Jamie Foxx assured fans “big things” are “coming soon” as he continues to recover following his hospitalization three months ago.
02.07.2023 - 17:09 / variety.com
Brent Lang Executive Editor Alan Arkin etched many indelible performances over his long career in movies. From heroin-snorting grandfathers (“Little Miss Sunshine”) to ornery movie producers (“Argo”) to harried dentists (“The In-Laws”), Arkin, who died on June 29 at the age of 89, played an extraordinary range of roles with great gusto. But it’s fair to say that none of it would have been possible were it not for 1966’s “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” a Cold War comedy that marked Arkin’s first major screen role. It’s the film that earned him the first of four Oscar nominations (he’d win for 2006’s “Little Miss Sunshine”) and a part that launched his career as a shape-shifting character actor.
And it was Norman Jewison, riding high on the success of “The Cincinnati Kid,” who took a bet that Arkin, a gifted Broadway actor but movie novice, could make the transition from stage to screen. He plays a Russian “political officer” who takes a small troop of men into a sleepy island community in the United States after their submarine runs aground. Jewison says that Arkin was such a chameleon, many viewers were stunned to find out that the Brooklyn-born actor wasn’t, in fact, Russian. Jewison spoke with Variety about working with Arkin on the comedy masterpiece and his boundless acting abilities. Alan was a close friend, as well as one of my best performing actors. When I found out that he had died, I started thinking about the first time we met. I was in New York, and he was in a play that Mike Nichols directed called “Luv” with Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. He had such a gift for accents. When I was getting ready to make “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” I remembered that and I called
Jamie Foxx assured fans “big things” are “coming soon” as he continues to recover following his hospitalization three months ago.
Brent Lang Executive Editor Abramorama has acquired North American distribution rights for the feature-length documentary “Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids” from NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and Believe Entertainment Group. The film is directed by Andrew Jenks (“The Zen of Bobby V”) and charts the meteoric rise of the dolls that set in motion the modern day Black Friday craze. It is narrated and executive produced by Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris. “Billion Dollar Babies” includes the first interview with Cabbage Patch Kids’ creator Xavier Roberts in over 20 years, as well as sit-downs with journalistConnie Chung,and former Coleco marketing head Al Kahan. The film world premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Festival. Abramorama is planning a theatrical release for this fall.
Brent Lang Executive Editor The American Theatre Wing has unveiled the panel of judges and eligibility details for the 2023 edition of the Obie Awards. The annual celebration of the best of Off and Off Off Broadway is now in its 67th year. The jury will be co-chaired by Obie-winning director David Mendizábal (“Sanctuary City”) and veteran theater critic Melissa Rose Bernardo. New 2023 Obie judges are Dede Ayite, an Obie-winning and Tony-nominated costume designer who has worked on “Topdog Underdog” and “American Buffalo”; Ty Defoe, writer and Grammy Award winner; Ann C. James, Broadway’s first Black intimacy coordinator for Antoinette Nwandu’s “Pass Over”; Florencia Lozano, actor, writer, performance artist who has appeared in “Rinse, Repeat” and “Devil of Choice”; Dael Orlandersmith, playwright of “Stoop Stories” and “Yellowman”; and Carmelita Tropicana, an Obie-winning downtown performance artist.
This Caribbean party tour is not what it seems.
The Eagles are gearing up to close a chapter in their career.
They are taking flight one last time.Popular rock ‘n’ roll band The Eagles announced Thursday that they plan on embarking on a final cross-country tour beginning in September through 2025.“Our long-run has lasted far longer than any of us ever dreamed,” the band said in an emotional statement. “But, everything has its time, and the time has come for us to close the circle.” “The official farewell tour is currently in the planning stages,” continued the statement, which then goes on to give a bit of the band’s history.
I have just two words for producer Lawrence Turman, who died Saturday at 96. “Thank you.”
HBO’s controversial “The Idol” said goodbye to the weird, controversial world inhabited by wannabe pop star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) and her creepy mentor, the rat-tail sporting Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye), after the show’s fifth and final episode, “Jocelyn Forever.” After struggling under ex-pimp/cult leader/star maker Tedros — Tesfaye is a co-creator of the show, along with Sam Levinson (“Euphoria”) and Reza Fahim — last night was all about Jocelyn demonstrating her power. Dwindling audiences of the show, said to have contributed “the worst sex scene in history” in an earlier episode, we are finally given access to the badass, pop diva lurking underneath, ready to strike with the same venom being poured into her by Tedros and company.Jocelyn, it turns out, is ruthless.The shift in power balance is clear from the start — while everyone gathers at Jocelyn’s house for a tour meeting, a disheveled Tedros is kicked out of Jocelyn’s life, seemingly forever.
Variety reported. A cause of death was not given.
Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Lawrence Turman, producer of films including Oscar winner “The Graduate,” and longtime chair of the Peter Stark Producing program at USC, died Saturday at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills. He was 96. Turman’s producing career spanned 50 years, and he served as director of USC’s Peter Stark Producing program from 1991 until he retired in 2021 at age 94. Born in Los Angeles in 1926, Turman graduated from UCLA and broke into the industry after answering an ad in Variety to work at the Kurt Frings agency. He represented actors, and after getting a meeting with Alfred Hitchcock through their friend Ernest Lehman, he was able to book four of his agency’s clients in “North By Northwest.”
Joe Leydon Film Critic The reaction was always the same. During my high school days, I must have seen “Wait Until Dark” five times during its theatrical release. Audrey Hepburn was appealing, of course, but the main attraction for me was Alan Arkin’s chilling portrayal of a psycho sadist who, in the course of reclaiming a misdirected heroin shipment, terrorizes a blind woman in her apartment. Late in the 1967 thriller, the distressed damsel temporarily gets the upper hand by stabbing her tormentor. But as she walks away, the psycho leaps back into her kitchen and grabs her ankle. And every time he did this, every time I saw “Wait Until Dark,” people in the audience (including me, the first time) screamed. Really, really loudly. Like, louder than the folks around me in a theater seven years later during the first jump-scare in “Jaws.”
Anne Hathaway is sharing her tribute to Alan Arkin, whom she starred with in Get Smart.
Former WWE star, Darren Drozdov, has died at the age of 54. He was left paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair following an in-ring accident that occurred back in 1999.
Alan Arkin was remembered by his friends and colleagues as a giant talent in film, television and theater, a man whose winding life paths seemed to be able to transform any role. But it was the small gestures that were most prominent, the little generosities that stayed with people many years.
Abigail Breslin is fondly remembering her on-screen grandfather, Alan Arkin.
Michael Douglas is remembering Alan Arkin.
The stars are remembering a legend.
Actor Alan Arkin, who won an Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine, has died. The 89-year-old star's death was confirmed by his agent.
Oscar-winning actor Alan Arkin has sadly passed away.
Alan Arkin was beloved by many. As family, friends and fans mourn the loss of the celebrated actor, many of Arkin's Hollywood admirers are offering heartfelt tributes in his honor. News of Arkin's death broke on Friday. He was 89. In a statement to ET, the star's sons, Adam, Matthew and Anthony, said, «Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man.