On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.
First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.
Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.
The Pitch: Peering Eyes and Multiple Endings
Sliver really should be mandatory viewing for any “Basic Instinct” fan — or any lover of Sharon Stone noirs, for that matter. Stone reunites with “Basic Instinct” screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for this 1993 erotic thriller that feels more like a Brian De Palma-esque satire on the genre itself. Mixed with the paranoia of surveillance technology, the voyeurism of “Body Double,” and the dual campy performances from Billy Baldwin and Tom Berenger as part of a twisted love triangle, “Sliver” is the ‘90s film you’ve never heard of but will adore.
First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.
Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.
The Pitch: Peering Eyes and Multiple Endings
Sliver really should be mandatory viewing for any “Basic Instinct” fan — or any lover of Sharon Stone noirs, for that matter. Stone reunites with “Basic Instinct” screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for this 1993 erotic thriller that feels more like a Brian De Palma-esque satire on the genre itself. Mixed with the paranoia of surveillance technology, the voyeurism of “Body Double,” and the dual campy performances from Billy Baldwin and Tom Berenger as part of a twisted love triangle, “Sliver” is the ‘90s film you’ve never heard of but will adore.
- 6/1/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson and Alison Foreman
- Indiewire
Image Source: Amazon While Basic Instinct was a huge hit with movie audiences back in 1992, critics were, at the time, underwhelmed. The film’s three stars — Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, and Jeanne Tripplehorn — all wound up with Golden Raspberry nominations for their performances. With the passage of time, however, Basic Instinct has undergone a critical re-evaluation, with several critics now believing it’s one of the essential films of its era. Regardless of its outside reception, though, Douglas will always look back at Basic Instinct as one of his most difficult films. As he said at the time of its release, the Joe Eszterhas script guaranteed that he wouldn’t be getting much rest during the shoot. (Click on the media bar below to hear Michael Douglas) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Michael_Douglas_Basic_Instinct_.mp3
Basic Instinct is available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and most digital platforms.
The post Basically,...
Basic Instinct is available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and most digital platforms.
The post Basically,...
- 5/15/2024
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
A little bit of sex is always appreciated in movies and TV shows and a lot of it also doesn’t go unnoticed I am looking at you Fifty Shades of Grey and its half-a-billion-dollar box office earnings. If you also love steamy movies and shows then this article is for you as we are here to list the most erotic films and TV shows you can find on Prime Video. So, here are the most steamiest movies and TV shows you should watch on Prime Video.
Somebody I Used to Know (Movie) Credit – Amazon Studios
Somebody I Used to Know is a romantic comedy film directed by Dave Franco from a screenplay co-written by the real-life couple Franco and Alison Brie. The 2023 film follows the story of Ally, a workaholic TV producer who goes on a trip to her hometown where she meets her ex-boyfriend who is about to...
Somebody I Used to Know (Movie) Credit – Amazon Studios
Somebody I Used to Know is a romantic comedy film directed by Dave Franco from a screenplay co-written by the real-life couple Franco and Alison Brie. The 2023 film follows the story of Ally, a workaholic TV producer who goes on a trip to her hometown where she meets her ex-boyfriend who is about to...
- 5/14/2024
- by Kulwant Singh
- Cinema Blind
Even as he collected his martini, the burly stranger who introduced himself as “Joe” exuded an aura of belligerence. We were standing on the fringe of a post-screening reception, so, hand extended, I blurted, “Did the movie work for you?”
“It was blah,” he replied. “Given what they spent for the script, they should have made a powerful f*ckin’ movie.”
At the time I didn‘t realize I was talking with Joe Eszterhas, who had made $4 million from sale of his script — more an auction than a sale and hardly “blah.” Joe and several estimable writing colleagues were participants in what came to be known in the mid-‘80s as the “Writers Rebellion,” a moment when top screenwriters decided to reinvent what they considered a broken system for propagating their creative product.
The rebellion was not as momentous as, say, the French Revolution, but its drama and rhetoric for...
“It was blah,” he replied. “Given what they spent for the script, they should have made a powerful f*ckin’ movie.”
At the time I didn‘t realize I was talking with Joe Eszterhas, who had made $4 million from sale of his script — more an auction than a sale and hardly “blah.” Joe and several estimable writing colleagues were participants in what came to be known in the mid-‘80s as the “Writers Rebellion,” a moment when top screenwriters decided to reinvent what they considered a broken system for propagating their creative product.
The rebellion was not as momentous as, say, the French Revolution, but its drama and rhetoric for...
- 4/11/2024
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Once a punchline, now a classic, Paul Verhoeven’s lusty Las Vegas spin on “All About Eve” was destroyed by critics at its release in 1995. But how many movies from that same period can boast a 1,200-seat sell-out at the Academy Museum’s Geffen Theater all these years later?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s star (and that year’s Razzie-winner) Elizabeth Berkley received no less than three standing ovations during her introduction on Wednesday.
She told the crowd that the property was so hot at the time that she asked her agent if it could mean an Academy Award nomination. “Every girl in Hollywood had fought for this role,” she said.
While recognizing now that was a bit of wishful thinking she did salute the audience that “got” the movie from day one.
“[‘Showgirls’] really pushed the boundaries at that time that now have been embraced — not misunderstood but truly embraced.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s star (and that year’s Razzie-winner) Elizabeth Berkley received no less than three standing ovations during her introduction on Wednesday.
She told the crowd that the property was so hot at the time that she asked her agent if it could mean an Academy Award nomination. “Every girl in Hollywood had fought for this role,” she said.
While recognizing now that was a bit of wishful thinking she did salute the audience that “got” the movie from day one.
“[‘Showgirls’] really pushed the boundaries at that time that now have been embraced — not misunderstood but truly embraced.
- 3/21/2024
- by Jordan Hoffman
- Gold Derby
A sold-out crowd of 1,200 Showgirls lovers gave the film’s star Elizabeth Berkley three standing ovations during her introduction of the much-maligned, then adored 1995 camp classic at a screening at the Academy Museum’s David Geffen Theater on Wednesday.
Berkley, 49, looked radiant as she addressed the audience in glittery eyeshadow and a tailored tuxedo. She noted in her remarks that she once asked her agent after getting cast in Showgirls if there was a chance she might be nominated for an Oscar for the part. “Every girl in Hollywood had fought for this role,” she said. “So it was not a strange thing to ask.”
“So tonight I’d like to thank the Academy …. Museum,” Berkley said, to cheers from the audience.
A visibly moved Berkeley told the crowd that Showgirls “really pushed the boundaries at that time that now have been embraced — not misunderstood but truly embraced. And I...
Berkley, 49, looked radiant as she addressed the audience in glittery eyeshadow and a tailored tuxedo. She noted in her remarks that she once asked her agent after getting cast in Showgirls if there was a chance she might be nominated for an Oscar for the part. “Every girl in Hollywood had fought for this role,” she said. “So it was not a strange thing to ask.”
“So tonight I’d like to thank the Academy …. Museum,” Berkley said, to cheers from the audience.
A visibly moved Berkeley told the crowd that Showgirls “really pushed the boundaries at that time that now have been embraced — not misunderstood but truly embraced. And I...
- 3/21/2024
- by Seth Abramovitch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It’s been more than 30 years since Sharon Stone and William Baldwin starred together in the 1993 flop Sliver. But recent revelations and controversies surrounding the movie reeks of unhappy moments and alleged pressure that Stone had to face while filming. According to reports, while the erotic thriller failed due to lack of chemistry, the actress revealed how she didn’t even want to star alongside Baldwin.
