Exclusive: Kimberly A. Harrison, who was previously showrunner of Fox’s Stephen Dorff-fronted drama Deputy, has joined Terrence Howard’s Delta Blues as showrunner.
Harrison, who was a co-producer on Criminal Minds and co-exec producer on All Rise, will oversee the Mississippi blues drama for Ozark producer Zero Gravity Management.
The move also reunites her with Evan Ross, who she worked with as a co-exec producer on Fox’s Star and who stars alongside Howard.
The series is a one-hour drama based on true events that chronicles the story of W.C. Handy, sometimes referred to as the Father of the Blues. Empire star Howard, who reversed his decision to retire to star in the project, will also make his directorial debut on the project.
It is based on a script from Ellen Perry, Zachery Anderson, Edwin B. Shackeroff and Trudy Davies.
Set in the Mississippi Delta in 1903, Delta Blues...
Harrison, who was a co-producer on Criminal Minds and co-exec producer on All Rise, will oversee the Mississippi blues drama for Ozark producer Zero Gravity Management.
The move also reunites her with Evan Ross, who she worked with as a co-exec producer on Fox’s Star and who stars alongside Howard.
The series is a one-hour drama based on true events that chronicles the story of W.C. Handy, sometimes referred to as the Father of the Blues. Empire star Howard, who reversed his decision to retire to star in the project, will also make his directorial debut on the project.
It is based on a script from Ellen Perry, Zachery Anderson, Edwin B. Shackeroff and Trudy Davies.
Set in the Mississippi Delta in 1903, Delta Blues...
- 11/17/2020
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Since 1989, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has been accomplishing the important task of preserving films that “represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking.” From films way back in 1897 all the way up to 2004, they’ve now reached 675 films that celebrate our heritage and encapsulate our film history.
Today they’ve unveiled their 2015 list, which includes classics such as Douglas Sirk‘s melodrama Imitation of Life, Hal Ashby‘s Being There, and John Frankenheimer‘s Seconds. Perhaps the most popular picks, The Shawshank Redemption, Ghostbusters, Top Gun, and L.A. Confidential were also added. Check out the full list below.
Being There (1979)
Chance, a simple-minded gardener (Peter Sellers) whose only contact with the outside world is through television, becomes the toast of the town following a series of misunderstandings. Forced outside his protected environment by the death of his wealthy boss, Chance subsumes his late employer’s persona,...
Today they’ve unveiled their 2015 list, which includes classics such as Douglas Sirk‘s melodrama Imitation of Life, Hal Ashby‘s Being There, and John Frankenheimer‘s Seconds. Perhaps the most popular picks, The Shawshank Redemption, Ghostbusters, Top Gun, and L.A. Confidential were also added. Check out the full list below.
Being There (1979)
Chance, a simple-minded gardener (Peter Sellers) whose only contact with the outside world is through television, becomes the toast of the town following a series of misunderstandings. Forced outside his protected environment by the death of his wealthy boss, Chance subsumes his late employer’s persona,...
- 12/16/2015
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Judge
Another photo has popped up from the forthcoming drama "The Judge" starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. Downey plays an attorney returning to his hometown to defend his estranged father (Duvall) who is the prime suspect in a murder. The film opens in October. [Source: EW
Release Dates
20th Century Fox has scheduled the Rupert Friend-led "Hitman: Agent 47," based on the video game series, for a February 27th 2015 release.
The Weinstein Company have scheduled the Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan thriller "The Coup" on March 6th 2015. Finally, Relativity's "Desert Dancer" has been pushed back from August 15th to March 20th 2015.
Legend
Working Title and StudioCanal have revealed the first photo of Tom Hardy playing dual roles as the infamous 1960s UK gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray in Brian Helgeland's "Legend". Filming began today in the UK.
R.I.P. Ruby Dee
Legendary Oscar-nominated actress Ruby Dee...
Another photo has popped up from the forthcoming drama "The Judge" starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. Downey plays an attorney returning to his hometown to defend his estranged father (Duvall) who is the prime suspect in a murder. The film opens in October. [Source: EW
Release Dates
20th Century Fox has scheduled the Rupert Friend-led "Hitman: Agent 47," based on the video game series, for a February 27th 2015 release.
The Weinstein Company have scheduled the Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan thriller "The Coup" on March 6th 2015. Finally, Relativity's "Desert Dancer" has been pushed back from August 15th to March 20th 2015.
