Baby in the Basket.

Paul Barber is best known for portraying Denzil in the iconic sitcom Only Fools and Horses and Horse in the classic British film The Full Monty – a role he reprises this June for Disney+’s The Full Monty sequel series. Among his other extensive film and TV credits are The Long Good Friday, The Brothers McGregor, Chancer, The 51st State, One Night in Istanbul and Renegades.

Annabelle Lanyon starred alongside Tom Cruise in the role of Oona in Ridley Scott’s 1985 cult classic fantasy Legend and also featured in the British horror Dream Demon and ITV series Quatermass. Recent credits include the horror films Werewolves of the Third Reich and Bite.

The Baby in the Basket also stars Amber Doig-Thorne,...

If you're a 90s kid like me, you probably know Bob Hoskins from playing Smee in "Hook" and private eye Eddie Valiant in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." I even remember him showing up in a standout "Frasier" episode where he played Dr. Crane's abrasive, cigar-addicted gym teacher, Coach Fuller. But if you look beyond his best-known roles, the man was one of the most versatile actors to ever do it. In fact, he started his film career not in charming, family-friendly projects, but by playing a ruthless London gangster.

"The Long Good Friday" is a 1980 crime thriller starring Hoskins as Harold Shand — a crime boss looking to go legit. Over the course of the film, Shand becomes increasingly violent and Hoskins portrays the gangster's struggles with his aggressive impulses with unsettling ease. But as we all now know, the actor was more than capable of playing much more diverse roles,...

Are you a Pierce Brosnan fan looking for a list of his best movies? Look no further! We’ve scoured the internet to compile data from trusted sources like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes audience scores to determine which movies have truly stood the test of time. In this article, we’ve put together the ultimate Pierce Brosnan movies list, ranked based on box office gross and audience ratings.

Pierce Brendan Brosnan — Also known as James Bond 007, has been captivating audiences for decades with his charming looks, suave demeanor, and incredible acting skills. The Irish-born actor has played some of the most iconic roles in Hollywood history, from the British spy James Bond to the suave art thief in “The Thomas Crown Affair.”

So, what makes a Pierce Brosnan movie great? Is it the action-packed scenes, the witty one-liners, or the heart-melting moments of vulnerability? We’ll be using a combination...

For a director who has a seemingly boundless, whimsical imagination, you almost never hear stories about wonderful times making films directed by Terry Gilliam. He has a reputation as a hard-headed perfectionist and someone not particularly interested in compromising. His films consistently go over schedule and over budget, and getting a finished film on the screen rarely doesn't happen without frequent fights and arguments.

One would think that because Gilliam rose to prominence within a group setting as a member of Monty Python, he would be able to foster a collaborative environment — but he was the soloist within that group, creating the odd, absurd animated sequences for "Flying Circus." He had the leeway to do whatever he wanted and could create his own worlds without limits. When you are directing a multi-million dollar movie with hundreds of people working with you, that just isn't going to be a healthy way to operate,...

Casting movie stars can be a tricky proposition, especially if you're making a big-budget film with unproven talent. In 1987, that's exactly what Kevin Costner was. He'd appeared in three box-office bombs in 1985, and, prior to this, had been cut out of Lawrence Kasdan's Baby Boomer smash "The Big Chill." But after missing out on the more established Don Johnson (who was red hot at the time thanks to "Miami Vice"), Costner wound up being Brian De Palma's Eliot Ness in the hit-hungry director's big-screen rendition of "The Untouchables." And while De Palma had a bit of movie star insurance in Sean Connery as the veteran beat cop Malone, David Mamet's masterful screenplay screamed for a larger-than-life Al Capone.

De Palma only had eyes for Robert De Niro, and he had a history with the actor, having worked with him in the counterculture comedies "Greetings" and "Hi, Mom!

