John Cassavetes Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Brent Lang Executive Editor When Nathan Silver’s mother was in her mid-60s, she decided to have a bat mitzvah. As the indie filmmaker started telling people that his mother was embarking on a rite of passage usually reserved for teenagers, a friend urged him to turn her story into a movie. Now, “Between the Temples,” a screwball comedy inspired by mom’s coming-of-age ceremony, will premiere at Sundance, with Carol Kane and Jason Schwartzman playing an elderly bat mitzvah student and a depressed cantor who forge an unlikely bond.

David Benedict At the start of the second half of Ivo Van Hove’s production of his own musical version of John Cassavetes‘ ultra-Seventies backstager “Opening Night” — with music and lyrics by Rufus Wainwright — the words “the aftermath” (in fashionable lower case) appear on the large screen that dominates the stage. The trouble is, the preceding storytelling has been so muddy, and the emotional temperature of the staging so leadenly unchanging, that audiences may well be asking, “The aftermath of what?” Following the movie on which it’s based, the show follows the onstage/offstage life of Myrtle (Sheridan Smith), a leading actress who is as terrified of ageing as she is of the demands placed upon her as a star.

EXCLUSIVE: Celebrating his 50th year as an indie filmmaker and distributor, Jeff Lipsky is prepping the release of his eighth feature as director. Goldilocks and the Two Bears is due to open domestically via Glass Half Full Media in July for a limited theatrical run, followed by a general release in late summer/early fall. Check out an exclusive clip above.

Naman Ramachandran Feature debutant writer-director Shaun Seneviratne has unveiled the first clip of “Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts,” which will world premiere at SXSW in the narrative feature competition. Starring Sathya Sridharan (“The Whale”) and Anastasia Olowin (“Tourists”), the film is set in Sri Lanka, the land of Seneviratne’s heritage. The actors play the characters Ben Santhanaraj and Suzanne Hopper in a romantic reunion turned unconventional adventure in a hilarious yet amorous journey across the country.

Jenna Ortega has revealed the actor that she most admires, as well as her all-time favourite film.The Wednesday and Scream star was asked the questions by fans and responded in a Stories reel on Instagram earlier today (January 9).Replying to the inquiry about her favourite actor, Ortega wrote: “Too hard, but I do love Harry Dean Stanton. Paris, Texas is one of my favorite movies.

Victor J. Kemper, the former president of the American Society of Cinematographers whose career spanned four decades and included films as diverse as Dog Day Afternoon and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, has died according to the ASC. He was 96.

Jaden Thompson Victor J. Kemper, the cinematographer behind “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and other notable films, has died. He was 96.

Rufus Wainwright and Ivo van Hove have collaborated on a new musical called Opening Night with actress Sheridan Smith.Directed and conceived by van Hove and starring Sheridan Smith as lead character Myrtle, the music and lyrics for the musical have been written by Wainwright.The musical will run for a “strictly limited season” at the Gielgud Theatre in London’s West End from March 6 to July 27 2024. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here.A synopsis of the new production says: “Based on John Cassavetes’ legendary film, Opening Night follows a theatre company’s preparations to stage a major new play on Broadway.“But drama ignites behind the scenes when their leading lady is rocked by tragedy, and her personal turmoil forces everybody to deliver the performance of their lives.”Speaking about the project, Wainwright said: “For me John Cassavetes’s movie Opening Night has long been a shining beacon representing both excellence in cinema and the might of live theatre.

After a World Premiere at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and its North American Premiere over the weekend at the Hamptons International Film Festival, Noah Pritzker’s (Quitters) second film goes for a mix of Woody Allen, John Cassavetes, Paul Mazursky, Noah Baumbach and other white male filmmakers, past and present, who enjoy basking in the midlife marital crisis in which many guys find themselves trapped. While not on the level of those acclaimed filmmakers, in this case though Pritzker manages to cast his net wider into an early, mid, and late life crisis over three generations of the men in the Pearce clan. The result is an engaging indie exercise that in an age of highlighting diversity in films puts the focus solely on its white male central characters and their personal woes, thus oddly taking what was once common Hollywood storytelling into a bit of an anomaly in 2023. It is for sale to any distributor who finds promise in a premise that might be a tough sell for mainstream buyers despite a game cast that lifts it up a notch or two. Art Houses would seem to be its theatrical future, if not PVOD.

