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Human vs. nature has always been a favorite topic for fiction fans. Movies and literature constantly pit animals against humankind and have done so going back to the very beginning of storytelling, and those tend to be the stories that survive! "Moby Dick" is still relevant today, and so is "King Kong," "Jaws" and "Robinson Crusoe." Maybe that's because it's in our DNA to have a healthy fear and respect for nature or maybe it's just the dose of adrenaline we get from a fight-for-survival thriller story.

Whatever the reason, people always perk up when a human has to face down a wild animal, especially if the human is out of their element and it's the animal's domain. The teen characters in "Yellowjackets" are certainly out of their element and it was only a matter of time before the rightful inhabitants of the nature they crash-landed in paid them a visit.

Luis Buñuel’s Mexican masterpiece embraces truly edgy content: morbid comedy, anti-social satire and a strong streak of anarchist surrealism. His ‘adventurer into the unknown’ this time is no ordinary pervert, but a privileged delinquent in pursuit of a childhood sex fantasy: killing a beautiful woman just for the thrill. Naughty Archibaldo’s rehearsals are an unending source of frustration — and eventual enlightenment. Buñuel can’t resist subverting the social framework — wicked digs at the status quo abound.

The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz

Blu-ray

Vci

1955 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 89 min. / Street Date September 13, 2022 / Ensayo de un crimen / Available from Vci / 29.99

Starring: Miroslava, Ernesto Alonso, Rita Macedo, Ariadne Welter, Andrea Palma, Rodolfo Landa, José María Linares-Rivas, Leonor Llausás, Carlos Riquelme, Chabela Durán.

Cinematography: Augustín Jiménez

Art Director: Jesús Bracho

Film Editors: Jorge Bustos, Pablo Gómez

Original Music: Jorge Pérez

Written by Luis Buñuel, Eduardo Ugarte from the novel...

The world trembles on the brink, and liberals are in charge! The nicest President you ever met gives the Soviet Premier an offer anybody could refuse, while technical glitches, not crazy people or radical politics, are blamed for starting WW3. Sidney Lumet’s taut, scary armageddon-outta-here thriller was weighed in the balance against a certain Stanley Kubrick film and found wanting, but unless you’re a stickler for technical details it really works up a buzz. The cast & crew list is a menu of committed liberal talent.

Fail Safe

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1011

1964 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 112 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 28, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Henry Fonda, Dan O’Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton, Edward Binns, Fritz Weaver, Larry Hagman, William Hansen, Sorrell Booke, Hildy Parks, Janet Ward, Dom DeLuise, Dana Elcar.

Cinematography: Gerald Hirschfeld

Film Editor: Ralph Rosenblum

Written by Walter Bernstein from the book by Eugene Burdick,...

Take one fiercely individual auteur fed up with the Hollywood game, put him in Kyoto with a full Japanese film company, and the result is a picture critics have been trying to figure out ever since. It’s a realistic story told in a highly artificial visual style, in un-subtitled Japanese. And its writer-director intended it to play for American audiences.

The Saga of Anatahan

Blu-ray

Kino Lorber

1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 91 min. / Anatahan, Ana-ta-han / Street Date April 25, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring: Akemi Negishi, Tadashi Suganuma, Kisaburo Sawamura, Shoji Nakayama, Jun Fujikawa, Hiroshi Kondo, Shozo Miyashita, Tsuruemon Bando, Kikuji Onoe, Rokuriro Kineya, Daijiro Tamura, Chizuru Kitagawa, Takeshi Suzuki, Shiro Amikura.

Cinematography: Josef von Sternberg, Kozo Okazaki

Film Editor: Mitsuzo Miyata

Original Music: Akira Ifukube

Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya

Written by Josef von Sternberg from the novel by Michiro Maruyama & Younghill Kang

Produced by Kazuo Takimura

Directed by Josef von Sternberg...

While we often lament some of the films that end up stuck in development Hell, never to become realized on the big screen, there are some films we should all be glad never came to fruition.

Sometimes they don’t get it! We all know that the film industry is a business and they want to make money, but Hollywood doesn’t always realize that the best way to do that is to make a good film. Sometimes, Hollywood’s habit of taking a known property and stretching them out to absurd proportions proves that they just don’t get the point. Fortunately, there are times when someone recognizes a bad idea and puts on the brakes. Below is a list of 14 films where someone was smart enough to notice that they were making a pile of trash and threw in the towel.

Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian

Due to the success of Beetlejuice,...

'Cast Away' Movie with Tom Hanks stranded on a deserted island 'Cast Away' Movie review: Tom Hanks excellent in high-concept Hollywood flick disguised as existential adventure drama Most people will see Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away as a celebration of the Triumph of the Human Spirit. A minority, myself included, will prefer the more mundane explanation that the film merely depicts a man following his survival instincts, which propel him – like any other animal, from cockroaches to crocodiles – to fight to remain alive almost against his will. Whichever way one chooses to view the survival of Tom Hanks' Federal Express engineer Chuck Noland (No-land, get it?) after being stranded for years on a deserted island (mostly shot in Monuriki, Fiji), Cast Away is little more than an elaborate, populist star vehicle disguised as an existential The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe-esque drama. A volleyball named Wilson The story of a...

François Truffaut was a big fan of Luis Buñuel films; he had always admired him as one of the greatest auteurs of cinema and in fact they managed to meet each other many times, starting in 1953. But before talking about their meetings, let’s see what Truffaut has said and written about Buñuel.

In his book The Films in My Life, Truffaut wrote: “Luis Buñuel is, perhaps, somewhere between Renoir and Bergman. One would gather that Buñuel finds mankind imbecilic but life diverting. All this he tells us very mildly, even a bit indirectly, but it's there in the overall impression we get from his films.”1

Truffaut also met Buñuel in 1957 when he and Jacques Rivette were doing a series of interviews. In addition to that interview request letter, Truffaut wrote letters, or at least one, to him dated 1963 and closed it as follow:

“I have heard from Jeanne Moreau...

