News

Exclusive: The Santa Barbara Film Festival is lauding The Brutalist stars, Oscar winner Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce, with the Cinema Vanguard Award during the 40th annual event on February 13, 2025.

The Cinema Vanguard Award recognizes actors who have forged their own path, taking artistic risks and making a significant and unique contribution to film. Previous honorees include Paul Giamatti, Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleeson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Carey Mulligan, Laura Dern, Michael B. Jordan, William DaFoe, Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Rooney Mara, Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Amy Adams, Jean Dujardin, Bernice Bejo, Nicole Kidman, Peter Sarsgaard, Christoph Waltz, Vera Farmiga, Kristin Scott Thomas, Stanley Tucci and Ryan Gosling.

Directed by Brady Corbet with a scheduled release from A24 on December 20, The Brutalist follows an immigrant architect (Brody) who makes waves in post-World War II America, working for a fierce industrialist (Pearce). They plan to erect a mesmerizing, and defying,...

Paula Weinstein, the veteran studio executive, two-time Emmy winner and producer on such projects as The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Perfect Storm, Analyze This and Grace and Frankie, died Monday. She was 78.

Weinstein died at her home in New York, her daughter, Hannah Rosenberg, told The Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death was revealed.

“The world is a lesser place without my mother,” Rosenberg said in a statement. “She was a masterful producer and a force of nature for the things she believed in, including the many projects that spanned her illustrious career, the stories she fought to tell and the social justice causes she championed.”

In September, Weinstein exited Tribeca Enterprises, which she joined as executive vp in 2013, to work on political campaigns. She earlier was a vp at Warner Bros., an executive vp at 20th Century Fox and president of United Artists.

In 1989, she and her late husband,...

Al Brown, best known for his role on HBO’s The Wire as Baltimore Police Commissioner Stanislaus “Stan” Valchek, has died after a battle with Alzheimer’s. He was 83.

Brown’s daughter confirmed the news to TMZ.

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His character recurred in all five seasons of The Wire, which aired from 2002-2008 on HBO. The critically acclaimed crime drama explored the relationship between various Baltimore institutions and city law enforcement.

Director Barry Levinson launched Ben Foster’s film career when he cast the then-teenage actor in a lead role in 1999’s “Liberty Heights.” More than 20 years later, when Levinson was casting his latest film “The Survivor” – the story of Harry Haft, who survived the Holocaust after being forced to fight his fellow prisoners sometimes to the death – the Oscar-winning director of “Rain Man” could really only think of one actor for the part.

“When I was reading the script, you say, ‘Well, you really need an outstanding actor to be able to pull this off. And to me, honestly, I think that Ben is one of the great actors of his generation,” Levinson tells Gold Derby in a new interview.

Written by Justine Juel Gillmer and based on Alan Haft’s book, “Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano,” Levinson’s latest project spans three time periods in...

In the late 1940s, when Barry Levinson was a young boy, his family hosted a guest — his grandmother’s brother. The man’s name was Simka, and he shared a room with Levinson for a two-week period before moving away. Levinson remembers the man thrashing in his sleep and mumbling in a foreign language for some reason, but, as a young boy, he couldn’t understand why.

It wasn’t until years later that he learned that Simka was a survivor of the Holocaust, and his fits were a symptom of what is now recognized as post-traumatic stress disorder. Those memories came flooding back to Levinson when he first read Justine Juell Gillmer’s screenplay of “The Survivor.”

Levinson’s latest film, premiering April 27 on HBO, stars Ben Foster as Harry Haft, a real man who survived Auschwitz by boxing other prisoners at the behest of the Nazis. After making it out alive,...

HBO announced today that Academy Award winner Barry Levinson’s latest film, The Survivor, starring Ben Foster, will premiere on the premium cabler on April 27 at 8 p.m. Et/Pt, in honor of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)—subsequently becoming available for streaming on HBO Max.

