News

Paramount+, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, and 101 Studios are teaming for a new series loosely based on the hit Showtime series “Ray Donovan.”

Titled “The Donovans,” the series will be fully written by Ronan Bennett with Guy Ritchie attached to direct and executive produce. It will be available to Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers later this year.

The official description of the series states, “With the most powerful clients in Europe, ‘The Donovans’ will see family fortunes and reputations at risk, odd alliances unfold, and betrayal around every corner; and while the family might be London’s most elite fixers today, the nature of their business means there is no guarantee what’s in store tomorrow.”

The series is executive produced by Richie, Bennett, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin and Ivan Atkinson.

“Guy Richie and Ronan Bennett are the ideal dream-team to create a new global hit franchise with ‘The Donovans,...

Ever since Daniel Craig bid his farewell to James Bond in No Time to Die (2021), everyone has been looking forward to finding out who the next James Bond will be. From Henry Cavill to Tom Hiddleston to Jamie Dornan, a lot of names have popped up in the discussion. In fact, fans even believed that the next Bond could be female.

Henry Cavill in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

While no official confirmation has been made about the actor lucky enough to play the British secret agent, bookies’ odds reveal the name of several contenders and where they stand in the race. While Henry Cavill’s name is unfortunately nowhere to be found, two popular actors have been mentioned by the bookies and are even on track to become the next Bond villain – Tom Hardy and Idris Elba.

Suggested“It’s a world that I didn’t know”: James Bond...

Charles Dierkop, the busy character actor who played tough guys in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and the 1970s Angie Dickinson series Police Woman, has died. He was 87.

Dierkop died Sunday at Sherman Oaks Hospital after a recent heart attack and bout with pneumonia, his daughter, Lynn, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The Wisconsin native also appeared alongside Rod Steiger in Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker (1964), played the mobster Salvanti in Roger Corman’s The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967) and was a murderous Santa Claus in the cult horror movie Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).

After portraying an uncredited pool-hall hood in the Paul Newman-starring The Hustler (1961), Dierkop got to work with Newman again in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) when he was hired to play Hole in the Wall Gang outlaw George “Flat Nose” Curry.

Dierkop had broken his nose in fights several times as a kid,...

David McCallum, who rose to fame in the 1960s spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and then won a whole new audience as pathologist Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard on long-running US drama NCIS has died. He was 90.

David Keith McCallum was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1933. With both parents as musicians, he originally followed in their footsteps pursued a career in music, training on the oboe and studying for a time at the Royal Academy of Music, though he soon left and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After Rada he started performing with repertory theater companies.

He'd already been acting since the age of 12, however, as part of the BBC radio repertory company. McCallum made his screen debut in 1953 on the Beeb's fantasy series The Rose And The Ring.

His big screen career included the likes of The Great Escape, Robbery Under Arms, The Greatest Story Ever Told,...

Richard Anderson, an actor known for “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman,” died Thursday at age 91. His publicist confirmed the news. Anderson launched his Hollywood career with roles in such films as “Forbidden Planet” (1956) and Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory” (1957). He landed recurring roles on “Perry Mason” and “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” before debuting on “The Six Million Dollar Man” in 1974 as Oscar Goldman, the boss of Steve Austin (Lee Majors). Also Read: David Letterman Mourns Death of Friend Jay Thomas: 'Nobody Could Throw a Football Like Jay' This would become Anderson’s signature role,...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

The Los Angeles Comic Book And Science Fiction Convention presents Classic Movie Poster Artist Robert Tanenbaum, Jean Hale (In Like Flint), Sharyn Wynters (The Female Bunch), and Donna Loren (Bikini Beach) at the August 20, 2017 Show.

Robert Tanenbaum is a Movie Poster Artist with an over 50 year career illustrating every film genre such as Science Fiction, Horror, Comedy, War, Drama and Martial Arts. Robert has illustrated such Classic Movie Posters as A Christmas Story, Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, Cujo, Five Fingers Of Death, Black Christmas, Super Fly, The Color Of Money, My Bodyguard, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, The Iron Cross, The Eagle Has Landed, Ransom, Cleopatra Jones And The Casino Of Gold, Hot Potato, Mel Brooks High Anxiety and Silent Night, Evil Night. Robert’s art is featured on the first announcement that Jaws was being made into a Movie.

Landau (center) with "Mission:Impossible" co-stars (clockwise) Peter Graves, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus and Barbara Bain.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Oscar-winning actor Martin Landau has passed away at age 89. Landau had originally intended to be a cartoonist before studying at the esteemed Actors Studio in New York City. With his intense looks and persona, he began to be noticed by Hollywood studios. In 1959 he was cast as James Mason's gay henchman in Alfred Hitchcock's classic "North by Northwest". It was Landau who suggested playing the role as a not-so-closeted homosexual, a rather daring strategy for the era. The result made Landau standout in a cast of heavyweights that included Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and Leo G. Carroll. Roles in epic films such as "Cleopatra" and "The Greatest Story Ever Told" followed. Landau also appeared regularly on popular TV programs including "The Twilight Zone", "The Untouchables", "I Spy", "The Wild,...

Edgar Wright was, by his own account, "21 years old, living in North London, broke and on the dole – that's British for 'welfare'" in 1995 when he was struck by what he can only compare to a near-religious vision. The filmmaker was in the process of editing his first movie, a low-budget Spaghetti western homage, but the future director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz had nothing lined up and no sense of what he really wanted to do with his life. And then he put on "Bellbottoms," the first...

Eaglemoss, a UK based fan-facing company, is best known for creating detailed replicas of Batmobiles, miniature starships from various incarnations of Star Trek and figurines from the mythologies of Marvel, DC Comics and the Walking Dead. They are all of high quality and lovingly rendered.

