Our latest roundup of new books related to the world of cinema is full of indelible imagery––the pale face of Lost Highway’s Mystery Man, John Ford’s craggy visage, and, of course, the Neverland sets from Hook.
Lost Highway: The Fist of Love by Scott Ryan (Tucker DS Press)
Last year, Scott Ryan covered David Lynch’s Twin Peaks prequel in Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared. (We featured it here.) In 2023, Ryan studies what he calls “the lowest-grossing, most forgotten film of [Lynch’s] career.” Ryan’s Lost Highway: The Fist of Love is every bit as enthralling and insightful as Your Laura Disappeared. The author zeroes in on the elements of Lost Highway that turned off most (but not all) audiences in 1997 but are titillating new (and revisiting) viewers today. Ryan should know; he was one of those who looked away in the nineties: “The first time I saw it,...
Lost Highway: The Fist of Love by Scott Ryan (Tucker DS Press)
Last year, Scott Ryan covered David Lynch’s Twin Peaks prequel in Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared. (We featured it here.) In 2023, Ryan studies what he calls “the lowest-grossing, most forgotten film of [Lynch’s] career.” Ryan’s Lost Highway: The Fist of Love is every bit as enthralling and insightful as Your Laura Disappeared. The author zeroes in on the elements of Lost Highway that turned off most (but not all) audiences in 1997 but are titillating new (and revisiting) viewers today. Ryan should know; he was one of those who looked away in the nineties: “The first time I saw it,...
- 5/30/2023
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
Two Australian production companies have formed co-ventures with China which will see seven animated feature films produced over the next three years. In a related move, the major Chinese partner in the co-productions, Shanghai Hippo Animation Design, intends to launch a fund in Australia which will co-finance animated films. The projects were announced at the Screen Forever conference on Wednesday during a panel session entitled Working with China: Where Are We At? The Australian producers are the Zac Media Group and Alan Lindsay.s Vue Group. Xu Kerr, Shanghai Hippo Animation Design CEO, said the Chinese partners will fund 80% of the seven projects with the balance from Australia, presumably using the 40% producer offset. He told If the film fund will aim to raise $10 million initially, with an eventual target of $50 million, and it would invest in projects from development through production. Zac Media Group founder/CEO/producer Troy Zafer said...
- 11/20/2013
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Gong Li in (but not as) Marco Polo? Director Tarsem Singh (Immortals / Mirror Mirror) and producer Gianni Nunnari (300 / 300: Battle of Artemisia) are reportedly working on a film project about the life of the Italian explorer, previously incarnated on screen by the likes of Gary Cooper (in Archie Mayo’s The Adventures of Marco Polo, 1938), Rory Calhoun (Piero Pierotti and Hugo Fregonese’s Marco Polo, 1962), Horst Buchholz (Denys de La Patellière and Raoul Lévy’s Marco the Magnificent, 1965), and Ian Somerhalder (Kevin Connor’s TV movie Marco Polo, 2007). According to Screen Daily, the Chinese Gong Li would play a Mongolian princess. In Memoirs of a Geisha Gong played a Japanese geisha. She hasn’t played any Swedes yet, I don’t think, even though that would be karmic. After all, Swedish-born Warner Oland was a frequent "Chinaman," including Charlie Chan, in numerous Hollywood movies of the ’20s and ’30s. The...
- 5/29/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
While 13th century China remains a mystery, we learn a lot about 1930s Hollywood through this fictionalised romp
The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)
Director: Archie Mayo
Entertainment grade: C–
History grade: D
Marco Polo was the first European to document travel to China in his Description of the World. Whether or not he actually visited China himself is a subject of dispute among historians.
Trade
The opening title cards state that Marco Polo (Gary Cooper) was the first European to visit China and "the first travelling salesman". Even if you do believe Marco went to China, he himself claims that his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo Polo went first. He was blatantly not the first travelling salesman. The first evidence of long international trade routes dates them to at least 3,000 years earlier. But the movie had to get 1930s American audiences to identify with a 13th-century Venetian merchant somehow – hence the claim.
The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)
Director: Archie Mayo
Entertainment grade: C–
History grade: D
Marco Polo was the first European to document travel to China in his Description of the World. Whether or not he actually visited China himself is a subject of dispute among historians.
Trade
The opening title cards state that Marco Polo (Gary Cooper) was the first European to visit China and "the first travelling salesman". Even if you do believe Marco went to China, he himself claims that his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo Polo went first. He was blatantly not the first travelling salesman. The first evidence of long international trade routes dates them to at least 3,000 years earlier. But the movie had to get 1930s American audiences to identify with a 13th-century Venetian merchant somehow – hence the claim.