The HBO Original is based on Alan Haft’s book, Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano. It tells the incredible true story of Haft (Foster), who after being sent to Auschwitz, survived not only the unspeakable horrors of the camp, but the gladiatorial boxing spectacle he was forced to perform with his fellow prisoners for the amusement of his captors. Unbeknownst to those who try to destroy him, Haft’s will to survive is driven by his quest to reunite with the woman he loves.

Levinson previously directed the HBO films Paterno, The Wizard of Lies and You Don’t Know Jack,...

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

And today we are fortunate enough to speak with Adrien Brody himself about his new film Clean, along with some of the more memorable B-Sides from earlier in his career. These highlights include Love The Hard Way, Detachment, and Cadillac Records (currently on Netflix as we publish this! Watch it!).

We dive into all of the work that went in to getting Clean made and into movie theaters, Brody’s deep bench of B-Side movies, and the enduring New York City setting in Love The Hard Way.

Clean is currently in theaters and everywhere you rent and buy movies.

For more from The B-Side, you can find every actor/director and the films discussed in one place here.

Barry Levinson is back at the Toronto International Film Festival with “The Survivor,” the incredible story of Harry Haft, who managed to survive Auschwitz by boxing his fellow prisoners. After moving to America, Haft boxed professionally, having a memorable bout with Rocky Marciano, but continued to be haunted by his experiences in the concentration camps. “The Survivor” dramatizes his battles with post-traumatic stress disorder, while also depicting the immense personal strength that ultimately allowed him to find a way to cope with his past.

Levinson, who made a name for himself directing classics such as “Diner” and “Rain Man,” spoke with Variety before the film’s world premiere on Monday about what inspired him to make “The Survivor,” how he navigates a franchise-obsessed Hollywood and the lengths Ben Foster went to in order to transform himself into Haft.

What drew you to “The Survivor”?

As a little kid, I was...

Italian helmer Giuseppe Tornatore’s (“Cinema Paradiso”) documentary “Ennio,” on the late music composer Ennio Morricone, features a pantheon of commentators influenced by the maestro’s scores, from Bruce Springsteen to Hans Zimmer — not to mention the music.

Morricone is a two-time Oscar winner who scored over 500 film tracks, including a slew of Sergio Leone films, like “The Good The Bad, and The Ugly.” Morricone died when Tornatore was editing the documentary in July 2020. The film, which is 150 minutes, premieres out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on Friday.

“It didn’t change the contents of the film but it changed my vision,” he told reporters at a round table, speaking through a translator. “Editing the scenes made it feel like he was still there. That he wasn’t really gone.”

Some of the talking heads that would have been obvious go-to interviews for a film on Morricone are no longer with us,...

Exclusive: When Deadline first revealed the fact-based historical drama Harry Haft was being put together by Bron Studios and New Mandate Films with Barry Levinson directing and Ben Foster starring, the premise seemed impossible to imagine. Based on the Justine Juel Gillmer Black List script adaptation of the Alan Scott Haft novel Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano, the film tells the story of a boxer who survived Auschwitz by being forced to fight fellow prisoners in the concentration camps in ghoulish gladiatorial battles. If he won, he got fed and allowed to live long enough for the next bout, while the 76 opponents he beat were led to their deaths in the camps. Haunted by the memories and guilt over the price of survival, Haft attempts to use high-profile fights against boxing legends like Rocky Marciano as a way to rediscover a reason to live and to...

Ben Foster is pacing Manhattan trying to ignore the clamor. “Sorry about all the sirens!” he groans apologetically. He’s just gotten home from starring as 14th Century general Jan Žižka in the biopic Medieval, hyped as Czechoslovakia’s biggest blockbuster to date, and Foster just wanted to stroll around to appreciate the holiday lights and squirrels “and ambulances,” he jokes.