Each figure or vehicle they sell comes with a booklet developed by experts in each fan-focused field. So when you buy the miniature replica of the Flying Batcave (if you don’t know what this is you really need to find out fast!) you’ll also get a thorough, yet concise, history of the Flying Batcave.

Given the premium quality of these booklets, it makes sense that Eaglemoss would also be a mindful and creative publisher.

Their new Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection is premium quality in spades. Produced with Idw, this is the type of project (I almost typed the word ‘enterprise’ instead of...

Simon Brew May 7, 2017

As Line Of Duty series 4 arrives on disc, we chat to the man who plays Britain's newest superhero, Adrian Dunbar. Diesel sucking ahead...

The hero we need right now? That’s Si Ted Hastings, the unbreakable – well, he better be – chief of AC-12, the unit that’s held us rapt for four series of Line Of Duty and counting. Ted is the man with morals of iron. He sucks diesel like no other. And the man who brings him to the screen, Adrian Dunbar, spared us some time for a chat, before he had to get back to bringing down bent coppers.

See related God Of War 4 may take in Norse mythology

Hello! How are you?

Yeah, mate! Good [I’ve never met Si Hastin… Adrian Dunbar before, but clearly I'm thrilled he’s called me mate]. Just got the news that we’ve been commissioned for a sixth series!

I just saw that. I trust you’re going to fill me in with spoilers...

Burbank, CA (March 28, 2017) — Return to the realm of Amazonian warriors, Greek gods and mythological creatures – all unleashed on modern civilization – as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment honors the world’s greatest female super hero with the release of Wonder Woman: Commemorative Edition. The feature-length, PG-13 rated animated film, one of the best-reviewed entries in the decade-long history of the DC Universe Original Movies (we liked it when the film was first released in 2009), will be distributed on Digital HD on May 2, 2017 and on Blu-rayTM Combo Pack and DVD on May 16, 2017.

Wonder Woman: Commemorative Edition will be available on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack ($24.98 Srp) and DVD ($19.98 Srp) starting May 16, 2017. The Blu-rayTM Combo Pack includes copies of the film on Blu-ray Disc, DVD and Digital HD.

On the mystical island of Themyscira, a proud and fierce warrior race of Amazons have raised a princess of untold beauty, grace and strength – Diana.

With the Wonder Woman live action movie set to arrive in theaters in just over two months, it’s understandable that Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment will want to put out as much merchandise bearing the likeness of the Amazon Princess as possible. One item in particular that’s worthy of attention is that of the forthcoming Wonder Woman: Commemorative Edition.

Truth be told, it’s technically not a new offering, but rather a repackaging of the amazing animated film originally released back in 2009. Unfortunately, no R-rated cut will be included as was previously reported. Despite any second guessing you may have, do know that one exists out there somewhere, as the filmmakers have admitted they had to make some alterations in order to get the PG-13 rating because, at the time, WB didn’t afford as much leeway with mature content as they do now.

Moving on to the official synopsis,...

Cinema Retro columnist Tom Lisanti co-authored (with Louis Paul) the book "Femme Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973" for McFarland publishers. The book has just been issued in a softcover edition, revised and updated. Here is Tom Lisanti's story behind the creation of the book.

It was a long time coming, fifteen years in fact, but McFarland and Company finally released a soft cover edition of the very popular and well-received Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Film & Television, 1962-1973 by Louis Paul and myself. The book profiles 107 dazzling women (Ursula Andress, Raquel Welch, Dahlia Lavi, Carol Lynley, Elke Sommer, and Sharon Tate, among them) who worked in the swinging sixties spy genre on the big and small screens. Some include interviews with these sexy spy gals. This new edition contains some profile revisions and updates and a few new photos.

The idea for this book was all Louis Paul’s.

Mildred Pierce

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 860

1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 111 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2017 /

Starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett, Lee Patrick, Moroni Olsen, Veda Ann Borg, Jo Ann Marlowe, Butterfly McQueen.

Cinematography: Ernest Haller

Art Direction: Anton Grot

Film Editor: David Weisbart

Original Music: Max Steiner

Written by: Ranald MacDougall from the novel by James M. Cain

Produced by: Jerry Wald, Jack L. Warner

Directed by Michael Curtiz

James M. Cain’s 1941 novel Mildred Pierce offers a venal and self-destructive view of America not with a story of respectable bourgeois society, not the criminal underworld. A de-classed, suburb-dwelling nobody fights her way onto the social register by using men and by hard work… and then watches as her obsessive goals blow up in her face In Cain’s worldview it’s every woman for herself. He drags in an odd personal theme,...

Cinema Retro hosted Fritz Weaver at a screening of "Fail Safe" at the Players club in New York City. Here Editor-in-Chief Lee Pfeiffer (L) and contributor Paul Scrabo present Weaver with marketing materials for "To Trap a Spy", the feature film made from an extended version of the "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." TV show pilot, "The Vulcan Affair". Weaver discussed how surprised he was at the level of interest there was in the fact that he was the first U.N.C.L.E. villain. (Photo: GeorgeAnn Muller).

 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Fritz Weaver, who won acclaim for his work in film, TV and on the Broadway stage, has passed away at age 90. Weaver was primarily a character actor but sometimes top-lined in stage productions.He played Sherlock Holmes in the 1960s Broadway musical production of "Baker Street". He won a Tony in 1970 for his performance in "Child's Play". Weaver also...

Robert Vaughn: Actor Robert Vaughn, best known for The Magnificent Seven, Bullitt and TV's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (above right), has died. He began working on television before moving to the big screen, earning an Academy Award nomination for The Young Philadelphians, and thereafter kept busy in an incredible variety of comic and dramatic roles. He was 83. [New York Times]   Fantastic Beasts: Director David Yates (Fantastic Beasts and How to Find Them, above), says he is committed to making all five installments in the planned Fantastic Beasts series, though it's not official at this point. He says: "I only look at it movie-to-movie." Yates previously made the final four movies in the Harry Potter series. The first Fantastic Beasts opens on Friday...