Before he became a world-class director of such projects as the Elton John biopic "Rocketman," Dexter Fletcher was a noted child actor in such high-profile films as "Bugsy Malone" and "The Long Good Friday." One of his most notable roles was as the young assistant to Freddie Jones' amoral Mr. Bytes in David Lynch's lauded 1980 biopic "The Elephant Man." Lynch was so taken by Fletcher's talents that he flew to England in 1982 to meet with the then-16-year-old about possibly playing the lead role of Paul Atreides in the big budget adaptation of Frank Herbert's "Dune." 

As we all know, that part eventually went to 24-year-old movie neophyte...

The post Dexter Fletcher Talks Auditioning For David Lynch's Dune [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.

Don’t let the near three-hour running time scare you off, because Warner Bros’ The Batman is gripping and primitive. Director, producer and co-scribe Matt Reeves joins us on Hero Nation today to talk about his direction for a Dark Knight detective story, laced with horror, like we’ve near seen before in the history of the franchise.

You can listen to our conversation below:

Before any Batman sequel happens, Reeves says there’s an HBO Max series centering on Colin Farrell’s Penguin which “connects from where we’re leaving the story here.”

Reeves originally conceived a HBO Max Batman spinoff series about a corrupt cop, something like a Prince of the City; a blue who’s battling for his soul. The cop is then reawakened by a rising Gotham City vigilante in a story set in the events before Reeves’ Dark Knight movie. However, the filmmaker was encouraged...

Director Mike Hodges’ Get Carter is the quintessential hard-boiled British crime film. Remarkably influential, it paved the way for like-minded fare such as The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa. Michael Caine plays Jack Carter, a ruthless London mobster who travels back to his Newcastle hometown to investigate the death of his brother… and woe betide anyone who stands in the way of this cooly efficient killer. The film underperformed at the box office due to poor promotion but is now recognized as one of the finest thrillers of the decade. MGM was fond of blaxploitation remakes, and George Armitage’s 1972 Hit Man borrows a lot from Get Carter, but it wasn’t until 2000 that an actual remake arrived, starring Sylvester Stallone, to dismal effect.

The post Get Carter appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Denis O’Brien, best known for producing the comedy Monty Python’s Life of Brian with former Beatle George Harrison, died December 3 in a Swindon, UK hospital. He was 80 and passed away from intra-abdominal sepsis, his daughter said.

O’Brien and Harrison’s Handmade Films had a hit right out of the box with the 1979 comedy Life of Brian, a semi-blasphemous story of a young Jewish-Roman man who is born on the same day and next door to Jesus, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah. It was banned in several locations or slapped with an X for its outrageous stunts, including a closing sing-along on the cross.

With Monty Python regulars Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Mochael Palin in the cast, the producers thought the film would at best lose money and be a tax write-off. Instead, it was a smash, leading them to explore other films.

Helen Mirren will receive this year’s SAG Life Achievement Award and will be presented with the prize during the 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony on February 27.

The award is given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession”.

Oscar, BAFTA and Emmy winning actress Mirren becomes the most decorated SAG Life Achievement recipient with a total of 13 SAG nominations and five SAG Actor wins to her name.

Mirren is currently filming Golda, in the title role of Israel’s first female prime minister Golda Meir, which revealed a first look yesterday. She is also set to host Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses, a four-part competition series premiering on November 28.

Taking her first major film role back in 1969 in Age Of Consent, Mirren broke through in The Long Good Friday in 1980. She received her first Oscar nomination in 1995 for The Madness Of King George...

Icon will next be seen in The Duke.

Helen Mirren has been named as the 57th recipient of the SAG Life Achievement Award and will collect the honour at the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards in Santa Monica on February 27, 2022.

The award is presented annually to an actor who embodies the “finest ideals of the acting profession”. Mirren is the most decorated SAG Life Achievement recipient with a total of 13 SAG Awards nominations and five SAG Awards Actor wins for The Queen, Elisabeth I, Phil Spector, and two for Gosford Park.

The acclaimed British actor won the Oscar for The Queen...