Sharon Stone in Sliver (1993)
Considering William Baldwin a “boy”, Sharon Stone complained about his involvement in the movie. Instead of the younger Baldwin brother, the actress actually wanted his more famous and accomplished older brother, Alec Baldwin, to play her mysterious seducer in Sliver.
Sharon Stone’s Controversial Allegations Against William Baldwin
Famously known for appearing in erotic thrillers like 1992’s Basic Instinct, Sharon Stone recently made headlines for her 1993 thriller Sliver. Starring alongside William Baldwin in the movie, Stone sparked controversies for a...
Sharon Stone in Sliver (1993)
Considering William Baldwin a “boy”, Sharon Stone complained about his involvement in the movie. Instead of the younger Baldwin brother, the actress actually wanted his more famous and accomplished older brother, Alec Baldwin, to play her mysterious seducer in Sliver.
Sharon Stone’s Controversial Allegations Against William Baldwin
Famously known for appearing in erotic thrillers like 1992’s Basic Instinct, Sharon Stone recently made headlines for her 1993 thriller Sliver. Starring alongside William Baldwin in the movie, Stone sparked controversies for a...
- 3/15/2024
- by Krittika Mukherjee
- FandomWire
Sliver is a movie most of us probably haven’t thought about since we last saw it in the dollar bin. But here we are more than 30 years later discussing Sharon Stone, William Baldwin and their steamy sex scene…As it turns out, there is a pretty awful backstory to it, with Stone recently naming producer Robert Evans as the one who tried to coax her into having actual sex with Baldwin in order to improve his performance. And we all saw how that turned out…Now, Baldwin is attacking Stone, saying she must still have the hots for him if she’s digging up old dirt.
Taking to X following Stone’s Sliver revelation, Baldwin wrote, “Not sure why Sharon Stone keep talking about me all these years later? Does she still have a crush on me or is she still hurt after all these years because I shunned her advances?...
Taking to X following Stone’s Sliver revelation, Baldwin wrote, “Not sure why Sharon Stone keep talking about me all these years later? Does she still have a crush on me or is she still hurt after all these years because I shunned her advances?...
- 3/13/2024
- by Mathew Plale
- JoBlo.com
Steven Spielberg’s Oskar Schindler almost looked vastly different.
The auteur’s Oscar-winning 1994 film “Schindler’s List” was led by Liam Neeson, who portrayed the real-life German businessman who saved more than 1,200 Jews from the Nazis during World War II. However, according to CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz, Mel Gibson was briefly considered for the title role.
“Mel Gibson’s name came up. He was interested. His agent put him forward,” Ovitz told The Hollywood Reporter in a 30th anniversary retrospective cover story. “But it wasn’t going to happen. Steven wanted a non-movie star for the part.”
At the time, pre-“Braveheart,” Gibson was coming off of three “Lethal Weapon” movies.
There were others considered — Neeson recounted in the oral history hearing Harrison Ford and Kevin Costner as well — though Spielberg was personally not naming names.
“A lot of people were interested in playing Schindler, and a lot of them were movie stars,...
The auteur’s Oscar-winning 1994 film “Schindler’s List” was led by Liam Neeson, who portrayed the real-life German businessman who saved more than 1,200 Jews from the Nazis during World War II. However, according to CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz, Mel Gibson was briefly considered for the title role.
“Mel Gibson’s name came up. He was interested. His agent put him forward,” Ovitz told The Hollywood Reporter in a 30th anniversary retrospective cover story. “But it wasn’t going to happen. Steven wanted a non-movie star for the part.”
At the time, pre-“Braveheart,” Gibson was coming off of three “Lethal Weapon” movies.
There were others considered — Neeson recounted in the oral history hearing Harrison Ford and Kevin Costner as well — though Spielberg was personally not naming names.
“A lot of people were interested in playing Schindler, and a lot of them were movie stars,...
- 2/21/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
As a young boy growing up in Budapest, a town that would come to be known as “Hollywood on the Danube,” Béla Bunyik dreamed of being in the pictures. “I fell in love with movies in Hungary back in the ’50s,” Bunyik tells Variety. “When I was 12 years old, I started to work as an extra in a few movies…. In 1953, I spent a whole summer with a bunch of kids and some of the best Hungarian actors at the time.”
He recalls being picked up after school by talent scouts and cutting his teeth on the sets of films like Viktor Gertler’s 1954 adventure-comedy “Me and My Grandfather.” “Seeing how a movie was done was very exciting for me and I was sad when the summer ended, and the film was shut,” he says. But those formative years sparked a lifelong obsession. “I got hooked.”
Bunyik would later emigrate to the U.
He recalls being picked up after school by talent scouts and cutting his teeth on the sets of films like Viktor Gertler’s 1954 adventure-comedy “Me and My Grandfather.” “Seeing how a movie was done was very exciting for me and I was sad when the summer ended, and the film was shut,” he says. But those formative years sparked a lifelong obsession. “I got hooked.”
Bunyik would later emigrate to the U.
- 10/22/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
When Sharon Stone steps in front of the camera, it's basically over for her costars. Even in an underwritten role (and she spent the first decade of her career making the most out of nothing parts), she's the person you've got to watch -- and it's not always to the film's benefit. After she finally earned her richly deserved stardom, she had a propensity to dominate. This could be a product of having been passed over for major roles until she was in her thirties. Whatever the reason, once she seized the spotlight, she wasn't letting go, and she stole whole movies from very good actors as a result.
Unfortunately, many of these movies weren't worth stealing, and this, coupled with a Sean Penn-esque surfeit of candor in interviews, has possibly hardened moviegoers, who should be lobbying for a career revival as they've rightfully done for greats such as Michelle Pfeiffer,...
Unfortunately, many of these movies weren't worth stealing, and this, coupled with a Sean Penn-esque surfeit of candor in interviews, has possibly hardened moviegoers, who should be lobbying for a career revival as they've rightfully done for greats such as Michelle Pfeiffer,...
- 9/23/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
For those of a certain age who like to think that they’re still young — and who doesn’t? — it is sobering to realize that when Michael Ovitz bowed out of the agency business in 1995, neither Tom Holland nor Zendaya had even been born.
People who weren’t around in those days can’t begin to appreciate the fear that Ovitz inspired in Hollywood. He wielded the kind of power that no agent has mustered since and no agent ever will again. How the times and the town have changed.
One thing has remained constant in all the years since Ovitz left the building: Three then-young men who had emerged as future leaders of CAA well before Ovitz departed are still at the helm. Perhaps in spite of himself, Ovitz nailed the succession question that has led to so much drama at Disney and Paramount. But those three men — now...
People who weren’t around in those days can’t begin to appreciate the fear that Ovitz inspired in Hollywood. He wielded the kind of power that no agent has mustered since and no agent ever will again. How the times and the town have changed.
One thing has remained constant in all the years since Ovitz left the building: Three then-young men who had emerged as future leaders of CAA well before Ovitz departed are still at the helm. Perhaps in spite of himself, Ovitz nailed the succession question that has led to so much drama at Disney and Paramount. But those three men — now...
- 9/20/2023
- by Kim Masters
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
We come not to praise The Idol, but to bury it. That is assuming Sunday’s fifth episode is the last gasp for the widely scorned HBO series. The show’s creative team claims a five-episode season was the plan all along, scathing criticism be damned; HBO has not come out and said the series has been cancelled. But this doesn’t feel like it’s leading to a back-by-popular-demand kind of situation.
In any case, the finale was neither a bang nor a whimper. It was, rather, not quite...
In any case, the finale was neither a bang nor a whimper. It was, rather, not quite...