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Robert Vaughn: Actor Robert Vaughn, best known for The Magnificent Seven, Bullitt and TV's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (above right), has died. He began working on television before moving to the big screen, earning an Academy Award nomination for The Young Philadelphians, and thereafter kept busy in an incredible variety of comic and dramatic roles. He was 83. [New York Times]   Fantastic Beasts: Director David Yates (Fantastic Beasts and How to Find Them, above),...

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Tony Sokol Nov 12, 2016

Robert Vaughn, who played the suave spy Napoleon Solo on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., had died.

Sad news. Robert Vaughn died this morning, November 11, of acute leukemia at the age of 83, the veteran actor’s manager Matthew Sullivan announced through Variety. Vaughn died in New York “surrounded by his family,” Sullivan said.

Robert Vaughn is best known in his signature role as Napoleon Solo on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., but he is also the proud gunfighter who painfully scratches his nose against the slate wall in his last battle in The Magnificent Seven.

David McCallum, who played Vaughn’s Russian spy partner on The Man From Uncle, told TVLine.com he was "utterly devastated. … Robert and I worked together for many years and losing him is like losing a part of me. My deepest sympathies go out to Linda and the Vaughn family."

Vaughn was born in New York City.

Robert Vaughn, the star of ’60s spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and an actor who appeared in more than 200 TV shows and films across a 60-year career, has died. Vaughn was 83.

Vaughn’s early resume reads like an encyclopedia of influential ’50s TV shows, with single-episode appearances on everything from Dragnet to Gunsmoke to Playhouse 90. In 1960, he landed his first major film role, playing fearful veteran Lee in John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven. (He played more-or-less the same role 20 years later, for Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond The Stars, and appeared in several episodes of the Magnificent Seven TV show from the late 1990s as well.)

In 1964, Vaughn leveraged his dissatisfaction with the size of his role on NBC’s The Lieutenant into a starring series of his very own. Initially titled Solo—after Vaughn’s character, international enforcer ...

This Article Has Been Updated

By Lee Pfeiffer

The past year has been an especially harsh one for the entertainment industry in terms of well-known personalities who have passed away. Today's news that actor Robert Vaughn has died hits Cinema Retro especially hard and this writer in particular. He died from a battle with leukemia and was surrounded by his family in his final moments. I first met Robert in 1983 at a press conference in New York in which he and David McCallum promoted their forthcoming TV movie "Return of The Man From U.N.C.L.E." I've remained friends with them ever since and shared many an enjoyable conversation. Robert was an early supporter of Cinema Retro and contributed to numerous issues, most recently issues #33 and #34 in which he was interviewed by writer Steve Rubin about the dramatic occurrences in making the 1969 WWII film "The Bridge at Remagen...

Robert Vaughn, who played a slick spy on TV’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E., died Friday, our sister site Deadline reports. He was 83.

Vaughn had been ill with acute leukemia and died surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife, Linda, and his children, Cassidy and Caitlin.

In addition to portraying U.N.C.L.E.‘s Napoleon Solo for four seasons (and in subsequent movies and a spinoff), Vaughn’s prolific small-screen career included stints on The A-Team, Murder She Wrote, Law & Order, Law & Order: Svu and the British soap opera Coronation Street.

In 1978, he won an...

Robert Vaughn, whose Napoleon Solo on NBC’s spy yarn The Man From U.N.C.L.E. set TV’s 1960s standard for suavity and crimebusting cool, died this morning after a brief battle with acute leukemia. He was 83. His manager Matthew Sullivan confirmed the news to Deadline. “Mr. Vaughn passed away with his family around him,” Sullivan said. Vaughn’s lengthy list of credits includes everything from an uncredited role in The Ten Commandments to his angry, shouting audience member…...

Robert Vaughn, whose Napoleon Solo on NBC’s spy yarn The Man From U.N.C.L.E. set TV’s 1960s standard for suavity and crimebusting cool, died this morning after a brief battle with acute leukemia. He was 83. His manager Matthew Sullivan confirmed the news to Deadline. “Mr. Vaughn passed away with his family around him,” Sullivan said. Vaughn’s lengthy list of credits includes everything from an uncredited role in The Ten Commandments to his angry, shouting audience member…...

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Warner Bros has struggled with its blockbusters of late. But back in summer 1997 - Batman & Robin's year - it faced not dissimilar problems.

Earlier this year it was revealed that Warner Bros, following a string of costly movies that hadn’t hit box office gold (Pan, Jupiter Ascending, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., In The Heart Of The Sea), was restructuring its blockbuster movie business. Fewer films, fewer risks, more franchises, and more centering around movie universes seems to be the new approach, and the appointment of a new corporate team to oversee the Harry Potter franchise last week was one part of that.

In some ways, it marks the end of an era. Whilst it retains its relationships with key directing talent (Ben Affleck, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Nolan for instance), Warner Bros was, for the bulk of the 1990s in particular, the studio that the others were trying to mimic. It worked with the same stars and filmmakers time and time again, and under then-chiefs Terry Semel and Robert Daly, relationships with key talent were paramount.

Furthermore, the studio knew to leave that talent to do its job, and was also ahead of the pack in developing franchises that it could rely on to give it a string of hits.

However, whilst Warner Bros is having troubles now, its way of doing business was first seriously challenged by the failure of its slate in the summer of 1997. Once again, it seemed to have a line up to cherish, that others were envious of. But as film by film failed to click, every facet of Warner Bros’ blockbuster strategy suddenly came under scrutiny, and would ultimately fairly dramatically change. Just two summers later, the studio released The Matrix, and blockbuster cinema changed again.