Bucking the trends for ’80s crime films, Neil Jordan’s tale of a low-rung hood attached to a ‘complicated’ call girl becomes a love story about meaningful relationships. Sort of the ‘anti- Travis Bickle,’ Bob Hoskins’ low-class mug discovers emotions and an ability to commit that could even be called Chivalric. Michael Caine chills as an all-too real villain, the boss that doesn’t think Hoskins worthy of a straight answer. Topping it off, cinematographer Roger Pratt makes this possibly the best-looking British crime film in color.

Mona Lisa

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 107

1986 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 104 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 14, 2021 / 39.95

Starring: Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Caine, Clarke Peters, Sammi Davis, Kate Hardie, Zoe Nathenson.

Cinematography: Roger Pratt

Production Designer: Jamie Leonard

Costume Designer: Louise Frogley

Film Editor: Lesley Walker

Original Music: Michael Kamen

Written by Neil Jordan, David Leland

Produced by Patrick Cassavetti,...

Here’s Kev with a video review of Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins which is released in UK cinemas on September 3rd, courtesy of Signature Entertainment

When a down-on-his-luck Tony Tucker lands a job as a nightclub doorman after saving the owner’s grandson, he will do whatever it takes to rise to the top of the game. Teaming up with Essex heavyweight Bernard O’Mahoney at the height of the 1980s rave scene, Tucker could do no wrong. A voracious appetite for money, drugs, and a glamorous lifestyle soon develops, fueling his growingly audacious ventures and seeing him join forces with Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe to capitalise on the drug-boom. Packed with fights, revenges, and explosions, the ultimate origin story brings Rise of the Footsoldier full circle, and tackles many of the franchise’s previously unanswered questions.

Directed by Nick Nevern, Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins stars Vinnie Jones,...

Prophetic, frenetic and shockingly brutal, the film became a British classic. For its 40th anniversary, Mirren and other cast members relive their roles in the menacing gangland masterpiece

It has been 40 years since the release of The Long Good Friday, a gangster film still revered as one of the best British movies of all time. Shot in London in the late 1970s and starring the late Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, it told the story of an underworld boss trying desperately to stop the Ira from dismantling his empire.

The backdrop for the film was the London Docklands, then mostly undeveloped. With corrupt city planners in his pocket, Hoskins’ character – the pugnacious, barrel-chested Harold Shand – attempts to woo the New York mafia into a partnership to transform the area, selling the idea to them with a speech during a trip up the Thames on his yacht. “Our country is not an island any more,...

The writer/director of Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest takes hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante on an exploration of his favorite cinematic endings.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

The Nest (2020)

Citizen Kane (1941)

The Cowboys (1972)

The Parallax View (1974)

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Limbo (1999)

Nashville (1975)

The Long Goodbye (1973)

3 Women (1977)

Chinatown (1974)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

The Third Man (1949)

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Shoot The Moon (1982)

Parasite (2019)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Ice Storm (1997)

Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979)

The Brood (1979)

The Graduate (1967)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

The Candidate (1972)

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Birds (1963)

The Firm (1989)

Scum (1979)

The Firm (2009)

The Vanishing (1988)

The Vanishing (1993)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Repulsion (1965)

Pirates (1986)

What? (1972)

Blowup (1966)

Blow Out (1981)

The Long Good Friday (1980)

Other Notable Items

Jude Law

Carrie Coon

Quentin Tarantino

John Wayne

The Pure Cinema Podcast

The Film Forum

Warren Beatty

Tfh Guru Howard...

A television series based on Guy Ritchie’s 2019 “The Gentlemen” action-comedy film is in the works. Deadline reported that Ritchie will direct, write, and executive produce the upcoming series from Miramax TV. Ivan Atkinson and Marv Davies, who produced the 2019 film, are on board to executive produce.

Plot details weren’t provided by the publication but the original film centered on marijuana kingpin Mickey Pearson (played by Matthew McConaughey) and his efforts to divest himself from his criminal business, resulting in a variety of plotting and blackmail attempts from his would-be successors.

Casting details for the series are also under wraps. The 2019 “The Gentlemen” film starred McConaughey alongside Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, and Hugh Grant, among others.

