The star with the gorgeous calypso voice was also a naturally passionate actor who appeared in heists, colonial confrontations – and even the last love triangle on Earth
In the middle of the 20th century, Harry Belafonte was at the dizzying high point of his stunning multi-hyphenate celebrity: this handsome, athletic, Caribbean-American star with a gorgeous calypso singing voice was at the top of his game in music, movies and politics. He was the million-selling artist whose easy and sensuous musical stylings and lighter-skinned image made him acceptable to white audiences. But this didn’t stop him having a fierce screen presence and an even fiercer commitment to civil rights. He was the friend and comrade of Paul Robeson and Martin Luther King Jr – and his crossover success, incidentally, never stopped him being subject to the ugliest kind of bigotry from racists who saw his fame as a kind of infiltration.
In the middle of the 20th century, Harry Belafonte was at the dizzying high point of his stunning multi-hyphenate celebrity: this handsome, athletic, Caribbean-American star with a gorgeous calypso singing voice was at the top of his game in music, movies and politics. He was the million-selling artist whose easy and sensuous musical stylings and lighter-skinned image made him acceptable to white audiences. But this didn’t stop him having a fierce screen presence and an even fiercer commitment to civil rights. He was the friend and comrade of Paul Robeson and Martin Luther King Jr – and his crossover success, incidentally, never stopped him being subject to the ugliest kind of bigotry from racists who saw his fame as a kind of infiltration.
- 4/25/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Cecilia Miniucchi’s “Life Upside Down” which stars Emmy-award winning actor Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”), Radha Mitchell (“Pitch Black) and Danny Huston (“21 Grams”). The movie world premiered at Venice in the Giornate degli Autori sidebar.
IFC Films will release the film in select theaters and VOD on Jan. 27 and will stream exclusively on AMC+ in April 2023.
“‘Life Upside Down’ is a romantic comedy following three couples, connected by friendship, love and work, who are each stuck in their respective homes in Los Angeles during the beginning of lockdown. Finally forced to face their spouses, friends, lovers, and eventually themselves head on, their lives turn slowly but surely upside-down.
“Cecilia has brought warmth and empathy to this universal story of love and growth in isolation that we can all relate to,” said Arianna Bocco, President of IFC Films . “We are so...
IFC Films will release the film in select theaters and VOD on Jan. 27 and will stream exclusively on AMC+ in April 2023.
“‘Life Upside Down’ is a romantic comedy following three couples, connected by friendship, love and work, who are each stuck in their respective homes in Los Angeles during the beginning of lockdown. Finally forced to face their spouses, friends, lovers, and eventually themselves head on, their lives turn slowly but surely upside-down.
“Cecilia has brought warmth and empathy to this universal story of love and growth in isolation that we can all relate to,” said Arianna Bocco, President of IFC Films . “We are so...
- 10/12/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Production scheduled to commence in spring / summer.
Xyz Films has reported robust territory sales at Efm on Nick Cassavetes’ upcoming boxing drama Cus And Mike starring Anthony Hopkins as Mike Tyson’s legendary trainer Cus D’Amato.
Patriot Pictures head Michael Mendelsohn is producing the true story about how D’Amato turned Tyson from an adolescent street thug into the world’s youngest heavyweight boxing champion and one of the most feared pugilists the sport has ever seen.
Xyz Films has struck deals in Italy (Eagle Pictures), Spain (A Contracorriente), Middle East (Falcon), Poland (Kino Swiat), Eastern Europe (Prorom), Portugal (Nos...
Xyz Films has reported robust territory sales at Efm on Nick Cassavetes’ upcoming boxing drama Cus And Mike starring Anthony Hopkins as Mike Tyson’s legendary trainer Cus D’Amato.
Patriot Pictures head Michael Mendelsohn is producing the true story about how D’Amato turned Tyson from an adolescent street thug into the world’s youngest heavyweight boxing champion and one of the most feared pugilists the sport has ever seen.
Xyz Films has struck deals in Italy (Eagle Pictures), Spain (A Contracorriente), Middle East (Falcon), Poland (Kino Swiat), Eastern Europe (Prorom), Portugal (Nos...