But come the start of summer 1997? These are the movies that Warner Bros had lined up, and this is what happened…

February - National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation

Things actually had got off to a decent enough start for the studio earlier in the year, so it's worth kicking off there. It brought Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo back together, for the fourth National Lampoon movie, and the first since 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Interestingly, it dropped the National Lampoon moniker in the Us, and instead released the eventual movie as Vegas Vacation. It was a belated sequel, back when belated sequels weren’t that big a thing.

The film was quickly pulled apart by reviewers, but it still just about clawed a profit. The production budget of $25m was eclipsed by the Us gross of $36m, and the movie would do comfortable business on video/DVD. Not a massive hit, then, but hardly a project that had a sense of foreboding about it.

Yet the problems were not far away.

May – Father's Day

Warner Bros had a mix of movies released in the Us in March and April 1997, including modest Wesley Snipes-headlined thriller Murder At 1600, and family flick Shiloh. But it launched its summer season with Father’s Day, an expensive packaged comedy from director Ivan Reitman, starring Robin Williams and Billy Crystal. It had hit written all over it.

Father’s Day was one of the movies packaged by the CAA agency, and its then-head, Mike Ovitz (listed regularly by Premiere magazine in the 1990s as one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, if not the most powerful man). That he brought together the stars, the director and the project, gave a studio a price tag, and the studio duly paid it. Given Warner Bros’ devotion to star talent (Mel Gibson, then one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and a major Warner Bros talent, was persuaded to film a cameo), it was a natural home for the film. It quickly did the deal. few questions asked.

That package, and CAA’s fees for putting it together, brought the budget for a fairly straightforward comedy to a then-staggering $85m. The problem, though, was that the film simply wasn’t very good. It’s one of those projects that looks great on paper, less great when exposed on a great big screen. Warner Bros has snapped it up, without - it seems - even properly reading the script.

Premiere magazine quoted a Warner Bros insider back in November 1997 as saying “when [CAA] calls and says ‘we have a package, Father’s Day, with Williams and Crystal and Reitman, we say ‘great’”, adding “we don’t scrutinise the production. When we saw the movie, it took the wind out of us. We kept reshooting and enhancing, but you can’t fix something that’s bad”.

And it was bad.

The movie would prove to be the first big misfire of the summer, grossing just $35m in the Us, and not adding a fat lot more elsewhere in the world. Warner Bros’ first film of the summer was a certified flop. More would soon follow.

May - Addicted To Love

A more modestly priced project was Addicted To Love, a romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick. Just over a year later, Warner Bros would hit big when Meg Ryan reunited with Tom Hanks for Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail. But here? The film was a modest success, at best.

Directed by Griffin Dunne (making his directorial debut), and put together in partnership with Miramax, Addicted To Love was based around the Robert Palmer song of the same name. But whilst it was sold as a romcom, the muddled final cut was actually a fair bit darker. There was an underlying nastiness to some moments in the film, and when the final box office was tallied, it came in lower than the usual returns for pictures from Ryan or Broderick. Counter-programming it against the release of The Lost World: Jurassic Park didn’t massively help in this instance either, especially as the Jurassic Park sequel would smash opening weekend records.

Addicted To Love ended up with $34.6m at the Us box office. It would eke out a small profit.

June - Batman & Robin

And this is when the alarm bells started to ring very, very loudly. Summer 1997 was supposed to be about a trio of sure-fire hit sequels: Batman 4, Jurassic Park 2 and Speed 2. Only one of those would ultimately bring home the box office bacon, the others being destroyed by critics, and ultimately leaving far more empty seats than anticipated in multiplexes.

Batman & Robin, it’s easy to forget, came off the back of 1995’s Joel Schumacher-steered Batman reboot, Batman Forever that year's biggest movie). It had one of the fastest-growing stars in the world in the Batsuit (George Clooney), and the McDonald’s deals were signed even before the script was typed up. You don’t need us to tell you that you could tell, something of a theme already in Warner Bros' summer of '97.

That said, Batman & Robin still gave Warner Bros a big opening, but in the infancy of the internet as we know it, poisonous word of mouth was already beginning to spread. The film’s negative cost Warner Bros up to $140m, before marketing and distribution costs, and it opened in the Us to a hardly-sniffy $42m of business (although that was down from previous Batman movies).

But that word of mouth still accelerated its departure from cinemas. It was then very rare for a film to make over 40% of its Us gross in its first weekend. But that’s just what Batman & Robin did, taking $107.3m in America, part of a worldwide total of $238.2m. This was the worst return for a Batman movie to date, and Warner Bros had to swiftly put the brakes on plans to get Batman Triumphant moving.

It would be eight years until Batman returned to the big screen, in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. Warner Bros would undergo big changes in the intervening period.

As for the immediate aftermath of Batman & Robin? Warner Bros co-chief Robert Daly would note at the end of '97 that “we’d have been better off with more action in the picture. The movie had to service too many characters”, adding that “the next Batman we do, in three years – and we have a deal with George Clooney to do it – will have one villain”.

Fortunately, Warner Bros’ one solid hit of the summer was just around the corner…

July - Contact

And breathe out.

Warner Bros bet heavily again on expensive talent here, with Robert Zemeckis bringing his adaptation of Carl Sagan’s Contact to the studio for his first film post-Forrest Gump. Warner Bros duly footed the $90m bill (back when that was still seen as a lot of money for a movie), a good chunk of which went to Jodie Foster. It invested heavily in special effects, and gave Zemeckis licence to make the film that he wanted.