- 7/3/2023
- by Chris Vognar
- Rollingstone.com
All was not well with Sylvester Stallone’s career in the summer of 1995. Judge Dredd had come out, and, despite blockbuster business overseas, the film flopped in the all-important North American market. It would kick off a dry spell in Sly’s career, with many of his follow-up movies also doing poorly, to the point that in the early 2000s, he was stuck doing low-rent movies that went direct to video, such as Shade and Avenging Angelo. Of course, a major comeback for the Italian Stallion was just around the corner. Still, in this episode of Stallone Revisited, we look back at his follow-up to Judge Dredd, Assassins, which, on paper, should have been one of Sly’s classics but has gone on to become something of an obscure, underrated outing on his CV.
In the 1990s, spec scripts were all the rage. For those who don’t know, a...
In the 1990s, spec scripts were all the rage. For those who don’t know, a...
- 6/18/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
by Cláudio Alves
The Comfort Of Strangers (1990) Paul Schrader
The last time we checked on the Criterion Channel's Erotic Thrillers collection, it was to consider the voyeuristic properties of late-80s cinema. Moving on to the next decade, let's get over the nineties in one go. During this era, the erotic thriller reached its apotheosis of influence and trashiness, gradually fading into obsolescence as the millennium approached. It was an epoch of Fatal Attraction copycats and prestige-infused sensuality, a final resurgence of neo-noir aspirations, the rise and fall of Joe Eszterhas, Sharon Stone's stardom, and direct-to-video sleaze. Criterion traces these arcs through eleven titles, spotlighting great cinema and irredeemable garbage with the same gusto…...
The Comfort Of Strangers (1990) Paul Schrader
The last time we checked on the Criterion Channel's Erotic Thrillers collection, it was to consider the voyeuristic properties of late-80s cinema. Moving on to the next decade, let's get over the nineties in one go. During this era, the erotic thriller reached its apotheosis of influence and trashiness, gradually fading into obsolescence as the millennium approached. It was an epoch of Fatal Attraction copycats and prestige-infused sensuality, a final resurgence of neo-noir aspirations, the rise and fall of Joe Eszterhas, Sharon Stone's stardom, and direct-to-video sleaze. Criterion traces these arcs through eleven titles, spotlighting great cinema and irredeemable garbage with the same gusto…...
- 6/6/2023
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
HBO has long been considered the leader in prestige television programming, and, over the last five months, the 51-year-old cable network has fully reinforced this belief with the critically acclaimed first season of "The Last of Us" and the perfectly pitched conclusions of "Succession" and "Barry." But while we're still buzzing over the finales of those last two shows, you can't help but look ahead and wonder how the King of Peak TV rides this wave of hosannas to the next must-watch triumphs.
The jury is out as to whether Sam Levinson's "The Idol" will draw as many eyeballs as his wildly popular teen melodrama "Euphoria," but, judging from the critical reaction thus far (and the behind-the-scenes controversy), the series promises to be a supercharged hot-take generator. The show stars Lily-Rose Depp as an out-of-control pop star whose instability and sexual desirability is wantonly exploited to launch her to diva immortality.
The jury is out as to whether Sam Levinson's "The Idol" will draw as many eyeballs as his wildly popular teen melodrama "Euphoria," but, judging from the critical reaction thus far (and the behind-the-scenes controversy), the series promises to be a supercharged hot-take generator. The show stars Lily-Rose Depp as an out-of-control pop star whose instability and sexual desirability is wantonly exploited to launch her to diva immortality.
- 5/31/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
What The Weeknd wants, The Weeknd gets in “The Idol,” a skintastic, dark-side-of-showbiz fable that perpetuates the myth that pop stars are corporate puppets with no say in their own image-making, even as it allows hit-maker The Weeknd to call the shots.
Picture “Blonde” as Joe Eszterhas might have written it, but with better music.
After making a toe-dip cameo as himself in A24’s “Uncut Gems,” the R&b phenom-turned-tv producer plunges head-first into acting here, teaming with “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson to imagine a shady super-predator just looking to corrupt an unsuspecting young pop singer. The edgy, high-gloss HBO series, which premiered the first two of its five episodes at the Cannes Film Festival, demands a lot of star Lily-Rose Depp. She plays “rags-to-riches, trailers-to-mansions” Jocelyn, a mono-monikered Britney or Miley type who seems empowered one moment, impressionable the next.
Embracing scandal from the outset, “The Idol” opens with Jocelyn mid-photo shoot,...
Picture “Blonde” as Joe Eszterhas might have written it, but with better music.
After making a toe-dip cameo as himself in A24’s “Uncut Gems,” the R&b phenom-turned-tv producer plunges head-first into acting here, teaming with “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson to imagine a shady super-predator just looking to corrupt an unsuspecting young pop singer. The edgy, high-gloss HBO series, which premiered the first two of its five episodes at the Cannes Film Festival, demands a lot of star Lily-Rose Depp. She plays “rags-to-riches, trailers-to-mansions” Jocelyn, a mono-monikered Britney or Miley type who seems empowered one moment, impressionable the next.
Embracing scandal from the outset, “The Idol” opens with Jocelyn mid-photo shoot,...
- 5/23/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
The story of Basic Instinct begins with the writer, Joe Eszterhas. At the time, he was one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood, known for writing provocative films like Flashdance, Jagged Edge and Betrayed. Eszterhas had written three movies in a row where his male lead had emotionally manipulated the woman who loved him, so the writer wanted to flip the dynamic, to write a thriller where an evil woman controlled a man effortlessly through mind games and sex. He was fascinated and frightened by the notions of thrill killings and homicidal impulses, and delved into writing the thriller, a combination film noir and detective mystery. Three weeks later, he was done, a script he called “Love Hurts” until changing the title to Basic Instinct the day he sent it to his agent.
His agent was knocked out by it, and soon enough they were holding an auction for every major studio in Hollywood.
His agent was knocked out by it, and soon enough they were holding an auction for every major studio in Hollywood.
- 4/19/2023
- by Eric Walkuski
- JoBlo.com
The makers of Flashdance hoped for a hit, but no one had a feeling it would become a generation-defining sensation.
The Paramount film marked the first collaboration of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, later known for blockbusters like Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun. With a script co-written by Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct), Flashdance centered on Alex, a teenage welder in Pittsburgh who spends her nights performing at a cabaret bar but dreams of becoming a professional dancer.
Bruckheimer remembers the film’s team struggling to choose the lead, but that director Adrian Lyne was sold on newcomer Jennifer Beals. “The bosses at Paramount couldn’t make up their minds, so they brought all the secretaries in to view the screen tests, and they all picked Jennifer,” Bruckheimer tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Among the performers in the mix for the male lead of Nick, the steel mill owner who falls for employee Alex,...
The Paramount film marked the first collaboration of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, later known for blockbusters like Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun. With a script co-written by Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct), Flashdance centered on Alex, a teenage welder in Pittsburgh who spends her nights performing at a cabaret bar but dreams of becoming a professional dancer.
Bruckheimer remembers the film’s team struggling to choose the lead, but that director Adrian Lyne was sold on newcomer Jennifer Beals. “The bosses at Paramount couldn’t make up their minds, so they brought all the secretaries in to view the screen tests, and they all picked Jennifer,” Bruckheimer tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Among the performers in the mix for the male lead of Nick, the steel mill owner who falls for employee Alex,...
- 4/14/2023
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we usually talk about movie stars and not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between.
Today is a very special episode with a very special guest. Karina Longworth of the incredible You Must Remember This podcast joins us––ahead of the release of her new season “Erotic 90s”––to discuss Erotic 90s B-Sides like Sliver, Boxing Helena, and Jade.
