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In 1973, producer Irwin Winkler attended the New York Film Festival and decided to check out a new film by a talented young director. Winkler liked what he saw in Martin Scorsese‘s “Mean Streets,” and he was flattered by the fact that Scorsese paid tribute to one of Winkler’s early films by featuring a poster for “Point Blank” at a key moment. “Somebody arranged for Marty and I to have coffee, and we just hit it off,” Winkler told IndieWire. Thus began a producer-director partnership that would yield some of the greatest movies ever made, including “Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” and “Silence.”

Winkler would be a legend in the business based on just the movies he made with Scorsese, but they’re the tip of the iceberg. “You look at his credits and it’s astonishing, even if you know him and even if your own films are among them,...

Tom Sizemore, who died Friday at age 61, had hundreds of film and TV credits in a three-decade-plus career, famously in Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and many others.

A Detroit native, Sizemore on the big screen worked with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann, Arthur Penn and multiple times with Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Kathryn Bigelow, Tony Scott and Lawrence Kasdan. Those credits included Heat, Natural Born Killers, Pearl Harbor, Wyatt Earp, Passenger 57, Bringing Out the Dead, The Relic, Strange Days, Red Planet, Dreamcatcher, Flight of the Intruder, Guilty by Suspicion, Bad Love and many more.

Related: Tom Sizemore Mourned By His Friends And Fans, Praised For His Transcendent Talents

On the small screen, he toplined the short-lived 2002 CBS cop drama Robbery Homicide Division and also recurred on such series as Law & Order: Svu, China Beach, Shooter, The Red Road, Crash, Dr. Vegas, the Hawaii Five-o revival and 2017’s Twin Peaks.

Tom Sizemore, who starred in Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and in hundreds of other film and TV roles over three-plus decades, died Friday at a hospital in Burbank. He was 61 and had been in a coma since suffering a stroke February 18 that resulted in brain aneurysm.

His manager Charles Lago confirmed the news this evening, saying Sizemore passed away peacefully in his sleep at St Joseph’s Hospital, with his brother Paul and twin boys Jayden and Jagger at his side.

Related Story Tom Sizemore Mourned By His Friends And Fans, Praised For His Transcendent Talents Related Story Tom Sizemore End Of Life Decision Looms After Doctors Say "No Further Hope" Following Stroke Related Story 'Saving Private Ryan' Star Tom Sizemore Hospitalized In Critical Condition

“The Sizemore family has been comforted by the hundreds of messages of support and love shown to their son, brother and father,...

While Warner Bros. Discovery has been busy fretting over their DC Comics slate—deleting the already-completed “Batgirl” film while hoping Ezra Miller’s intention to seek mental health help will bring enough stability to successfully launch “The Flash” next year—the newly-formed entertainment entity is placing a bet on another American superhero: Robert De Niro.

And it’s not just a bet, they’re doubling down.

The first original film produced with David Zaslav as the top executive at the studio will feature the two-time Oscar-winner (and eight-time nominee) in two roles. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Wise Guys” concerns the true mafia war between Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, and De Niro will play both men. This will be an acting feat like Jeremy Irons in “Dead Ringers,” but trading gynecological instruments for zabaglione.

The script comes from a guy who knows a thing or two about the New York City mob: Nicholas Pileggi,...

Gay Sewer Gremlin. After closing out November with some Satanists in The Seventh Victim, we kicked off December with the queer-coded antichrist in Fear No Evil before getting into the rape-revenge weeds with David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Now it’s time to really get into the holiday spirit with what may be one of the kinkiest […]...

Exclusive: Tenderfoot TV, the podcast company behind series such as Atlanta Monster and To Live and Die In LA, is exploring the murder of Afrikka Hardy and why it should have been prevented in a new audio series.

Algorithm, which is a co-production between Tenderfoot TV and iHeartMedia, will be the first series to premiere exclusively on TenderfootPlus+, the company’s new Apple Podcast Subscriptions service.

It will launch on the premium service on June 8 and June 15 wide.

When Afrikka Hardy was strangled in 2014, it seemed completely random, but it wasn’t. It was part of a pattern. Four years earlier, a reporter, Thomas Hargrove had created an algorithm to detect serial killers, and that algorithm flagged Gary, Indiana as the site of an unusual number of murders by strangulation. Hargrove reached out to warn local police that they might have an active serial killer operating in the area, but he was ignored.

6 random things that happened on this day (Nov 25th) in showbiz history...

1932 Claudette Colbert infamously bathes in milk in Cecil B DeMille's The Sign of the Cross, new in theaters.

1947 The Hollywood Blacklist begins, denying employment to those with perceived Communist ties or sympathies. This period has haunted ever self-reflecting Hollywood since as witness in Trumbo, The Way We Were, Guilty by Suspicion, Good Night and Good Luck, and numerous other movies.