Yehudi Menuhin writes, “Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.”So too does love and a fortunate congregation of stars create a kind of rhythm in relationships.In truth, zodiac compatibility is a constellation of qualities and challenges, elemental energy, and ancestral trauma. It is a willingness to apologize and to unload the dishwasher, taking into account the whole of the birth chart, aspects formed, and houses occupied.Within the birth chart, the placement of the moon, which serves as our emotional touchstone, Mars, the planet of sex and aggression, and Venus, the planet of love and attachment, help divine whether a relationship is rock steady or destined for certain ruin. In my experience, anything can happen, anything can work and any manner of star soup between lovers can yield order out of chaos and harmony from cacophony.

Jordan Moreau Ray Price, an indie film producer and marketing veteran, died on July 16 of heart failure after battling cancer, his longterm partner Meg Madison confirmed. He was 75. During his career in film, Price was president of Francis Ford Coppola’s production company American Zoetrope and First Look Pictures and a marketing and distribution exec for Landmark Theatres, Trimark Pictures and 2929 Entertainment. He also supported up-and-coming filmmakers like Tran Anh Hung (“The Scent of Green Papaya”), Gurinder Chadha (“Bhaji on The Beach”), Carl Franklin (“One False Move”), Allison Anders (“Gas Food Lodging”) and John Sayles (“The Secret of Roan Inish”).

Gordon Cox Theater Editor The movie comedy “Theater Camp” is one of those dreams-come-true success stories that sometimes emerge from the Sundance Film Festival: Scrappy indie movie debuts in Park City, the audience falls in love with it, and overnight the movie is picked up for a multimillion distribution deal. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below:

Naman Ramachandran Undeniable, Fremantle’s premium documentaries label, has revealed feature documentary “The Second Woman” (working title), which captures Golden Globe and Olivier-winning actor Ruth Wilson (“Luther,” “His Dark Materials”) in a one-off performance piece at the Young Vic Theatre in London. “The Second Woman” is a play created and directed by Anna Breckon and Nat Randall. It is co-produced by the Young Vic Theatre and LIFT – London’s international festival of theatre). Wilson is also involved as a presenter in association with House of Oz. “The Second Woman” sees Wilson performing a single break up scene over and over playing opposite 100 different men, non-binary and queer people across a full 24 hours. Inspired by John Cassavetes’ 1977 film “Opening Night,” the scene involves a couple negotiating a long-term relationship that has lost its romance and vitality. With only brief breaks throughout the performance, Wilson plays the role of Virginia in every single scene, opposite a series of mostly non-actors, who she has never met before, She has no way of knowing in advance who her co-stars are, nor can she anticipate how they might choose to play the scene.

“God Is a Bullet” marks Nick Cassavetes’ return to the director’s chair since 2014’s “The Other Woman.” Cassavetes is historically known for being the son of acclaimed filmmaker John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands but also directed many cult hits, including “John Q.,” “The Notebook,” and “Alpha Dog.” With “God Is a Bullet,” Cassavetes assembles a star-studded cast that includes Jamie Foxx, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, January Jones, Maika Monroe, Andrew Dice Clay, Karl Glusman, and Ethan Suplee.

What to say about Nick Cassavetes, son of the late, great John Cassavetes? His high marks as a director come nearly twenty years ago, with 2004’s “The Notebook” and 2006’s “Alpha Dog.” And he hasn’t made a film since 2014’s “The Other Woman” with Cameron Diaz.