“Miramax Television is thrilled to break new creative ground in our partnership with Guy Ritchie on ‘The Gentlemen,’” Marc Helwig, Miramax’s head of worldwide television, said in a statement.

Vinnie Jones takes his crazy gang stateside – and bar a fun turn from Malcolm McDowell the result is not a pretty sight

Although technically an “eastern” rather than a western – it unfolds in the lush hills and shady honkytonks of West Virginia – this macho, contemporary-set crime thriller feels like something that got cooked up after a bender guzzling a Sam Peckinpah box set. Maybe chased with a few British gangster pics like Get Carter and The Long Good Friday. Indeed, it plays like several plots, genres and mood boards all mashed together, which makes the end result interesting but not entirely successful.

What does the irreverent comedy Monty Python’s Life of Brian have in common with the deadly serious Bob Hoskins thriller The Long Good Friday? Both movies were produced by HandMade Films, the production company of former Beatles superstar George Harrison. A new documentary called An Accidental Studio details the company’s early days, how it took chances […]

The post ‘An Accidental Studio’ Giveaway: Find Out How Former Beatle George Harrison’s Production Company Left Its Mark on Film History appeared first on /Film.

Debut feature from the production company is crime drama ‘The Big Ugly’.

UK actor Vinnie Jones has launched 4G Vision, a new $100m production company with Us writer-director Scott Wiper.

The two are working with co-producer Michael Downey and Michigan-based entrepreneur Gregg Gibson Williams, who provides the four G’s in 4G Vision and the financing.

The company’s first project is Wiper’s crime drama The Big Ugly starring Jones, which is set for theatrical and VOD release in the UK and Us through Vertical Entertainment on July 24 and July 31 respectively.

They are also developing a $25m female-led action...

I’d never heard of this gem of a British production; now it goes on my list of highly recommended titles. A dock area on the Thames is ‘the pool,’ and the sailors that disembark from the cargo ships are susceptible to the temptations of black market trade. A single eventful weekend traces the fates of a half-dozen young people, the women that like the sailors, and the sailor that gets mixed up in a deadly serious crime. Director Basil Dearden’s excellent cast is mostly unfamiliar to us Yanks, but we get really tied up in their problems. This picture should be much better known. It’s the first English movie to depict an interracial romance, and it does so without sensationalism or special pleading. The best new extra is an interview with actor Earl Cameron, who at 103 years of age has his act (and his memories) totally together.

For those of us who grew up on a diet of The Bill, Eastenders and The Sweeney, taking modern British crime dramas seriously can be quite a challenge.

The same actors (Craig Fairbrass), delivering the same cliched lines in the same cockney accents (“You what? Getaaattt!”) , driving through Peckham in one shot, yet appearing in Islington in the next – if you know London, London dramas aren’t escapism, they’re unconvincing. And more often than not, they don’t quite deliver the hard knocks they promise.

Thankfully, Gangs of London, while not terribly original, has a bite that matches its bark. It’s a crime thriller that delivers a high quality production combined with a convincing cast and, crucially, a script that avoids the obvious while still somehow delivering the familiar.

The opening is certainly attention-catching. Sean Wallace (Joe Cole) is an emotional, young, suave gangster who we find hanging...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks to actor Craig Fairbrass about his latest film Villain and his Top 5 Great British Crime Films, including:

Get Carter(1971) The Long Good Friday (1980) Harry Brown (2009) London Heist (2017) Villain (2020)

A dark, brutal, gritty and violent tale of drugs, murder, loyalty and corruption, starring Craig Fairbrass, Izuka Hoyle (Mary Queen of Scots) and Nicholas Aaron, the story follows Eddie Franks, a former criminals release from prison and his attempts to help his family by reconnecting with his daughter and clearing his brother’s debt. Despite his efforts, he is drawn back into a criminal way of life, with devastating consequences.

When was the last time you watched Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels? If you remember Guy Ritchie’s debut hitting American screens back in the spring of 1999, you might recall how familiar it felt — we’d already spent most of the decade watching smooth criminals in clever, chatty caper flicks. But this Cockney variation on postmodern pulp stood out among the many Cinema Tarantino pretenders of the day, threading in nods to mod U.K. classics (The Italian Job, Performance), vintage London gangster flicks (The Long Good Friday) and East End hard-men chic.