- 3/5/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Joseph Baxter Feb 20, 2020
Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins headlines biopic Cus and Mike, set to play Mike Tyson’s legendary trainer, Cus D’Amato.
Anthony Hopkins is set to bring his Oscar-and-Emmy-winning repertory skill set to the boxing ring… well, a ring-adjacent location, anyway, set to play trainer Cus D’Amato, in a developing fact-based film project about how the legendary prepper of pugilists molded one fighter in particular, Mike Tyson.
The launch of Berlin's European Film Market (Efm) has yielded a most intriguing project from Patriot Pictures, a biopic titled Cus and Mike, which, as revealed by Deadline, will have Hopkins headline as the titular trainer. The film is set with The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes, who will work off an original screenplay by Desmond Nakano, based on Montieth Illingworth’s 1991 biography, Mike Tyson: Money, Myth, and Betrayal.
Knighted Welsh legend Hopkins’s role as D’Amato – who wrought two-time heavyweight...
Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins headlines biopic Cus and Mike, set to play Mike Tyson’s legendary trainer, Cus D’Amato.
Anthony Hopkins is set to bring his Oscar-and-Emmy-winning repertory skill set to the boxing ring… well, a ring-adjacent location, anyway, set to play trainer Cus D’Amato, in a developing fact-based film project about how the legendary prepper of pugilists molded one fighter in particular, Mike Tyson.
The launch of Berlin's European Film Market (Efm) has yielded a most intriguing project from Patriot Pictures, a biopic titled Cus and Mike, which, as revealed by Deadline, will have Hopkins headline as the titular trainer. The film is set with The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes, who will work off an original screenplay by Desmond Nakano, based on Montieth Illingworth’s 1991 biography, Mike Tyson: Money, Myth, and Betrayal.
Knighted Welsh legend Hopkins’s role as D’Amato – who wrought two-time heavyweight...
- 2/20/2020
- Den of Geek
Exclusive: In an intriguing Berlin Efm addition, Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins has been set to star in Cus And Mike, the story of Mike Tyson’s legendary trainer Cus D’Amato and how he moulded the fighter into becoming the youngest heavyweight title winner ever and one of the most ferocious boxers of his generation.
The Patriot Pictures film, which is set to be a character study as well as a sports-biopic, will be directed and written by The Notebook and John Q filmmaker Nick Cassavetes, based on the original screenplay by Desmond Nakano, and the book Mike Tyson: Money, Myth, and Betrayal by Montieth Illingworth.
Xyz Films and Patriot are handling world sales at the Efm in Berlin and are aiming to shoot in spring/summer 2020.
The film will chart how the tough but brilliant D’Amato became a father-figure to the wayward adolescent Tyson who would go on to become...
The Patriot Pictures film, which is set to be a character study as well as a sports-biopic, will be directed and written by The Notebook and John Q filmmaker Nick Cassavetes, based on the original screenplay by Desmond Nakano, and the book Mike Tyson: Money, Myth, and Betrayal by Montieth Illingworth.
Xyz Films and Patriot are handling world sales at the Efm in Berlin and are aiming to shoot in spring/summer 2020.
The film will chart how the tough but brilliant D’Amato became a father-figure to the wayward adolescent Tyson who would go on to become...
- 2/20/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Happy Monday, everyone! Before we head into Memorial Day, we have more horror and sci-fi Blu-ray and DVD releases coming our way that should definitely keep genre fans busy for the three-day weekend. Scream Factory is keeping busy with their Blus for The Seduction, The Hunted, and the recent psychological thriller A Dark Place. Shout Select is showing Earthquake some love with their Collector’s Edition this week, and Kino Lorber has two stellar-looking Special Edition releases on their docket as well: Black Moon Rising and Bitter Moon.
Other exciting titles coming home on May 21st include White Chamber, She-Devils on Wheels, A Brilliant Monster, and Crank in 4K.
Black Moon Rising: Special Edition
When master thief Sam Quint is hired by the government to steal top-secret data from a crime organization, he hides the stolen data in the experimental supercar, The Black Moon. But when the car is then...
Other exciting titles coming home on May 21st include White Chamber, She-Devils on Wheels, A Brilliant Monster, and Crank in 4K.