1984 Bob Geldolf's blockbuster charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" recorded in London...

Movies about the blacklist aren’t common, probably because as Robert Vaughn wrote, the period produced no happy stories, ‘Only Victims.’ Robert de Niro, Annette Bening and George Wendt give a bite of immediacy to the way the blacklist upset careers and blighted lives. Few of us would like to be publicly branded an Enemy of the People, but doing so seems to be America’s number one spectator sport.

Guilty by Suspicion

DVD

The Warner Archive Collection

1991 / Color / 1:85 enhanced widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date May 12, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 17.99

Starring: Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, George Wendt, Patricia Wettig, Sam Wanamaker, Luke Edwards, Chris Cooper, Ben Piazza, Martin Scorsese, Barry Primus, Gailard Sartain, Robin Gammell, Brad Sullivan, Tom Sizemore, Stuart Margolin, Gene Kirkwood, Illeana Douglas, Adam Baldwin.

Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus

Film Editor: Priscilla Nedd

Original Music: James Newton Howard

Uncredited writer: Abraham Polonsky

Produced by Arnon Milchan

Written and...

My guest for this month is West Anthony, and he’s joined me to discuss the film he chose for me, the 1976 comedy-drama film The Front. You can follow the show on Twitter @cinemagadfly.

Show notes:

Not sure what happened to the audio in the introduction, apologies! The Hollywood blacklist is a term for the treatment of people in the entertainment industry who refused to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee from 1947 to 1960 For a more in depth take on the blacklist, check out the latest season of the phenomenal You Must Remember This podcast WonderCon is a comic book convention that was held annually in Sf until it was cruelly moved to the La area in 2012. Yes I’m still bitter about it. West also recommends the Gabrielle de Cuir directed Thirty Years of Treason by Eric Bentley Among the people famously blacklisted were Lillian Hellman, Lionel Stander,...

Bryan Cranston stars as Dalton Trumbo in a biting drama about the 1940s screenwriter blacklisted for his allegiance to the left

The collision of American entertainment and anti-communism in the 1940s and 50s has inspired a dizzying array of movies, both fictional and factual. Time and again, Hollywood has returned to a subject that offers a heady cocktail of drama, politics and nostalgic showbusiness intrigue; from Irwin Winkler’s Guilty By Suspicion (1991), which cast Robert De Niro as a film-maker torn between losing work and naming names, to George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), which revisited TV journalist Edward R Murrow’s on-air battles with McCarthy, via Frank Darabont’s whimsical The Majestic (2001), in which Jim Carrey’s amnesiac screenwriter winds up restoring a small-town cinema after being hounded out of Tinseltown as an anti-war “red”.

Top of the pile, however, is Martin Ritt’s 1976 gem The Front,...

The Hollywood blacklist, a list of actors, directors, screenwriters and other U.S. entertainment professionals linked to Communism during the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s, was a professional death sentence. Whether real or merely suspected, those whose names appeared on this list saw their life's work thwarted, and many of their careers in show business destroyed.  Hollywood has been depicting the witch hunt of Communists for decades in films like "Guilty by Suspicion" and "Good Night and Good Luck," and documentaries like "Yoo-hoo! Mrs. Goldberg" and "Hollywood on Trial" show the anti-Communist campaigns in non-fiction form.   With the 65th anniversary of the Hollywood blacklist nearing, The Hollywood Reporter profiled several of the writers and actors who fell victim to this tragedy. Whether by watching Lee Grant, who admits that even now she can't refer to her late ex-husband Arnold Manoff as a Communist because...

The Tribeca Film Festival kicks off for the eleventh time starting Wednesday when "The Five-Year Engagement" premieres, and festival organizers have just announced the star-studded jury for this year's edition.

Thirty-nine celebrities -- of various levels of fame and awards kudos -- make up the six juries, with producer Irwin Winkler ("Goodfellas") serving a jury president.

Among those selected by Tribeca this year: Patricia Clarkson, Hugh Dancy, Rosario Dawson, Dakota Fanning, Kellan Lutz, Michael Moore and Olivia Wilde. Also on the list: Brett Ratner. The controversial big-budget director will serve on the Documentary and Student Short Film Competition jury along with Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun, Susan Sarandon and Shailene Woodley, among others.

“We are honored to have this accomplished group dedicate the time and care it takes to view and discuss the films in competition this year,” Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal said in a statement.

For...

It’s a star-studded list that includes some interesting, and surprising, names, which is just what you’d expect from the Tribeca Film Festival. The juries have been announced, and you could hardly got a more varied mix.

Juries Announced For 2012 Tribeca Film Festival And Tribeca Film Institute Programs

Academy Award-Winning Producer/Director Irwin Winkler To Serve as Jury President

Patricia Clarkson, Hugh Dancy, Rosario Dawson, Dakota Fanning, Whoopi Goldberg, Susannah Grant, Kellan Lutz, Michael Moore, Mike Newell, Brett Ratner, Susan Sarandon, Olivia Wilde, and Shailene Woodley are among the Jurors

The Tribeca Film Festival (Tff), presented by founding partner American Express, today announced its jurors – a diverse group of 39 individuals, including award-winning filmmakers, writers and producers, acclaimed actors, respected critics and global business leaders. Irwin Winkler has been named President of the Jury. The Jury will be divided among the six competitive Festival categories and will announce the winning films,...