Legend
Working Title and StudioCanal have revealed the first photo of Tom Hardy playing dual roles as the infamous 1960s UK gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray in Brian Helgeland's "Legend". Filming began today in the UK.
R.I.P. Ruby Dee
Legendary Oscar-nominated actress Ruby Dee...
- 6/12/2014
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Stage and film actress Pearl Bailey would have been 93. She made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman but is probably best known for Hello Dolly which she received a Tony Award for.
Her film credits include Carmen Jones, St. Louis Blues, Porgy And Bess and All The Fine Young Cannibals. She also appeared on the soap opera As The World Turns and did voice work for Disney‘s The Fox And The Hound.
In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale.
Later in life, she enrolled at Georgetown University and, at age 67, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in theology.
Her film credits include Carmen Jones, St. Louis Blues, Porgy And Bess and All The Fine Young Cannibals. She also appeared on the soap opera As The World Turns and did voice work for Disney‘s The Fox And The Hound.
In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale.
Later in life, she enrolled at Georgetown University and, at age 67, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in theology.
- 3/30/2011
- by Cynthia
- ShadowAndAct
Self-proclaimed "sex kitten" Eartha Kitt, a singer, dancer and actress, has died. She was 81.
Kitt's spokesman Andrew Freedman announced the passing away of the South Carolina native, who started as a cabaret dancer and stage actress/singer and became known for her 1953 hit "Santa Baby." She was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, according to Freedman.
Kitt was also well-known for her role as Catwoman in the 1967-68 "Batman" TV series which featured her trademark catlike purr.
Kitt was also a movie star, playing the lead female role opposite Nat King Cole in "St. Louis Blues" in 1958. She also appeared in "Boomerang" and "Harriet the Spy" in the 1990s.
Kitt's spokesman Andrew Freedman announced the passing away of the South Carolina native, who started as a cabaret dancer and stage actress/singer and became known for her 1953 hit "Santa Baby." She was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, according to Freedman.
Kitt was also well-known for her role as Catwoman in the 1967-68 "Batman" TV series which featured her trademark catlike purr.
Kitt was also a movie star, playing the lead female role opposite Nat King Cole in "St. Louis Blues" in 1958. She also appeared in "Boomerang" and "Harriet the Spy" in the 1990s.
- 12/26/2008
- icelebz.com
WASHINGTON -- As Rocky Balboa makes his big-screen comeback, the movie that launched the franchise 30 years ago and made Sylvester Stallone a household name was among 25 films named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress on Wednesday.
Rocky, the Oscar winner for best picture of 1976, joined Mel Brooks' outrageous comedy Blazing Saddles (1974), John Carpenter's slasher classic Halloween (1978), the Coen brothers' black comedy Fargo (1996) and Steven Soderbergh's groundbreaking "sex, lies, and videotape" (1989) on this year's selection of treasures that are guaranteed to be preserved forever.
The 2006 entrants span the years 1913-96 and feature performances by Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Bill Murray, Ingrid Bergman, John Wayne and late soul great James Brown and directors Alfred Hitchcock, Rouben Mamoulian and Raoul Walsh.
The National Film Registry list, begun in 1989, now numbers 450.
While the choices by Librarian of Congress James Billington spotlights some well-known films, it also features many lesser-known lights of the filmmakers' art, including the only film recording of pioneering blues artist Bessie Smith, a 1913 exploitation film about the white slave trade, one of the first rock concert movies and even a home movie.
"The annual selection of films to the National Film Registry involves far more than the simple naming of cherished and important films to a prestigious list," Billington said. "The registry should not be seen as the Kennedy Center Honors, the Academy Awards or even America's most beloved films. Rather, it is an invaluable means to advance public awareness of the richness, creativity and variety of American film heritage and to dramatize the need for its preservation."
Billington made his selections from more than 1,000 titles nominated by the public after lengthy discussions with the library's motion picture division staff and members of the National Film Preservation Board.
Congress created the registry in 1989 to preserve films of cultural, historical and artistic significance. Selection in the National Film Registry singles out films for preservation either in the Library of Congress' own archive or facilities elsewhere.
Big studio releases usually are cared for by their own archives or other variants of public and private film archives. Entry in the registry often puts a priority on the films named; if they aren't being preserved, their inclusion often moves them up on the list.