We discuss the era of Joe Eszterhas, the appeal of Sliver, the failure of Jade, and the fractured ambition of Boxing Helena. We also discuss the famous Kim Basinger lawsuit that goes along with the film. Basic Instinct and its ignored sequel (Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction) are also discussed, and this line read gets a lot of time. Oh and, just for fun, enjoy this clip of Jim Carrey impersonating David Caruso on CSI: Miami.
Today is a very special episode with a very special guest. Karina Longworth of the incredible You Must Remember This podcast joins us––ahead of the release of her new season “Erotic 90s”––to discuss Erotic 90s B-Sides like Sliver, Boxing Helena, and Jade.
We discuss the era of Joe Eszterhas, the appeal of Sliver, the failure of Jade, and the fractured ambition of Boxing Helena. We also discuss the famous Kim Basinger lawsuit that goes along with the film. Basic Instinct and its ignored sequel (Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction) are also discussed, and this line read gets a lot of time. Oh and, just for fun, enjoy this clip of Jim Carrey impersonating David Caruso on CSI: Miami.
- 3/24/2023
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
A brilliant negotiator, Lew Wasserman was the ex-agent who presided over the vast McA Universal media empire from his black tower. He favored black suits and austere offices and seemed to convey stress as he strolled about his kingdom.
Wasserman seemed always in a state of negotiation: He not only hammered out deals for new projects but also union and guild agreements for the entire industry and antitrust deals governing acquisitions like Decca Records. He even helped negotiate divorce settlements for the stars he once represented like Clark Gable and Myrna Loy.
Related Story Historically, The WGA Is Overdue For A Strike, With Residuals Again A Key Issue Of Upcoming Talks Related Story Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher Trevor Bauer Reinstated, Team Has 24 Days To Decide His Fate – Update Related Story Sean Connery Foundation Established To Honor Actor's Legacy Through Grants In Scotland & Bahamas
Wasserman likely would have relished this Hollywood moment,...
Wasserman seemed always in a state of negotiation: He not only hammered out deals for new projects but also union and guild agreements for the entire industry and antitrust deals governing acquisitions like Decca Records. He even helped negotiate divorce settlements for the stars he once represented like Clark Gable and Myrna Loy.
Related Story Historically, The WGA Is Overdue For A Strike, With Residuals Again A Key Issue Of Upcoming Talks Related Story Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher Trevor Bauer Reinstated, Team Has 24 Days To Decide His Fate – Update Related Story Sean Connery Foundation Established To Honor Actor's Legacy Through Grants In Scotland & Bahamas
Wasserman likely would have relished this Hollywood moment,...
- 12/29/2022
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Paul Verhoeven’s steamy, button-pushing thriller became a cultural phenomenon in 1992, making a star of Sharon Stone
Thirty years ago, Basic Instinct was all anyone could talk about. Before our current age of Insta-controversies and aggregated showbiz news, it was widely known that screenwriter Joe Eszterhas had sold his screenplay for a record $3m and that demonstrators in San Francisco, including Eszterhas himself, had protested against the film’s association of lesbianism with violent psychosis. It was known that director Paul Verhoeven had battled the MPAA from an Nc-17 rating to the hardest of R ratings in the states, and it took no time for buzz to circulate about the famed interrogation scene, where Catherine Trammell, the author and might-be murderess played by Sharon Stone, uncrosses her legs before a roomful of sweat-drenched men.
It would not be accurate to think about an artist of Verhoeven’s stature as a troll,...
Thirty years ago, Basic Instinct was all anyone could talk about. Before our current age of Insta-controversies and aggregated showbiz news, it was widely known that screenwriter Joe Eszterhas had sold his screenplay for a record $3m and that demonstrators in San Francisco, including Eszterhas himself, had protested against the film’s association of lesbianism with violent psychosis. It was known that director Paul Verhoeven had battled the MPAA from an Nc-17 rating to the hardest of R ratings in the states, and it took no time for buzz to circulate about the famed interrogation scene, where Catherine Trammell, the author and might-be murderess played by Sharon Stone, uncrosses her legs before a roomful of sweat-drenched men.
It would not be accurate to think about an artist of Verhoeven’s stature as a troll,...
- 3/20/2022
- by Scott Tobias
- The Guardian - Film News
“Basic Instinct” was a landmark for erotic thrillers, and few of its kind have bested it since.
Paul Verhoeven’s twisted murder mystery debuted March 20, 1992, and grossed over $352 million worldwide as audiences fell for the psychological game between an overworked and under-loved cop (Michael Douglas) and a novelist (Sharon Stone) who might be an ice pick-wielding murderer. Jeanne Tripplehorn marked her film debut as Dr. Beth Garner.
Yet the true mystery remains just how intense the behind-the-scenes production for “Basic” really was. The San Francisco-set psychological whodunnit led to backlash, nightmares, and intense set confrontations.
Even after Stone previously starred in Verhoeven’s “Total Recall,” she had to fight her way into the audition room for “Basic Instinct.” And that famed leg-crossing interrogation scene? Well, it lacked consent about the Nsfw camera angle.
While Verhoeven later teamed up with “Basic Instinct” screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for 1995’s “Showgirls,” “Basic Instinct” spawned a 2006 sequel,...
Paul Verhoeven’s twisted murder mystery debuted March 20, 1992, and grossed over $352 million worldwide as audiences fell for the psychological game between an overworked and under-loved cop (Michael Douglas) and a novelist (Sharon Stone) who might be an ice pick-wielding murderer. Jeanne Tripplehorn marked her film debut as Dr. Beth Garner.
Yet the true mystery remains just how intense the behind-the-scenes production for “Basic” really was. The San Francisco-set psychological whodunnit led to backlash, nightmares, and intense set confrontations.
Even after Stone previously starred in Verhoeven’s “Total Recall,” she had to fight her way into the audition room for “Basic Instinct.” And that famed leg-crossing interrogation scene? Well, it lacked consent about the Nsfw camera angle.
While Verhoeven later teamed up with “Basic Instinct” screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for 1995’s “Showgirls,” “Basic Instinct” spawned a 2006 sequel,...
- 3/19/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Bulgaria’s Cash Rebate Backs First Projects
Bulgaria has officially introduced its 25% cash rebate program, and the first three projects to shoot under the scheme have now been set. The films are: Crossing, a “major studio production” that is keeping details under-wraps; The Herd, a Bulgarian majority coproduction directed by Milko Lazarov, known for his Berlinale 2018 closing film Aga and produced by Red Carpet Films’ Vesselka Kiriakova; and The Caller, directed by Richard Switzer and produced by Tylor Konney. Each project will be eligible to recoup €1.1M from the rebate. The scheme is operated by the Bulgarian Film Commission Foundation, which was formed in September 2021. “This is a long awaited step in the further development of the film industry in Bulgaria. I am extremely happy to have had the opportunity, as a CEO of the Bulgarian National Film Center (2017-2021), to work for the introduction of the necessary changes in the Bulgarian Film Act,...
Bulgaria has officially introduced its 25% cash rebate program, and the first three projects to shoot under the scheme have now been set. The films are: Crossing, a “major studio production” that is keeping details under-wraps; The Herd, a Bulgarian majority coproduction directed by Milko Lazarov, known for his Berlinale 2018 closing film Aga and produced by Red Carpet Films’ Vesselka Kiriakova; and The Caller, directed by Richard Switzer and produced by Tylor Konney. Each project will be eligible to recoup €1.1M from the rebate. The scheme is operated by the Bulgarian Film Commission Foundation, which was formed in September 2021. “This is a long awaited step in the further development of the film industry in Bulgaria. I am extremely happy to have had the opportunity, as a CEO of the Bulgarian National Film Center (2017-2021), to work for the introduction of the necessary changes in the Bulgarian Film Act,...