The studio was rewarded with the most intelligent and arguably the best blockbuster of the summer. I’ve looked back at Contact in a lot more detail here, and it remains a fascinating film that’s stood the test of time (and arguably influenced Christopher Nolan’s more recent Interstellar).

Reviews were strong, it looked terrific, and the initial box office was good.

But then the problem hit. For whilst Contact was a solid hit for Warner Bros, it wasn’t a massively profitable one. Had Father’s Day and Batman & Robin shouldered the box office load there were supposed to, it perhaps wouldn’t have been a problem. But when they failed to take off, the pressure shifted to Contact.

The movie would gross $100.9m in the Us, and add another $70m overseas (this being an era were international box office rarely had the importance it has today). But once Warner Bros had paid its bills, there wasn’t a fat lot over for itself. Fortunately, the film still sells on disc and on-demand. Yet it wasn’t to be the massive hit the studio needed back in 1997.

July - One Eight Seven

From director Kevin Reynolds, the man who helmed Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves and Waterworld, came modestly-priced drama 187, starring Samuel L Jackson (in a strong performance). Warner Bros wouldn’t have had massive box office expectations for the film (although it can't have been unaware that the inspirational teacher sub-genre was always worth a few quid), and it shared production duties on the $20m movie with Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions. But still, it would have had its eye on a modest success. What it got in return was red ink.

The film’s not a bad one, and certainly worth seeking out. But poor reviews gave the film an uphill struggle from the off – smaller productions arriving mid-summer really needed critics on their side, as they arguably still do – and it opened to just $2.2m of business (the less edgy, Michelle Pfeiffer-headlined school drama Dangerous Minds had been a surprise hit not two years before).

By the time its run was done, 187 hadn’t even come close to covering its production costs, with just under $6m banked.

Warner Bros’ summer slate was running out of films. But at least it had one of its most reliable movie stars around the corner…

August - Conspiracy Theory

What could go wrong? Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts were two of the biggest movie stars in the world in 1997, at a time when movie stars still equated to box office gold. Director Richard Donner, one of Warner Bros’ favourite directors, had delivered the Lethal Weapons, Maverick, Superman, The Goonies and more for the studio. Put them altogether, with Patrick Stewart (coming to wider public consciousness at the time off the back of his Star Trek: The Next Generation work) as a villain, and it should have been a big hit.

Conspiracy Theory proved to be one of the more ambitious summer blockbusters of the era. It lacks a good first act, which would be really useful in actually setting up more of what’s going on. But Gibson played an edgy cab driver who believes in deep government conspiracies, and finds himself getting closer to the truth than those around him sometimes give him credit for.

Warner Bros was probably expecting another Lethal Weapon with the reunion of Gibson (who had to be persuaded to take Conspiracy Theory on) and Donner (it’s pretty much what it got with the hugely enjoyable Maverick a few years’ earlier), but instead it got a darker drama, with an uneasy central character that didn’t exactly play to the summer box office crowd.

The bigger problem, though, was that the film never quite worked as well as you might hope. Yet star power did have advantages. While no juggernaut, the film did decent business, grossing $137m worldwide off the back of an $80m budget ($40m of which was spent on the salaries for the talent before a single roll of film was loaded into a camera). That said, in the Us it knocked a genuine smash hit, Air Force One, off the top spot. Mind you in hindsight, that was probably the film that the studio wished it had made (the cockpit set of Warner Bros' own Executive Decision was repurposed for Air Force One, fact fans).

Still: Warner Bros did get Lethal Weapon 4 off Gibson and Donner a year later…

August - Free Willy 3: The Rescue

Yeah.

Warner Bros opened its third Free Willy film on the same day as Conspiracy Theory (can you imagine a studio opening two big films on the same day now), but it was clear that this was a franchise long past its best days (and its best days hardly bring back the fondest of memories).

Still, Free Willy movies were relatively modest in cost to put together, and Warner Bros presumably felt this was a simple cashpoint project. But in a year when lots of family movies did less business than expected (Disney’s Hercules, Fox’s Home Alone 3, Disney’s Mr Magoo), Free Willy 3 barely troubled the box office. It took in just over $3m in total, and Willy would not be seen on the inside of a cinema again.

August - Steel

Not much was expected from Steel, a superhero movie headlined by Shaquille O’Neal. Which was fortunate, because not much was had.

It had a mid-August release date in the Us, at a point when a mid-August release date was more of a dumping ground than anything else. And even though the budget was set at a relatively low $16m, the film – and it’s an overused time – pretty much bombed. It took $1.7m at the Us box office, and given that its appeal hinged on a major American sports star whose fame hardly transcended the globe, its international takings did not save it (it went straight to video in many territories).

It was a miserable end to what, for warner bros, had been a thoroughly miserable summer.

So what did hit big in summer 1997?

Summer 1997 was infamous for big films failing to take off in the way that had been expected – Hercules, Speed 2, and the aforementioned Warner Bros movies – but there were several bright spots. The big winner would be Barry Sonnenfeld’s light and sprightly sci-fi comedy Men In Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Star power too helped score big hits for Harrison Ford (Air Force One), Julia Roberts (My Best Friend’s Wedding) and John Travolta (Face/Off).

This was also the summer that Nicolas Cage cemented his action movie credentials with Face/Off and Con Air. Crucially, though, the star movies that hit were the ones that veered on the side of 'good'. For the first of many years, the internet was blamed for this.

Oh, and later in the year, incidentally, Titanic would redefine just what constituted a box office hit...

What came next for Warner Bros?

In the rest of 1997, Warner Bros had a mix of projects that again enjoyed mixed fortunes. The standout was Curtis Hanson’s stunning adaptation of L.A. Confidential, that also proved to be a surprise box office success. The Devil’s Advocate didn’t do too badly either.