In support of The Cotton Club Encore: 35th Anniversary Edition has arrived to Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD & Digital), DVD and Digital 4K Ultra HD from Lionsgate,

Here’s a new special features introduction from Francis Ford Coppola:

Francis Ford Coppola’s Academy Award®-nominated epic gets its definitive cut when The Cotton Club Encore: 35th Anniversary Edition arrives on Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD & Digital), DVD and Digital 4K Ultra HD December 10 from Lionsgate. Boasting an all-star cast, The Cotton Club Encore: 35th Anniversary Edition stars Golden Globe® winner Richard Gere (2003, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Chicago), Tony Award® winner Gregory Hines (1992, Best Actor in a Musical, Jelly’s Last Jam), Academy Award® nominee Diane Lane (2002, Best Actress, Unfaithful), NAACP Image Award® nominee Lonette McKee (1999, Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series, “As the World Turns”), Golden Globe® nominee Bob Hoskins...

The first line in “The Gentlemen” is spoken by Matthew McConaughey’s Mickey Pearce, a smartly tailored gangster who strolls into a London pub and orders a pint of beer and a pickled egg. The brewery’s name on the bar tap is “Gritchie,” but even without that gag it would be obvious that this is not just a Guy Ritchie film — it’s the kind of Guy Ritchie film that made him a hot property two decades ago.

To be specific, “The Gentlemen” is cut from the same cloth as “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and its bigger-budgeted follow-up, “Snatch.” Mixing a love of old-school East End low-lifes, 1990s flash, flamboyant dialogue, and plots so complicated that you needed a flow chart to follow them, these two Britpop-era crime capers prompted a rash of dreary copycat films about mockney geezers with guns doing dodgy drug deals.

Ritchie himself moved on,...

After the vast underperformance of 2017’s “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” and the hefty overperformance of May’s “Aladdin,” we rejoin Guy Ritchie trying to ground himself via a return to his roots. “The Gentlemen” is the kind of shaggy-dog yarn that Ritchie spun with diminishing returns before the tantalizing paychecks of franchise cinema were dangled his way: a hard-r venture, populated by Rada graduates pointing weapons and cursing at one another between elaborate double-crosses. The difference is that its director is now in a position to equip his cobblers with the budgetary heft of an American indie (“The Gentlemen” emerges under the apparently deathless Miramax banner) and an altogether starrier ensemble. The problem is that at no point does Ritchie seem to have realized such material is still, on a fundamental level, bollox.

On screen, the story is slapped together by a hack journalist; it feels like it.

The scriptwriter and playwright, best known for penning the gangster film starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, died in London after a short illness

Obituary – Barry Keeffe

Barrie Keeffe, the scriptwriter and playwright best known for writing the landmark British gangster film The Long Good Friday, has died aged 74. His agent Stephen Durbridge announced the news, saying Keeffe had died in London after a short illness.

Born in 1945, Keeffe grew up in east London, attending East Ham grammar school and then working as a reporter for the local newspaper, the Stratford Express. According to former Guardian columnist Roy Greenslade, Keeffe’s interest in activism and politics led him towards plays and scriptwriting: “He loved the paper and his colleagues, but he was frustrated by the fact it constricted his chance to tell the stories he thought it important to tell.”...

Barrie Keeffe, known for penning the screenplay for Brit gangster classic The Long Good Friday, has died aged 74 in London following a brief illness.

Keeffe’s agent, Stephen Durbridge of The Agency, confirmed the news.

London-born playwright and screenwriter Keeffe started out as an actor and journalist. His first television play, The Substitute, was produced in 1972, and his first theatre play Only A Game in 1973. He was the Royal Shakespeare Company’s writer-in-residence in 1978 and he went on to write a number of film, TV and stage plays in the 1980s.