We asked a few LatinoBuzz amigos to get their Robinson Crusoe on and pick a film, an album, a book and a companion from the movies to join them in their shenanigans were they to be stuck on a deserted island (and before anyone nitpicks, filmmakers are resourceful, so of course they built solar powered entertainment centers made from bamboos, coconuts and grass to watch movies and listen to baby making slow jams). We figured we'd start with the narrative filmmakers since they probably sit around thinking about this kinda stuff anyway.

Film: Choosing desert island items may mean sacrificing taste and/or reason, thinking about those items that you wouldn’t forgive yourself for not bringing them as your company, it´s like choosing the woman of your life. Here it goes: Hiroshima Mon Amour; there might be others I fancy as much as or more than (La Dolce Vita, Vertigo, M , some Lubitsch or Preminger), but I can think of no other as unique. I wouldn’t be able to choose any other without feeling Hiroshima’s absence - the best love film, the best movie about war, the best motion picture regarding the memory and its consequences. I can spend my whole life learning about film and the world because of Hiroshima...'.

Album: “Los Preludios de Debussy” by Claudio Arrau. These were so important to my life (I'm referring to my childhood of course) and I think no one does it better than Arrau. Same thing: it is endless. I think I could never tire of this and I could still wake up each and every morning amazed by it.

Book: “Sentimental Education”, by Flaubert. Similar to “Hiroshima”, a book that changed my outlook on literature and the world and I am certain it will keep transforming it forever.

Companion: Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer in 'The fabulous Baker Boys'). Since I saw the film (which I liked very much!) in the provincial movie theater of my childhood, I felt as Jack Baker´s relative and I loved Susie. If we had a piano, it would all be all be perfect. - Santiago Palavecino (Algunas chicas/Some Girls)

Film: This is a tricky question. I've always said that on a deserted island you should bring some porn. You could use that more than regular movies. But since I've got to pick a film I guess it'd be Jaws. Why? Because it's one of my favorites (I could also go with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). But being on a deserted island, Jaws will remind me all the time what'll happen to me for sure if I try to get away!

Album: “ Appetite for Destruction” (Guns N' Roses). Hey, I was 13 when this came out. I listen to it every day while I work, anyways. My favorite, by far.

A Book: I'm going to cheat on this one: 'The Complete Works' by Jorge Luis Borges. The best writer, and enough labyrinths to get lost on endless nights.

Companion: Sherlock Holmes. He's always been my favorite, and also, since my guess is he'll be pretty useless in a deserted island, every time we fail to get out because of him I can get to tell him "Is that the best you can do, Sherlock? - Alejandro Brugués (Juan of the Dead)

Film: Los Olvidados- this is punk rock and Pachuco. Mexico City style before the bombed out bunkers of Sid & Nancy. Bunuel is a hero and I wanna buy Jaibo a beer and milk for the old poetic man!

Album: The Blade Runner album. I can play it over and over, get cranked up or mellow with Blade Runner Blues and the constant rain.

Book: '20 years of Joda' - poems of Jose Montoya, my pop. Epic stuff! 'Ran with Miguel Pinero in the Lower Eastside!”

Companion: Michael Corleone cause he's Mack in my book! Jaibo gets an honorable mention. - Richard Montoya (Water & Power )

Film: I´d choose Misery because a year can go by and I can watch it again eagerly. It's simple and the director (Rob Reiner) and Stephen King are both masters of suspense.

Album: I know this may be considered cheating but it would have to be 'The Best of David Bowie'. That way I have 2 CD's with nearly 40 songs!

Companion: There's many great people who I would to live with but on a deserted Island? It would have to be Mary Poppins for obvious reasons.

Book: And finally the book would be 'Blood Meridian' by Cormac McCarthy because it's one I haven't read yet. Analeine Cal y Mayor - (The Boy Who Smells Like Fish)

Film: I would say White Chicks. I’m going to need some humor! White Chicks is the movie that I put on when I need a good laugh. It does it for me every time. I grew up with characters like that; and admittedly, I can regress back to a few of them myself when no one is looking.

Album: ' Songs From the Capeman' - Paul Simon. I can’t get enough of that album. It instantly takes me to that world and electrifies that side of me that’s determined to make a change for Latinos. I want to keep that feeling with me alive eternally…wherever I’m at.”

Book: There are many but 'Anatomy of the Spirit' by Caroline Myss has been my compass. It taught me how to take control of my destiny by listening to my intuition and body. I stand by her quote: “Your biography becomes your biology.

Companion: The first person that came to mind when I read the question was silly Clarence from “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I guess I’m going to need an angel with me, and he’s perfect. He has a pure childlike spirit that would help me find gratitude in the most unlikely moments… even on a deserted island! That right there is the meaning of life. - Carmen Marron (Endgame)

Film: There are so many brilliant, groundbreaking favorite films that have influenced me (The 400 Blows; Jules and Jim ; Law of Desire; et al) but I wouldn't bring any of them. If I'm stuck on a deserted island, I'm bringing Neil Simon's Murder by Death so I can laugh my ass off. Not a great film at all, it's true, but it's a classic comedy.

Album: Oh, this is easy: Madonna's "Ray of Light." I am no Madonna fanatic, but "deserted island, " means beach + summer weather + Fire Island-like atmosphere. So somewhere nearby there's got to be gay guys partying and I will use Madonna to lure them to me so I can be rescued.

One Book: Varga Llosa's "Feast of the Goat" ("La Fiesta del Chivo") -- it's action-packed historical fiction. It will keep me occupied. One of my favorite novels.