However, two of the studio’s key filmmakers failed to really deliver come the end of 1997. Clint Eastwood’s Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil failed to ignite (although many felt he was always on a hiding to nothing in trying to adapt that for the screen), and Kevin Costner’s The Postman would prove arguably the most expensive box office disappointment of the year. No wonder the studio rushed Lethal Weapon 4 into production for summer 1998. Oh, and it had The Avengers underway too (not that one), that would prove to be a 1998 disappointment.

The studio would eventually take action. The Daly-Semel management team, that had reigned for 15 years, would break up at the end of 1999, as its traditional way of doing business became less successful. The pair had already future projects that were director driven to an extent (Eyes Wide Shut), and it would still invest in movies with stars (Wild Wild West). But the immediate plan of action following the disappointment of summer 1997 – to get Batman 5 and Superman Lives made – would falter. It wouldn’t be until 1999’s The Matrix (a film that Daly and Semel struggled to get) and – crucially – 2001’s Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone that the studio would really get its swagger back...

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Movies Feature Simon Brew Warner Bros 16 Jun 2016 - 05:19 Conspiracy Theory Father's Day Addicted To Love Contact National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation One Eight Seven Steel Batman & Robin Free Willy 3: The Rescue...

Fred Koenekamp, the Oscar-winning cinematographer known for his work on such films as Patton, Papillon and The Towering Inferno, has died. He was 94.

Koenekamp died May 31, his daughter Kathy told The Hollywood Reporter. He suffered a stroke last year and died at her home in Bonita Springs, Fla.

Koenekamp spent more than a decade at MGM, where he served as director of photography on several films as well as on the stylish NBC series The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The innovative cinematographer won his Oscar (shared with Joseph F. Biroc) for the disaster-film classic The Towering Inferno (1974) and...

Imagine your parents or maybe your grandparents gathered 'round a 21 inch television on February 18th, 1966 on ABC to watch this.  If you were born in October 1966 I apologize that the weirdest things got your parents frisky.

Wowee Wow. Here's Our Dolly now!

Robert Vaughn, the urbane actor who starred as the American spy Napoleon Solo on the slick 1960s NBC series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., died Friday. He was 83. Vaughn, who received an Oscar nomination for playing Paul Newman’s hard-drinking buddy Chet in the 1959 drama The Young Philadelphians, died of acute leukemia in a hospital on the East Coast, his manager Matthew Sullivan told The Hollywood Reporter. He had been undergoing treatment for his illness in New York and Connecticut. Vaughn's memorable performances also included turns as one of the seven gunmen in The Magnificent Seven (1960),

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The Star Trek franchise will be 50 years old this September. It’s one of the most popular and enduring of all TV and film franchises, still going strong nearly 50 years after its debut in 1966. A third film of the rebooted series is in the works. Cinelinx looks at the ever-popular sci-fi property as it warps into its 50th year.

Star Trek, a show that didn’t do very well in the ratings when it first debuted, has become a multi-media monster. It has gone from television to cartoons, novels, comic books, video games and films. Many of the character names have become an iconic part of pop-culture. The real-life space shuttle Enterprise was named in honor of the space vessel from Star Trek. The whole concept of the sci-fi convention was begun by the fan-created ‘Trek’ conventions of the early seventies. Few franchises can claim to have had the impact...

Pat Harrington, who played Schneider the building super on CBS’ long-running sitcom One Day At A Time, died Wednesday night, his daughter Tresa confirmed on Facebook. He was 86. Harrington had been guesting on TV shows for more than two decades — ranging from Make Room For Daddy and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to The Munsters and The Flying Nun — before landing the role that would define his career. Developed by Norman Lear, One Day At A Time starred Bonnie Franklin as a…...

Pat Harrington Jr., who was best known to TV audiences as One Day at a Time‘s building super, (Dwayne) Schneider, died on Wednesday after a battle with Alzheimer’s. He was 86.

Harrington Jr. got his start on TV in 1959, recurring on Make Room for Daddy as a nightclub pal of Danny Thomas’ character. His guest star credits included The Munsters, McHale’s Navy, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Love, American Style and Marcus Welby M.D., prior to landing on CBS’ progressive, Bonnie Franklin-led sitcom One Day at a Time in 1975.

As a writer, he also...

Jason Wingreen, the first actor to voice “Star Wars” bounty hunter Boba Fett, died on Dec. 25. He was 95. New York Times reported that the “Empire Strikes Back” actor’s son, Ned, confirmed his death. With a career spanning more than five decades, Wingreen starred in films like “Airplane!” (1980) and TV series like “All in the Family, “Seinfeld,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “Star Trek.” Also Read: Why 'The Shannara Chronicles' Is More Like 'Star Wars' Than 'Lord of the Rings' Wingreen’s Boba Fett captured Han Solo (Harrison Ford) after he was betrayed by Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams...

(Photo copyright Cinema Retro. All rights reserved.)

 

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, actor David McCallum discusses his views on "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", including the new big screen remake of the classic show, and reveals that he has just finished writing his first book- a crime novel "Once a Crooked Man" that will be published in January. Looks like all those years  fighting crime on TV have had an added benefit for the 82 year-old icon. Click here to read.  

Click Here To Pre-order From Amazon...

Max Landis has some choice words about the state of original concepts in movies. The screenwriter behind Chronicle and the James McAvoy-Daniel Radcliffe film Victor Frankenstein film saw his most recent work, American Ultra, hit theaters this past weekend. Unfortunately, it was beaten in ticket sales by Sinister 2 and Hitman: Agent 47. This prompted an intense rant from Landis on social media about original films vs. sequels, reboots and adaptations.  According to Yahoo, which pulled Landis' tweets, he began by acknowledging the box office placement, which was even behind The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, both of which had already debuted in theaters in previous weeks.    ...American Ultra was also beaten by the critically reviled Hitman Agent 47 and Sinister, despite being a better reviewed film than either.. . Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 22, 2015 According to Landis, American Ultra is a good movie, considered better than...

