Latest news with #BonnieAndClyde
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rockstar Games delayed GTA 6 release (again). Here's the official release date
Gamers who have been begging for a release date for the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 finally got their wish on May 6, 2025; however it wasn't the answer they were hoping for. Game developers Rockstar Games announced via their website blog that GTA 6 will finally hit shelves in 2026. While fans may be disappointed they're still an entire year out from playing the game, Rockstar has its reasons and decided to gift a brand-new trailer to hold everyone over. The trailer shows Jason as he drives through the streets of the vibrant Vice City, Leonida, modeled after Miami, Florida, on his way to pick up his girlfriend Lucia from prison. From there, we see the Bonnie & Clyde-inspired duo as they wreak havoc on the city and its inhabitants. Here's what we know about the release of GTA 6 so far. After what seems like eons of waiting for an official release date from Rockstar Games, it's finally here. On Tuesday, May 6, 2025, via the blog, the game developers announced that the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI will be coming May 26, 2026. While the game was announced in December 2023, the only thing Rockstar let gamers know was that GTA 6 was set to release sometime in 2025. However, that doesn't seem to be the case any longer. While some fans are rejoicing the fact that we finally have answers to when GTA 6 will officially be released, others are questioning what exactly is taking so long. In a blog post on the developers apologized for the later-than-expected release date and thanked fans for their patience as they "work to finish the game." It's been a whopping 13 years since Grand Theft Auto 5 released "With every game we have released, the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and Grand Theft Auto VI is no exception. We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve," the blogpost continued. While there's nothing official about the price of GTA 6, it's likely that it could be higher than gamers were initially hoping for. According to Microsoft announced that it would be increasing the prices of its software and hardware, leaving GTA fans worried about the potential cost of the game. I guess we'll just have to wait until 2026 to see how much gamers will have to shell out. Meredith G. White covers entertainment, art and culture for The Arizona Republic and She writes the latest news about video games, television and best things to do in metro Phoenix. A Transformer has landed in Arizona: How to see the iconic Bumblebee replica This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: GTA 6 release date: Gamers will have to wait for Grand Theft Auto
Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Robert Benton obituary: director of Kramer vs. Kramer
Robert Benton wrote his first screenplay, Bonnie and Clyde, after getting fired from Esquire magazine: there was a retrospective on Alfred Hitchcock at New York's Museum of Modern Art and he had spent afternoon after afternoon watching films with his colleague David Newman, a fellow cinephile, when he should have been at his desk. Benton had already worked with Newman on an article for Esquire called The New Sentimentality, which highlighted cultural changes in American life in the 1960s, and persuaded him to collaborate on a film. 'I am dyslexic,' Benton explained. 'I cannot spell or punctuate. I knew a young editor at Esquire, a wonderful writer. I sold him on the glamorous life of the Hollywood screenwriter.' The New Sentimentality had helped
Daily Mail
15-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Who is 'Russ'? Mystery over man teenage Brit 'drugs mule' Bella Culley met in the Far East before she was 'caught smuggling cannabis' in Georgia
Questions remain over the mysterious man British teen 'drugs mule' Bella Culley met in the Far East before she was allegedly caught smuggling 14kg of cannabis into Georgia. Culley, an 18-year-old from Billingham, Country Durham, faces a possible life sentence in the former Soviet nation, after she was arrested earlier this week at Tbilisi International Airport with with 12kg of cannabis and 2kg of hashish with a street value of £200,000, after telling her family she was backpacking through Thailand. Her social media posts revealed she was living the high life in southeast Asia, riding on the back of motorcycles and lounging on sunny beaches, and in many of them she was seen in the company of a male figure who was never clearly pictured or named. Many of her social media posts referenced the infamous American outlaws Bonnie and Clyde, with one TikTok captioned: 'Don't care if we on the run baby as long as I'm next to u.' That video showed Bella relaxing, with the following words imposed on the clip: 'Blonde or brunette? Erm, how about we get up to criminal activities side by side like Bonnie n Clyde making heavy figures and f***ing on balconies all over the world.' Bella's family have since revealed that she told them she was meeting a group of young men from the northwest of England in Thailand, with their interest laying with a man called 'Ross' or 'Russ.' Her grandad William Culley, 80, revealed yesterday that though she appears to have spent most of March in Thailand, the teenager spent time in the Philippines with a man called 'Ross or Russ.'