Exclusive: Departure of long-time Sony UK boss Peter Taylor prompts shake-up at studios.
The quiet retirement of long-time Sony Pictures UK MD Peter Taylor has prompted a shakeup at the top of two Hollywood studios in the UK.
Industry veteran Taylor has been replaced as MD by former Paramount Pictures UK MD Ian George.
In turn, Paramount marketing director John Fletcher has been appointed Paramount UK MD following George’s departure.
Taylor had steered Sony’s UK office for more than a decade, joining in 2006 after a two-year stint as MD of Warner Bros UK.
The studio veteran had previously worked at Columbia (and then Sony) in various roles between 1982-2004.
During his tenure as MD he oversaw huge results for the Bond franchise, including the UK’s second and third-biggest releases ever in the shape of Skyfall, which took more than £100m in 2012, and Spectre, which made £94m in 2015.
He also co-ordinated big local successes for the...
The quiet retirement of long-time Sony Pictures UK MD Peter Taylor has prompted a shakeup at the top of two Hollywood studios in the UK.
Industry veteran Taylor has been replaced as MD by former Paramount Pictures UK MD Ian George.
In turn, Paramount marketing director John Fletcher has been appointed Paramount UK MD following George’s departure.
Taylor had steered Sony’s UK office for more than a decade, joining in 2006 after a two-year stint as MD of Warner Bros UK.
The studio veteran had previously worked at Columbia (and then Sony) in various roles between 1982-2004.
During his tenure as MD he oversaw huge results for the Bond franchise, including the UK’s second and third-biggest releases ever in the shape of Skyfall, which took more than £100m in 2012, and Spectre, which made £94m in 2015.
He also co-ordinated big local successes for the...
- 4/6/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
At its best, journalism should have an adversarial relationship with power, constantly questioning or combatting it in a relentless pursuit of the truth. Unfortunately, modern media conglomerates have a vested interest in making money over uncovering lies, and thus are willing to be spokespeople for the powerful instead of the ones who hold their feet to the fire. Fred Peabody’s new documentary “All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone” takes on the inherent flaws of the modern news media and how they are increasingly reluctant to investigate or criticize government policies.
Read More: The 75th Annual Peabody Awards Announce Latest Group of Winners: ‘Mr. Robot,’ ‘UnREAL,’ and More
In “All Governments Lie,” Peabody explores the legacy of I.F. Stone, whose groundbreaking reporting filled his tiny 4-page newsletter from 1953 to 1971. He inspired many of those changing the face of journalism who are featured in “All Governments Lie,...
Read More: The 75th Annual Peabody Awards Announce Latest Group of Winners: ‘Mr. Robot,’ ‘UnREAL,’ and More
In “All Governments Lie,” Peabody explores the legacy of I.F. Stone, whose groundbreaking reporting filled his tiny 4-page newsletter from 1953 to 1971. He inspired many of those changing the face of journalism who are featured in “All Governments Lie,...
- 8/23/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
Warner Bros. has unveiled two new images for Clint Eastwood’s upcoming war drama American Sniper which star Bradley Cooper as the titular sharpshooter.
Following up on the recently released trailer, these stills further emphasis the stature of Cooper’s Chris Kyle, a decorated Navy Seal who holds the title for the most kills in American army history. Such an achievement also lit him up like a Christmas tree on the enemy’s proverbial radar.
Charting Kyle’s incredible story both on and off the battlefield, American Sniper looks to touch upon themes similar to those found in The Hurt Locker, where the leading character becomes so attached to the adrenaline of combat that he finds it hard to pull away from. As Chris Hedges so eloquently wrote, “the rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.”
With that in mind, it’ll...
Following up on the recently released trailer, these stills further emphasis the stature of Cooper’s Chris Kyle, a decorated Navy Seal who holds the title for the most kills in American army history. Such an achievement also lit him up like a Christmas tree on the enemy’s proverbial radar.
Charting Kyle’s incredible story both on and off the battlefield, American Sniper looks to touch upon themes similar to those found in The Hurt Locker, where the leading character becomes so attached to the adrenaline of combat that he finds it hard to pull away from. As Chris Hedges so eloquently wrote, “the rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.”
With that in mind, it’ll...