Foster’s a long way from the Oregon forest where he shot Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace, a haunting, based-on-a-true-story drama about a survivalist veteran who has trained his teenage daughter to live with him in the forest. You sense Foster wouldn’t mind teleporting across the country for an hour of quiet. Then again, finding his own quiet is one of his strengths as an actor, not to mention as a human being dealing with modern chaos. At 4, Foster’s parents, two hippies raising a family in Fairfield,...

Ben Foster only knows one way of working. After working in Hollywood for over two decades, the rare child actor who managed to find his way to a compelling adult career has been reaping the rewards of long-term commitment. In recent years, that has included an Independent Spirit Award for his turn in “Hell or High Water,” a continued relationship with his most cherished directors, and a sustained level of intensity that might exhaust other actors but only seems to keep Foster more tuned in. He buries himself in performances to a point where, as he describes it, he’s not even acting in a traditional sense.

“For my job, the goal is to learn the thing, and then do the thing, and do it, and do it, and do it over and over until I don’t think about it,” Foster said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “You...

In today’s film news roundup, Ben Foster is playing a boxer, Corbin Bernsen will portray a real estate developer and vampire fantasy “Empire V” is selling at Afm.

Castings

Ben Foster has signed on to star in boxing drama “Harry Haft” with Barry Levinson directing. Bron Studios and New Mandate Films are producing in association with Creative Wealth Media, which is financing the film.

Levinson is directing and producing from a screenplay by Justine Juel Gillmer, based on the novel “Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano” by Alan Scott Haft. The film is set post-World War II and will star Foster as Harry Haft, a boxer who fought fellow prisoners in the concentration camps to survive. Haunted by the memories and his guilt, he attempts to use high-profile fights against boxing legends like Rocky Marciano as a way to find his first love again.

Besides Levinson,...

J.B.J Film and Elevated Films announced today that acclaimed actor Ben Foster has been cast as the lead in director Petr Jákl’s historical action drama Medieval. Jákl wrote the screenplay and will produce alongside Cassian Elwes. The film will be produced with the support of private investors and many Czech state institutions and regions, including the Czech Film Fund, the Prague Film Fund, Creative Europe – Media and others. Principal photography is scheduled to begin this fall in Prague and the surrounding Czech countryside.

The film is inspired by the origin story of the legendary 14th century warlord Jan Zizka of Trocnov (Foster), who along with his band of mercenaries became entangled with an heiress and battled a rival King in a struggle for equality for the Czech people.

Foster is best known for his roles in Hell Or High Water, 3:10 To Yuma, The Messenger and Alpha Dog.

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– Sundance Institute and Picturehouse have announced that the 2017 Sundance Film Festival: London will open with the European premiere of “Beatriz at Dinner.”

The film world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA, and will be introduced to London audiences by director Miguel Arteta, screenwriter Mike White, and lead actress Salma Hayek on June 1 at Picturehouse Central.

– The American Pavilion has announced its 2017 lineup for the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. The impressive program features 25 short documentary and narrative films by up-and-coming filmmakers from the U.S. and around the world, all of which will screen at The American Pavilion during the Cannes Film Festival. More information about the showcase and links to view the films’ trailers are available at its official site.

One of the big Tiff world premieres is “The Program,” Stephen Frears’ movie about a journalist’s bid to bring down inspirational cycling champion/dishonest drugs cheat Lance Armstrong, and we’ve been excited about it because it gives a rare lead role to the always excellent, often undervalued Ben Foster. Since his earliest appearances in films like “Liberty Heights” and “Get Over It,” Foster’s always been an unexpectedly intense and dedicated young actor, and he’s been behind a host of terrific performances, including in “The Messenger,” “Rampart,” “3:10 To Yuma,” and “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.” But he’s taken his method dedication — which included living on the streets for a tiny role in “Rampart” and eating dirt for “Lone Survivor” — to new heights, telling The Guardian that he actually took performance-enhancing drugs to play Armstrong. “I don’t want to talk about the names of the drugs I took,...

