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Netflix is adding content from another TV titan to its roster of originals. Homicide: New York, a true-crime docuseries from Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, is set to debut on the streamer on March 20. It will be followed by Homicide: Los Angeles later this year. Both installments consist of five episodes each.

Homicide, from Wolf Entertainment and Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz’s Alfred Street Industries, tells the stories of a city’s most notorious murder cases by following the detectives and prosecutors who cracked them.

The project predates Wolf’s current massive deal with Universal Studio Group (signed in 2020 and extended in 2023 through 2027), which includes a first-look agreement with Universal Television Alternative Studio for unscripted/docu-series.

Homicide is executive produced by Wolf, Tom Thayer, the head of the non-scripted arm of Wolf Entertainment who was instrumental in getting the project together, Lipsitz, Cutforth, Nan Strait, Dan Volpe and Adam Kassen.

This post will self-destruct in two weeks...well, not exactly, but the videos below will be since Google unceremoniously announced the end of Google Video over the weekend that they are putting a kibosh on the video service as of April 29th that unlike the one they eventually bought, YouTube, allowed users to upload video longer than 10 minutes. This development won't be mourned by many, as the video quality was never that great and since 2009, users lost the ability to upload videos, so it became something of a barren wasteland in terms of content.

However, unrestricted by time and largely ungoverned, the site also became the place on the Internet where cinema's orphans could be widely seen, either because they now belong to the public domain or because issues legal or otherwise have prevented their release through traditional means. Naturally, this meant there was plenty of piracy on the site of more recent films,...

Before the main telecast of the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards was officially kicked off on Sunday, February 13, a number of accolades have already been handed out. During the pre-show ceremony, it was unraveled that Rihanna and Jay-z were two of the early winners presented with their kudos.

Barbadian singer Rihanna grabbed a hold of Best Dance Recording for her "Only Girl (In the World)" single. She bested Lady GaGa's "Dance in the Dark". Expressing her excitement after the win, she tweeted, "Congratulations #RihannaNavy!!!! We won a Grammy for Best Dance Recording!!!Only ho in the woooorrrrrlllldddd!!!!"

While she managed to nail the award, the 22-year-old singer fell short on nailing two other kudos. She and collaborator Eminem, who were vying for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for hit duet "Love the Way You Lie", has to admit defeat to Jay-z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind...

The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards has officially been kicked off at Los Angeles' Staples Center on Sunday night, February 13. The opening performance, which is a tribute to Aretha Franklin, is introduced by LL Cool J. The likes of Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Florence Welch, Yolanda Adams and Martina McBride took the center stage.

"I especially want to thank all of you who took the time to send me get well cards and flowers, beautiful flowers, and most importantly your prayers during my time of hospitalization," Aretha said of her absence at the awards show. "I wish I could have been with you tonight." She added, "But next year, Ok?"

The first winner at the star-studded gala is Train - the band scoop Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals for their live version of "Hey, Soul Sister". They beat "Glee" cast, Maroon 5, Paramore and Sade. "Thanks...

Here are the early winners of 2011 Grammy Awards, pre-broadcast categories released by the Recording Academy for smaller and lesser-known categories. The 53rd Annual ceremony is held tonight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, starting at 8 p.m. Est.   Best Long Form Music Video - The Doors ("When You're Strange) Best Short Form Music Video - Lady Gaga, Bad Romance Best Historical Album - The Beatles (The Original Studio Recordings) Best Surround Sound Album - Brittens Orchestra Best Remix Recording, Non-Classical - Revolver (David Guetta's One Love Club Remix) Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical - Battle Studies Best Album Notes...

Johnny Depp's well known obsession with Keith Richards has a new outlet, a full fledged documentary that he's directing on the legendary Rolling Stone guitarist. "It's coming along great," Depp told Entertainment Weekly. "Any time that he's got a minute, any time I've got a minute. We've done one, let's say, installment, that was fairly intense. We shot for a few days, and we got 35 hours of footage -- that's me and Keith sitting and talking in a room that's very, you know, apropos of Keith. We're sitting on couches, having a drink, and talking."

"Pirates of the Caribbean" cinematographer, Dariusz Wolski, is behind the camera on the untitled doc. Depp claims that it looks like "a cross between "The Godfather" and a painting by Caravaggio." It's really something to see Keith in that atmosphere."

The documentary combines interviews, performance footage of Richards including that of his band the X-Pensive Winos,...