- 1/28/2022
- by Tom Grater and Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
To mark the release of Basic Instinct, out now, we’ve been given a copy to give away on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.
As boundary-pushing today as it was in 1992, Basic Instinct redefined the erotic thriller genre and remains a must-see for audiences globally. Featuring one of the most talked about scenes in film history, Basic Instinct is a blistering portrayal of sexual obsession, murder and betrayal.
Michael Douglas stars as hardboiled San Francisco detective Nick Curran, a troubled cop with a history of trigger-happy shootings and a weakness for beautiful women and dangerous relationships. Sharon Stone is Catherine Tramell, a stunning, enigmatic novelist with a talent for seduction and a history of relationships that end in death. The death of a former rock star sends Nick into the orbit of the victim’s lover, Catherine, who immediately becomes prime suspect in the murder. Catherine ignites Nick’s suspicions and his passion,...
As boundary-pushing today as it was in 1992, Basic Instinct redefined the erotic thriller genre and remains a must-see for audiences globally. Featuring one of the most talked about scenes in film history, Basic Instinct is a blistering portrayal of sexual obsession, murder and betrayal.
Michael Douglas stars as hardboiled San Francisco detective Nick Curran, a troubled cop with a history of trigger-happy shootings and a weakness for beautiful women and dangerous relationships. Sharon Stone is Catherine Tramell, a stunning, enigmatic novelist with a talent for seduction and a history of relationships that end in death. The death of a former rock star sends Nick into the orbit of the victim’s lover, Catherine, who immediately becomes prime suspect in the murder. Catherine ignites Nick’s suspicions and his passion,...
- 6/18/2021
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
With Paul Verhoeven’s newest film Benedetta confirmed for the Cannes Film Festival lineup this summer, one of his most acclaimed works has been newly restored and is arriving across the world this year. Basic Instinct, the erotic thriller that marked his third Hollywood feature, was restored throughout 2019 and 2020 from the original 35mm negative and supervised by Verhoeven.
Backed by StudioCanal, Variety reports the restoration of the Michael Douglas- and Sharon Stone-led 1992 classic will arrive theatrically in France beginning on June 16, followed by an Australia and New Zealand debut on June 17 and a to-be-determined U.S. run in theaters. In the U.K, it’ll get Ultra HD, Blu-Ray, DVD and Steelbook editions arriving on June 14, followed by home video releases in France (June 16), Germany (June 17), Australia (July 7), and New Zealand (July 14).
“We quickly realized that the negatives corresponded to the short version of the film,” Studiocanal project manager Sophie Boyer said,...
Backed by StudioCanal, Variety reports the restoration of the Michael Douglas- and Sharon Stone-led 1992 classic will arrive theatrically in France beginning on June 16, followed by an Australia and New Zealand debut on June 17 and a to-be-determined U.S. run in theaters. In the U.K, it’ll get Ultra HD, Blu-Ray, DVD and Steelbook editions arriving on June 14, followed by home video releases in France (June 16), Germany (June 17), Australia (July 7), and New Zealand (July 14).
“We quickly realized that the negatives corresponded to the short version of the film,” Studiocanal project manager Sophie Boyer said,...
- 4/21/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
‘Basic Instinct’ Gets 4K Restoration by Studiocanal, Set for Theatrical, Home Entertainment Releases
Studiocanal has commissioned the 4K restoration of Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 cult erotic thriller “Basic Instinct,” which will be released in multiple territories.
The film was restored through 2019 and 2020 from the original 35Mm negative and supervised by the director himself, with some bonus material from Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas.
The restored version will soon be launched in France theatrically, through the banner Carlotta, and on home entertainment on June 16. The movie will also be released in cinemas in Australia and New Zealand on June 17, followed by a theatrical roll-out in the U.S. handled by Rialto Pictures.
Studiocanal will also launch the film on Ultra HD, Blu-Ray, DVD and Steelbook editions in the U.K. on June 14; Germany on June 17, Australia on July 7, and New Zealand on July 14.
The company tapped Flore Maquin, the French graphic artist behind the Cannes Film Festival poster designs of 2018 and 2019, to create two artworks...
The film was restored through 2019 and 2020 from the original 35Mm negative and supervised by the director himself, with some bonus material from Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas.
The restored version will soon be launched in France theatrically, through the banner Carlotta, and on home entertainment on June 16. The movie will also be released in cinemas in Australia and New Zealand on June 17, followed by a theatrical roll-out in the U.S. handled by Rialto Pictures.
Studiocanal will also launch the film on Ultra HD, Blu-Ray, DVD and Steelbook editions in the U.K. on June 14; Germany on June 17, Australia on July 7, and New Zealand on July 14.
The company tapped Flore Maquin, the French graphic artist behind the Cannes Film Festival poster designs of 2018 and 2019, to create two artworks...
- 4/21/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The director of Over The Edge and The Accused takes us on a journey through some of his favorite movies.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Student Teachers (1973)
Night Call Nurses (1972)
White Line Fever (1975)
Truck Turner (1974)
Heart Like A Wheel (1983)
The Accused (1988)
Over The Edge (1979)
Modern Times (1936)
City Lights (1931)
Manhattan (1979)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
North By Northwest (1959)
Moon Pilot (1962)
Mr. Billion (1977)
White Heat (1949)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Three Musketeers (1973)
The Four Musketeers (1974)
Superman (1978)
Superman II (1980)
The Three Musketeers (1948)
Shane (1953)
The 400 Blows (1959)
8 ½ (1963)
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
Richard (1972)
Millhouse (1971)
The Projectionist (1970)
El Dorado (1966)
The Shootist (1976)
Woodstock (1970)
Payback (1999)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Billy Liar (1963)
Ford Vs Ferrari (2019)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
Bad Girls (1994)
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Giant (1956)
The More The Merrier (1943)
The Graduate (1967)
The Victors (1963)
…And Justice For All (1979)
Citizen Kane (1941)
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Student Teachers (1973)
Night Call Nurses (1972)
White Line Fever (1975)
Truck Turner (1974)
Heart Like A Wheel (1983)
The Accused (1988)
Over The Edge (1979)
Modern Times (1936)
City Lights (1931)
Manhattan (1979)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
North By Northwest (1959)
Moon Pilot (1962)
Mr. Billion (1977)
White Heat (1949)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Three Musketeers (1973)
The Four Musketeers (1974)
Superman (1978)
Superman II (1980)
The Three Musketeers (1948)
Shane (1953)
The 400 Blows (1959)
8 ½ (1963)
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
Richard (1972)
Millhouse (1971)
The Projectionist (1970)
El Dorado (1966)
The Shootist (1976)
Woodstock (1970)
Payback (1999)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Billy Liar (1963)
Ford Vs Ferrari (2019)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
Bad Girls (1994)
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Giant (1956)
The More The Merrier (1943)
The Graduate (1967)
The Victors (1963)
…And Justice For All (1979)
Citizen Kane (1941)
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn...
- 7/7/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Mel Gibson is as well known for starring in hits like Mad Max, Braveheart and Lethal Weapon as he is for his unhinged 2006 rant where, after being stopped by a traffic cop while drunk driving, he responded with: “F**king Jews… the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?” Thus began a long process of image rehabilitation, somewhat derailed by a 2010 incident in which he told the mother of his child that if she was “raped by a pack of n****rs” she would be to blame.
Despite all that, Gibson’s career rumbles on, with Hacksaw Ridge getting him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Next up for him is a long-in-development sequel to The Passion of the Christ and a World War II movie called Destroyer. But now he’s back in the news for being insanely racist again, and...
Despite all that, Gibson’s career rumbles on, with Hacksaw Ridge getting him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Next up for him is a long-in-development sequel to The Passion of the Christ and a World War II movie called Destroyer. But now he’s back in the news for being insanely racist again, and...