Oscar-nominated Cinematographer Wilmer C. Butler, whose work included a series of landmark films such as The Conversation (1974), Jaws (1975) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), has died. He was 101. The American Society of Cinematographers confirmed Butler’s passing.

Mubi is adding over 50 features from the Sony Pictures’ library to its U.S. streaming service. The mix of studio and arthouse fare includes Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence, The Last Picture Show by Peter Bogdanovich and films from Wes Anderson, Pedro Almodovar and Guillermo Del Toro.

Stella Stevens, who starred in the 1972 disaster film “Poseidon Adventure” and in films opposite Elvis Presley, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, died Friday in Los Angeles at the age of 84.Her son, actor/producer Andrew Stevens, confirmed her passing to TheWrap via email. “I was notified early this morning,” Stevens said.

Ruth Wilson, star of The Affair, Luther and His Dark Materials, has performed with many leading actors, usually one at a time, but in May her endurance will be put to the test when she embarks on a marathon stage show in London playing the same scene almost nonstop for 24 hours with one hundred different men — one after the other.

Although trans rights are now the subject of a simmering culture war in America and the U.K., that conflict is largely predicated on the increasing visibility of trans women at a time where self-ID is controversially becoming the norm. Stories of trans men, however, tend to go under the radar, and this remarkable New York-set debut from Chilean-Serbian director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz goes some way to redressing that imbalance. Featuring a pitch-perfect performance from Puerto Rican/Greek actor Lío Mehiel, so far mostly known for the Apple show WeCrashed and a number of shorts, U.S. Dramatic Competition entry Mutt feels like an important but — for reasons about to be explained — perhaps interstitial film in the history of LGBTQ+ cinema, being fully cognizant of the fact that it is set and was made in a between-time that reflects the lead character’s existential sense of limbo.

Sam Smith debuted the title track of their upcoming album “Gloria” on Saturday Night Live. There was a special guest for the occasion, Sharon Stone.

Donn Cambern, the Oscar-nominated Romancing the Stone film editor whose credits also include Easy Rider, The Last Picture Show and Ghostbusters II and was a longtime president of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, died Wednesday, his family told the guild. He was 93.

Venice Film Festival jury president Julianne Moore this afternoon extolled the importance of keeping art top of mind when talking about the future of cinema.

“I wanted to approach it as a commentary on the time we live in, and Gen Z, but also myself because I’m totally addicted to my phone,” says Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn on what drew her to the Kristen Roupenian story and Sarah DeLappe scripted feature.

wear a T-shirt with her name on it just to make them aware,” she recalled.Huppert has nearly 150 credits to her name. Some of her most celebrated work includes “The Piano Teacher,” “The Lacemaker,” “Violette Nozière,” “La Séparation,” “8 Women” and “Elle,” for which she received an Academy Award nomination.“I think it’s really interesting sometimes to be like Isabelle Huppert, who just says, ‘I go to zero,'” Reijn continued. “Instead of thinking, ‘Who am I? Where am I going?’ just react.

Leave it to Taylor Swift to please fans with a few unexpected twists. During the singer’s “Tribeca Talks With Taylor Swift” event at Tribeca Festival in New York, Swift brought out surprise guests and even performed during the “talk-only” scheduled event.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic“Funny Pages,” a scruffy, grungy, likably tossed-together sketchbook of a low-budget indie comedy, typifies a paradox that now runs through a great deal of independent cinema. The movie, set in a humdrum New Jersey suburbia, unfolds on the moldy bottom rung of the comic-book ladder. It centers on two friends who are obsessed with drawing their own comics, and it’s about the insular world of geeks and creeps and pervs and weirdos that this brings them into contact with.Robert (Daniel Zolghadri), at 17, has left the posh home of his parents in Princeton and set up residence in downscale Trenton, where he hangs out at the local comic-book store along with his friend, the sweetly passive, long-haired, acne-ridden Miles (Miles Emanuel), who has a secret crush on him.