Black Moon Rising: Special Edition
When master thief Sam Quint is hired by the government to steal top-secret data from a crime organization, he hides the stolen data in the experimental supercar, The Black Moon. But when the car is then...
- 5/21/2019
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
As is annual tradition, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has announced this year’s 25 film set to join the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Selected for their “cultural, historic and/or aesthetic importance,” the films picked range from such beloved actioners as “Die Hard,” childhood classic “The Goonies,” the seminal “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and the mind-bending “Memento,” with plenty of other genres and styles represented among the list.
The additions span 1905 to 2000, and includes Hollywood blockbusters, documentaries, silent movies, animation, shorts, independent, and even home movies. The 2017 selections bring the number of films in the registry to 725.
“The selection of a film to the National Film Registry recognizes its importance to American cinema and the nation’s cultural and historical heritage,” Hayden said in an official statement. “Our love affair with motion pictures is a testament to their enduring power to enlighten, inspire and...
The additions span 1905 to 2000, and includes Hollywood blockbusters, documentaries, silent movies, animation, shorts, independent, and even home movies. The 2017 selections bring the number of films in the registry to 725.
“The selection of a film to the National Film Registry recognizes its importance to American cinema and the nation’s cultural and historical heritage,” Hayden said in an official statement. “Our love affair with motion pictures is a testament to their enduring power to enlighten, inspire and...
- 12/13/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Since 1989, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has been accomplishing the important task of preserving films that “represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking.” From films way back in 1897 all the way up to 2004, they’ve now reached 725 films that celebrate our heritage and encapsulate our film history.
Today they’ve unveiled their 2017 list, which includes such Hollywood classics as Die Hard, Titanic, and Superman along with groundbreaking independent features like Yvonne Rainer’s Lives of Performers, Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, and Barbara Loden’s Wanda. Also making this list are a pair of Kirk Douglas-led features, Ace in the Hole and Spartacus, as well as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and more. Check out the full list below and you can watch some films on the registry for free here.
Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)
Based on the infamous...
Today they’ve unveiled their 2017 list, which includes such Hollywood classics as Die Hard, Titanic, and Superman along with groundbreaking independent features like Yvonne Rainer’s Lives of Performers, Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, and Barbara Loden’s Wanda. Also making this list are a pair of Kirk Douglas-led features, Ace in the Hole and Spartacus, as well as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and more. Check out the full list below and you can watch some films on the registry for free here.
Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)
Based on the infamous...
- 12/13/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In ''American Me'' Edward James Olmos has achieved several important goals, but one outweighs the rest: he has made a film that will scare the hell out of any inner-city youth not already lost to the hopelessness of gangs, drugs and prison.
While cineastes might argue that Olmos overexplains his characters and their motives, the director-star is clearly aiming his message at young audiences. He doesn't want to be subtle; he wants to be brutally frank about what lies ahead when a child signs on with a gang.
''American Me'' has considerable crossover potential. As ''JFK'' has proven, when a film's theme and concerns move off the entertainment pages into the news and opinion sections, public interest is heightened.
Olmos' other achievements, not so incidently, include a brilliant directorial debut and, arguably, his best screen performance to date.
Floyd Mutrux's script -- rewritten by Desmond Nakano -- fleshes out the story of the Mexican Mafia, a vicious California prison gang. Feeding off a flawed penal system, its power reaches back to the Latino communities, controlling drugs and extortion.
Olmos plays Santana, its ruthless boss who in a perspicacious moment upon his return to prison, thinks back on the emptiness of his life.
In flashback, beginning with the Zoot Suit riots in 1943, the film recounts the saga of three generations of his family and of his life with homeboys who serve him in prison and out.
The tragic cycle of violence grows out of upside-down values where ''respect'' is achieved through fear and ''class'' is established through murder.
The tattoos of gang members symbolize an even more deeply imprinted vision of life where gang affiliations is all one can aspire to -- a perverse American dream.
Santana, in a brief relationship outside prison with a single mother, Julie (Evelina Fernandez), is momentarily freed from the gang's death grip and suddenly sees how a people can destroy themselves and their culture.
In stark contrast to ''Stand and Deliver, '' Olmos has made a film with little hope. Only in Julie does he suggest that a person can turn her back on gang life and educate herself. That tiny ray of hope is enough.