One of the most infamous events of rock and roll took place on March 1, 1969 when The Doors played a hot, oversold show in a converted airplane hangar in Miami, Florida. The show was delayed and the crowd had grown restless. Jim Morrison showed up late to a wild throng, fortified with alcohol, and let loose with his free form anti-establishment ranting. It was then that forces aligned against the band during that politically charged summer, claim Morrison whipped out his penis. He was charged, then convicted with indecent exposure and the whole ensuing debacle nearly destroyed the band.

Drummer John Densmore, along with many others, has long claimed that he never saw Morrison expose himself. He talked with Shirley Halperin for THR and reiterated as much with the news that outgoing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is considering a posthumous pardon for Morrison. "He didn't do it! I was there; if...

It's almost unheard of that a movie would release a trailer during the week of its release. TV spots? Sure. Posters? Why not. But a full trailer? That's just weird. Fortunately, Due Date has found a loop hole - just call it a clip. MySpace has released what they are calling a "Restricted clip," even though it clocks in at almost two minutes and is comprised of multiple scenes - you know, like a trailer. Set to "When You're Strange" by The Doors, it does manage to keep up the hilarity of the previous trailers, which certainly isn't an easy task. Of course, this late in the game there are some repeating gags, but I think you all as readers will enjoy the way that Zach Galifianakis and his dog get to sleep every night. Check out the "clip" below.

Date Night; The Back-Up Plan; Prince of Persia; When You're Strange: A Film About the Doors

What's happened to Steve Carell? After a brief moment in which he appeared to be the saviour of mainstream American comedy, his recent movie outings have brought little but disappointment. In cinemas at the moment you can find him fouling up the French film Le dîner de cons in the smug and unfunny Hollywood remake Dinner for Schmucks, which is shaping up as one my least favourite films of the year. Meanwhile on DVD, Date Night (2010, Fox, 15) finds Carell struggling to generate laughs in a substandard rehash of Scorsese's tragi-comedy After Hours which piles on the overblown set-pieces (car chases, shoot-outs etc) with ever diminishing comedy returns. Teaming up with the sainted Tina Fey, Carell plays a stuck-in-a-rut dullard whose regular night-out with the wife turns into an outlandish crime drama after the...

Four Lions

DVD & Blu-ray, Optimum

Four Lions is a film you really need to see more than once. Not just because it's funny and unique – it's both of those things – but because it's almost impossible to approach without any preconceptions. Indeed, if you haven't seen it already, the words "Chris Morris" and "terrorist comedy" come so loaded with expectation, your poor brain could fry trying to figure out how incendiary such a film could be. The problem with that, though, is that you're not Chris Morris, so to try and second-guess this mercurial satirist will always be fruitless. So, what is it? Well, Four Lions is certainly provocative, but the real shock is how conservative it appears on the surface. Morris has often evoked Dad's Army when describing his feature debut, in which an idiotic northern terrorist cell plans its own jihad, and the comparisons are easy to see. But...

Rage Against the Machine, Kiss, AC/DC and Slash are leading the nominations for the Classic Rock Roll of Honor awards, with two nods each. Rock legends Kiss and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash are both nominated in the prestigious Album of the Year and Band of the Year categories.

But competition will be tough - a staggering 16 artists have been shortlisted for their recent releases, including Wolfmother, Pearl Jam and Iron Maiden. Other competitors hoping to be named top group include AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and the Jeff Beck Band.

In the Event of the Year list, Rage Against the Machine's campaign to get a U.K. Christmas number one, and the resurgence in popularity of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", are the top contenders. The Rolling Stones' "Exile On Main St", The Beatles' "Reissues" and AC/DC's "Backtracks" are in the running...

Craig here with another Take Three

Today: Peter Lorre

Take One: When you're strange...

Lorre did Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) because he owed Rko Pictures two days work; just enough time to fit in a slippery six-minute cameo role, though top-billed, as the titular stranger. Boris Ingster's B-movie has been long thought to have kick-started Film Noir - though some point to The Maltese Falcon, also starring Lorre - and the long, angular and accusing shadows from M have certainly followed Lorre to '40s New York; he's hiding in them again, under stoops, around stairwells, sporting a foppish white scarf and fixing passers-by with his signature beady glare (think Steve Buscemi playing Quentin Crisp). Lorre's cypher-like stranger could just be the real killer responsible for several throat-slit murders witnessed by reporter Mike Ward (John McGuire), the blame for which has landed at cabbie Joe Briggs' (Elisha Cook Jr.) feet.