Rocky also won Oscars for best director (John Avildsen) and film editing and received 10 nominations. Stallone was nominated as best actor and for his original screenplay. Rocky Balboa, the sixth film in the franchise, opened last week.
" 'Rocky' is an important film," said Steve Leggett, staff coordinator for the National Film Preservation Board. "And it's a great story (in real life): An out-of-work actor watches a fight on TV and whips out a screenplay, and there you go."
While Billington already has picked a pair of Brooks films, The Producers and Young Frankenstein, for the list, he said the registry wouldn't be complete without Blazing Saddles.
It's an iconic film, Leggett said. "(Brooks is) an equal opportunity basher. He bashes everyone, and there are a lot of very funny scenes. It's over-the-top comedy with a civil rights theme. It would be very difficult movie to make today. Just look at what's happened with the Kazaks (and 'Borat'). Mel Brooks had a small window of opportunity."
Halloween might not have the artistic chops of two other films on this year's list -- The Last Command, director Josef von Sternberg's 1928 story that starred Emil Jannings in an Oscar-winning performance, or 1946's Notorious, arguably Hitchcock's best black-and-white American film -- but it launched a genre, Leggett noted.
" 'Halloween' launched Carpenter's career and started the slasher genre," he said. "Some people may say that's good or bad, but it's really a good film."
Von Sternberg's silent drama, about an exiled Russian general who is reduced to working as a Hollywood extra, is seen by film critic Leonard Maltin as another genre-making film.
"It shows that even in the '20s, people were interested in the inner workings of Hollywood and (seeing) Hollywood mythicize itself," said Maltin, a member of the library's film preservation board. "Eventually, (Jannings' character) finds himself in a battle scene wearing his old uniform. It sounds contrived, but it works out."
The bulk of the choices are obscure films such as St. Louis Blues, the 1929 RKO sound experiment that captured Smith singing in a two-reeler; Think of Me First as a Person, a home movie about a child with Down syndrome that was put together over 15 years; and the avant-garde "Early Abstractions #1-5, 7, 10," Harry Smith's compilation of seven of his films from 1939-56.
Billington noted that films like these, as well as documentaries and silent movies, are disappearing at an alarming rate as nitrate deterioration, color fading and the recently discovered "vinegar syndrome" (which threatens the acetate-based "safety film" stock) take their toll.
"This key component of American cultural history is an endangered species," he said.
Complete list:
Applause (1929)
This early sound-era masterpiece was the first film for stage director Rouben Mamoulian and cabaret star Helen Morgan. Many have compared Mamoulian's debut to that of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane because of their flamboyant use of cinematic innovation to test technical boundaries. The tear-jerking plot boasts top performances from Morgan as the fading burlesque queen, Fuller Mellish Jr. as her slimy paramour and Joan Peers as her cultured daughter. However, the film is remembered today chiefly for Mamoulian's audacious style. While most films of the era were static and stage-bound, Mamoulian's camera reinvigorated the melodramatic plot by prowling relentlessly through sordid backstage life.
The Big Trail (1930)
The story goes that director Raoul Walsh was seeking a male lead for his new Western and asked his friend John Ford. He recommended an unknown actor named John Wayne because he "liked the looks of this New Kid with a funny walk, like he owned the world." When Wayne professed inexperience, Walsh told him to just "sit good on a horse and point." The plot of a trek along the Oregon Trail is aided immensely by the majestic sweep provided by the experimental Grandeur widescreen process used in filming.
Rocky, the Oscar winner for best picture of 1976, joined Mel Brooks' outrageous comedy Blazing Saddles (1974), John Carpenter's slasher classic Halloween (1978), the Coen brothers' black comedy Fargo (1996) and Steven Soderbergh's groundbreaking "sex, lies, and videotape" (1989) on this year's selection of treasures that are guaranteed to be preserved forever.
The 2006 entrants span the years 1913-96 and feature performances by Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Bill Murray, Ingrid Bergman, John Wayne and late soul great James Brown and directors Alfred Hitchcock, Rouben Mamoulian and Raoul Walsh.
The National Film Registry list, begun in 1989, now numbers 450.
While the choices by Librarian of Congress James Billington spotlights some well-known films, it also features many lesser-known lights of the filmmakers' art, including the only film recording of pioneering blues artist Bessie Smith, a 1913 exploitation film about the white slave trade, one of the first rock concert movies and even a home movie.