- 6/24/2020
- by David James
- We Got This Covered
The perverse critical power of Paul Verhoeven’s outrageous 1995 melodrama is dissected in this affectionate documentary
It’s 25 years since screenwriter Joe Eszterhas and director Paul Verhoeven released their jaw-dropping example of what can only be called hardcore soft porn: Showgirls, the story of a tough, sexy dancer called Nomi arriving in Las Vegas longing to make it in the bafflingly unprestigious world of hotel entertainment erotica floorshows. She was played by Elizabeth Berkley, who, with Verhoeven’s encouragement, delivered her character like a Stepford-Westworld sexbot: toggling with lightning speed between badass pouting, sultry smirking and explosive tantrums.
This documentary from Jeffrey McHale is an affectionate account of how this film has been rehabilitated. It was at first mocked by the critics, then showered with Razzies, which Verhoeven accepted in person like a good sport – the first step in its long, ironically humorous upward march. Showgirls then had an afterlife as a campy midnight-movie event,...
It’s 25 years since screenwriter Joe Eszterhas and director Paul Verhoeven released their jaw-dropping example of what can only be called hardcore soft porn: Showgirls, the story of a tough, sexy dancer called Nomi arriving in Las Vegas longing to make it in the bafflingly unprestigious world of hotel entertainment erotica floorshows. She was played by Elizabeth Berkley, who, with Verhoeven’s encouragement, delivered her character like a Stepford-Westworld sexbot: toggling with lightning speed between badass pouting, sultry smirking and explosive tantrums.
This documentary from Jeffrey McHale is an affectionate account of how this film has been rehabilitated. It was at first mocked by the critics, then showered with Razzies, which Verhoeven accepted in person like a good sport – the first step in its long, ironically humorous upward march. Showgirls then had an afterlife as a campy midnight-movie event,...
- 6/11/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
When “Showgirls” opened in the fall of 1995, it was mocked and damned with more derision than the usual movie debacle. That’s because, according to the conventional view, it was not just a bad movie but an unspeakably vulgar bad movie. Directed by the talented Euro sensationalist Paul Verhoeven, from a script by the top-dollar pasha of tabloid high concept Joe Eszterhas, it was “All About Eve” remade as a glitzy Vegas trash opera of live flesh, and it was perceived as having committed a kind of double sin. Yes, it was tacky and pulpy, sleazy and over-the-top. But part of what drove the collective nose-thumbing was a kind of lingering American puritanism that said: A movie that dives into a swamp this sordid, drinking in the voyeuristic shallowness of it all, has to be ridiculed. “Showgirls” was its own category of disaster, a Hollywood bomb that exposed itself with full-frontal shamelessness.
- 6/10/2020
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
A selection of last year's film festivals such as Tribeca, Fantastic Fest, Sidewalk, Outfest, Stiges, Bifan, You Don't Nomi is the first documentary by Jeffrey McHale, who wrote, directed, and produced. It's streaming today, so why not have a fun double feature of craziness and camp? As you may have heard by now, You Don't Nomi is based on the history of the troubled reception of the 1995 "trashterpiece," Showgirls. That 2-hour-plus opus of can't-look-away ridiculousness was helmed by titan Paul Verhoeven. He'd teamed up again with highly paid screenwriter Joe Eszterhas to create an over-the-top indictment of the meat market that is Las Vegas' show scene. It's a strange movie to watch if you're a feminist... but honestly, it's a strange...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/9/2020
- Screen Anarchy
You Don't Nomi Interview: Director Jeffrey McHale on the Unique Legacy of Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls
After the success of Basic Instinct, director Paul Verhoeven joined forces again with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for another highly provocative and sexually-charged film, the biggest Nc-17-rated studio release ever: Showgirls, which follows a young woman during her adventure in the Las Vegas showbiz, where she begins working as a stripper to later join the cast of a top musical show lead by star Cristal (Gina Gershon) and director Zack (Kyle MacLachlan). No one really anticipated what was coming after Showgirls was unleashed in September 1995. It was reviled and mocked by film critics, ultimately bombed at the box office, and the Dutch director gained notoriety when...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/8/2020
- Screen Anarchy
Why would anyone want to make a documentary about the film, as well as the legacy of, Showgirls? Well, according to You Don’t Nomi, there’s a multitude of reasons. The doc, opening on Tuesday, doesn’t always provide the most compelling of arguments, but it does have its heart in the right place, as well as enthusiasm to spare. That’s what ultimately makes the movie work, giving it a slightly flawed kinship to the highly flawed cult flick it’s paying tribute to. If you love Showgirls, you’ll fall hard for this one, but if you hate Showgirls, this might actually be your entry point into seeing the other side of the argument. The film is a long form documentary essay on the cult classic/once reviled work Showgirls, which was met by audiences and critics upon its release with near universal derision, hatred, and mockery.
- 6/7/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
‘Showgirls’ Turns 25: Here Are 6 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Camp Classic (Guest Blog)
Notoriously criticized and reviled by mainstream audiences upon its release, Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 erotic Vegas odyssey “Showgirls” secured its cult status thanks to the queer community that’s kept this “masterpiece of s—” alive for the last 25 years. Audience-driven revival antics and homages have prompted some to see it in a new light or at least appreciate it differently as a movie that deserves its own place in film history.
What began as a personal quest to better understand my own fascination with this complicated film evolved into my first feature documentary, “You Don’t Nomi.” Here are a few interesting facts I learned along the way.
1. “Showgirls,” a movie about a volatile and combative stripper-turned-dancer on the Las Vegas strip, was originally pitched as a big, splashy MGM-style Hollywood musical
Dutch auteur Paul Verhoeven had become an unlikely Hollywood powerhouse. After directing two blockbuster popcorn flicks, “Robocop” and “Total Recall,...
What began as a personal quest to better understand my own fascination with this complicated film evolved into my first feature documentary, “You Don’t Nomi.” Here are a few interesting facts I learned along the way.
1. “Showgirls,” a movie about a volatile and combative stripper-turned-dancer on the Las Vegas strip, was originally pitched as a big, splashy MGM-style Hollywood musical
Dutch auteur Paul Verhoeven had become an unlikely Hollywood powerhouse. After directing two blockbuster popcorn flicks, “Robocop” and “Total Recall,...
- 5/31/2020
- by Jeffrey McHale
- The Wrap
The rituals of awards season are ideal for surrounding hits with glitz, but some big-budget movies with mixed reviews can get lost in the smoke and mirrors. Consider the case of three of history’s priciest creature features — Dolittle, Underwater and Cats — all opening quietly amidst Oscar distractions, and leaving potential write-offs surpassing $100 million. They are anomalies – intriguing movies that distributors couldn’t quite figure out how to sell.
In Dolittle, an assemblage of animals chat cheerfully with Robert Downey Jr., while in Cats a phalanx of felines artfully sing and dance. Both movies, while polar opposites, deliver memorable moments of wit and charm, albeit obscured by conceptual hazards. In Underwater, Kristen Stewart copes with creepy crawlies that don’t seem to scare anyone except critics (a 53% Rotten Tomatoes score).
Awards season inspires filmmakers to reflect on the tenuous line between success and failure (see grim details below). “Audiences don...
In Dolittle, an assemblage of animals chat cheerfully with Robert Downey Jr., while in Cats a phalanx of felines artfully sing and dance. Both movies, while polar opposites, deliver memorable moments of wit and charm, albeit obscured by conceptual hazards. In Underwater, Kristen Stewart copes with creepy crawlies that don’t seem to scare anyone except critics (a 53% Rotten Tomatoes score).