Shrek's weekend dominance did not prevent a solid debut for Heartbreaker, but preview estimates suggest the opening weekend of Twilight: Eclipse will shake things up next time round

The saviour

It's been a long wait, but finally it's here: a movie that consumers actually want to see. After a whole month in which no new release has grossed as much as £4m, Shrek Forever After has arrived to pack the multiplexes. The green ogre's fourth adventure opened with £8.96m, including just over £3m in previews. This is the second biggest debut of the year, behind Alice in Wonderland (£10.56m). The Shrek sum represents 81% of the total grossed by the whole of this weekend's top 10 films. It also helped the market record a 227% increase on the previous weekend, when Get Him to the Greek streaked miles ahead of a weak field of battle-weary veterans.

Shrek Forever After might be bringing salvation...

Shrek Forever After (U)

(Mike Mitchell, 2010, Us)

Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy. 93 mins.

Like us, Shrek yearns for the good old days here, and – somewhat tellingly – the premise finds the green ogre trying to regain his former fearsome edge. Instead, he gets tricked into an alternate reality where he basically has to re-enact the first film all over again. In some ways, such familiarity is a strength as much as a weakness, and it's nice to see these characters again. Compared to the Toy Story trilogy, though, Shrek is merely The Flintstones to Pixar's Simpsons; fun enough, but really no match.

White Material (15)

(Claire Denis, 2009, Fra/Cam)

Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Lambert, Isaach De Bankolé. 106 mins.

After the touchy-feely 35 Shots Of Rum, Denis switches to stronger medicine with a sparse evocation of wartorn west Africa. Huppert is a defiant colonial matriarch striving to keep her family and plantation together.

CrimeFighters (Nc)

(Miles Watts,...

This week on Film Weekly we talk to Jason Isaacs about his supporting role in Nick Whitfield's Skeletons, which took the top award at this year's Edinburgh film festival. Isaacs, entombed in his trailer on the set of the latest Harry Potter movie, tries to pin down the film – about a pair of psychic cleaners in a spot of bother.

Also, we look at Jerusalema, a gangster film set in Johannesburg, by South African director Ralph Ziman.

Jason also reviews some of this week's other releases including Shrek Forever After, Claire Denis's latest film, White Material, starring Isabelle Huppert, Gallic romcom Heartbreaker, and Tom Dicillo's Doors documentary When You're Strange.

Jason SolomonsJason Phipps...

The Crazies: "Therein lies part of the chief complaint, I suppose. It's not that it's an inferior film to the original, or even that one needs to compare the two. While this new version ramps up the action and atmospherics to great effect, it lacks the raw humanity and complex emotionality of the original. But that's a minor quibble -- it's a remake that wants to be its own movie, and that's good. The downside is that it's not its own movie. It's a frenzied and ultimately somewhat hollow amalgam of the '73 version, of Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later, "The X-Files," hell, there's even a little bit of Jaws thrown in -- there's a scene between David and the town's mayor where if you exchanged 'virus' for 'shark' and 'David' for 'Brody,' you'd have a scene re-enactment that took place in a cornfield. The Crazies relies...

Wow! There's not too much coming out on DVD this week but I grabbed a few to highlight for you all. There may only be a few but they are good ones in my opinion.

 

Hot Tub Time Machine

Fueled by energy drinks, vodka and nostalgia for their younger, wilder days, a group of aging best friends travels back in time to 1987, where they get the chance to relive the best year of their lives. And their time machine? Well, it's a hot tub. John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Crispin Glover and Sebastian Stan co-star in this out-of-the-box comedy that takes time travel to a whole new level.

Starring: John Cusack, Craig Robinson

Director: Steve Pink

This movie is awesome! To be fair I think the older you are the more awesome it becomes. There's so many great flashbacks to the 80's and the soundtrack is amazing!

Not a bad week for new releases on DVD and Blu-ray with Breck Eisner's The Crazies remake hitting stores today along with the '80s time travel comedy Hot Tub Time Machine and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Michael Haneke's Oscar-nominated film The White Ribbon is also finally out, plus Paul Schneider's directorial debut Pretty Bird, Sundance hit Bass Ackwards, and the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. On Blu-ray we've got Criterion releases of The Leopard and Everlasting Moments, William Lustig's campy horror flick Uncle Sam, and Predator: Ultimate Hunter Edition. Will you be buying or renting anything this week? Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief [1] (+ Blu-ray [2]) The Crazies [3] (+ Blu-ray [4]) Hot Tub Time Machine [5] (+ Blu-ray [4]) The White Ribbon [7] (+ Blu-ray [8]) Creation [9] Pretty Bird [10] The Warlords [11] (+ Blu-ray [12]) Bass Ackwards [13] Stolen [14] (+ Blu-ray [15]) The Eclipse [16] (+ Blu-ray [17]) Suicide Girls Must Die! [18] Don McKay [19] (+ Blu-ray [20]) Everlasting Moments...