Companion: Huckleberry Finn. He will be a great companion: not only will he tell great stories, but undoubtedly, the ever-resourceful Huck Finn will figure out how to build a raft and get us out off that island! - Terracino (Elliot Loves )

Film: Whenever anyone asks me this I always think of what use these items would serve practically on a deserted island, so I answered this in that respect. Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu. This would be a great film to take on a deserted island because it's really about the unavoidable suffering of the cycle of life, which I'm sure you'd relate to if you were stuck on an island. I really could watch this film a million times over and notice something new every time. Watching most Ozu films is not unlike participating in a Zen meditation practice. It's patience and slowness and trying to empty your mind of thought until your left with the basics of existence. Kind of like sitting on a deserted island alone. I can watch the scene where Kyoto says “Life is disappointing, isn't it?” and Noriko smiles and says “Yes it is.” I can watch that endlessly and cry every time. It's so true.

Album: ' Tusk' - Fleetwood Mac. I could also deal with 'Rumours' but I picked 'Tusk' because it's longer and denser; probably better for an island. 'Sara' is maybe my favorite song in the world and so it would be nice to have that with me. I think channeling the powerful witchy energy of Stevie Nicks would be a real asset on an island. This album has so much strange material on - you wouldn't get bored too easily with it. It's also got a range of emotions so if you get too depressed on the island you can just put on 'Never Forget' and feel better. And 'Sisters of the Moon' would be good around a fire at night. Even though you're stuck on an island, it's good to create an ambiance to remind you that life is worth living.

Book: ' In Search of Lost Time' - Marcel Proust. I've only read 'Swann's Way' which is first part of this. My analyst recommend it to me when I was totally heartbroken after someone broke up with me. It really did the trick. This would be a good long epic read that has enough complex ideas in it to keep you occupied for a life time. Probably a good book (or set of books) to get back to nature with.

Companion: I'll say Terry Malloy from “On the Waterfront”. He'd be strong and good to have around to cut down trees and hunt and stuff. He's also easy on the eyes and someone that could do with a little lonely contemplation away from the loading docks. That doesn't sound half bad...stuck on like a tropical island with a young, cute Marlon Brando, watching Ozu, reading Proust and listening to Fleetwood Mac all day. Sign me up! - Joshua Sanchez (Four)

Film: My film would have to be Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados. I have been a movie watcher since I was a child. Raised on mainstream American films and Wuxia flicks, it wasn't until I was a late teen that I took my first film class and was introduced to the work of Buñuel. Los Olvidados literally changed my perception of the world, both socially and visually. It was also the gateway for me to progress from movie watcher to film student.

Album: Music is my religion and I belong to the church of Robert Nesta Marley. I would prefer the whole anthology, but if I had to choose one album it would be “Exodus”. When on an island listen to island music.

Book: Right around the time I discovered the work of Buñuel, I was gifted Jose Montoya's 'In Formation: 20 years of Joda'. The book is a treasure of epic poems, sketches, and corridos. All testaments to the beauty and strength of Chicana/o culture. 20 years later I pay homage to both of these Maestros in my debut feature film, “Cry Now”. The film's protagonist is nicknamed 'Ojitos' during the course of the narrative, a reference to one of the characters in Los Olvidados. The late great Lupe Ontiveros playing the role of a sage loosely recites Montoya's mantra 'La Locura Cura' (In madness you find truth) while she councils our protagonist.

Companion: To bring it all full circle my fictitious character would have to be a Wuxia hero. As a child I was awe inspired by these bigger than life martial artists. As an adult, Ang Lee's “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” did the same. I know all would be as it should if Yu Shu Lien was on that island with me. - Alberto Barboza (Cry Now )

Film: Nothing But a Man (1964) It's a film that does an incredible job balancing a character-driven story within a politically charged context. It's a film I'm finding myself inspired by as I continue to write Los Valientes.

Album: I'm not a fan of albums, but if I had to choose one I guess I would have to go with any of Prince's albums. His music always puts me in a trance.

Book: My dream journal so I can look back look for signs of what is to become of my future.

Companion: Who better than TV's MacGyver. I'd put his ass to work on getting me off the island! -Aurora Guerrero (Mosquita y Mari)

Film: Hell in the Pacific so that I can be reminded that even in paradise there is a duality.

Album: “La Scala: Concert” by Ludovico Einaudi – I've listened to it a thousand times and each time I feel or discover something new.

Book: “ Voces Reunidas” by Antonio Porchia. Each time I read one of his poems I learn something new and I'm deeply moved.

Companion: Barbarella, so I could never be lonely and I could enjoy this planet-island – Diego Quemada-Díez (La jaula de oro/The Golden Dream)

Written by Juan Caceres . LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...

All Is Lost is a man-stranded-at-sea movie, starring Robert Redford, in a role that has almost no dialogue, as a fellow who wakes up in his small yacht, somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean, only to discover that a random floating railway car — who knows how it got there? — has gashed a hole in the boat’s hull. It’s like his own miniature iceberg scrape: All of a sudden, his boat could go down, and him with it. Most movies that strand a solitary figure at sea, like Life of Pi, or on a desert island, like...

This Wednesday at 8/7c, The CW’s Arrow pulls back far on his string and lets fly with the first of Season 1′s final four episodes.

When last we tuned into the hit freshman drama, Tommy Merlyn — the only person not on Team Arrow who’s privy to Oliver Queen’s supersecret — had broken things off with his bud and joined up with his father Malcolm, who unbeknownst to anyone is the Dark Archer.

Showrunner Andrew Kreisberg shared with TVLine an overview of the final hours to come, which feature a lot of infighting, much ruminating about The Undertaking and a season-ending “Sacrifice.