Martin Scorsese's longtime costume designer Richard Bruno has died at the age of 87.

He passed away on 11 January in Port Townsend, Washington after suffering kidney failure, reports Variety.

Bruno began his career behind-the-scenes in the 1960s and went on to work on films including Roman Polanski's Chinatown and The Way We Were before forging a longtime collaborative partnership with Scorsese.

He worked with the famed director on movies including Raging Bull, New York, New York, The King of Comedy and The Color of Money and he won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for his costumes in Goodfellas.

Bruno also spent many years working with Scorsese's star Robert De Niro on films including The Untouchables, Guilty by Suspicion and Night and the City. He also worked on The Karate Kid and Steven Seagal's Out for Justice, Under Siege and Under Siege 2.

Irwin Winkler is one of Hollywood's greatest producers. A true legend in the industry, he has been making movies since 1967 and has brought you such amazing titles as Raging Bull, Rocky, The Gambler, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and Goodfellas. But while his producing record is unquestionable, his writing record isn't nearly as strong. In his career he's only written two scripts - Guilty by Suspicion and Home of the Brave - and the last one came out all the way back in 2006 (he also directed both titles). Add in the fact that he's now 81 years old, and it makes today's news all the more surprising. According to Deadline, Winkler and Jose Ruisanchez have been hired to adapt The Sigma Protocol, the last novel that Robert Ludlum wrote before he died. The project will be the first written by Ruisanchez, who has previously worked as a visual effects coordinator on...

George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) has had it with the movies in "The Artist"Over at Fandor's Keyframe blog I'll be musing about the Oscar race on a biweekly basis. This week's topic is the unusual abundance of movies about movies in this year's Oscar race from Marilyn Monroe (My Week With Marilyn) to George Melies (Hugo) to Hollywood's seismic sound shift in the late 20s (The Artist). But one thing I didn't dwell on too much in the article (which I hope you'll go and read!) is the lack of Oscars won for movies about movies.

Everyone predicting a win for The Artist (2011) before the nominations are even announced should consider the following list and sobering fact: No movie about movies has ever won Best Picture.

Movies About Movies: How Do They Do With Oscar?

(Best Picture Nominees are in red) 

Janet Gaynor (already an Oscar winner) was nominated again...

Annette Bening takes on roles that are unlikely to endear her to the public. Maybe audiences think she does not need love

Probably the first time you noticed Annette Bening was her saucily provocative Myra Langtry in Stephen Frears's The Grifters. How could anyone miss her? There is a moment when, stark naked, she saunters across the screen with a knowing and comical look on her face. No, she's not a good girl in The Grifters, but she seems happy with that fate. It is a film noir in which humour turns poisonous, and Myra is going to end badly. But first she has fun.

This is hard to believe, but Bening was 32 at the time. She looks 22, even if the knowledge she lends to Myra comes from more complicated experiences. I might add her Mme de Merteuil in Milos Forman's Valmont the year before, but the chances...

Celebrating the birthdays of the film-famous. If it's your birthday, we'll sing you a happy one in the comments.

Louise Brooks, Veronica Lake and Josh Duhamel

1906 Louise Brooks, dancer, silent film actress, icon, quotable diva, film critic, memoirist, ...Lost Girl, Lulu. Her hair is legend.

1908 Joseph McCarthy, he saw only Red(s). He's been a villainous figure in movies ever since, whether seen, unseen or fictionalized. See: Guilty by Suspicion, The Way We Were, The Manchurian Candidate, Good Night, and Good Luck. and many more...

1919 Veronica Lake, femme fatale, purveyor of the peek-a-boo bang (her hair also being legend). Kim Basinger didn't even have to get "cut" to look like this goddess in La Confidential. She just had to sell those glorious blonde waves.

1945 Paul Hirsch, editor of Carrie, Star Wars (Oscar win), Ferris Bueller's Day Off and more...

1951 Zhang Yimou, fine director, awesome goddess worshipper. Think of what he...

NEW YORK -- Robert De Niro is executive producing writer-director Barry Primus' upcoming dramatic comedy "20% Fiction."

The film centers on a respected acting coach dissatisfied with his superficial life in Los Angeles. He finds love and self-fulfillment after moving to a small town and working with its quirky residents.

De Niro produced and co-starred in Primus' 1992 sophomore directorial effort, Mistress. Primus has served as De Niro's acting coach, and the two longtime friends have acted together in such films as New York, New York, Night and the City and Guilty by Suspicion.

Bret Saxon, Jeff Bowler and Ari Palitz of Insomnia Media Group are financing the film and producing with Deco Entertainment's Nicholas Celozzi and Freddy Braidy. Principal photography is slated to begin in late September in Los Angeles.

Insomnia's recent projects include Zak Penn's The Grand. Braidy produced the Paris Hilton starrer Bottoms Up.