To cinephiles, few cinematographers get the blood truly pumping quite like beloved and Criterion-approved director of photography Christopher Doyle. Best known for his iconic work in films like Wong Kar-Wai’s In The Mood For Love (to this very day one of the greatest achievements in film photography), Doyle has honed his craft largely outside of the United States, occasionally coming stateside to work with filmmakers like Gus Van Sant (Paranoid Park) or even Barry Levinson (Liberty Heights). Working numerous times with directors like Wong Kar-Wai, as well as the likes of Zhang Yimou and Edward Yang (Doyle’s first film was Yang’s That Day, on the Beach), he has become a bastion of the world cinema scene and one of today’s most beloved photographers.

Playing this year’s New York Asian Film Festival is his latest journey behind the camera, as Filipino poet/filmmaker/artist Khavn (aka...

★★★☆☆ Veteran filmmaker Barry Levinson makes his best movies at home in Baltimore. His memoirs, Diner, Tin Men, Avalon and Liberty Heights - buoyant with wistful charm and unpretentious fondness - have a personal acuity his non-Baltimore films have suffered without. Now in his 70s, the director returns to his home city - not this time for misty-eyed nostalgia - but for an ecological horror inspired by the environmental problems in Chesapeake Bay. Warm sentiment and quiet smiles give way to sheer terror and deathly screams in The Bay (2012), as Levinson deploys the weary fad of faux-found-footage to surprisingly gruesome effect.

Read more »...

The 2012 Florida Film Festival will be celebrating its 21st anniversary this year with a line-up of 168 films including 28 world premieres. The festival will kick off with Nathan Frankowski's drama "Renee," which was filmed in Orlando, Florida. Academy Award winning director Barry Levinson will also be on hand April 21 to present and discuss his 1999 film "Liberty Heights." More details can be found at FloridaFilmFestival.com. Full press release below: Florida Film Festival Announces Celebrity Guest, Food Events, And Record-breaking Film And Event Lineup The 2012 Festival Presents “An Afternoon With” Academy Award® Winner Barry Levinson Featuring Live Q&A and Screening of “Liberty Heights” Top Chef Star Marcel Vigneron Joins Other Culinary Superstars for Food Forum And Saturday Night Feast Film Schedule Officially Launched Online at FloridaFilmFestival.com with...

Film: Detachment (2011) Cast includes: Adrien Brody (The Pianist), Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River), James Caan (The Godfather), Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Lucy Liu (Kill Bill: Vol. 1), Blythe Danner (Meet the Parents) Sami Gayle (Blue Bloods), Betty Kaye Director: Tony Kaye (American History X) Genre: Drama (97 minutes) "Let's not have people coming in. I'd like to do this without being interrupted." In very close up shots, we see Henry Barthes and others recording their thoughts about the recent events. Henry is troubled by feelings of detachment. "Most of the teachers here believed at one point they could make a difference." On the day Henry comes to this unnamed high school as a substitute teacher, Principal Dearden has just been told that she'll be fired if the school's No Child Left Behind test scores don't improve. But this is a school that's already been left behind because it's a dumping ground for problem kids.

Sure, "Diner" is a landmark movie, one that launched numerous careers (including those of Kevin Bacon, Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, and director Barry Levinson). But is it really the most influential movie of the last 30 years? Vanity Fair seems to think so. According to an article in the March 2012 issue, "Diner" -- released 30 years ago today, on March 5, 1982 -- is indirectly responsible for "Seinfeld," "The Office," "Pulp Fiction," and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." Such writers as Nick Hornby, Stephen Merchant, and Judd Apatow acknowledge its impact on the way they write scenes that others omit, scenes were guys reveal what matters most to them by chatting over coffee about things that don't matter at all. Like its trivia-obsessed characters, "Diner" is full of unspoken tales beneath the surface. Even fans may not know how closely life imitated art in the alliances, rivalries, pranks, and power games that helped make the movie...