RoboCop to have a special screening in Hollywood: Cast members Allen, Weller, and director Verhoeven to attend presentation followed by reception and Q&A The 1987 original RoboCop directed by Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, and starring Peter Weller and former Brian De Palma leading lady Nancy Allen, will have a special presentation at noon on Saturday, May 18, 2013, at the Harmony Gold Theater, located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. The screening and reception, to be hosted by Allen, Weller, and Verhoeven, will also feature a Q&A and autograph session. (Pictured above: Allen and Weller in the original movie released more than a quarter of a century ago.) Proceeds from the pricy $75 / $125 tickets will go to weSPARK, which is described as "an organization that enhances the quality of life for cancer patients, family and friends by providing multiple services designed to help heal the mind, body and spirit." Tickets for the screening can be purchased here.

Review by Sam Moffitt

Some movies stay with you. People are constantly amazed that I can remember so much about movies but also what theatre I saw them in and under what circumstances. Movies can be like songs in the memory, where you were physically and mentally and emotionally the first time you heard a song and how it takes on much more meaning than the musicians ever intended. The same with books, I recall at what point in my life I read certain books and where I was at the time. And so, it’s the same with movies, for me anyway.

In 1966 my Father entered John Cochran Veteran’s Hospital in St. Louis, on North Grand, for brain surgery. He never walked out of there. We were visiting Dad before the surgery, at eleven years old I was already a die hard Movie Geek. I used to beg my parents,...

Like a lot of late (oft-fetish) objects of cinephilia (cf. Django Unchained, Holy Motors, You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, the films of Gabriel Abrantes, even, or perhaps most of all, This Is Not a Film), Miguel Gomes' Tabu is a sutured fantasy, that is, with the seams showing: all calculating formal frameworks for cute fantasy only end up referring back to their production history (as documentary), as well as the same national history the self-contained storyline was supposed to shield against. Of course the point is simple: stories are cultural products, and as in the African documentaries of Salzar's chief propagandist, António Lopes Ribeiro, Gomes' stories end up revealing everything they're designed to evade. Until its late swerve into unremitting pastiche, the point when cultural history collapses into a Forrest Gump crime scene, Tabu, like so many Portuguese films with their cheap resources and love letter narrators, straddles the...

The versatile Ang Lee brings Yann Martel's tale of shipwreck and spirituality to the big screen in magnificent fashion

The Taiwan-born Ang Lee rapidly established himself in the 1990s as one of the world's most versatile film-makers, moving on from the trilogy of movies about Chinese families that made his name to Jane Austen's England (Sense and Sensibility) and Richard Nixon's America (The Ice Storm). If he revisits a place or genre it's to tell a very different story – a martial arts movie in medieval China (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is followed by a spy thriller in wartime Shanghai (Lust, Caution), and a western with a Us civil war background (Ride With the Devil) is succeeded by a western about a gay relationship in present-day Wyoming (Brokeback Mountain).

He adopts different styles to fit his new subjects, and while there are certain recurrent themes, among them the...

Two showbiz veterans, filmmaker Robert Zemeckis and actor Denzel Washington join forces for the addiction drama Flight and the result is a leading man performance of emotional heft and a movie with sky high, technical mastery. Zemeckis reminds us of his technical polish in the film’s first sequence, the strutting arrival of passenger jet captain Whip Whitaker (Washington) taking his cockpit seat after a long night of partying with a pretty flight attendant (Katerina Marquez), his tried-and-true remedies for quick sobriety before takeoff and finally, an equipment failure midflight that requires him to use every one of his flying skills to save his passengers and crew. You can tell from the film’s introductory sequence that there’s a true master behind the camera and you feel a pang of regret that Zemeckis’ last live-action directing gigs were the Robinson Crusoe-inspired Cast Away and the horror movie What Lies Beneath...

Two showbiz veterans, filmmaker Robert Zemeckis and actor Denzel Washington join forces for the addiction drama Flight and the result is a leading man performance of emotional heft and a movie with sky high, technical mastery. Zemeckis reminds us of his technical polish in the film’s first sequence, the strutting arrival of passenger jet captain Whip Whitaker (Washington) taking his cockpit seat after a long night of partying with a pretty flight attendant (Katerina Marquez), his tried-and-true remedies for quick sobriety before takeoff and finally, an equipment failure midflight that requires him to use every one of his flying skills to save his passengers and crew. You can tell from the film’s introductory sequence that there’s a true master behind the camera and you feel a pang of regret that Zemeckis’ last live-action directing gigs were the Robinson Crusoe-inspired Cast Away and the horror movie What Lies Beneath...

Arrow, Season 1, Episode 1: “Pilot”

Directed by David Nutter

Written by Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim

Airs Wednesdays at 8pm Et on The CW

With the recent influx of superhero movies (namely reboots), origin stories have increasenly become less and less appealing. For decades, characters have been introduced to audiences by way of explaining how these super heroes/villains came to be. Like many characters in the DC Comics canon, the story of how Oliver Queen became the Green Arrow has been retold several times since he first appeared way back in November 1941. Origin stories are always a bore, especially when you’re familiar with the story, but Arrow keeps the pilot moving at a brisk pace, making good on a basic premise. Clearly influenced by the likes of Robinson Crusoe, Robin Hood, and Batman, one would assume that a small or big screen adaption of Green Arrow would be a huge success.

The Marxist historian reclaimed and popularised the value of popular culture – something so integral to our lives today it seems bizarre it was ever denigrated

The historian Eric Hobsbawm, who has died aged 95, is rightly being mourned as a great intellectual of modern times. Yet Hobsbawm was more than a powerful historian and political thinker; nor should he be remembered in solitary splendour. He was part of a group of British Marxist scholars who profoundly influenced our understanding of what culture is.

More than 50 years ago, a bunch of dissident Oxbridge-educated academic historians changed the way the British saw culture. They understood, long before anyone else, that culture is what shapes the world. They also saw that culture is totally democratic and comes from the people. While the official guardians of the arts, such as Kenneth Clark, were praising the "civilisation" of the elite on television and in print, Hobsbawm...

