James Foley, director of Fifty Shades of Grey, dies at 71, Entertainment News
The director was best known for being at the helm of films such as Fifty Shades of Grey: Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed as well as Who's That Girl starring Madonna but it was confirmed on Thursday (May 8) that he had following a battle with brain cancer.
His publicist explained to The Hollywood Reporter that James "died peacefully in his sleep earlier this week" after a "years-long struggle" with the disease.
As well as his cinematic work, James also worked with the Queen of Pop on her Live to Tell, Papa Don't Preach and True Blue music videos under the name Peter Percher and was best man at her wedding to now-former husband Sean Penn in 1985.
After graduating from New York University and then USC in Los Angeles, he was able to jumpstart his career thanks to a chance meeting.
He told Film Freak Central: "I was very lucky, and in the perverse calculus of Hollywood I was in the last year of film school and shared a house with a guy. There was a woman who was pursuing my friend so we had this film school party, which consisted of people projecting their student films onto a white wall and getting stoned.
"And this girl came. Hal Ashby was pursuing her - she was pursuing my friend and Hal was pursuing her - and Hal called her up and asked to come to this party full of film students. Just as he walked through the door, my film was showing on the wall. I'll never know whether he was being polite or anything, but he told me he liked it and stuff and he was going to form a company that was going to produce other people's movies and what did I want to do? I could write something and direct it."
[[nid:585727]]
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AsiaOne
3 days ago
- AsiaOne
James Norton rushed to hospital with broken collarbone after being thrown from a horse
James Norton was rushed to hospital with a broken collarbone after being thrown from a horse on the set of his new TV show. The 40-year-old actor has revealed he suffered a painful accident during rehearsals for his historical BBC series King and Conqueror — set around Britain's Battle of Hastings in 1066 — and he was left nursing a broken bone throughout the rest of the shoot. He told The Times newspaper: "In some of the battle scenes in the latter half of the shoot, I'm yelping very loudly and the yelps are pretty authentic. "I fell off a horse and I landed on my shoulder. Actually it was a remarkably quick recovery and it didn't affect shooting. Luckily we dealt with it. The collarbone recovers very quickly. It was just quite painful." James went on to reveal he was most scared about having to tell the show's executive producer Kitty Kaletsky about his fall from the horse. He added: "I was doing all my own stunts but I had an amazing stunt double who I was in the hospital with. "There was like a moment where we said: 'We're f*****. Are you going to call Kitty, or am I?'" The actor went on to reveal there was another nasty moment on set when he had to bite the nose of an extra during a fight scene and he clamped his teeth down too hard. James explained: "I literally bit his nose. The poor guy. I went through his skin. It was terrible. The following day the guy came into rehearsals with a huge bandage. "It was like some kind of comedy. But I was just getting really into it." James revealed the nose-biting scene was thought up by director Baltasar Kormakur at the last minute and it was almost cut after the accident, but the actor is pleased the gory moment made the final cut. The McMafia star previously insisted the show is not a "cosy" period drama and the shoot was "brutal". He told "I was covered in mud and blood and layers of leather, it was a brutal shoot… "[Kormakur] had a very clear vision around the tone and the aesthetic — from the very beginning he wanted to avoid this being a clean, cosy period drama… "It took me hours every day to get ready because I had layer after layer of leather and chain mail. It paid dividends because you can see everything is so authentic. "That was something [Kormakur] was very stubborn about and it was so worth it in the end." [[nid:721155]]
AsiaOne
3 days ago
- AsiaOne
James Norton rushed to hospital with broken collarbone after being thrown from a horse, Entertainment News
James Norton was rushed to hospital with a broken collarbone after being thrown from a horse on the set of his new TV show. The 40-year-old actor has revealed he suffered a painful accident during rehearsals for his historical BBC series King and Conqueror — set around Britain's Battle of Hastings in 1066 — and he was left nursing a broken bone throughout the rest of the shoot. He told The Times newspaper: "In some of the battle scenes in the latter half of the shoot, I'm yelping very loudly and the yelps are pretty authentic. "I fell off a horse and I landed on my shoulder. Actually it was a remarkably quick recovery and it didn't affect shooting. Luckily we dealt with it. The collarbone recovers very quickly. It was just quite painful." James went on to reveal he was most scared about having to tell the show's executive producer Kitty Kaletsky about his fall from the horse. He added: "I was doing all my own stunts but I had an amazing stunt double who I was in the hospital with. "There was like a moment where we said: 'We're f*****. Are you going to call Kitty, or am I?'" The actor went on to reveal there was another nasty moment on set when he had to bite the nose of an extra during a fight scene and he clamped his teeth down too hard. James explained: "I literally bit his nose. The poor guy. I went through his skin. It was terrible. The following day the guy came into rehearsals with a huge bandage. "It was like some kind of comedy. But I was just getting really into it." James revealed the nose-biting scene was thought up by director Baltasar Kormakur at the last minute and it was almost cut after the accident, but the actor is pleased the gory moment made the final cut. The McMafia star previously insisted the show is not a "cosy" period drama and the shoot was "brutal". He told "I was covered in mud and blood and layers of leather, it was a brutal shoot… "[Kormakur] had a very clear vision around the tone and the aesthetic — from the very beginning he wanted to avoid this being a clean, cosy period drama… "It took me hours every day to get ready because I had layer after layer of leather and chain mail. It paid dividends because you can see everything is so authentic. "That was something [Kormakur] was very stubborn about and it was so worth it in the end." [[nid:721155]]
AsiaOne
03-08-2025
- AsiaOne
Mark Ruffalo to join Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Entertainment News
Mark Ruffalo will join Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 57-year-old actor will reprise his role of Bruce Banner / The Hulk in the upcoming Sony/Marvel movie sequel, alongside Tom as Spider-Man. Michael Mando will also return to his role of the Scorpion, the villain from 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, along with Jon as vigilante the Punisher. Tom, 29, recently revealed how excited he is to return to the Spider Man universe, after Covid-19 restrictions made shooting difficult on the third movie, 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. He told Flip Your Wig: "I think we were really restricted with what we could do in the last movie because of Covid-19. We shot the entire film on stages. Now we're really going to lean into that old school filmmaking and shoot in real locations. "We are going to use the streets of Glasgow for this massive set piece that we are putting together." Tom added that playing Peter Parker and his web-slinging alter-ego is like "like hanging out with an old pal" and filming the fourth movie is "going to feel like making 'Spider-Man 1 [2017's 'Spider-Man: Homecoming] again". He added: "It's been such a long time that I've done it that it's going to feel like a breath of fresh air. I think the fans are going to be over the moon with what we're putting together." Zendaya will also be returning as MJ in Spider-Man 4, along with Jacob Batalon as Peter Parker's best friend Ned. Sadie Sink has joined the cast, but her character has not been revealed. ALSO READ: Kevin Feige teases Tom Holland will become 'proper Spider-Man' in next movie instalment