HollywoodNews.com: The “Gotti” movie: I’ve told you exclusively for weeks that the movie is in financial trouble. Today, Deadline Hollywood tried to steal our thunder by literally just picking up what we’ve been reporting–haha, since they complain all the time about being stolen from.

Anyway, I can tell you that the actor signed to play John Gotti, Jr., Ben Foster, has been asking around for other work since “Gotti” doesn’t seem to be happening. Foster was brought in by director Barry Levinson, who introduced the talented young actor a decade ago in “Liberty Heights.” If Foster leaves, expect the rest of the cast to start exiting too since the money simply is not there. What Deadline has totally overlooked is that the producer, Marco Fiore, and executive producer, Salvatore Carpanzano, have no history in the film business. They do, however, have history with the law.

Ben Foster has been cast as John Gotti's son in the upcoming gangster drama Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father. He will be joining Al Pacino, Kelly Preston and John Travolta as the notorious New York criminal, Variety reports. Liberty Heights director Barry Levinson will be rewriting the script from Analyze This writer Leo Rossi ahead of shooting. Foster said: "Barry Levinson was the first director who took a chance on me. I have a career because of him. "I am deeply honoured for the opportunity to work with Barry and the amazing cast (more)...

When John Travolta was recently cast as John Gotti in upcoming gangster flick, Gotti: In The Shadow Of My Father, the question on everybody’s lips was who would be playing his son? That question has now been answered, with The Mechanic’s Ben Foster confirmed as John Gotti Jr. He will join a cast that includes Al Pacino and Kelly Preston, and will re-team with his director on Liberty Heights, Barry Levinson. “Barry Levinson was the first director who took a chance on me,” said Foster in an official statement. “I...

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It is confirmed that Ben Foster is set to play the son of John Travolta's John Gotti Sr. in Barry Levinson-directed biopic "Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father". Fiore Films announced the casting on Tuesday, August 2, adding that pre-production of the movie is scheduled to start in September while principal photography will begin on January 3, 2012 in New York City.

The project will reunite Foster with Levinson after they teamed up for 1999's comedy "Liberty Heights". "Barry Levinson was the first director who took a chance on me, and I have a career because of him," the "Alpha Dog" actor said, before adding, "This is a film bout family, fathers and sons. I am deeply honored for the opportunity to work with Barry and the amazing cast he is assembling to help bring the story of the Gotti family to the screen."

Levinson himself, who was chosen to...

Ben Foster has joined the cast of Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father. Deadline reports that foster will play John Gotti Jr in the film. He joins John Travolta as John Sr, Al Pacino and Kelly Preston, and  Joe Pesci in the film. The film is being directed by Barry Levinson, who replaced original helmer Nick Cassavetes. Levinson Levinson and James Toback wrote the script. Filming is slated to begin Jan. 3.

Foster got his start with in Levinson's Liberty Heights and has starred recently in such films as, Alpha Dog, The Mechanic and 3:10 To Yuma. I like Foster and think this sounds like a good role for him. What are your thoughts on this news?...

He showed amazing potential in Barry Levinson's stellar coming-of-age tale Liberty Heights, and since then Ben Foster has delivered impressive performances in films like Alpha Dog and 3:10 to Yuma. Now the actor is poised to reteam with Levinson as Variety reports Foster has been cast as John Gotti, Jr. in Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father, the project formerly known as Gotti: Three Generations. The film tells the relationship of a father who lived and died by the mob code and a son who chose to leave that world behind. For those just joining us, John Travolta will play the senior Gotti opposite Foster. More details below. Foster commented on his casting, "Barry Levinson was the first director who took a chance on me, and I have a career because of him. This is a film about family, fathers and sons. I am ...

Big news on the Gotti front of the non-legal variety: Fiore Films has just announced that Ben Foster has signed on to star in Barry Levinson's star-studded crime family biopic, Gotti: In The Shadow Of My Father as John Gotti Jr. opposite John Travolta and Al Pacino. The project will be a reunion for Levinson and Foster, who worked together on the 1999 period drama Liberty Heights.