- 11/13/2014
- by Michael Briers
- We Got This Covered
Oliver Stone will present Pen Center USA’s celebrated First Amendment Award to Chris Hedges at the organization’s 23rd Awards Festival on October 14, 2013, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Stone (Wall Street, JFK, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July), will present the First Amendment Award to writer Chris Hedges. He says, “In the great tradition of American progressive reporting, now increasingly endangered, Chris Hedges has consistently displayed magnificent courage in speaking out against the abuses of our empire, " Oliver Stone said. "I’m honored to give him this award." Chris Hedges is a best-selling author, notably of War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, Death of the Liberal Class; and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.
- 9/24/2013
- by April Neale
- Monsters and Critics
Tom Morello has played to millions of people in countless venues around the world, and yet a May 19 booking at a movie theater in Kansas City, Mo., could be more meaningful to him than any other.
On that night, the lead guitarist of the band Rage Against the Machine will host “Tribute to Tomas Young.” Morello and Young became close friends long before the Internet came to know Young as the gravely wounded veteran who authored a viral open letter to former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney on the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War.
Morello and Young met in 2007 when Young was making a documentary, "Body of War" and wanted to use a song by The Nightwatchman -- the name of Morello's solo act. The film documents Young's attempt to reintegrate into the United States after being shot in the leg and through the...
On that night, the lead guitarist of the band Rage Against the Machine will host “Tribute to Tomas Young.” Morello and Young became close friends long before the Internet came to know Young as the gravely wounded veteran who authored a viral open letter to former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney on the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War.
Morello and Young met in 2007 when Young was making a documentary, "Body of War" and wanted to use a song by The Nightwatchman -- the name of Morello's solo act. The film documents Young's attempt to reintegrate into the United States after being shot in the leg and through the...
- 5/15/2013
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
Moore supporting activists who have mounted a case against the Obama administration seeking change to 'dangerous' Ndaa law
Michael Moore, the gadfly documentarian who has made a career out of fighting against conservative issues, has called for Us citizens to stand up to President Barack Obama and back a court case he says is fighting a dangerous erosion of civil liberties.
The case has been brought against a little known piece of legislation called the National Defence Authorization Act (Ndaa), which critics say has been changed to grant Obama the power to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge.
A group of activists, including Daniel Ellsberg – the official who leaked the Pentagon papers about the Vietnam war – and former New York Times journalist Chris Hedges have gone to court to get the language of the Ndaa changed. On Wednesday an appeals court in New York heard arguments in the case and...
Michael Moore, the gadfly documentarian who has made a career out of fighting against conservative issues, has called for Us citizens to stand up to President Barack Obama and back a court case he says is fighting a dangerous erosion of civil liberties.
The case has been brought against a little known piece of legislation called the National Defence Authorization Act (Ndaa), which critics say has been changed to grant Obama the power to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge.
A group of activists, including Daniel Ellsberg – the official who leaked the Pentagon papers about the Vietnam war – and former New York Times journalist Chris Hedges have gone to court to get the language of the Ndaa changed. On Wednesday an appeals court in New York heard arguments in the case and...
- 2/7/2013
- by Paul Harris
- The Guardian - Film News
You can't show war as it really is on the screen, with all the blood and gore. Perhaps it would be better if you could fire real shots over the audience's head every night, you know, and have actual casualties in the theater. -- Sam Fuller, film director and author
War is a grisly business, a horror of epic proportions. In terms of human carnage alone, war's devastation is staggering. For example, it is estimated that approximately 231 million people died worldwide during the wars of the 20th century. However, this figure does not take into account the walking wounded -- both physically and psychologically -- who "survive" war. Eventually, war will be our undoing. As Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent and author Chris Hedges observes: War is like a poison. And just as a cancer patient must at times ingest a poison to fight off a disease, so there are times...
War is a grisly business, a horror of epic proportions. In terms of human carnage alone, war's devastation is staggering. For example, it is estimated that approximately 231 million people died worldwide during the wars of the 20th century. However, this figure does not take into account the walking wounded -- both physically and psychologically -- who "survive" war. Eventually, war will be our undoing. As Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent and author Chris Hedges observes: War is like a poison. And just as a cancer patient must at times ingest a poison to fight off a disease, so there are times...
- 3/1/2012
- by John W. Whitehead
- Moviefone
In 1972, Jane Weiner was just beginning her career as a filmmaker and she asked her mentor, Ricky Leacock, if she could document him and his work. He said yes, but instituted two rules: 1.) No interviews. 2.) She could only shoot on small formats (which at the time was a Super 8 with Synch Sound). From 1972 until Leacock's recent death earlier this year, Weiner continued documenting her mentor who became her colleague and friend. As time went on, both Weiner and Leacock moved from small film formats to the lightweight and high definition video formats of the twenty-first century. Leacock, for the unfamiliar, was one of the leading American filmmakers in the direct cinema/cinema vérité movement. With the Maysles brothers, Robert Drew, Da Pennebaker, Chris Hedges and many others, Leacock encouraged filmmakers to use barebones lightweight film equipment to document important events (perhaps most famously the Kennedy/Humphrey...