Hot Tub Time Machine

Best title ever? I can't wait to check out Steve Pink's ode to the 80's. Great cast including Crispin Glover!

Extras include:

Deleted ScenesProduction: Acting Like IdiotsChevy Chase: The Nicest Guy in HollywoodTotally Radical Outfits: Dayna PinkCrispin Glover: One Armed Bellhop

The Crazies

Missed it but have heard good things about this Romero remake and I dig Olyphant.

Extras include:

CommentaryThe Romero Template FeaturetteParanormal PandemicsBehind-the-Scenes FeaturetteRob Hall Makeup FeaturetteStill Gallery

The White Ribbon

This Oscar-nominated German WW1 film by Michael Haneke (Funny Games) is supposed to be amazing.

Extras include:

Making of The White RibbonMy LifeCannes Film Festival Premiere[Read More...]

Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage

The history of the legendary Canadian rock trio. Get ready to air drum!

Extras include:

Deleted ScenesLive Performances

When You're Strange

Another rock doc, this one on The Doors. It features unreleased footage and narration by Johnny Depp.

Don McKay

Indie thriller starring Thomas Haden Church,...

Celebrities see Hollywood's newest genre as a way to reassert control over their image

A long queue of biographical films is set to be screened at American cinemas this summer. The documentaries, almost a dozen, include one on Joan Rivers, one on Billy Joel and another on Carrie Fisher, and have been prompted by the surprise success of recent screen studies of Anna Wintour, Vidal Sassoon and Mike Tyson.

Although these films are not big money-making propositions, they appeal to their collaborating subjects as an effective method of repairing a dented public image or a way to fight gossip on fan sites and Hollywood blogs. Sometimes they can even rehabilitate a fallen hero.

When You're Strange, a film about The Doors by Tom Dicillo and narrated by Johnny Depp, has been criticised by some as offering a hagiographical approach to Morrison, hailing him as a "shaman" of the concert platform.

Get Him To The Greek (15)

(Nicholas Stoller, 2010, Us) Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Sean Combs, Rose Byrne, Elisabeth Moss. 109 mins.

Who knew that if you put together every Brit rock star cliche in the book, you got Russell Brand? Record-label nerd Hill is charged with keeping the wayward Brand on the comeback trail here, but no one's taking the story that seriously; instead there's a tireless stream of one-liners, bit parts and surreal sidetracks to keep us (just about) amused. Brand is fine, but Diddy's manic music exec steals the show.

Good Hair (12A)

(Jeff Stilson, 2009, Us) 96 mins.

Chris Rock is an amiable guide on this documentary journey into African-American hair obsession, bantering in salons, quizzing black celebrities (Maya Angelou, Eve, Ice-t, Salt-n-Pepa), and tracing the cultural and chemical origins of relaxants, weaves and wigs without ever getting too serious.

Tetro (15)

(Francis Ford Coppola, 2009, Us/Ita/Spa/Arg) Vincent Gallo, Alden Ehrenreich,...

The Val Kilmer/Oliver Stone portrayal was built on hype all long, argues John Patterson

The first thing I thought when I heard about When You're Strange, Tom Dicillo's new Johnny Depp-narrated film about Jim Morrison and the Doors, was that it had taken the band a full 20 years to recover from that movie Oliver Stone made about them; you know, the one with Billy Idol in it. And, oh yeah, Val Kilmer.

I missed the Doors the first time round, when they probably were pretty magical (the more naive you were in 1967, the more appealingly dangerous they would have seemed; they were born to foment high-school revolution), but I was around for the first big revival, in 1980, not seven years after Morrison, bearded, bloated and blasted, expired aged 27 in his Parisian bathtub. That summer the Doors' Greatest Hits album, lately unleashed, enjoyed wall-to-wall play on suburban radio stations across America,...

Ajami (15)

(Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani, 2009, Isr/Ger) Shahir Kabaha, Ibrahim Frege, Eran Naim. 125 mins.

If any situation justifies the multi-angled Crash/Amores Perros-style treatment, it's modern-day Israel. Co-written and directed by an Israeli and a Palestinian, mostly using non-professional actors, this is more hip, streetwise and even-handed than we're used to. Set in a mixed neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, the plot skilfully juggles intertwined stories of feuds, families, drugs and violence involving characters from all faiths.

Trash Humpers (18)

(Harmony Korine, 2009, Us/UK) Brian Kotzue, Travis Nicholson, Rachel Korine. 78 mins.

Korine preserves his enfant terrible reputation with a scrappy, seedy home video following a group of masked delinquents around. It's a vaudeville of depravity (they literally hump dustbins) that manages to be grimy without being explicit.