The rage of Joe Pesci apparently won't stop the makers of "Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father" from sullying forth.

Casting continues on the troubled production as Ben Foster is the latest addition to the biography film about the New York crime family, according to Deadline.

Foster has claimed the key role of John Gotti, Jr., son of John Sr. (John Travolta) and his wife, Victoria (Kelly Preston). "The Devil's Double" star Dominic Cooper had been previously rumored for the role.

Foster joins a cast that also includes Al Pacino and -- at least last we heard -- Lindsay Lohan. Joe Pesci is currently suing the production over various disputes, though it's unclear if that also means he's no longer attached to the project. You never know with these things.

Ben Foster was recently seen learning how to be a killer with Jason Statham in "The Mechanic." He's made...

Ben Foster, who played a hitman-in-training in "The Mechanic," has signed on to play a gangster in "Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father." He'll play John Gotti Jr., the production company said Tuesday. The Fiore Films project reunites Foster with his "Liberty Heights" director, Barry Levinson. The movie, which stars John Travolta, Al Pacino and Kelly Preston, has had some bumps lately. Joe Pesci is suing the producers for $3 million, claiming he gained 30 pounds to play the role of Angelo Ruggiero, only to have his role and salary cut. It's also...

John Travolta, meet your son. Ben Foster (The Messenger, 3:10 to Yuma) has signed on to play John Gotti, Jr., the son of the infamous New York mafia don, in the indie biopic Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father. (Travolta agreed to play Gotti Sr. earlier this year.) Barry Levinson is directing from a script by him and writer James Toback (Bugsy), with Al Pacino, Kelly Preston, and Lindsay Lohan also set to star.

In a statement, producer Marc Fiore said, “We have been interested in Ben from the very start, and I cannot begin to express how excited...

The casting news surrounding the Barry Levinson drama about mob boss John Gotti Sr. and his son continued as Variety reported that actor Ben Foster signed on to play the pivotal role of John Gotti Jr. opposite John Travolta as John Gotti Sr. Joining Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father marked a reunion for Foster who worked with Levinson on the drama Liberty Heights. “Barry Levinson was the first director who took a chance on me and I have a career because of him,” Foster said in a statement. “This is a film about family, fathers and sons. I am deeply honored for the opportunity to work with Barry and the amazing cast he is assembling to help bring the story of the Gotti family to the screen.”...

The casting news surrounding the Barry Levinson drama about mob boss John Gotti Sr. and his son continued as Variety reported that actor Ben Foster signed on to play the pivotal role of John Gotti Jr. opposite John Travolta as John Gotti Sr. Joining Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father marked a reunion for Foster who worked with Levinson on the drama Liberty Heights. “Barry Levinson was the first director who took a chance on me and I have a career because of him,” Foster said in a statement. “This is a film about family, fathers and sons. I am deeply honored for the opportunity to work with Barry and the amazing cast he is assembling to help bring the story of the Gotti family to the screen.”...

The casting news surrounding the Barry Levinson drama about mob boss John Gotti Sr. and his son continued as Variety reported that actor Ben Foster signed on to play the pivotal role of John Gotti Jr. opposite John Travolta as John Gotti Sr. Joining Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father marked a reunion for Foster who worked with Levinson on the drama Liberty Heights. “Barry Levinson was the first director who took a chance on me and I have a career because of him,” Foster said in a statement. “This is a film about family, fathers and sons. I am deeply honored for the opportunity to work with Barry and the amazing cast he is assembling to help bring the story of the Gotti family to the screen.”...