Above: Reading of the Oberhausen Manifeso before the West German press.

In 1962, twenty-six West German filmmakers—including writers, directors, producers, and an actor—declared the Oberhausen Manifesto at the 8th Oberhausen Short Film Festival. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the manifesto, the festival organized the retrospective “Provoking Reality: Mavericks, Mouvements, and Manifestos,” in which they screened nearly forty short films by the manifesto’s signatories. (Earlier this year, Daniel Kasman wrote about several of the retrospective's shorts in his report from the festival, "Manifestations".) This week, the Museum of Modern Art will also screen a selection of them from September 27th through the 30th. Out of these new films, a Junger Deutscher Film (Young German Film) emerged to counter the established film industry and the conventional German entertainment of the 1950s.

Above: The 8th Oberhausen Short Film Festival.

After the Allies defeated Germany in World War II and subsequently partitioned the country,...

Tags: SurvivorSurvivor: PhilippinesDana LambertIMDbreality televsion

Have you ever wandered around in a dirty tankini for days, in search of a drink or something to eat, all while trying to make allies, avoid enemies and stay sane? If you answered "yes" to most of that, chances are you've either been to The Dinah, or you've been a contestant on Survivor, now in its mind-boggling 25th season.

This year, Survivor heads off to the Philippines where players will compete for the $1 million prize and the coveted title of "Sole Survivor." Among those who will "outwit, outplay and outlast," is out lesbian, Dana Lambert, a 32-year-old cosmetologist from North Carolina.

Photo courtesy of CBS

I had some burning questions for Dana about this whole not-showering thing, if lesbians are better at the game than straight women, and what it was like to be in a reality version of Lord of the Flies. Here are her answers.

Patricio Guzmán, whose film The Battle of Chile chronicled Pinochet's coup, talks to Sukhdev Sandhu about Nostalgia for the Light, his new meditation on astronomy

Patricio Guzmán, the director responsible for The Battle of Chile (1975-1979), widely regarded as one of the towering achievements in the history of documentary film, is talking about its invisibility in the country where he was born. "It has never been transmitted on Chilean television. It provokes fear among executives. They do not dare. When all of us are dead then someone will dare to put it on screen. Meanwhile, every time someone on television is talking about Allende, they steal images from my film but use them in a context different from the original."

The Battle of Chile emerged during a period of revolutionary turmoil across Latin America. Mass movements against authoritarianism and for socialist emancipation were on the rise. A generation of insurgent...

Legendary French writer Jean-Claude Carrière has crafted strange, wonderful films with directors from Buñuel to Godard. He talks here about the art of creating cinematic enigmas

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Jean-Claude Carrière welcomes me into the former gaming house and den of iniquity that he has called home for nearly half his 80 years; the 19th-century building stands in a sun-dappled Parisian courtyard. It's a glorious afternoon, and I apologise for being so demonstrably English in remarking on that fact, but the legendary screenwriter – tall, with salt-and-pepper stubble and warm, alert eyes – waves away my words. "Why shouldn't we discuss it?" he chuckles. "At least everyone can agree on the weather." Imagine the sense of social rupture if they didn't. "I have a little of that," he confesses, settling into an armchair in a high-ceilinged living room where wooden sculptures stand guard over Persian rugs. "Coming from...

The official website for Toru Hosokawa’s upcoming island survival movie Paikaji Nankai Sakusen has been updated with a trailer.

Based on a 2004 novel by Makoto Shiina which has been described as modern spin on Robinson Crusoe, the film stars Sadao Abe as a cameraman named Sasaki who decides to take a trip to an island in southern Japan to cheer himself up after being laid off.

After he gets drunk with some campers one night, he wakes up to discover he’s been relieved of all his money and possessions. Later, he meets a young man from the city named Okkochi (Kento Nagayama), the Kansai dialect-speaking Apa (Shihori Kanjiya), and Kimi (Nozomi Sasaki) and the four of them begin a life of island survival together.

One day, Sasaki hears a rumor of the four homeless campers who stole his stuff, and he begins formulating an intricate plan to both...

Summary:

Kim Seung-Keun (Jung Jae-Young) decides to escape his troubles in the most drastic way possible: jumping to his death in the Han River. By some stroke of luck, he instead washes up on an abandoned island that is close to civilization, but might as well be on the moon.

As Kim slowly begins to rebuild his life in the wilderness, another lonely soul (Jung Ryu-woon) reaches out to him from across town.

Review:

I first saw Castaway on the Moon on a 14-hour flight. Delirious from sleep deprivation and recycled air, I wasn’t sure if the fondness I felt for the film was the result of adorable movie magic or an insidious case of Stockholm’s Syndrome. Upon re-watching it, I can reliably say: adorable movie magic, with a pinch of fairy tale and a dash of angst.

Castaway on the Moon (known as “Mr. Kim’s Island...

Fictional representations of Mars have been popular for over a century and with good reason. Apart from the beauty of the planet’s dramatic red colour, early scientific speculations that its surface conditions might be capable of supporting life have often inspired writers to take on either the possibility that Mars could be colonized by humans or would be incapable of sustaining human life – thus the idea that Martians would one day invade our planet. With the release of Andrew Stanton’s sweeping action-adventure John Carter (a film based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs and set on Mars), I’ve decided to list a few films which also revolve around the mysterious and exotic planet that might be worthy of your time.

#1- Total Recall

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

The premise for Total Recall, a film based on a Philip K. Dick short story ( ‘We Can Remember...

From South Pacific to Archipelago, cinema and fiction has long explored island paradises and hell-holes. But why are film-makers enchanted by islands time and time again?

