Posts Tagged ‘Woody Allen’

For the first time since the Burt Reynolds-Cybill Shepherd musical comedy At Long Last Love was released in 1975, there exists a proper version on DVD. A reconstituted Blu-ray edition was released this month by 20th Century Fox and to mark the occasion, writer-director Peter Bogdanovich retraces on his Indiewire blog this unlikely miracle of modern film restoration.

The original version opened to very mixed reviews, although Woody Allen later told Bogdanovich he had seen it three-four times at Radio City Music Hall and loved it. The director cut a new “TV version” of the film shortly thereafter, but despite that effort, the movie quickly faded away. Cut to a few years ago:

A friend called to tell me that Netflix was streaming At Long Last Love. I decided to take a look at it that way; I hadn’t seen the movie in 35 years.

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You may have seen her on the cable clip show The Soup as the woman who puts up with co-anchor Greg Kelly‘s antics.

Rosanna Scotto, morning anchor for FOX owned station WNYW, sat down with the mediabistroTV crew to talk about how St. Patrick’s Day and the antics of world-famous director Woody Allen are what lead to her first big break.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

Here’s a fun challenge for DVR manufacturers. How can a future machine be set to truncate a program that “is about 73% really good and the rest… in the crapper”?

That assessment comes from the person at the center of the May 20 episode of PBS’ American Masters – Mel Brooks. And when you consider the Woody Allen-worthy jazz soundtrack coursing through the promo below, it may also be time for The Woodman to cast Brooks in a movie. Before it’s too late, for either or both of of these Your Show of Shows alums.

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At the recent Golden Globes, Kathryn Bigelow and Jodie Foster commingled on stage and off; Bigelow as a Best Director nominee, Foster as the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award.

By gracing the cover of the February 4 issue of TIME magazine, Bigelow joins Foster once again, this time as only the second female film director to adorn the publication. Foster did so back in October 1991.

The cover shot was taken by Paola Kudacki, the accompanying interview-profile conducted by Jessica Winter with help from Lily Rothman. Female power all around for this one.

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It’s remarkable how much traction some early-retirement comments initially made by Quentin Tarantino in his Playboy interview with Deadline.com’s Mike Fleming continue to receive. Hundreds of pick-ups later, those intentions are a topic of conversation once more in the latest Hollywood Reporter awards season roundtable discussion.

The funny thing is that Tarantino indirectly challenges his whole assertion of not wanting to become a diminishing-cinematic-returns old fart when he reminds that his favorite film of 2011 was made by a 76-year-old (now 77) Woody Allen. Fellow panelist David O. Russell for one would like QT to keep at it:

Russell: Back to Quentin, about his whole thing about the young man’s game. First of all, I’m gonna try to convince you to keep making movies ’cause I love watching your movies. Second of all, I remember saying to Diane Keaton about 10 years ago, “What is it with Woody Allen?” I felt like his work had gotten shaky. And she said: “I don’t know. I don’t know how many times he can go back to that well.” But the fact that Woody Allen, every year, gets up and makes a movie, I think that’s a good way to live, and he hits a good average sometimes. I really loved Midnight in Paris.

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Exactly 40 years ago, Woody Allen gifted the world with the comedy Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask. This weekend, Playboy TV will debut The Truth About Sex. A.k.a. everything their subscribers wanted to know about sex and were definitely not afraid to ask.

According to the press release, burning questions to be truth-tested will  include: Does male foot size really correlate? Is there a scientific explanation for “beer goggles?” And are blonde women more sexually adventurous?

The ten-part series was executive produced by Jon Hotchkiss, former showrunner of Emmy-winning Showtime series Penn & Teller: Bullshit!:

“Sex is exhilarating and fun, or so I’ve read on the Internet. It’s also complicated and confusing. With this new series, I’m thrilled we’re able to clear up the complications, debunk the misinformation, and still give Playboy TV’s audience what it desires: facts. Naked facts.”

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The reports were true. Woody Allen actually came to Los Angeles with his wife Soon Yi Previn for the North American premiere of his latest film To Rome With Love at the LA Film Festival. This is a guy who won’t even show for the Oscars.

LA doesn’t seem to be treating him too badly this time around. He was in good spirits last night while introducing the film.

“If you hate it and think it was a waste of time, don’t let me know,” he told the audience last night in full nebbishy glory. “I get depressed easily,”

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It’s a question many Los Angeles Film Festival watchers have been pondering this week. How the heck did Film Independent manage to convince Woody Allen to make an appearance at tonight’s opening night gala screening of To Rome With Love?

Based on the above Hollywood Reporter headline, a brief Q&A with artistic director David Ansen conducted by Gregg Kilday has the tantalizing answer. Not so fast. Hilariously (given the headline), here’s the non-answer provided by the critic-turned-programmer when asked about The Woodman’s rare west coast public appearance:

“I don’t know what his thought process was… I had told Tom Bernard and Michael Barker of Sony Pictures Classics that we’d really like to have Woody for opening night. And they came back a few days later and said, “We’re on.”

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The LA Film Festival kicks off tonight with the North American premiere of Woody Allen‘s latest flick To Rome With Love. Obviously a hot ticket. By tomorrow, however, the fest will drift into discovery territory, with several films making their world premieres. You can see the full schedule here. We’re no film reviewers, but for the media-obsessed out there like us, here are few news biz-oriented films you might want to check out over the course of the 10-day festival.

• Reportero — Director Bernardo Ruiz’ documentary about Zeta, the weekly Baja political newspaper that has seen its reporters harassed and even murdered for its tough investigative coverage of narco-traffickers and the politicians in their pockets.  From the press material: “Not even the brutal (and unsolved) murders of several colleagues can deter these brave men and women from their principles as journalists and their unflagging efforts to expose the truth, no matter what the cost.”

• Vampira and Me – From director R. H. Greene, this is the story of the LA late night horror movie host Vampira, who became a star long before Elvira, only to suddenly disappear off the radar.

• Words of Witness – Director Mai Iskander’s documentary account of the Arab Spring, as told through the online social networking and reporting of a young female journalist working for an English language newspaper in Egypt.

Richard Verrier of the LA Times had the story exclusively a few days ago. Today, ArcLight Cinemas is making it official.

For its first expansion move outside Southern California, the chain has selected an east coast city used as a filming location for Dave, True Lies and several Woody Allen shoots. Per today’s announcement:

ArcLight Cinemas executed a lease today that will open a new location in Bethesda, MD… Construction on the theater in the Westfield Montgomery will begin in early 2013, with the grand opening set for 2014.

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