The Prometheus actor has joined John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Lindsay Lohan, and Al Pacino in the Barry Levinson directed mafia biopic. Foster has signed to play one of the film's leads as John Gotti Jr. as the film follows the relationship of the father and son mobsters as the latter comes of age learning the family business and finally leaves the crime world behind. This marks a reunion with He and Levinson, who worked together on one of Foster's first films Liberty Heights. Al Pacino will portray Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce, a close associate and mentor to John Gotti Sr, who will be played by Travolta. Director Barry Levinson took over the reigns after Alpha Dog helmer Nick Cassavetes left the project. Levinson has brought in his Bugsy collaborator James Toback to do some script re-...

Best known for his nostalgic films about Jewish young men coming of age in 1950s Baltimore (Liberty Heights, Diner), (my dad's favorite) director Barry Levinson’s clearly getting bored with his standard fare. First Levinson signs on to direct Oklahoma City bombing/Timothy McVeigh film O.K.C., and then his eco-thriller The Bay, a definite departure, was acquired by Lionsgate.

read more...

Director Barry Levinson first made a name for himself on funny coming-of-age movies about Jewish guys in 1960s Baltimore (Liberty Heights, Diner) so when he busted out of his comfort zone with the Al Pacino HBO movie You Don't Know Jack, the Kevorkian biopic that won Pacino an Emmy and a Golden Globe, we were a little surprised.

Now he's straying even further from his career niche by signing on to direct O.K.C., an indie drama about the events of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Screenwriter Clay Wold is basing his script on the experiences of his brother, a legal clerk on bomber Timothy McVeigh's defense team.

Wouldn't have picked Levinson to helm this project, but maybe he'll surprise us.

Oscar winner Adrien Brody is back in theaters with Predators (i.e. Predators 5: A Reboot??? I don't know. I don't follow these things) and it arrives so shortly after his last sci-fi effort Splice... why not feature him? We never discuss him and isn't there plenty to discuss. As in Wtf with his career? I can't include all 35 movies so I thought we'd pick up just where things got interesting.

Though he's had his share of straight to DVD or barely released indies over the years, he actually started off with quite a few classy projects with the likes of Steven Soderbergh (King of the Hill) and Francis Ford Coppola (New York Stories). He reportedly expected Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line (1998) to be his film-carrying breakthrough but Malick's film was so fluid in the telling that many famous actors were entirely deleted in the final cut and Brody's part was drastically reduced.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Sony Pictures has announced that Barry Levinson, the man who gave us Rain Man, Good Morning, Vietnam, The Natural, Bugsy, Wag The Dog, Liberty Heights and a multitude of other projects, has signed on to direct Brother Jack, a film based on the life of human rights activist Jack Healey. Most recently, Levinson has focused his efforts on television fare such as You Don’T Know Jack, which garnered a boatload of Emmy nominations, and it is very nice to see him getting back into the feature director’s chair. IMDb has a nice little list of other projects that Levinson has in development, though it does not mention in what capacity he will be working on them in.

Read more on Barry Levinson to direct Brother Jack, based on the life of human rights activist Jack Healey…...

Barry Levinson is in final negotiations to direct "Brother Jack," a film focusing on human rights activist Jack Healey. Harley Peyton penned the script, which Kelly Masterson is rewriting, according to THR.

Healey has made a life out of facing issues regaring human rights, and he currently heads the Human Rights Action Center in Washington, D.C. Back in the days, he used to be a Catholic priest.

Levinson recently directed television's "You Don't Know Jack." Other credits of his include "What Just Happened," "Wag the Dog," "Rain Man," "Bandits," "Liberty Heights" and "Man of the Year."...

Though it seems in the past decade director Barry Levinson has had some trouble grasping the amazing filmmaker's eye he once displayed with films like Liberty Heights, Rain Man, Good Morning, Vietnam and The Natural, I've heard that he's made quite a film for HBO with the Jack Kevorkian biopic You Don't Know Jack. Let's hope he can bring that energy and success back to the big screen as Columbia Picts announced, via press release, that Levinson has been attached to direct Brother Jack, a biopic about Jack Healey, a world-renowned human rights activist who left the priesthood for a life on the streets to fight for the people. The press release describes Mr. Healey as "an effective and innovative leader in the human rights movement for over 25 years" as he "helped move the topic of human rights from closed-door diplomatic negotiations to widespread awareness, public debate, and direct ...