- 12/9/2011
- Indiewire
Paramount Pictures International Vice President and Managing Director Chris Hedges will leave the company he's called home for the past 35 years, the studio announced on Tuesday. Hedges will transition out of his role by the end of the year. Ian George, who previously served as executive vice president of international marketing for Paramount International will replace Hedges. George will report to Anthony Marcoly, who recently joined the studio as the president of Paramount International. “We are grateful to Chris for the tremendous contributions he made during his career at both Paramount and Uip,”...
- 12/6/2011
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
Everyone claims to "Support Our Troops." But as Andrew J. Bacevich explains, telling the military it can do whatever it wants works for everyone-except for the soldiers themselves.
Riders on Boston subways and trolleys are accustomed to seeing placards that advertise research being conducted at the city's many teaching hospitals. One that recently caught my eye, announcing an experimental "behavioral treatment," posed this question to potential subjects: "Are you in the U.S. military or a veteran disturbed by terrible things you have experienced?"
Related story on The Daily Beast: The Memorial Day Diaries
Just below the question, someone had scrawled this riposte in blue ink: "Thank God for these Men and Women. USA all the way."
Here on a 30 x 36 inch piece of cardboard was the distilled essence of the present-day relationship between the American people and their military. In the eyes of citizens, the American soldier has a...
Riders on Boston subways and trolleys are accustomed to seeing placards that advertise research being conducted at the city's many teaching hospitals. One that recently caught my eye, announcing an experimental "behavioral treatment," posed this question to potential subjects: "Are you in the U.S. military or a veteran disturbed by terrible things you have experienced?"
Related story on The Daily Beast: The Memorial Day Diaries
Just below the question, someone had scrawled this riposte in blue ink: "Thank God for these Men and Women. USA all the way."
Here on a 30 x 36 inch piece of cardboard was the distilled essence of the present-day relationship between the American people and their military. In the eyes of citizens, the American soldier has a...
- 5/28/2011
- by Andrew J. Bacevich
- The Daily Beast
Robert here, with my new series Distant Relatives, where we look at two films, (one classic, one modern) related through a common theme and ask what their similarities and differences can tell us about the evolution of cinema. Two Best Picture winners for today.
Addictive Personalities
There are about as many themes and concepts explored by war films as there are war films. Still, they can be generally be narrowed down to three types. There are films about the physical toll of war (Saving Private Ryan), the mental toll of war (Apocalypse Now) and the spiritual toll of war (The Thin Red Line). Both The Deer Hunter and The Hurt Locker fit into the second category, but they're special. We're not talking about Colonel Kurtz level madness here. In fact, we're not talking about madness at all. What both films are most interested in is the "hook" of war, the adrenaline rush.
Addictive Personalities
There are about as many themes and concepts explored by war films as there are war films. Still, they can be generally be narrowed down to three types. There are films about the physical toll of war (Saving Private Ryan), the mental toll of war (Apocalypse Now) and the spiritual toll of war (The Thin Red Line). Both The Deer Hunter and The Hurt Locker fit into the second category, but they're special. We're not talking about Colonel Kurtz level madness here. In fact, we're not talking about madness at all. What both films are most interested in is the "hook" of war, the adrenaline rush.
- 11/27/2010
- by Robert
- FilmExperience
Filmmaker and cinematographer Haskell Wexler.
Haskell Wexler Shoots From The Hip
By
Alex Simon
Two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler was adjudged one of the ten most influential cinematographers in movie history, according to an International Cinematographers Guild survey of its membership. He won his Oscars in both black & white and color, for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and Bound for Glory (1976). He also shot much of Days of Heaven (1978), for which credited director of photography Nestor Almendros -- who was losing his eye-sight, won a Best Cinematography Oscar. In 1993, Wexler was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award by the cinematographer's guild, the American Society of Cinematographers. He has received five Oscar nominations for his cinematography, in total, plus one Emmy Award in a career that has spanned six decades.
Born in Chicago to a wealthy family on February 6, 1922, Wexler cut his teeth shooting industrial films, TV commercials and documentaries. He...