Here's your estimated 3-day box office returns (new releases bolded): 1. Straight Outta Compton - $26.7 million ($111.4 million total) 2. Mission Impossible Rogue Nation - $11.7 million ($157.7 million total) 3. Sinister 2 - $10.6 million ($10.6 million total) 4. Hitman: Agent 47 - $8.2 million ($8.2 million total) 5. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - $7.4 million ($26.6 million total) 6. American Ultra - $5.5 million ($5.5 million total) 7. The Gift - $4.3 million ($31.0 million total) 8. Ant-Man - $4.0 million ($164.5 million total) 9. Minions - $3.7 million ($319.9 million total) 10. Fantastic Four - $3.6 million ($49.6 million total)   The Big Stories Three new releases attempted to get a final piece of the summer pie and neither critics nor audiences...

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American Ultra underperformed in its first weekend at the box office, grossing only $5.5 million, and opening below fellow newcomers Sinister 2 and Hitman: Agent 47, as well as holdovers Straight Outta Compton, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Screenwriter Max Landis isn't sure why the film performed so poorly in its debut weekend, and in a mini-rant about the state of cinema... Read More...

Warner Bros. Pictures

The big release of the past week (at least internationally) was Guy Ritchie’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Normally I’d do the usual highly opinionated review, but seeing as we had one of those last week, I thought instead I’d focus in a bit more depth on the film’s defining problem.

Overall I wasn’t a massive fan of the movie. Ritchie’s action was incomprehensibly constructed and often relegated to the background, the repeated “but you missed this bit” twists quickly went from cute to aggravating and any moments of flair (the truck scene was pretty cool) were undercut by a pervading obviousness. But these are all just symptoms of a more all-encompassing problem.

As you’ll be at least acutely aware, The Man From U.N.C.L.E was originally a TV series made in the sixties. Now there’s an...

Outside of "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "San Andreas," it hasn't been a great year for Warner Bros. "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and "Vacation" both fizzled, "Magic Mike Xxl" underperformed, and I bet you even forgot about the cheapie horror "The Gallows," and the flag waving family film "Max." And then there is the added embarrassment of being the studio that put "Straight Outta Compton" into turnaround only to see it become a massive hit for Universal. But things might've been a bit different on the bottom line had "Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice" been released as originally planned on July 17th instead of next spring. But WB exec CEO Kevin Tsujihara stands by the decision to wait to deliver Zack Snyder's superhero blockbuster. "It was a tough decision at the time because it was going to create a hole in 2015," he said. "But it was absolutely the right decision for the.

After several stellar summers at the box office, 2015's big movie season has been a disappointment for Warner Bros. The likes of Magic Mike Xl and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. have underperformed, with the studio lacking a juggernaut such as The Dark Knight Rises and The Hobbit to bring in the big bucks this year. In a discussion with The Hollywood Reporter, Warners CEO Kevin Tsujihara explains that the summer would have "looked better" if Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice retained its initial July 2015 release date. "It was a tough decision at the time because it was going to create a hole in 2015," he says. But despite the lack of a big-name blockbuster this year, Tsujihara asserts that being patient for the expansion of the Dceu will be worth it. "But it was absolutely the right decision for the franchise, for DC and the movie. Having...

'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' 2015: Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer. 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' movie is a domestic box office bomb: Will it be saved by international filmgoers? Directed by Sherlock Holmes' Guy Ritchie and toplining Man of Steel star Henry Cavill and The Lone Ranger costar Armie Hammer, the Warner Bros. release The Man from U.N.C.L.E. has been a domestic box office disaster, performing about 25 percent below – already quite modest – expectations. (See also: “'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' Movie: Bigger Box Office Flop Than Expected.”) This past weekend, the $80 million-budget The Man from U.N.C.L.E. collected a meager $13.42 million from 3,638 North American theaters, averaging $3,689 per site. After five days out, the big-screen reboot of the popular 1960s television series starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum has taken in a mere $16.77 million. For comparison's sake:...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Actress Yvonne Craig, who specialized in playing perky and sexy characters in TV shows and feature films, has died after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 78 years old. Craig broke into the film and TV industry in the late 1950s, making her big screen debut in the exploitation film "Eighteen and Anxious". Before long, she was not only co-starring with Elvis Presley in "It Happened at the World's Fair" and "Kissin' Cousins", but also dating him as well. There was no shortage of work for the attractive Craig during the 1960s and she appeared on numerous TV series including "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." In fact, Craig filmed extra sequences for extended two-part episodes of the show that were released theatrically under the titles "One Spy Too Many" and "One of Our Spies is Missing".  However, it was when producer William Dozier cast Craig as Batgirl...

Yvonne Craig, an actress best known for portraying Barbara Gordon a.k.a. Batgirl on the 1966 television series Batman, has passed away at the age of 78. She was at her home in Pacific Palisades at the time of her passing and had been battling breast cancer, which had metastasized to her liver. In addition to Batman, she also appeared on Star Trek, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Fantasy Island, The Mod Squad, and The Many Lives Of Dobie Gillis. Her movie appearances included It Happened At The World's Fair and Kissin' Cousins, which were both opposite Elvis Presley.  Craig is survived by her husband, her sister, and two nephews. ...

Yvonne Craig, best known as Batgirl in the 1960s’ Batman series, died Monday at her home in California. She was 78.

According to reports, Craig was battling breast cancer that recently spread to her liver.

The actress played Batgirl (and her alter ego Barbara Gordon) in nearly 30 episodes of Batman. “I used to think the reason they hired me was because they knew I could ride my own motorcycle,” Craig said in Les Daniels’ Batman: The Complete History. “I realized they hired me because I had a cartoon voice.”