"The annual selection of films to the National Film Registry involves far more than the simple naming of cherished and important films to a prestigious list," Billington said. "The registry should not be seen as the Kennedy Center Honors, the Academy Awards or even America's most beloved films. Rather, it is an invaluable means to advance public awareness of the richness, creativity and variety of American film heritage and to dramatize the need for its preservation."
Billington made his selections from more than 1,000 titles nominated by the public after lengthy discussions with the library's motion picture division staff and members of the National Film Preservation Board.
Congress created the registry in 1989 to preserve films of cultural, historical and artistic significance. Selection in the National Film Registry singles out films for preservation either in the Library of Congress' own archive or facilities elsewhere.
Big studio releases usually are cared for by their own archives or other variants of public and private film archives. Entry in the registry often puts a priority on the films named; if they aren't being preserved, their inclusion often moves them up on the list.
Rocky also won Oscars for best director (John Avildsen) and film editing and received 10 nominations. Stallone was nominated as best actor and for his original screenplay. Rocky Balboa, the sixth film in the franchise, opened last week.
" 'Rocky' is an important film," said Steve Leggett, staff coordinator for the National Film Preservation Board. "And it's a great story (in real life): An out-of-work actor watches a fight on TV and whips out a screenplay, and there you go."
While Billington already has picked a pair of Brooks films, The Producers and Young Frankenstein, for the list, he said the registry wouldn't be complete without Blazing Saddles.
It's an iconic film, Leggett said. "(Brooks is) an equal opportunity basher. He bashes everyone, and there are a lot of very funny scenes. It's over-the-top comedy with a civil rights theme. It would be very difficult movie to make today. Just look at what's happened with the Kazaks (and 'Borat'). Mel Brooks had a small window of opportunity."
Halloween might not have the artistic chops of two other films on this year's list -- The Last Command, director Josef von Sternberg's 1928 story that starred Emil Jannings in an Oscar-winning performance, or 1946's Notorious, arguably Hitchcock's best black-and-white American film -- but it launched a genre, Leggett noted.
" 'Halloween' launched Carpenter's career and started the slasher genre," he said. "Some people may say that's good or bad, but it's really a good film."
Von Sternberg's silent drama, about an exiled Russian general who is reduced to working as a Hollywood extra, is seen by film critic Leonard Maltin as another genre-making film.
"It shows that even in the '20s, people were interested in the inner workings of Hollywood and (seeing) Hollywood mythicize itself," said Maltin, a member of the library's film preservation board. "Eventually, (Jannings' character) finds himself in a battle scene wearing his old uniform. It sounds contrived, but it works out."
The bulk of the choices are obscure films such as St. Louis Blues, the 1929 RKO sound experiment that captured Smith singing in a two-reeler; Think of Me First as a Person, a home movie about a child with Down syndrome that was put together over 15 years; and the avant-garde "Early Abstractions #1-5, 7, 10," Harry Smith's compilation of seven of his films from 1939-56.
Billington noted that films like these, as well as documentaries and silent movies, are disappearing at an alarming rate as nitrate deterioration, color fading and the recently discovered "vinegar syndrome" (which threatens the acetate-based "safety film" stock) take their toll.
"This key component of American cultural history is an endangered species," he said.
Complete list:
Applause (1929)
This early sound-era masterpiece was the first film for stage director Rouben Mamoulian and cabaret star Helen Morgan. Many have compared Mamoulian's debut to that of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane because of their flamboyant use of cinematic innovation to test technical boundaries. The tear-jerking plot boasts top performances from Morgan as the fading burlesque queen, Fuller Mellish Jr. as her slimy paramour and Joan Peers as her cultured daughter. However, the film is remembered today chiefly for Mamoulian's audacious style. While most films of the era were static and stage-bound, Mamoulian's camera reinvigorated the melodramatic plot by prowling relentlessly through sordid backstage life.
The Big Trail (1930)
The story goes that director Raoul Walsh was seeking a male lead for his new Western and asked his friend John Ford. He recommended an unknown actor named John Wayne because he "liked the looks of this New Kid with a funny walk, like he owned the world." When Wayne professed inexperience, Walsh told him to just "sit good on a horse and point." The plot of a trek along the Oregon Trail is aided immensely by the majestic sweep provided by the experimental Grandeur widescreen process used in filming.
- 12/27/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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