Wild Grass (12A)

(Alain Resnais, 2009, Fra/Ita) André Dussolier, Sabine Azéma. 104 mins.

Veteran Resnais crafts a silky, genre-hopping middle-aged romance that's full of wonders and mysteries.

Greenberg (15)

(Noah Baumbach, 2010, Us) Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh. 107 mins

Usually Ben Stiller is the guy you like in the movie, and the guy you laugh at. Here he's bravely subdued and unsympathetic – a self-absorbed slacker with extreme empathy issues – but you can still laugh at him. After a while, you might even like him. Drifting back to La, he picks at old relationship wounds and opens up fresh ones (with the winningly pathetic Gerwig) in a charming character study with indie values (and soundtrack) that under-achievers of a certain age will relate to.

Brooklyn's Finest (18)

(Antoine Fuqua, 2009, Us) Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke. 132 mins

Breaking news: law enforcement in the sketchier areas of New York is sometimes quite difficult. This three-pronged assault hammers the cliches home relentlessly, self-importantly detailing the trials of its compromised lawmen as if it's saying something new. Or something at all.

I am done! I turned in my final essay last night and this semester is finally over for me! Wooooo! Obviously I still have other obligations, but it's just a big weight off my mind that I've got a few months off from schoolwork. I'm gonna be going out tonight to celebrate, but for those of you who have to stay in and be responsible adults, here's what's on TV:

8:00 p.m.: "America's Next Top Model" on The CW.

"Minute to Win It" on NBC. New episode on a special night.

"The New Adventures of Old Christine" on CBS. Fifth season finale.

"Weird or What?: Grim Reapers" on Discovery .

8:30 p.m.: "The Middle" on ABC.

9:00 p.m.: "American Idol" on Fox.

"America's Next Top Model" on The CW. 14th season finale at a special time. I'm still waiting for the season where Tyra...

This week's announcements include a little seen Ben Stiller gem, a time machine and a metal storm. Don't get too excited yet, especially since we're kicking off with MGM's Hot Tub Time Machine. Some called it this year's Hangover. I agreed. It's just that I did not believe that to be a compliment. Nevertheless, the modest success featuring John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke and Jessica Pare's boobs will hit DVD & Blu-ray on June 29 in an unrated edition. Will that mean more boobs or laughter? If you want to go back further than the '80s, on the same date you can also grab Tom Dicillo's Doors documentary, When You're Strange, from Eagle Rock on both formats.

On July 13 from Fox it's Forest Whitaker vs. Carlos Mencia in Our Family Wedding. Witness the foodfight between the races on DVD & Blu if you must or just look ahead...

(Jim Morrison in his experimental film, Hwy, from When you're Strange.)

By Terry Keefe

(Currently appearing in this month's Venice Magazine.)

Many a visitor to Venice Beach has spent some time wondering the exact location where Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek reportedly ran into each other in 1965, after having attended UCLA Film School together previously, and decided to form the Doors. The legend of the band needs no recounting here, not after a number of books, the 1991 Oliver Stone film, and endless television clip show assemblies, along with various live albums and re-releases of recordings. Which does raise the question of whether a 2010 documentary on the Doors fills any real need, at least that was the initial reaction from this Doors fan when hearing about director Tom Dicillo’s When You’re Strange - A Film About the Doors. Then, Morrison appeared on screen in the Dicillo documentary, in pristine,...

To say the least, Jim Morrison was an interesting person. His lyrics, as nonsensical as they could be at times, reached out to a legion of fans and his on-stage behavior became that of rock and roll legend. The lead singer of The Doors has already been the subject of both a 1991 film, The Doors, and most recently a documentary, When You're Strange, which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. But just like any major personality, it's hard to keep him contained. THR is reporting that writer-director Robert Saitzyk has finished a script based on the final days of Morrison's life, and will direct it for Zero Gravity Management. Titled The Last Beat, the film is being described as a fictional account, much like Gus Van Sant's Last Days was about Kurt Cobain. Lesser known actor Shawn Andrews, who has worked with the director previously, will play the...

It's twenty years since Oliver Stone's The Doors played fast and loose with the facts surrounding Jim Morrison's life and death. Since then Tom De Cillo's excellent documentary When You're Strange has put the record reasonably straight, but we're heading back to "print the legend" territory with Robert Saitzyk's The Last Beat.The film sounds like it's very much in the tradition of Gus Van Sant's not-Cobain film The Last Days. The Morrison character will be "Jay Douglas", an American rock star in Paris in the early seventies, negotiating complicated relationships with his "California soulmate, Valerie Eason" (read Pamela Courson) and "glamorous French countess, Clemence".The real Jim Morrison took up residence in Paris in March 1971, made some disastrous recordings with street musicians, and was dead by July in still not quite explained circumstances. He's buried in a famously scruffy grave in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Welcome back to Moment of Truth, Movieline's weekly spotlight on the best in nonfiction cinema. This week, we hear from Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek about the band's new documentary When You're Strange, which opens Friday in limited release.