Awards season inspires filmmakers to reflect on the tenuous line between success and failure (see grim details below). “Audiences don...
- 1/17/2020
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Jack Beresford Jan 6, 2020
Back in the early '90s, saucy thrillers were the cinematic genre du jour. We take a look at some of the key milestones…
Moviegoers have VHS to thank for the glut of erotic thrillers that arrived in theaters and video stores over the first half of the 1990s. While the "video nasty" was the "enfant terrible" of the format in the 1980s, the next decade ushered in the era of the ‘video naughty’ with movies that blended film noir tropes and titillation.
Much of that was down to the rise of video rental giants like Blockbuster. Keen to maintain a family friendly image, the chain was one of many big names to steadfastly refuse to stock adult movies. Yet there remained a need to cater to couples and other adults eager to rent films that were strictly not for kids. Into the void stepped the erotic thriller,...
Back in the early '90s, saucy thrillers were the cinematic genre du jour. We take a look at some of the key milestones…
Moviegoers have VHS to thank for the glut of erotic thrillers that arrived in theaters and video stores over the first half of the 1990s. While the "video nasty" was the "enfant terrible" of the format in the 1980s, the next decade ushered in the era of the ‘video naughty’ with movies that blended film noir tropes and titillation.
Much of that was down to the rise of video rental giants like Blockbuster. Keen to maintain a family friendly image, the chain was one of many big names to steadfastly refuse to stock adult movies. Yet there remained a need to cater to couples and other adults eager to rent films that were strictly not for kids. Into the void stepped the erotic thriller,...
- 12/27/2019
- Den of Geek
This uncanny and transgressive film about a young woman who tracks down her birth parents is Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s best work yet
Writer-directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor have returned to the London film festival with their best work yet. At one level, it’s another eerie and uncanny movie shot with cool blankness and emotional distance; a meditation on the themes they have already explored in earlier movies such as Helen (2008) and Mister John (2013): ideas about double lives, impersonations, alternative existences and identities. But Rose Plays Julie has much more dramatic solidity and punch. Whereas some of their earlier work, however intriguing, sometimes looked like melting away into the mist, this film grabs you by the throat.
The drama begins by seeming to be hardly more than a poignant evocation of loneliness and regret. Then it escalates into an edge-of-the-seat suspense thriller of the sort that Chabrol might have admired,...
Writer-directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor have returned to the London film festival with their best work yet. At one level, it’s another eerie and uncanny movie shot with cool blankness and emotional distance; a meditation on the themes they have already explored in earlier movies such as Helen (2008) and Mister John (2013): ideas about double lives, impersonations, alternative existences and identities. But Rose Plays Julie has much more dramatic solidity and punch. Whereas some of their earlier work, however intriguing, sometimes looked like melting away into the mist, this film grabs you by the throat.
The drama begins by seeming to be hardly more than a poignant evocation of loneliness and regret. Then it escalates into an edge-of-the-seat suspense thriller of the sort that Chabrol might have admired,...
- 10/4/2019
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
This story originally ran in Issue 632, published on June 11th, 1992.
As a storyteller, every journalist strives for wholeness and symmetry, for a narrative that after all its circumnavigation returns to the beginning, as if to say, “Here, enclosed, is an entire world.” In both the subject and the assignment itself, my profile of Johnny Clegg — the pop star and political activist in South Africa — afforded a remarkable sense of coming full circle.
It was in the late Seventies, in the years immediately after the Soweto uprising, that I became fully...
As a storyteller, every journalist strives for wholeness and symmetry, for a narrative that after all its circumnavigation returns to the beginning, as if to say, “Here, enclosed, is an entire world.” In both the subject and the assignment itself, my profile of Johnny Clegg — the pop star and political activist in South Africa — afforded a remarkable sense of coming full circle.
It was in the late Seventies, in the years immediately after the Soweto uprising, that I became fully...
- 7/18/2019
- by Samuel G. Freedman
- Rollingstone.com
Jeffrey McHale’s feature debut, the “Showgirls” appreciation documentary “You Don’t Nomi,” works awfully hard to justify both its subject and its mission. But if you instantly appreciated the cleverness of its title, you’ll enjoy commiserating with fellow travelers.
It’s hard to overstate what a big deal “Showgirls” was when it hit movie theaters in 1995, though McHale gives us some sense of the pop-culture buildup that preceded it. It was directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas, the team behind 1992’s similarly controversial success “Basic Instinct.” It was the first Nc-17 movie in wide release. And it would also be the first big-screen splash from a “Saved by the Bell” cast member, Elizabeth Berkley..
And then it opened.
Also Read: Gina Gershon to Play Melania Trump in Off-Broadway Musical
After being primed for the biggest hit of the year — a rawer, more honest update on...
It’s hard to overstate what a big deal “Showgirls” was when it hit movie theaters in 1995, though McHale gives us some sense of the pop-culture buildup that preceded it. It was directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas, the team behind 1992’s similarly controversial success “Basic Instinct.” It was the first Nc-17 movie in wide release. And it would also be the first big-screen splash from a “Saved by the Bell” cast member, Elizabeth Berkley..
And then it opened.
Also Read: Gina Gershon to Play Melania Trump in Off-Broadway Musical
After being primed for the biggest hit of the year — a rawer, more honest update on...
- 4/29/2019
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
It's easy to look at director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas' notorious flop Showgirls through a so-bad-it's-good prism, or — in terms of the Susan Sontag definition of camp cited in director Jeffrey McHale's smartly analytical and entertaining reassessment — as failed seriousness. The 1995 MGM release was an obvious target for critics to savage, with review headlines like "Valley of the Dulls" and "Trashdance" competing for snarkiest wordplay.
Via clever, connect-the-dots montage of superbly chosen clips, and a full spectrum of opinions from both admirers and detractors, You Don't Nomi makes a compelling case ...
Via clever, connect-the-dots montage of superbly chosen clips, and a full spectrum of opinions from both admirers and detractors, You Don't Nomi makes a compelling case ...
- 4/28/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It's easy to look at director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas' notorious flop Showgirls through a so-bad-it's-good prism, or — in terms of the Susan Sontag definition of camp cited in director Jeffrey McHale's smartly analytical and entertaining reassessment — as failed seriousness. The 1995 MGM release was an obvious target for critics to savage, with review headlines like "Valley of the Dulls" and "Trashdance" competing for snarkiest wordplay.
Via clever, connect-the-dots montage of superbly chosen clips, and a full spectrum of opinions from both admirers and detractors, You Don't Nomi makes a compelling case ...
Via clever, connect-the-dots montage of superbly chosen clips, and a full spectrum of opinions from both admirers and detractors, You Don't Nomi makes a compelling case ...
- 4/28/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Jeff Bridges grew up with show business in his veins. His father, the late Lloyd Bridges, was a gregarious sort who not only loved the making of movies, but the selling of them as well. He would encourage his children to give it a go. “This is a great life,” he would tell them.
Still, like any rebellious kid, the younger Bridges — who will receive the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 6 — was resistant to chasing his father’s chosen trade. He wanted to be a musician instead, or an artist. “I had maybe 10 movies under my belt before I thought I could do this for the rest of my life,” he said in 2009.
Eventually the passion kicked in. Six decades into a movie career that technically began when he was a 6-month-old infant on...
Still, like any rebellious kid, the younger Bridges — who will receive the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement at the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 6 — was resistant to chasing his father’s chosen trade. He wanted to be a musician instead, or an artist. “I had maybe 10 movies under my belt before I thought I could do this for the rest of my life,” he said in 2009.
Eventually the passion kicked in. Six decades into a movie career that technically began when he was a 6-month-old infant on...