Wilson Chapman editorA24 has released the first trailer for “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” a new slasher film starring Amandla Stenberg and “Borat 2” breakout Maria Bakalova.Directed by Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn, “Bodies Bodies Bodies” stars Stenberg as Sophie, a young woman recently out of rehab who hosts a house party and invites her new girlfriend Bee (Bakalova) to meet her extended group of friends. The already tense party takes a turn for the horrifying when the guests play a murder-in-the-dark game that ends with a real-life murder, forcing Sophie, Bee and their friends to investigate who’s responsible.Stenberg and Bakalova lead the ensemble cast of actors who portray the party guests, which includes Myha’la Herrold (“Industry”), Rachel Sennott (“Shiva Baby”), Chase Sui Wonders (“Generation”), Pete Davidson (“Saturday Night Live”) and Lee Pace (“Foundation”).

BEST FEATURE (Award is given to the producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.)“A Chiara” (Jonas Carpignano, Paolo Carpignano, Jon Coplon, Ryan Zacarias)“C’mon C’mon” (Chelsea Barnard, Andrea Longacre-White, Lila Yacoub) “The Lost Daughter” (Charles Dorfman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Osnat Handelsman Keren, Talia Kleinhendler)“The Novice” (Ryan Hawkins, Kari Hollend, Steven Sims, Zack Zucker)“Zola” (Kara Baker, Dave Franco, Elizabeth Haggard, David Hinojosa, Vince Jolivette, Christine Vachon, Gia Walsh)BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to director and producer)“7 Days” (Director: Roshan Sethi; Producers: Liz Cardenas, Mel Eslyn)“Holler” (Director: Nicole Riegel; Producers: Adam Cobb, Rachel Gould, Katie Mcneill, Jamie Patricof, Christy Spitzer Thornton)“Queen of Glory” (Director: Nana Mensah; Producers: Baff Akoto, Anya Migdal, Kelley Robins Hicks, Jamund Washington)“Test Pattern” (Director/Producer: Shatara Michelle Ford; Producers: Pin-Chun Liu, Yu-Hao Su)“Wild Indian” (Director/Producer: Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr.; Producers: Thomas Mahoney, Eric Tavitian)JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (Award given to the writer, director and producer of the best feature made for under $500,000.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe third season of the RAI and HBO series “My Brilliant Friend” is ready to air in Italy and in the U.S., where the high-end show based the third book in Elena Ferrante’s quadrilogy has been set for a Feb. 28 debut on HBO and HBO Max.The eight-episode adaptation of Ferrante’s 1970s-set novel, “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” was unveiled Wednesday during an online presser held in Rome by RAI, ahead of its premiere on Feb.

told the Hollywood Reporter.In addition to his roles in the 1985 and 1986 installments of the comedic cop series, Metrano also appeared in the 1982 “Happy Days” spinoff “Joanie Loves Chachi” and guest-starred on “All in the Family,” “Bewitched,” “Starsky and Hutch” and “Mod Squad,” among other TV shows.A Bensonhurst native, Metrano began his career studying acting with Stella Adler and John Cassavetes and doing stand-up in the Catskills, according to THR.

Peter Falk died ten years ago today, and he remains as adored as ever. During the darkest days of the pandemic, it seemed like everyone was finding comfort in rewatches of “Columbo”; in a terrifying world, it was reassuring to know that however tricky the case Falk’s disheveled detective was facing, he was sure to solve it by the time the end credits rolled.

Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó broke through internationally in 2014 with his snarling social parable about the downtrodden rising up against their oppressors, White Dog. He puts aside political allegory to drill deep into the heart of family tragedy in his first English-language feature, Pieces of a Woman.

A veteran cinematographer well known for his contributions to independent cinema, Frederick Elmes has collaborated with directors including David Lynch, John Cassavetes, Ang Lee and Jim Jarmusch.Elmes, 73, who will receive the lifetime achievement award at the American Society of Cinematographers Awards on Jan.