Jules Verne's works have much to offer the makers of CGI-prone, 3D-disposed kids' adventure flicks. The 2008 version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth did well enough at the box office, so a sequel was obligatory. We could have had Captain Nemo's submarine odyssey, the exploration of Africa from a balloon or a voyage to the moon by cannon-fired projectile. Instead, we get a trip to an island.

Even in Verne's day, this was considered a bit of a let-down. The author's publisher rejected the first version of what was to become The Mysterious Island with the reproach: "Where is the science?" To beef things up a bit, Verne got his adventurers blown off course while escaping from a war zone by balloon.

Are found footage movies a cheap-to-make fad, or are they a natural extension of classic storytelling? Here’s Ryan’s view of a divisive genre…

The finest storytellers are confidence tricksters. It’s their ability to convince us that what they’re telling us is real that makes their tall tales so engrossing – they blur the lines between fiction and reality, to the point where are brains struggle to see the join between one and the other.

This is why so many novels and short stories were written in the first person, or incorporated real-world events: their writers wanted to convince their readers that what they were reading was fact, even as the stories span off into unreality. Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe as a first-person account of a castaway. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was written in the style of a traveller’s work of non-fiction,...

Daniel Radcliffe has confessed that he considers himself to be romantic. The Harry Potter star, who is currently dating former production assistant Rosie Coker, said that he is looking forward to getting married in the future to the woman he's in love with. "I don't know where my romanticism comes from. My mom and dad would read to me a lot. Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, tales of chivalry and knights, things like that. Those are the stories I loved growing up," he told Parade. "I still see something very romantic in the world that perhaps isn't there. I suppose I want it to be the place of knights and that kind of stuff. "When growing up, I thought of marriage as being very official, drawing up a contract. It seemed slightly clinical to me. But then you meet somebody that you really love and you think, 'Actually, (more)...

Just Henry

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By Kieran Kinsella

Michelle Magorian is one of Britain’s most popular authors and it is no surprise that some of her finest works have been dramatized on TV. Inspector Morse actor John Thaw was among the stars who brought Goodnight Mr Tom to life in 1998 and on Sunday 18 December, fans of Michelle’s work can see Just Henry on ITV. As with Goodnight Mr Tom, ITV have spared no expense in assembling an all-star line up for Just Henry that includes Sheila Hancock, Dean Andrews and Elaine Cassidy. Michelle very kindly agreed to talk to Best British TV about the book, the show and her other work.

As a writer do you feel nervous about allowing someone else to bring your book to life in the form of a TV Show?...

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The Alvin and the Chipmunks films have curiously managed to avoid – and in the case of the last film, scarcely skate past – the end-of-year “Worst Of…” lists that critics love to write; they are an annoyance we tolerate, and while the first film definitely displayed some knowing promise, the end result is best described as the cinematic equivalent of a high-pitched, hyperactive fly buzzing around your inner ear for 80-or-so minutes. The latest, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, is as perfectly bad and inoffensively banal as 2009′s Squeakquel, though with this third entry comes the hope that we might have seen the end of the tragic Jason Lee-starring saga by now, something I expect its bountiful box office receipts will probably deny.

This third film sees the Chipmunks and Chipettes in a more relaxed mode, preparing to go on a holiday cruise with their kind,...

Some early details are developing on the sci-fi thriller Concrete Island. Director Brad Anderson (The Machinist) will reteam with Christian Bale on this project. Set in the year 2020, a wealthy architect veers off of a highway west of London. His Jaguar along with himself are then trapped on a concrete barrier along with several others. The film turns into an adult version of Lord of the Flies as the characters fight for the few dwindling resources available.

This project is being developed by Filmax International. As well, this title is based on J. G. Ballard's novel of the same name and some of the details above are based on this text. Take a look at other early details for Concrete Island below.

Director: Brad Anderson.

Writers: J.G. Ballard and Scott Kosar.

Cast: Christian Bale.

*filming has not begun.

**the novel was released in 1974.

***the novel is possibly influenced by another novel,...

If you've perused the shelves of a bookstore lately, you've probably noticed one of the hottest literary trends going right now: mash-up novels. The first one to catch everyone's attention was Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, establishing the pattern of taking a well-known author's classic work and stirring it together with some outlandish element. More have followed, expanding the trend from classic fiction to famous historical figures as well: Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The Eerie Adventures of the Lycanthrope Robinson Crusoe. The genre is rich with potential because it combines two things Hollywood does well: recreating historical periods and creating the fantastic. Except, well, first you have to actually get the movies made... So far the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie seems to be most skilled at chasing away directors, and it looks like that same problem has hit another...

Get ready to start your Afm morning coverage with a smile as we bring with us some very good news regarding the new flick from Brad Anderson, Concrete Island! Oh, and we even have some early sales art, too!

Filmax International, the company behind Sleep Tight and the [Rec] franchise, will be producing the film which reunites Anderson (Transsiberian, The Machinist, Session 9, The Vanishing on 7th Street) with The Machinist star Christian Bale on the adaptation of the best selling novel by J.G. Ballard.

Scott Kosar (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Crazies, Amityville Horror, The Machinist) will pen the screenplay that's described as "a twisted adaptation of Robinson Crusoe," where the story's protagonist, Robert Maitland, a wealthy architect, finds himself stranded in a manmade 'island' (a section of fenced-off wasteland in the middle of a motorway intersection) between the Westway and M4 Motorway in West London, forced to survive on...

We've learned that Filmax International, the company behind Sleep Tight and the [Rec] franchise, is will be producing Concrete Island. The big news is that Brad Anderson (Transsiberian, The Machinist, Session 9, The Vanishing on 7th Street) is set to reteam with The Machinist star Christian Bale on the adaptation of the best selling novel by J.G. Ballard. Scott Kosar (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) will pen the screenplay that's described as a twisted adaptation of "Robinson Crusoe," where the story's protagonist, Robert Maitland, a wealthy architect, finds himself stranded in a manmade 'island' (a section of fenced-off wasteland in the middle of a motorway intersection) between the Westway and M4 Motorway in West London, forced to survive on only what is in his crashed Jaguar and what he is able to find.