For a rock band whose filmed legacy includes at least a dozen concert and video compilations -- not to mention a full-scale Hollywood biopic -- it's not just a little bizarre that The Doors were never the subject of a feature documentary until now. Enter When You're Strange, director Tom Dicillo's fairly straightforward doc (narrated by Johnny Depp) interweaving archival performance and interview footage with extended, never-before-seen footage of late vocalist Jim Morrison's own experimental film, Hwy: An American Pastoral. Some of it looks like it was shot yesterday, reinforcing Morrison's enduring mythology as a half-martyr, half-ghost whose mission is carried forward here by surviving members Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore.

I started listening to the The Doors when I was about fourteen, and bought every one of their albums. I have great affection for their music, especially Strange Days, at the same time that I often question how seriously to take it. At the behest of Rhino Records and producer Dick Wolf, after directing some Law and Order episodes, filmmaker Tom Dicillo--whose idiosyncratic films I like, from Johnny Suede and Living in Oblivion to Box of Moonlight--took three years to fashion the mysterious documentary When You're Strange: A Film About the Doors. He leans on found footage from concerts, interviews of the period and even a remarkably pristine 1969 35 mm short film (Google video on jump) of Jim Morrison driving in the desert to ...

In 1965, four university students came together to form a band that would only make six albums over the course of the next six years, but albums that would go on to sell over 75 million copies worldwide in the forty years since their singer's untimely demise. That band was The Doors--Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore and the late but legendary Jim Morrison--one of the groups from the '60s that would become hugely influential on waves and waves of rock groups trying to integrate poetry and psychedelia they made famous into their own music. Fast forward to a few years ago when downtown New York filmmaker Tom Dicillo was hired to put together a lot of newly-found and rarely-seen footage of Morrison and The Doors into a documentary feature called When You're Strange: A Film...

Former The Doors' star John Densmore desperately wanted to save his tragic bandmate Jim Morrison before he went too far - but was locked out from his inner circle of friends and enablers. Morrison died in a Paris, France hotel room in 1971 after years of drug and alcohol abuse, and Densmore admits it pained him to watch his friend spiral into a self-destructive hell.

The drummer tried his best to warn Morrison of the fate that awaited him if he didn't change his ways, but, by the time Morrison moved to France, he could no longer reach him. Promoting new Tom Dicillo Doors' documentary "When You're Strange", Densmore says, "No one could get to him. It was like Elvis [Presley]. In fact, Jerry Scheff - the bass player for Elvis, who did 'L.A. Woman' with The Doors - said he was friends with Raquel Welch and she wanted to do...

The new "Doors" doc, "When You're Strange", will be released to theatres April 9.

Narrated by actor Johnny Depp, the feature is written/directed by Tom Dicillo and produced by Dick Wolf, Rhino's John Beug, band manager Jeff Jampol and Wolf Films' Peter Jankowski.

Made with the support of surviving band members Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Robby Krieger and the Jim Morrison estate, the doc is considered by Manzarek to be the 'antidote' to director Oliver Stone's previous bio-pic about the band starring Val Kilmer as Morrison.

"Watching the hypnotic, hitherto unreleased footage of Jim, John, Ray and Robby, I felt like I experienced it all through their eyes", said Depp. "As a rock 'n' roll documentary, or any kind of documentary for that matter, it simply doesn't get any better than this".

The film uses material lensed between 1965 up to Morrison's death in 1971, including footage from Morrison and...

The ripples from the music of the Doors continue to be felt, more than 40 years after Light My Fire first burned up the airwaves (and there wasn't another song in 1967, with the possible exception of Somebody to Love, that you heard more frequently on the radio). Yet there are whole generations to whom this seminal rock band is nothing more than part of their parents' deteriorating album collection or the subject of a fanciful Oliver Stone movie or something that occasionally pops up on the classic-rock station. So Tom Dicillo's When You're Strange (opening in limited release on Friday, 4/9/10) is a welcome cinematic excursion, exploration and excavation. Using a nicely understated narration (read by Johnny Depp) and a trove of archival footage that was previously unseen, as well as the vast Doors musical catalog, Dicillo plunges you into the...