Haskell Wexler Shoots From The Hip
By
Alex Simon
Two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler was adjudged one of the ten most influential cinematographers in movie history, according to an International Cinematographers Guild survey of its membership. He won his Oscars in both black & white and color, for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and Bound for Glory (1976). He also shot much of Days of Heaven (1978), for which credited director of photography Nestor Almendros -- who was losing his eye-sight, won a Best Cinematography Oscar. In 1993, Wexler was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award by the cinematographer's guild, the American Society of Cinematographers. He has received five Oscar nominations for his cinematography, in total, plus one Emmy Award in a career that has spanned six decades.
Born in Chicago to a wealthy family on February 6, 1922, Wexler cut his teeth shooting industrial films, TV commercials and documentaries. He...
- 10/6/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Chicago – No contemporary filmmaker has mastered the art of opinionated cinema better than Michael Moore. He doesn’t pretend to be fair and balanced, and he doesn’t claim to have all the answers. He’s more interested in raising questions that sorely need to be addressed and debated. There are few things more American than the act of questioning a system that most people have taken for granted.
Ever since his first (and still his best) picture, “Roger & Me,” stirred up cheers and controversy two decades ago, Moore has always marched to the beat of his own drummer, refusing to drink the government Kool-Aid so eagerly gulped by the lazy mainstream media. In “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Moore traces back through the events that led to our current financial crisis, beginning with President Reagan’s appointment of Don Regan, chairman and CEO of Merrill-Lynch, as his Treasury Secretary, and eventually his Chief of Staff.
Ever since his first (and still his best) picture, “Roger & Me,” stirred up cheers and controversy two decades ago, Moore has always marched to the beat of his own drummer, refusing to drink the government Kool-Aid so eagerly gulped by the lazy mainstream media. In “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Moore traces back through the events that led to our current financial crisis, beginning with President Reagan’s appointment of Don Regan, chairman and CEO of Merrill-Lynch, as his Treasury Secretary, and eventually his Chief of Staff.
- 3/12/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
I usually avoid including a particular viewing experience with a film review, since it's unfair and dangerous to start behaving like one has any great bearing on the other. But one of the highest compliments that can be paid to a film is the acknowledgment that it's still replaying itself in the deeper recesses of your mind, and since seeing Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker three months ago at the South by Southwest Film Festival, I have only grown more affected by its tale. It's a perfectly paced action film that never resorts to gimmickry to convey suspense; it's a character-based war drama that avoids the easy stereotypes of soldiers and their relationships; and it's an expertly observed story about the current war that eschews partisanship just as it also does any kind of lazy moralizing or appearances of objectivity. In other words, the film doesn't purport to rise...
- 3/6/2010
- by Daniel Carlson
Matt Singer: We entered 2009 with a new president who promised to bring our country hope. But looking back at the year in film, I don't see a lot of hope; I see a lot of grief and despair. Oh sure, the box office charts were dominated by your now-typical assortment of franchises, spin-offs, reboots and sequels -- a major cause of grief and despair for some -- but you also had enough apocalypse movies to fill a book on Biblical prophecy. Even some of the obligatory superheroes got dark: the world (spoiler alert!) doesn't end in "Watchmen," but it comes awfully close.
There was an air of doom in certain quarters of the film industry this year too, as the effects of the bad economy rippled through everything from festival attendance to the shriveling ranks of working film critics. Examining my own list of the year's best, I find that...
There was an air of doom in certain quarters of the film industry this year too, as the effects of the bad economy rippled through everything from festival attendance to the shriveling ranks of working film critics. Examining my own list of the year's best, I find that...
- 12/22/2009
- by Alison Willmore
- ifc.com
“War is a force that gives us meaning. War is a drug.” The truth of these words, written by author and war correspondent Chris Hedges, that are used to open The Hurt Locker becomes evident mere minutes into its viewing, and further reveals itself as the piece progresses. Heartbeats quicken, muscles tighten, breathing shallows. And that’s just the viewer. Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq war action/drama is so replete with tension that no sooner has that first scene reached its climactic conclusion and the pace momentarily dropped than one is left waiting, like an avowed adrenaline junkie, for the next big hit. And you certainly never have to wait long, for The Hurt Locker is a white-knuckle ride of a movie; the cinematic equivalent of base jumping or swimming with sharks. The ride we’re taken on follows the day by day excursions of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (Eod) unit,...
- 9/1/2009
- by Joel Gregory
- t5m.com
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