. Mr Culley told the Sun: 'She went to the Philippines to see somebody, a lad there, who she used to go out with a couple of years ago, who was working out there. 'She said, 'I'm going on my own, but I'm meeting Ross out there. Or Russ, I'm not sure what his name is. 'He was working out there for his father's company or something - but now I wonder if what she told me was true.' A family friend of Bella told the newspaper they believed the teenager had been 'completely exploited' after falling in with British drug dealers while backpacking. They said: 'I'd put money on them being drug runners. There was a lad from Darlington she was with too. He's a drug runner - I know he is. 'This is totally out of character for her. I know, because she's a close friend of my daughter. 'She's just a normal 18-year-old. She's not some hardened criminal. 'To then suddenly go from the Philippines to Thailand seems strange to me. Her dad's in bits. Her family's in bits. She's a victim.' Bella's father and aunt have been spotted emerging from the public defender's office in Georgia after they were blocked from seeing the 18-year-old in prison. Father Neil Culley, 49, and auntie Kerrie Culley, 51, touched down in Tbilisi yesterday and pushed for an emotional reunion with the 18-year-old. Legal sources told the Mail the relatives tried to visit on Wednesday and again today, but were not allowed because the prison director has not signed relevant paperwork. It is understood they are pushing to visit tomorrow, but are reliant on officials signing it off. She claimed in court she was pregnant and her lawyer said she had been left 'scared, confused and depressed'. Her lawyer also described how the teen broke down on being told she could face life behind bars if convicted. Culley has been preliminarily detained until July 1 while investigations are ongoing. She is languishing in notorious Women's Colony Number 5 on the outskirts of Tbilisi, and could be facing 20 years in prison. But while Culley is investigated on suspicion of drug offences, she could spend up to nine months in the hellhole jail. The prosecutor asked for 55 days to find evidence before the case is brought to trial but this could be extended by a further seven months. Amid the rising tensions, her father and auntie have been locked in talks with British Embassy officials since their arrival and are not speaking to the press. Culley recently revealed he had been instructed by his son to market the house to raise money towards legal help for his daughter, who had recently started doing bank shifts as a nurse. He said he was 'surprised' when lawyers for Bella revealed she is pregnant. 'I only found out when my daughter told me last night.' When the duty lawyer explained her rights, the teenager 'was in an emotional state,' they told the Mail. 'When I explained to her that what she was accused of was an especially severe crime then she was concerned and visibly shaken.' Asked whether she thought Bella May realised the full extent of her alleged actions, her lawyer said: 'My impression was that she ended up in Georgia without even knowing what she was doing.' She added: 'She looked like she didn't expect it to have such severe consequences.' Asked what sort of sentence she is looking at, Ms Ia Todua confirmed that if convicted Culley faces a minimum term of 15 years but could be jailed for life. But she added if she co-operates this could be reduced - and the fact she is young and possibly pregnant would help in mitigation if she pleads guilty and assists in the investigation. Asked what her requests were on their first meeting, Ms Todua said: 'The only thing she asked was for me to contact her family. 'She gave me their emails, but there was some mistake in how they were written down and the delivery failed. 'We tried to send the emails, but they came back.' Asked if Culley has yet to explain to her lawyer how she came to be in possession of 14kg of drugs, Ms Todua said: 'No, she hasn't.' She confirmed her family do not know either. The huge haul of drugs was found in her hold luggage, while her carry-on bag only had clothes in it. She was flying into the country on a plane from Sharjah in the UAE. Zurab Tatunashvili, a senior customs officer, described the discovery of drugs in the bag of the 18-year-old girl. He said: 'I was inspecting luggage using an X-ray scanner. 