Liberty Heights is a semi-autobiographical 1999 film directed by Barry Levinson, which reconstructs his childhood growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s, with race becoming an issue when a white high school student (played by Ben Foster) becomes romantically involved with one of his schoolmates – a black girl (played by Rebekah Johnson). But that’s just one of a number of story threads.

The film was released in theatres, and made almost $4 million domestically. It was very well received critically, scoring an 87% Fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com.

I didn’t see it; I don’t even remember it, or I may have seen the trailer and passed altogether. Did anyone see this? Rebekah Johnson hasn’t really been in anything significant since then. Although, her Wiki page lists her as a singer/songwriter primarily, with 2 albums in her discography. Can’t say I’ve heard any of them…

Here’s the...

This week's Netflix Instant brings a combination of unique films, but this installment pales in comparison to the amount of programming from Viacom (including networks like MTV & Comedy Central). Though we don't focus on TV, keep your eye out for major series additions like "The State," "Beavis & Butt-Head," and "Reno 911," not to mention stand-up from comedians like Demetri Martin, Patton Oswalt, John Oliver, and many more. On the film front, our picks include a dangerously skinny Christian Bale, a great coming-of-age flick from Barry Levinson, and a film with the very worst opening ever. So what's in our queue this week? Note: All titles below are not available as of today, but will be soon. Refer to the availability next to each. Liberty Heights (Available April 30th): In this fantastic coming-of-age story, director Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Good Morning Vietnam) returns to the roots of his earlier films like Diner,...

New York -- Barry Levinson is going back to Baltimore.

The prolific writer-director will return to his birthplace and cinematic stomping ground with "Sixty-Six," a story about a group of characters coming of age in 1966 Baltimore on the eve of significant historical events such as the counterculture movement and the war in Vietnam.

Levinson will write and direct from his own novel.

The protagonist in "Sixty-Six" is a staffer at a local television station, whom some have noted is a stand-in for Levinson and his professional and personal life. Like one of the director's most famous works, "Sixty-Six" also will feature a diner as the center of social activity.

The film completes an informal series of sorts in which Levinson examines the social dynamics in Baltimore at various periods throughout the 20th century. He kicked that off with 1983's "Diner" set in a very different city of 1959, and covered related...

by Matthew-Lee Erlbach and Carmelo Larose Barry Levinson is an Academy Award-winning American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television best known for Good Morning Vietnam, Rain Man, Wag the Dog, Liberty Heights, and the HBO series Oz, as well as many other notable and important works on screen. His latest documentary, Poliwood, about the 2008 Republican and Democratic conventions is premiering at the 2009 TriBeCa Film Festival: www.TribecaFilm.com for more info. Would you say Poliwood is more of an extension or a departure from your other work and in what ways? Bl: I think it's an extension in certain ways. It's an extension of what I've been doing in some cases unconsciously with works like Avalon, which dealt with the effects of television on the family, on the American family. It certainly goes through Wag the Dog. It certainly...

Scott Feinberg at The Envelope has created a list of his "The top 25 movies of the past 10 years that got no Oscar love" and it's an interesting idea considering there has been so much hatred aimed at the Academy over The Dark Knight not getting a Best Picture nomination, but it did actually receive eight nominations, which is nothing to scoff at. We are talking about films that didn't receive any nominations, zero, zilch, nada. Any come to mind? I had never considered the idea since it is a relatively hard thing to imagine that a favorite film of yours didn't receive any Oscar nominations -- wait, is that why general audiences aren't interested in the Oscars? -- but then I went back over my 2003-2008 Top Ten lists and found several that weren't nominated and put together a quick top ten and an example category I think they should have been nominated in.