Her additional credits included a Season 3 Star Trek stint as an...

Batgirl Yvonne Craig. Batgirl Yvonne Craig dead at 78: Also featured in 'Star Trek' episode, Elvis Presley movies Yvonne Craig, best known as Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman, died of complications from breast cancer on Monday, Aug. 17, '15, at her home in Pacific Palisades, in the Los Angeles Westside. Craig (born May 16, 1937, in Taylorville, Illinois), who had been undergoing chemotherapy for two years, was 78. Beginning (and ending) in the final season of Batman (1967-1968), Yvonne Craig played both Commissioner Gordon's librarian daughter Barbara Gordon and her alter ego, the spunky Batgirl – armed with a laser-beaming electric make-up kit “which will destroy anything.” Unlike semi-villainess Catwoman (Julie Newmar), Batgirl was wholly on the side of Righteousness, infusing new blood into the series' increasingly anemic Dynamic Duo: Batman aka Bruce Wayne (Adam West) and Boy Wonder Robin aka Bruce Wayne's beloved pal Dick Grayson (Burt Ward). “They chose...

Rip our beloved Bat Beauty! A punch in the gut to Batfans. A first crush for men of a certain age, the beautiful Yvonne Craig has died at the age of 78.

Yvonne was born on the 16th of May 1937. In her early life before her television career she trained to be a ballet teacher. She gradually moved into acting during the 1950s. Before appearing on television she starred in a few films including; The Young Land, The Gene Krupa Story, Ski Party, and High Time. She even played alongside Elvis Presley in Kissin’ Cousins and briefly dated the King. During the mid-1960s Yvonne moved from film into television, where she appeared in many shows including Man With a Camera, Wagon Train, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. More famously she played “Marta” (a green skinned Orion) in the third series Star Trek episode entitled “Whom Gods Destroy” in 1968.

1967 she was...

Straight Outta Compton is off to a phenomenal star with the 5th best August opening weekend. Meanwhile The Man from U.N.C.L.E. couldn’t even debut past Mission: Impossible‘s 3rd weekend in theaters. Straight Outta Compton surpassed even the wildest expectations with a $60.2 million opening weekend. That’s more than other August hits like Rise of the […]

Read Box Office: Straight Outta Compton Raps to $60.2 Million on Filmonic.

Furious 7 and Mad Max: Fury Road started the summer with some much needed exuberance in the way of vehicular action and adventure. With The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Transporter Refueled putting an end to this season's car based action (at least that we know of), it's a good time to look back at car chase history. Prepare yourselves for "The Chase," on display below. Movie Mezzanine put together this video supercut of some of the best car chases on film, and it's one of the best compilations we've ever seen. Starting off with a moody sequence of foreboding Pov shots from chases throughout time, we'd have been happy just watching that for ten minutes. Set to the music of Tom Holkenborg, aka Junkie Xl's, Mad Max: Fury Road score . we soon realize that all of these shots have been building up to the real meat ...

This week’s episode of our podcast We Are Movie Geeks The Show is up! Hear Wamg’s Jim Batts, Michelle McCue, and Tom Stockman discuss the weekend box office, and next weekend’s releases. We’ll review Straight Outta Compton, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., End Of The Tour, and Diary Of A Teenage Girl. We’ll also preview Sinister 2, Hitman Agent 47, American Ultra, discuss the movie news coming out of D23, and have fun with one of our favorite comedies, Blazing Saddles!

We Are Movie Geeks The Show is a weekly podcast and we will soon be streaming at ONStl.com Online Radio.

Here’s this week’s show. Have a listen:

http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/WAMG081715-2.mp3

The post This Week’s Wamg Podcast – U.N.C.L.E, Compton, Blazing Saddles, and More! appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.

Jeff is off this week as David and Devindra discuss the entertaining Lifetime series UnReal and find value in the earlier Mission: Impossible films. Be sure to read Vince Mancini’s Fantastic Four review and the Boston Globe’s review of Man from U.N.C.L.E. You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(At)gmail(Dot)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Also, like […]

The post /Filmcast Ep. 331 – The Man from U.N.C.L.E. appeared first on /Film.

Cinelinx is powering up a brand new podcast highlighting a territory yet untraveled, sports! 

In the debut episode of Nerd Interference, Matt, Rob, and BC review Straight Outta Compton, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Fallout Shelter.  In sports, they broke down all the news of the week including Geno Smith and his altercation with Ik Enemkpali.  Next they divined as to who the best and worst teams in the 2015 NFL Season will be. Finally, they revealed their top Fantasy Football Qb Sleepers!  Check out Nerd Interference Episode 1 and find out that everything you knew about nerds has just changed!

Nerd Interference Powered By Cinelinx.com is a Sports Podcast that redefines everything you know about nerds. This podcast is run by nerds who are huge fans of video games, movies, TV, comics, and of course sports! Every week we breakdown the biggest sports news, have in-depth discussions, and provide all...

Here's your estimated 3-day box office returns (new releases bolded): 1. Straight Outta Compton - $56.0 million ($56.0 million total) 2. Mission Impossible Rogue Nation - $17.3 million ($138.4 million total) 3. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - $13.5 million ($13.5 million total) 4. Fantastic Four - $8.0 million ($41.9 million total) 5. The Gift - $6.5 million ($23.5 million total) 6. Ant-Man - $5.5 million ($157.5 million total) 7. Vacation - $5.3 million ($46.8 million total) 7. Minions - $5.2 million ($312.9 million total) 9. Ricki and the Flash - $4.5 million ($14.6 million total) 10. Trainwreck - $3.8 million ($97.9 million total)   The Big Stories History was set this weekend at the box office and it wasn't just some top opening day or monthly...

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