- 12/9/2011
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
Angelina Jolie and Tom Cruise dismiss a lawsuit and a rumour as 'par for the course' and 'ludicrous'
The big story
Celebrity gesture of the week? The shrug.
Angelina Jolie sported one as a lawsuit claiming her directorial debut was nicked from a Croatian journalist was filed, then Tom Cruise (aka Tom Cruise's People) took up the trend in response to rumours that crowds who greeted the Mission Impossible star's arrival in Mumbai were hired actors.
It became both rather well. "It's par for the course," said Jolie of Josip Knežević's claim that she had taken her story from his book, The Soul Shattering. "It happens on almost every film. There are many books and documentaries that I did pull from, but that particular book I've never seen." Jolie's film, In The Land of Blood and Honey, is set during the Bosnian war and sees a Serbian camp commander...
The big story
Celebrity gesture of the week? The shrug.
Angelina Jolie sported one as a lawsuit claiming her directorial debut was nicked from a Croatian journalist was filed, then Tom Cruise (aka Tom Cruise's People) took up the trend in response to rumours that crowds who greeted the Mission Impossible star's arrival in Mumbai were hired actors.
It became both rather well. "It's par for the course," said Jolie of Josip Knežević's claim that she had taken her story from his book, The Soul Shattering. "It happens on almost every film. There are many books and documentaries that I did pull from, but that particular book I've never seen." Jolie's film, In The Land of Blood and Honey, is set during the Bosnian war and sees a Serbian camp commander...
- 12/8/2011
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
Emmy-nominated TV writer Myles Wilder has died at the age of 77.
The son of director W. Lee Wilder and nephew of Oscar-winning writer/director Billy Wilder passed away in Temecula, California on 20 April after a battle with digestive disease diverticulitis.
Wilder began his career by developing, writing and producing 1956 series The Adventures of Marco Polo, and went on to receive two Emmy nominations for his work on 1960s show McHale's Navy.
His other writing credits include U.S. TV classics The Dukes of Hazzard, Get Smart, The Brady Bunch, The Addams Family, Welcome Back, Kotter, and Diff'rent Strokes.
Wilder retired in 1989.
He is survived by his wife, a daughter and two grandchildren.
The son of director W. Lee Wilder and nephew of Oscar-winning writer/director Billy Wilder passed away in Temecula, California on 20 April after a battle with digestive disease diverticulitis.
Wilder began his career by developing, writing and producing 1956 series The Adventures of Marco Polo, and went on to receive two Emmy nominations for his work on 1960s show McHale's Navy.
His other writing credits include U.S. TV classics The Dukes of Hazzard, Get Smart, The Brady Bunch, The Addams Family, Welcome Back, Kotter, and Diff'rent Strokes.
Wilder retired in 1989.
He is survived by his wife, a daughter and two grandchildren.
- 4/29/2010
- WENN
Myles Wilder, the prolific TV comedy screenwriter whose resume includes such classics as McHale's Navy and The Dukes of Hazzard, has died. He was 77.
Wilder died April 20 from complications of diverticulitis in Temecula, Calif., according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The son of director W. Lee Wilder and the nephew of Oscar-winning writer-director Billy Wilder, Wilder got his start by developing, writing and producing the 1956 NBC series The Adventures of Marco Polo. He joined the Ernest Borgnine comedy McHale's Navy in ...
Read More >...
Wilder died April 20 from complications of diverticulitis in Temecula, Calif., according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The son of director W. Lee Wilder and the nephew of Oscar-winning writer-director Billy Wilder, Wilder got his start by developing, writing and producing the 1956 NBC series The Adventures of Marco Polo. He joined the Ernest Borgnine comedy McHale's Navy in ...
Read More >...
- 4/27/2010
- by Joyce Eng
- TVGuide - Breaking News
While sitting and thinking about the upcoming remake/sequel to Alice In Wonderland (trust me, it’s not something I do all that often), I couldn’t help but stumble upon one, key element about the film. It’s Tim Burton. It features Crispin Glover. One has never directed the other before, and this is a surprising notion to come across. Granted, Glover provided a voice in 9 last year, and Tim Burton was a producer on that film. Before that, though, there has never been a collaboration between these two giants of weird.
This got me thinking. What other obvious collaborations are there that, for whatever reasons the cinema Gods felt necessary, never came to fruition. What directors have such an identifiable style that coalesces with the style of an actor or actress that have just never merged together on any, one project?
Here are a few I’ve found:...
This got me thinking. What other obvious collaborations are there that, for whatever reasons the cinema Gods felt necessary, never came to fruition. What directors have such an identifiable style that coalesces with the style of an actor or actress that have just never merged together on any, one project?
Here are a few I’ve found:...
- 1/20/2010
- by Kirk
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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