In playing a character who has lost all feelings of human compassion, Olmos projects a dignity and sense of a warmth that still might be reclaimed were he not to meet a tragic end. The other actors, especially William Forsythe, Pepe Serna, Danny De La Paz and Daniel Villarreal, are outstanding.
Reynaldo Villalobos' icy, nearly black-and-white cinematography makes Folsom Prison a treacherous landscape and gives colorful East L.A. a shadowy, film-noir look.
AMERICAN ME
Universal Pictures
Producers Sean Daniel, Robert M. Young, Edward James Olmos
Director Edward James Olmos
Writers Floyd Mutrux, Desmond Nakano
Executive producers Irwin Young, Floyd Mutrux, Lou Adler
Director of photography Reynaldo Villalobos
Production designer Joe Aubel
Music Dennis Lambert, Claude Gaudette
Editor Arthur R. Coburn, Richard Candib
Costume designer Sylvia Vega-Vasquez
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Santana Edward James Olmos
JD William Forsythe
Mundo Pepe Serna
Julie Evelina Fernandez
Puppet Danny De La Paz
Pedro Sal Lopez
Little Puppet Daniel Villarreal
Pie Face Domingo Ambriz
El Japo Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Running time -- 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
While cineastes might argue that Olmos overexplains his characters and their motives, the director-star is clearly aiming his message at young audiences. He doesn't want to be subtle; he wants to be brutally frank about what lies ahead when a child signs on with a gang.
''American Me'' has considerable crossover potential. As ''JFK'' has proven, when a film's theme and concerns move off the entertainment pages into the news and opinion sections, public interest is heightened.
Olmos' other achievements, not so incidently, include a brilliant directorial debut and, arguably, his best screen performance to date.
Floyd Mutrux's script -- rewritten by Desmond Nakano -- fleshes out the story of the Mexican Mafia, a vicious California prison gang. Feeding off a flawed penal system, its power reaches back to the Latino communities, controlling drugs and extortion.
Olmos plays Santana, its ruthless boss who in a perspicacious moment upon his return to prison, thinks back on the emptiness of his life.
In flashback, beginning with the Zoot Suit riots in 1943, the film recounts the saga of three generations of his family and of his life with homeboys who serve him in prison and out.
The tragic cycle of violence grows out of upside-down values where ''respect'' is achieved through fear and ''class'' is established through murder.
The tattoos of gang members symbolize an even more deeply imprinted vision of life where gang affiliations is all one can aspire to -- a perverse American dream.
Santana, in a brief relationship outside prison with a single mother, Julie (Evelina Fernandez), is momentarily freed from the gang's death grip and suddenly sees how a people can destroy themselves and their culture.
In stark contrast to ''Stand and Deliver, '' Olmos has made a film with little hope. Only in Julie does he suggest that a person can turn her back on gang life and educate herself. That tiny ray of hope is enough.
In playing a character who has lost all feelings of human compassion, Olmos projects a dignity and sense of a warmth that still might be reclaimed were he not to meet a tragic end. The other actors, especially William Forsythe, Pepe Serna, Danny De La Paz and Daniel Villarreal, are outstanding.
Reynaldo Villalobos' icy, nearly black-and-white cinematography makes Folsom Prison a treacherous landscape and gives colorful East L.A. a shadowy, film-noir look.
AMERICAN ME
Universal Pictures
Producers Sean Daniel, Robert M. Young, Edward James Olmos
Director Edward James Olmos
Writers Floyd Mutrux, Desmond Nakano
Executive producers Irwin Young, Floyd Mutrux, Lou Adler
Director of photography Reynaldo Villalobos
Production designer Joe Aubel
Music Dennis Lambert, Claude Gaudette
Editor Arthur R. Coburn, Richard Candib
Costume designer Sylvia Vega-Vasquez
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Santana Edward James Olmos
JD William Forsythe
Mundo Pepe Serna
Julie Evelina Fernandez
Puppet Danny De La Paz
Pedro Sal Lopez
Little Puppet Daniel Villarreal
Pie Face Domingo Ambriz
El Japo Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Running time -- 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
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