The Doors frontman Jim Morrison is one of history's great oddballs. There's no telling where the band might be today or what they might be doing if the singer/songwriter hadn't died in 1971 at the too-young age of 27. "When You're Strange," a new documentary narrated by Johnny Depp takes a look at the late-'60s/early-'70s portion of Morrison's life, his final days seen through the lens of archival footage (some of it never seen) and interviews with the remaining band members. Check out a clip from the movie below; you can catch it in theaters in major cities starting this Friday, April 9.

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced additional Audience Award-winners today from the Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Lone Star States, 24 Beats Per Second and Midnighters categories. Among them were Mike Woolf's "Richard Garriott - Man on a Mission" in the Spotlight program, Henry Joost and Jody Lee Lipes' "NY Export: Opus Jazz" in the Emerging Visions program, and Tom Dicillo's "When You're Strange - a film about ...

Hollywood actor to read Jim Morrison's poetry on soundtrack album for forthcoming documentary

The soundtrack album for a forthcoming Doors documentary will feature 12 of the band's classic songs, five rare clips – and 15 tracks of Johnny Depp reading poetry. The actor appears on almost half of the record's cuts, reciting verse written by Jim Morrison.

Depp provides the narration for When You're Strange, a film by Tom Dicillo. The documentary draws on hundreds of hours of footage of the Los Angeles group, from their early beginnings to Morrison's death in 1971. It recently played at the Berlin film festival, where Doors drummer John Densmore said he "got a little teary" when he saw footage of the band's late singer.

"It shows Jim in the beginning, his innocence and shyness and everything, and I love seeing that – that's the Jim I knew," Densmore told Mojo. The film also suggests that the Doors would have reunited,...

A quick reminder here that Canadian Music Week's Music For The Screen series runs this coming weekend - Friday and Saturday - here in Toronto. As the programmer of the series I'm biased as hell but I think the lineup is a damn good one this year, kicking off with a double bill of Streets of Fire and Phantom of the Paradise before moving on to the new titles: Separado!, Last Heaven 031011, Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee, When You're Strange and Nowhere Boy. Find details on all the titles here and remember all screenings are free with a Cmw wristband or $10 at the door.

The new "Doors" documentary When You're Strange, will be released to theatres April 9. Narrated by actor Johnny Depp, the feature is written/directed by Tom Dicillo and produced by Dick Wolf, Rhino's John Beug, Jeff Jampol, (the band's manager) and Wolf Films' Peter Jankowski. Made with the support of surviving band members Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Robby Krieger and the Jim Morrison estate, the doc is considered by Manzarek to be the 'antidote' to director Oliver Stone's previous bio-pic about the band starring Val Kilmer as Morrison. "Watching the hypnotic, hitherto unreleased footage of Jim, John, Ray and Robby, I felt like I experienced it all through their eyes", said Depp. "As a rock 'n' roll documentary, or any kind of documentary for that matter, it simply doesn't get any better than this". The feature incoporates film shot between 1965 up to Morrison's death in 1971, including footage from Morrison...

I'm not sure how many of you guys are big fans of the rock band The Doors, but there is a documentary about them coming out this year. Tom Dicillo (director of Double Whammy and Delirious) made a feature about The Doors called When You're Strange that premiered at Sundance. It's finally hitting theaters in April and an official trailer has arrived via the film's official website. The documentary uncovers historic, previously unseen footage from the illustrious rock quartet and provides new insight into the revolutionary impact of their music and legacy. It's narrated by Johnny Depp, which is an added bonus. Check it out! There are only four reviews of this on Rotten Tomatoes so far, mostly negative, but it doesn't look that bad. Watch the trailer for Tom Dicillo's When You're Strange: [flv:http://rhino.edgeboss.net/download/rhino/doors/doors-when-you-are-strange.flv http://media2.firstshowing.net/firstshowing/img/doors-when-you-are-strange-trailer.jpg 540 304] "Tom Dicillo's When You're Strange is a meticulously crafted, exhilarating ode to one...

One of the biggest snubs in the Academy Awards documentary category in recent years was Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Narrated by Johnny Depp and directed by Alex Gibney, who won the Oscar for Taxi to the Dark Side in 2008, the film perfectly captures the life of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Evidently Depp enjoyed sharing one of his passions in documentary fashion, because now he has another one coming, this time for The Doors. IMDb has put up the first trailer the documentary, titled When You're Strange, taken from one of the band's most famous songs. The film is made using only footage from between 1966 and 1971, the year of Jim Morrison's death. Frankly the only bad thing that can come from more exposure to The Doors is an increased number of crappy cover bands, and Lord knows nobody wants that,...

SXSW Film has announced more titles for its 2010 program. Chris Morris' Four Lions will now close the festival. New features, shorts, and documentaries have also been added, including American Grindhouse, Cargo, Strummerville, This Movie is Broken, and Suck. The full list (courtesty of SXSW) is presented below. 