- 1/3/2019
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Variety Film + TV
The origins of the tawdry camp classic from 1995 known as Showgirls are revealed in the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporter podcast It Happened In Hollywood.
“We spoke to 50 or so young women about their experiences," screenwriter Joe Eszterhas tells hosts Seth Abramovitch and Chip Pope of his initial research trip to Las Vegas for the film. "It was really valuable, the interviews were valuable — their experiences were valuable and sometimes horrifying. Rape culture is overwhelming among strippers. Some of the stories were absolutely heartbreaking.”
Eszterhas then went off to write a script. With the help ...
“We spoke to 50 or so young women about their experiences," screenwriter Joe Eszterhas tells hosts Seth Abramovitch and Chip Pope of his initial research trip to Las Vegas for the film. "It was really valuable, the interviews were valuable — their experiences were valuable and sometimes horrifying. Rape culture is overwhelming among strippers. Some of the stories were absolutely heartbreaking.”
Eszterhas then went off to write a script. With the help ...
- 11/9/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The origins of the tawdry camp classic from 1995 known as Showgirls are revealed in the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporter podcast It Happened In Hollywood.
“We spoke to 50 or so young women about their experiences," screenwriter Joe Eszterhas tells hosts Seth Abramovitch and Chip Pope of his initial research trip to Las Vegas for the film. "It was really valuable, the interviews were valuable — their experiences were valuable and sometimes horrifying. Rape culture is overwhelming among strippers. Some of the stories were absolutely heartbreaking.”
Eszterhas then went off to write a script. With the help ...
“We spoke to 50 or so young women about their experiences," screenwriter Joe Eszterhas tells hosts Seth Abramovitch and Chip Pope of his initial research trip to Las Vegas for the film. "It was really valuable, the interviews were valuable — their experiences were valuable and sometimes horrifying. Rape culture is overwhelming among strippers. Some of the stories were absolutely heartbreaking.”
Eszterhas then went off to write a script. With the help ...
- 11/9/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Joe Eszterhas — the swaggering screenwriter of such iconic films of the 1980s and '90s as Flashdance, Basic Instinct and the so-bad-it's-good Showgirls — has emerged from self-imposed industry exile to appear on The Hollywood Reporter's new podcast, It Happened in Hollywood.
Discussing his 1992 smash Basic Instinct with co-hosts Seth Abramovitch, a senior writer at THR, and comedy writer Chip Pope, Eszterhas, 73, estimates the controversial thriller would likely be met today with "serious #MeToo protesters," particularly over one scene in the Paul Verhoeven-directed film in which star Michael Douglas, playing an alcoholic cop, appears to date-rape the ...
Discussing his 1992 smash Basic Instinct with co-hosts Seth Abramovitch, a senior writer at THR, and comedy writer Chip Pope, Eszterhas, 73, estimates the controversial thriller would likely be met today with "serious #MeToo protesters," particularly over one scene in the Paul Verhoeven-directed film in which star Michael Douglas, playing an alcoholic cop, appears to date-rape the ...
- 11/1/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Joe Eszterhas — the swaggering screenwriter of such iconic films of the 1980s and '90s as Flashdance, Basic Instinct and the so-bad-it's-good Showgirls — has emerged from self-imposed industry exile to appear on The Hollywood Reporter's new podcast, It Happened in Hollywood.
Discussing his 1992 smash Basic Instinct with co-hosts Seth Abramovitch, a senior writer at THR, and comedy writer Chip Pope, Eszterhas, 73, estimates the controversial thriller would likely be met today with "serious #MeToo protesters," particularly over one scene in the Paul Verhoeven-directed film in which star Michael Douglas, playing an alcoholic cop, appears to date-rape the ...
Discussing his 1992 smash Basic Instinct with co-hosts Seth Abramovitch, a senior writer at THR, and comedy writer Chip Pope, Eszterhas, 73, estimates the controversial thriller would likely be met today with "serious #MeToo protesters," particularly over one scene in the Paul Verhoeven-directed film in which star Michael Douglas, playing an alcoholic cop, appears to date-rape the ...
- 11/1/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Michael Ovitz still has nothing good to say about Michael Eisner. He and Ron Meyer started to patch things up over dinner a few years ago at Hamasaku, the sushi restaurant that Ovitz owns in West Los Angeles. And the famous threat Ovitz delivered to Joe Eszterhas about having “foot soldiers” marching up and down Wilshire Boulevard? Totally exaggerated in Eszterhas’ retelling via the press.
Those are among the anecdotes and tidbits shared by Ovitz in his new book “Who Is Michael Ovitz?,” due out Tuesday from Random House’s Portfolio imprint. The book isn’t so much a tell-all as it is a take-credit-for-(nearly)-all that went down during Ovitz’s 20-year run as the monarch of CAA.
The 384-page tome offers exhausting detail on how CAA reshaped the movie business in the 1980s and ’90s with its approach to packaging, and how Ovitz engineered the dealmaking behind...
Those are among the anecdotes and tidbits shared by Ovitz in his new book “Who Is Michael Ovitz?,” due out Tuesday from Random House’s Portfolio imprint. The book isn’t so much a tell-all as it is a take-credit-for-(nearly)-all that went down during Ovitz’s 20-year run as the monarch of CAA.
The 384-page tome offers exhausting detail on how CAA reshaped the movie business in the 1980s and ’90s with its approach to packaging, and how Ovitz engineered the dealmaking behind...
- 9/25/2018
- by Cynthia Littleton
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Sony Pictures is moving forward with Jagged Edge, the thriller being crafted for Halle Berry to play the heroine lawyer role originated by Glenn Close in the 1985 hit. The studio has hired Melissa London Hilfers to write the script, and Doug Belgrad’s 2.0 Entertainment banner has been set to co-finance the film. Belgrad is producing with Matti Leshem.
Scott Strauss is supervising for the studio. Creative Executive Michael Bitar is also working on the project.
The project was set up in April by Steven Bersch, the Sony Worldwide Acquisitions Group head who took over the genre arm Screen Gems. They haven’t figured out which arm will release it, but it’s a priority project. Hilfers sold her spec Unfit to Amazon Studios as a potential vehicle for Dakota Johnson, a fact-based tale about Carrie Buck, a young Virginia woman who became a lightning rod for the movement to...
Scott Strauss is supervising for the studio. Creative Executive Michael Bitar is also working on the project.
The project was set up in April by Steven Bersch, the Sony Worldwide Acquisitions Group head who took over the genre arm Screen Gems. They haven’t figured out which arm will release it, but it’s a priority project. Hilfers sold her spec Unfit to Amazon Studios as a potential vehicle for Dakota Johnson, a fact-based tale about Carrie Buck, a young Virginia woman who became a lightning rod for the movement to...
- 7/17/2018
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Halle Berry is attached to a remake of Jagged Edge, originally a 1985 thriller that starred Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Sony is developing the project, which is in the early stages and has no writer on board. Doug Belgrad and Matti Leshem (The Shallows) are producing.
The original movie, which was written by Basic Instinct scribe Joe Eszterhas, told of a high-profile lawyer, played by Close, who is hired by a man (Bridges) accused of killing his socialite wife. In true Eszterhas fashion, the lawyer and the accused start sleeping with each other even...
Sony is developing the project, which is in the early stages and has no writer on board. Doug Belgrad and Matti Leshem (The Shallows) are producing.
The original movie, which was written by Basic Instinct scribe Joe Eszterhas, told of a high-profile lawyer, played by Close, who is hired by a man (Bridges) accused of killing his socialite wife. In true Eszterhas fashion, the lawyer and the accused start sleeping with each other even...
- 4/6/2018
- by Borys Kit
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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