It’s gonna take more than a few kidney stones to keep Kevin Costner down.
20.06.2024 - 22:09 / variety.com
William Earl Joshua John Miller and his personal and creative partner, M.A. Fortin, never set out to make a movie about an exorcism because, as Fortin says to Miller, “Your father stars in the greatest one of all time.” Miller’s dad was the actor Jason Miller, who played Father Damien Karras in “The Exorcist.” He often told Joshua stories of the purportedly haunted set, recounting fires that started around the production and the injuries and deaths that would impact those who worked on the film.
That real-life experience was one of the big inspirations for “The Exorcism,” a new movie Joshua directed and co-wrote with Fortin, in which Russell Crowe plays Anthony Miller, an actor portraying a priest in what looks to be a modern “Exorcist” remake while living with his estranged daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins). Although the meta parallels are on display — from the father’s problems with alcohol to the family’s last name “Miller” — Joshua and Fortin wanted to use the story as a springboard to cover more ambitious themes.
“There was just something about the time and the personal and professional experiences that we’d undergone,” Fortin said. “The language of exorcism movies suddenly felt weirdly compelling to us — the fact that they’re all the same sort of verse, chorus, verse, where the Catholic Cortana is inviolable, perfect and it will save you.
Also, women are always the ones you know who are going to be possessed because they’re receptive — it’s very sexist. “Also, there seems to be a kind of nastiness that has been unleashed, and it seemed at the time specifically that men were the ones who were especially receptive to and susceptible to it,” he continued.
It’s gonna take more than a few kidney stones to keep Kevin Costner down.
“Hidden Figures.”The Oscar winner, 69, revealed in a new interview that he was on a morphine drip after he developed kidney stones while filming the 2016 drama film.“Ive never worked drunk on a set. I’ve never worked high on a set, but I was on morphine the last two weeks that I worked on [‘Hidden Figures’],” he recalled to PEOPLE. “I had kidney stones, and I worked 10 days under an [IV] drip.
Bud S. Smith, an Oscar-nominated film editor, died last Sunday at his home in Studio City, California, from respiratory failure after a prolonged illness. He was 88.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music One of the biggest challenges for any artist is knowing when a creation — a song, a story, a painting — is finished and ready to be shared with the world. More than many, Neil Young has shown a willingness to wait, recording songs and full albums — and even performing them in concert — and then sitting on them for years… or decades.
EXCLUSIVE: The back and forth over the prospect of a hot-button film on the formative years of Donald Trump is near done, and The Dish hears that backer Kinematics will soon be bought out of Daniel Snyder’s $5 million investment with a premium. Tom Ortenberg, who runs Briarcliff Entertainment and has overseen the distribution of films that included Fahrenheit 9/11, Best Picture winner Spotlight, Nightcrawler and many others, is getting close to acquiring the film for fall release.
Alex Ritman Back in early 2020, the British musician turned filmmaker Andrew Onwubolu — better known by his stage name Rapman — was readying for the release of his feature directorial debut “Blue Story” in the U.S. Based on his own experience living in South London, the musical crime drama tells the story of two friends from different neighborhoods who become embroiled in deadly gang wars. The film had already been a hit on home soil, making £4.7 million ($6 million) from a budget of £1.4 million ($1.8 million) the previous November, becoming the most successful British urban film of all time.
The indie box office roared to life this weekend as Thelma from Magnolia Pictures saw a hefty $2.2 million on 1,280 screens and Searchlight Pictures’ Kinds of Kindness booked a stellar $70k per screen average at five theaters in LA and NY for $350k — the year’s highest per screen average and best overall limited opening.
iconic scene where he’s intimate with an apple pie — with her hubby the first year they were married.“I mean I was horrified,” Mollen said. “But it was funny.”The couple, who are the new hosts of TBS’ revival of “Dinner and Movie,” recalled their first date — at Sushi Park on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles — where they were set up by Mollen’s sister.“It was actually a double date.
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic It may now be hard to imagine, but in 1970, Donald Sutherland, who died Thursday at 88, was the coolest movie star on the planet. The moment I saw him in “MASH,” I knew he was the person I wanted to be, the same way that I wanted to be Mick Jagger or Steve McQueen. In 1970, Pacino and De Niro hadn’t happened yet.
Heartbreaking news from Hollywood today…
Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Nil By Mouth, has died at the age of 74.His cause of death has not yet been revealed. Sweeney’s co-star on the latter, comedian and actor Kathy Burke, took to X to pay tribute to the actor.She wrote earlier today (June 20): “Heard the sad news last night that UK actor and old friend, Steve Sweeney has passed away.“He was brilliant in many theatre and film productions incl Lock Stock & Nil By Mouth and was a favourite of genius director Alan Clarke.”She added: “Once met, never forgotten.
Ashanti and Nelly had the world believing in love again when they rekindled their romance after a ten-year hiatus. The hip-hop couple was one of fans’ favorite duos when they were going strong in the 2000s. The couple was together from 2003 to 2013, and crossed paths again in 2021, rehashing their story.
Alex Ritman While the seemingly never-ending saga over Paramount‘s future ownership may be still rumbling on, the studio didn’t hold back when it came to putting on a grand spectacle at the 2024 CineEurope trade show. “Gladiator 2” was — unsurprisingly — the main event of Paramount’s slate presentation in Barcelona.
told the “Today” show on Monday. “And I don’t want to take those parts away from them just ’cause I can place my own children in.”“Horizon” currently has a rating of 43% on Rotten Tomatoes.BBC wrote in their scathing review that a movie “needs to have a plot, a bit of credible characterization, and a structure that preferably includes a beginning, middle and end. ‘Horizon’ doesn’t have any of those.”Variety slammed Costner’s film as “meandering,” and said it “seldom seems to aim in a clear direction,” while IndieWire said, “These aren’t characters so much as the spokes of a plot in human form, each of their storylines moving as if being pulled by horses across the entire span of the American West.”The Daily Beast’s headline, meanwhile, declared the film “a misogynistic, racist .
Jeff Probst is a planner. For the last 24 years, he’s been designing seasons of “Survivor.” With Seasons 45 and 46 airing during this year’s Emmys window — and production on Seasons 47 and 48 getting underway in Fiji following a press campaign for the show — Probst is already thinking ahead about the highly anticipated 50 … and beyond. “When you’re in an executive producer position, you have to have a global look at the show.
Russell Crowe doesn’t think that actors should be talking negatively about superhero movies if they’re making the choice to appear in them.
Paul Mescal is joining the stars at Milan Fashion Week.
flop movie “Madame Web,” saying the project was “made by committees” and had no artistic value.“You’re telling me you signed up for a Marvel movie, and some f–king universe for cartoon characters … and you didn’t get enough pathos?” Crowe said in a recent interview with GQ UK. “Not quite sure how I can make this better for you.
Russell Crowe is opening up about The Lord of the Rings.”
Russell Crowe has explained why he turned down the role of Aragorn in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.The Oscar-winning actor was among those considered to play the iconic character in Peter Jackson’s trilogy, though the part eventually went to Viggo Mortensen – who himself replaced original casting Stuart Townsend.Speaking for a fan question segment for British GQ, Crowe was asked whether he regretted turning down the franchise, the star replying: “I don’t actually. I was a big Tolkien reader when I was a kid, so I got quite excited by the idea of Lord Of The Rings.“But I very much felt the studio were making that decision, not the film director,” he added.