Headliners

 

Four Lions (United Kingdom)

Director: Chris Morris. Screenwriters: Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Simon Blackwell and Chris Morris

Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. Cast: Riz Ahmed, Arsher Ali, Nigel Lindsay, Kayvan Novak, Adeel Akhtar

 Spotlight Premieres

 

American Grindhouse

Director: Elijah Drenner. Screenwriters: Calum Wadell and Elijah Drenner

This feature documentary chronicles the history of the American Exploitation Film. It digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment. (World Premiere)

 

Cargo...

Austin, Texas – February 19, 2010 – The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival has announced Chris Morris’ pitch-black satire Four Lions as its Closing Night film, to play on Saturday, March 20 at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas. SXSW also released additional feature and short titles or the 2010 event, which will take place March 12 – March 20, 2010. The festival will open with the world premiere of Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Aaron Johnson, Cholë Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Nicolas Cage. SXSW will also host more than 80 Film Conference panels, which will take place Friday, March 12 – Tuesday, March 16. Previously announced participants for the 2010 SXSW Film Conference include Michel Gondry (The Thorn in the Heart, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), David Gordon Green (Eastbound & Down, Pineapple Express), Jeffery Tambor’s Acting Workshop, and Academy Award-winning Argentine composer, solo artist and producer Gustavo Santaolalla, among many others. For full panel descriptions and participants,...

The SXSW Film Festival has declared its closing night film for March 20: Chris Morris’s Sundance satire Four Lions, the story of British jihadists and their "abstract dreams of glory." SXSW has added 18 titles to their lineup, including: the Spike Jonze short I'm Here; the Spotlight Premiere documentary feature American Grindhouse, which digs deep into the history of exploitation films; the Emerging Vision love story A NY Thing; When You're Strange, a Johnny Depp-narrated doc about the Doors; and doc short Star Wars: Retold, an animated retelling of the familiar trilogy from the point-of-view of a girl who’s never seen the films but recognizes their cultural impact. [Photo: Four Lions]...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? When You're Strange Trailer Bruce McCulloch of The Kids in the Hall did a sketch about The Doors that really put things in perspective to...

The new "Doors" documentary "When You're Strange", will be released to theatres April 9. Narrated by actor Johnny Depp, the feature is written/directed by Tom Dicillo and produced by Dick Wolf, Rhino's John Beug, Jeff Jampol, (the band's manager) and Wolf Films' Peter Jankowski.

Made with the support of surviving band members Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Robby Krieger and the Jim Morrison estate, the doc is considered by Manzarek to be the 'antidote' to director Oliver Stone's previous bio-pic about the band starring Val Kilmer as Morrison.

"Watching the hypnotic, hitherto unreleased footage of Jim, John, Ray and Robby, I felt like I experienced it all through their eyes", said Depp. "As a rock 'n' roll documentary, or any kind of documentary for that matter, it simply doesn't get any better than this".

The film uses footage shot between 1965 up to Morrison's death in 1971, including footage from Morrison...

Canadian Music Week comes to Toronto in less than four weeks and once again they have added a film program to their schedule that weekend. Our own lord and master is the deviant mind behind this cinematic madness which includes Streets of Fire, Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise, Seperado!, The final concert from one of Japan's great rock bands Michelle Gun Elephant Thee Movie - Last Heaven 031011, Shane Meadow's Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee, The Doors documentary When You're Strange narrated by Johnny Depp and the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy. Wow! The Cmw programmer has fantastic taste!

The festival announcement with film writeups is after the break.

Johnny Depp's not just a pretty face. His voice ain't bad, either. The consumate cool guy provides the narration to a new documentary about the Doors, the iconic 1960s band fronted by the late Jim Morrison. Directed by Living in Oblivion's Tom Dicillo and produced by Law & Order honcho Dick Wolf (among others), When You're Strange: A Film About the Doors has been compiled solely from archival footage—some of it never before seen of the group during its heyday. And how does this compare to Depp's other work? Let him explain... "As a rock n' roll documentary, or any kind of documentary for that matter, it simply doesn't get any better than...

Dustin Hucks is still at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, working hard to secure interviews, see films, and send me updates as much as possible.  If you missed his first two reviews here at HitFix, you should catch up.  He reviewed "The Wild Hunt" and "When You're Strange" on Saturday. This is my first time really working with Dustin, but so far, I'm impressed by how much he's sent me, and by how he's handling the pace of the festival in general.  This weekend, for example, he sent me two reviews that I thought I'd run together, both foreign-language titles, both with reason...