Another piece of art spotted at the American Film Market today... Concrete Island , an adaptation of J.G. Ballard's novel, tells an urban Robinson Crusoe story, wherein Bales' character crashes a car into a highway interchange and is marooned in a weedy lot, injured, and can't escape, trying to survive in the middle of the big urban Metropolis. The film will bring back The Machinist team: Brad Anderson directs, Christian Bale stars and Scott Kosar pens the adaptation.

Fresh from his appearance in Torchwood: Miracle Day, John Barrowman has just embarked on a new UK tour offering audiences an evening of song, dance and stories.

Barrowman, 44, has also appeared in Desperate Housewives and as the voice of cosmic entity The Stranger in Marvel's animated show Super Hero Squad.

But it's as Captain Jack Harkness that he's best known and he admits the diverse audience of his tour does include a contingent of "Woodies and Whovians", the name given to devoted fans of Torchwood and Doctor Who respectively.

Sci-fi fans first saw Barrowman appear as time-travelling conman Captain Jack in 2005's Doctor Who episode The Empty Child. The popular character stayed on as a companion of Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor, attaining immortality and then taking the lead in Torchwood, which centres on a British secret organisation set up to combat alien threats.

This summer saw Torchwood's fourth series,...

Earlier this year it was revealed that Christian Bale was planning a reunion with the writing and directing duo of Brad Anderson and Scott Kosar from 2003's "The Machinist," for an adaptation of J.G. Ballard's urban thriller "Concrete Island." While the project doesn't seem to be any closer to realization, TwitchFilm has now uncovered the first sales poster for the film, a dystopia-set urban thriller which already promises to boast another of the sort of physically and mentally challenging roles that Bale has almost become synonymous with. Described as a twisted, unfilmable adaptation of the Robinson Crusoe castaway survival story,…...

Remember how in the last episode of Survivor, Brandon "started behaving erratically"? I have a feeling that's going to blow up real soon. Coach is going to surgically remove Lil' Hantz from the game. Papa Bear's out, after making the argument that Cochran is that guy who is always hurting himself by accident. You know the type!

Ozzy and Elyse lie on the hammock together, talking Robinson Crusoe, which worries Jim. Jim takes this up with Cochran--how about we eliminate Elyse instead of you, Cochran? Cochran is all for it, in spite of Jim's "suspiciously white" teeth.

Should the next Doctor Who be a woman?

It's not the first time the idea has been suggested and now John Barrowman says he thinks a gender-bending regeneration would be a great twist.

Barrowman - who plays immortal Captain Jack Harkness in spin-off series Torchwood - believes the BBC sci-fi show should "go out on a limb" and have a female doctor next time.

Barrowman was speaking in Glasgow as he promoted the Robinson Crusoe And The Caribbean Pirates pantomime, to be staged from December 17 to January 7 at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.

He said: "I think a female doctor might work, you never know. The audience might not like that. I know there's a lot of young girls and women who would love that.

"I think that maybe they should go out on a limb next time and try it. That always stirs things up a little bit...

(Our review of the first episode of An Idiot Abroad 2: The Bucket List that was screened for press last night)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

In what feels like a slightly contrived device to continue Karl’s adventures, Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais’ former radio producer turned guinea pig and lovingly dubbed ‘little round-headed buffoon’ tackles bucket list-worthy activities for this second series.

Presented with a list of the one-hundred most popular things that people would like to do before they die, Karl chooses one that he would like to do; more accurately, however, Ricky and Stephen force their choices upon him and throw in as many curve balls as they can, which they know will push Karl to his very last nerve end and provoke the most volatile and more-often-than-not hilarious reactions.

Episode one sees Karl essentially tackling two activities – one chosen by himself and one imposed by Ricky and Stephen.

Santiago, Chile — A Chilean air force plane with 21 people aboard, including a popular local television host, crashed Friday near the Juan Fernandez islands in the Pacific Ocean, authorities said.

The Casa 212 military plane tried twice to land at the airport on the remote Chilean island but strong wind gusts buffeted the aircraft and it later was lost from sight, said Felipe Paredes, a local council member who was in the airport's control tower at the time.

Rescuers in boats were searching for the plane and survivors, but the mayor of Juan Fernandez, Leopoldo Gonzalez, said some luggage had been found in the water and it was clear the plane crashed.

"We assume that there was an accident and that there are no survivors," Gonzalez said.

Rescue teams later found an intact door and several knapsacks in the water about 2,000 meters (yards) from the island's airport, authorities said.

President Sebastian Pinera expressed sadness.

Once again, a look into the future, with some very interesting looks at the past, including the reprinting of a comic that was never released in America in the first place, the infamous Elseworlds 80 Page Giant that was pulped because of concerns about Superman’s babysitter.

And of course, a whole lot of #3 issues, which is traditionally the issue where Spider-Man guest stars.

Shall we? Surely!

As usual, spoilers may lurk beyond this point.

Justice League #3

Written by Geoff Johns

Art and cover by Jim Lee and Scott Williams

1:25 Variant cover by Greg Capullo

1:200 B&W Variant cover by Jim Lee

On sale November 16 • 40 pg, Fc, $3.99 Us • Rated T

Combo pack edition: $4.99 Us

Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.

The superstar team of writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee continue to make history as they unleash the amazing Amazon,...

Friend, killer, lover, specimen ...