BAFTA-nominated 1980 crime-drama The Long Good Friday, about an up-and-coming gangster, starred Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren in a breakout role. Keefe also adapted his own stage play Sus, about police racism, for the 2010 movie of the same name starring Rafe Spall and Clint Dyer.

Screenwriter Barrie Keeffe, who penned the screenplay for the classic British gangster movie “The Long Good Friday” – which starred Helen Mirren in a breakout role – has died. He was 74.

Keeffe’s agent, Stephen Durbridge of The Agency, confirmed the news and said that his client had died in London following a short illness.

Keeffe started out as an actor and journalist, then became a self-professed political writer. His theater work included plays such as “Frozen Assets” for the Royal Shakespeare Company, about a young man who kills a prison officer, and “Sus,” about institutionalized police racism. The latter was adapted as a movie in 2010 with Clint Dyer and Rafe Spall, and with Robert Heath directing from Keeffe’s screenplay.

Keeffe was best known for having penned the original screenplay for “The Long Good Friday,” which starred Bob Hoskins alongside Mirren. It was a breakthrough film for Mirren, and will be...

Films screening as part of homage include ’The Long Good Friday’ and ‘The Queen’.

UK actress Helen Mirren is to receive the honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival.

The Oscar-winning actress will also be the subject of an homage featuring several of her films including The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, The Good Liar, The Last Station and The Long Good Friday.

Mirren will receive the award on February 27 at a ceremony that will also include a screening of Stephen Frears’ The Queen, for which she won the Oscar and Golden...

The 70th Berlin International Film Festival will honor Oscar-winner Helen Mirren with an honorary Golden Bear and homage.

The award ceremony on Thursday, February 27, 2020 at the Berlinale Palast will include a screening of Mirren-starrer The Queen.

“Helen Mirren is a strong personality whose powerful portrayals are always impressive. She surprises us time and again with her interpretation of complex characters – whether it’s Chris in Calendar Girls or Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, her portrayals are a paradigm of strong women, and it is our great pleasure to award her the Honorary Golden Bear for her lifetime achievement,” said Mariette Rissenbeek, Executive Director of the Berlinale.

Among Mirren’s many accolades are the 2007 Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe for her performance in The Queen, while her stage work has garnered prizes including the Olivier Award, Tony Award and Drama Desk Awards.

After working mainly in theater,...

Helen Mirren is to be honored with a Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at next February’s Berlin Film Festival.

The Oscar-winning star of “The Queen” and new HBO-Sky drama series “Catherine the Great” will also be the subject of an homage featuring several of her best-known films, including “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover,” “The Good Liar,” and “The Last Station.”

“Helen Mirren is a strong personality whose powerful portrayals are always impressive,” said Mariette Rissenbeek, the Berlinale’s new executive director. “She surprises us time and again with her interpretation of complex characters. Whether it’s Chris in ‘Calendar Girls’ or Queen Elizabeth II in ‘The Queen,’ her portrayals are a paradigm of strong women, and it is our great pleasure to award her the Honorary Golden Bear for her lifetime achievement,”

The upcoming Berlinale is the festival’s 70th edition. Mirren will...

British actress Helen Mirren will receive a lifetime achievement honor at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival, the festival announced Wednesday. 

Mirren, who won the best actress Oscar and Golden Globe in 2007 for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Frears' The Queen, will attend Berlin to receive her award Feb. 27, 2020. 

In addition, Berlin will screen a retrospective of Mirren's films, including The Queen, The Long Good Friday (1980), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), The Last Station (2009) and The Good Liar (2019).

"Helen Mirren is a strong personality whose powerful ...

British actress Helen Mirren will receive a lifetime achievement honor at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival, the festival announced Wednesday. 

Mirren, who won the best actress Oscar and Golden Globe in 2007 for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in Stephen Frears' The Queen, will attend Berlin to receive her award Feb. 27, 2020. 

In addition, Berlin will screen a retrospective of Mirren's films, including The Queen, The Long Good Friday (1980), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), The Last Station (2009) and The Good Liar (2019).

"Helen Mirren is a strong personality whose powerful ...