The guinea pig

Cinema persistently tries to achieve what science so far has not: make a man/monkey mashup. In The Doctor's Experiment; or Reversing Darwin's Theory (1908) men are turned into apes, while in Balaoo the Demon Baboon (1913, twice remade) a doctor has a go at the reverse, with the side-effect of turning them murderous. In 1932's Murders in the Rue Morgue, women are injected with ape blood (they die); in Return of the Ape Man (1944) Bela Lugosi swaps John Carradine's brain with that of a gorilla (again, doesn't go well). The Man Without a Body (1957) tells of an impressionable gent who submits to the ministrations of a scientist who has been seeing what happens when you play switcheroo with monkey heads.

The erotic cipher

King Kong resonates because, much as Kong repels us, we empathise too: who hasn't been rejected by the object of...

AP Text/Video:

Los Angeles -- Sherwood Schwartz, writer-creator of two of the best-remembered TV series of the 1960s and 1970s, "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch," has died at age 94.

Great niece Robin Randall said Schwartz died at 4 a.m. Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was being treated for an intestinal infection and underwent several surgeries. His wife, Mildred, and children had been at his side.

Sherwood Schwartz and his brother, Al, started as a writing team in TV's famed 1950s "golden age," said Douglas Schwartz, the late Al Schwartz's son.

"They helped shape television in its early days," Douglas Schwartz said. "Sherwood is an American classic, creating `Brady Bunch' and `Gilligan's Island,' iconic shows that are still popular today. He continued to produce all the way up into his 90s."

Sherwood Schwartz was working on a big-screen version of "Gilligan's Island," his nephew said. Douglas Schwartz,...

Ricky Gervais has said that The Simpsons is the best TV show of all time, a sediment I’d have to agree with. It didn’t take long for Matt Groening to extend an invitation to Gervais after many of the creators and writers found they shared a love for The Office – saying: “Everybody on The Simpsons is a fan of The Office – it’s one of the best shows on TV in the last decade.”

Ricky Gervais went on to write and star in The Simpsons episode “Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife” voicing the character Charles Heathbar [see video below]. He guest starred as himself in the Season 22 episode “Angry Dad – The Movie“. A 2008 article [here], Entertainment Weekly named Gervais one of the sixteen best Simpsons guest stars.

Before the episode air, Gervais did an interview with Entertainment Weekly, where he picks his favorite episodes! The man knows his stuff:

“It might be a cartoon,...

3 months later July 1969 Valley of the Gods, Utah. Amy (Karen Gillan) is caught by Canton (Mark Sheppard) and shot. She aks if he can remember why he's doing this. Cue flashback with the Doctor (Matt Smith) telling Canton to look behind him. The Doctor is tied up and now sports a beard and long-ish hair. Reminded me of Robinson Crusoe. Well the image just came to me as he looked a little ship-wrecked, or should I say Tardis-wrecked. Amy had markings on her arm. New York. River (Alex Kingston) has the same markings too as she's chased by The Silent. She marks her arm everytime she sees one. It's a tally to remind her she's seen them. Canton catches up with her too and she tells him they were invaded a long time ago. She's cornered by him and his men; uttering, "There's always a way out." Before she plunges backwards off the edge.

Even with Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett in the cast, Joe Wright's would-be thriller about a teen assassin is oddly boring

Too boring to be a proper thriller, and too goofily hectic for anything grander than that, Joe Wright's self-conscious new assassin movie Hanna is guided with sleek laser-accuracy at a precisely equidistant point between two stools. After a strongish start, the film doesn't so much sag as utterly collapse – each audience member will feel like someone who has flung himself into a hammock that isn't tied at either end. With its wicked-witch performance from Cate Blanchett, its derivative premise, its bland Europudding location work and some frankly outrageous boredom, this will test everyone's patience.

Eric Bana plays Erik, a battle-scarred professional tough guy with a guttural German accent hiding out in the snowy forest wearing clothes made out of furry animal skins, like Robinson Crusoe. Here he has trained up a lovely,...

Prince William and Princess Catherine are to set off on a world tour next year. The couple, who married at London's Westminster Abbey on Friday, April 29, will make official visits to Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean, as well as other Commonwealth countries in Africa and Asia, to ease Queen Elizabeth's workload in her Diamond Jubilee year.

With the queen reportedly having told fellow members of the British royal family they must rally round as she celebrates 60 years on the throne, it is thought Buckingham Palace officials are hoping to capitalize on the success of Friday's nuptials, which were watched by an estimated two billion people worldwide.

A Palace source told The Sun newspaper, "Demand for William and Catherine is expected to go through the roof following the incredible reaction to their wedding. They are keen to settle into married life and only plan the minimum of official engagements. But the Jubilee is different.

Prince William is set to whisk his new wife away to a secret hideaway in the Indian Ocean for their belated honeymoon.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - who married on Friday, April 29 - had to cancel their initial plans for a romantic break this week so William is making sure he pulls out all the stops when the pair jet out to the exclusive location for a 10-day stay.

The newlyweds are due to fly out by private jet later this month before being taken by helicopter from the mainland to the tropical retreat, which offers almost complete isolation.

A source told the Daily Mail newspaper, "Kate will have the time of her life. It's everything you could want from a honeymoon destination and more. The prince's protection officers flew out two-and-a-half weeks ago to check it out and their villa has been booked and confirmed."

"It's a...

Could Robert Zemeckis be on the cusp of making his live-action comeback?

News has come through (via The Hollywood Reporter) that the Forrest Gump director is circling a project called Flight. It’s the story of a pilot (wrestling with a drink and drug addiction), who becomes an accidental hero after rescuing his aircraft and passengers after an engine malfunction.

Yep, you’ve guessed it – everyman hero of the people, Denzel Washington, is “loosely” attached to the project, although it sounds like something tailor-made for him.

The last time Zemeckis wasn’t directing actors in green suits and asking them to emote with a dangling tennis ball was 2000’s underrated Robinson Crusoe-esque drama, Castaway. Whatever advancements he’s made in the animated, mo-cap field, I’m sure fans will be happy to see him back in the land of the living.