'One of the bags appeared suspicious based on its contents, so I marked it with a customs sticker, which indicates that it must undergo a physical inspection in the presence of the passenger in a specially designated room.' Culley has undergone medical tests to determine if she is pregnant, but Ms Todua is not at liberty to confirm or deny if her client is pregnant. She said: 'The first thing they do is a medical check up, and obviously the pregnancy situation is investigated and checked, but without Bella's explicit approval I cannot confirm nor deny anything.' Ms Todua said she will next visit her client next week while her relatives are still anxiously waiting for a chance to see her. 'Bella has written a letter to the authorities asking them to allow her father to visit, buy they have not yet responded,' she said. 'They might respond tomorrow so he can go in, but they have up to five days to respond. 'Bella has the right to demand a short term visit from her family of up to one hour. 'They would meet in a room, there would be no glass separating them.' Todua told Radio Free Europe (RFE): 'When the accusation was presented, given that it was a foreign environment for her, it was her first time communicating with law enforcement officers, we agreed on such a position that she should exercise her right to remain silent in order to develop herself.' Law enforcement is expected to contact the suspect 'in a few days' in her detention jail. 'If she wishes to cooperate with the investigation in terms of providing certain information regarding the accusation, this will be agreed upon later,' reported RFE citing the lawyer. Father Neil Culley, 49, and auntie Kerrie Culley, 51, touched down in Tbilisi yesterday and pushed for an emotional reunion with the 18-year-old who is accused of carrying 30lbs of cannabis into the ex-Soviet republic It is possible that a separate legal team will be hired. Todua confirmed earlier this week that Culley's father Neil was headed to Tbilisi after having flown to Thailand, where she initially went missing. The British Embassy in Tbilisi told RFE: 'We are assisting the family of the British woman detained in Georgia and are also in contact with the local authorities.' The report said that neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs nor the Customs Department of the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance in Tbilisi say which country the British woman entered Georgia from, nor whether Georgia was her final destination. Any onward travel plans have not been disclosed. But Todua told RFE that according to the case materials, Culley arrived in Georgia from Thailand and, according to her travel tickets, intended to stay in Georgia.
The Guardian
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Robert Benton obituary
Cultured, modest, intelligent: not words that immediately spring to mind when describing most Hollywood moviemakers. But for the writer-director Robert Benton, who has died aged 92 they are entirely apt. Combined with a sparse output, those qualities kept him on the periphery of mainstream cinema and its publicity treadmill – despite Oscar-winning successes including Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984), plus one of the most celebrated debuts in movie history when, at 35, he won his first Oscar nomination as co-writer of Bonnie and Clyde (1967). He was 40 when he made the Jeff Bridges western Bad Company – the first of only 11 feature film directorial credits. Born in a small town not far from Dallas, Texas, to Dorothy (nee Spaulding) and Ellery Benton, who worked for a telephone company, Robert studied art at the state university before joining the army, where his talent found a modest outlet in the painting of dioramas. He subsequently studied at Columbia University before joining the art department of Esquire magazine, eventually becoming a contributing editor until he finally abandoned journalism in 1972. During those years he formed two relationships crucial to his life and career. The first was with the artist Sallie Rendig, who illustrated his children's book, Little Brother No More, in 1960. Four years later they were married. He also met David Newman, a slightly younger fellow editor on Esquire and they became regular collaborators, initially on books and then on an unsuccessful Broadway show, It's a Bird … It's a Plane … It's Superman. When they wrote a film script it was with the French new wave director François Truffaut in mind, but luckily Bonnie and Clyde became a project for director Arthur Penn and actor-producer Warren Beatty. This highly original take on 1930s rural lawlessness blended grotesque comedy with brutal actuality and became one of the most imitated of all movies. It enjoyed the rare distinction of being a cult success that moved on to become a critical and commercial hit. The duo, who won two Writers Guild of America awards for best drama and best original screenplay, stayed in their day jobs while working on their next project, another brilliant, literary screenplay for a quirky western. There Was a Crooked Man (1970) starred Henry Fonda as a prison governor and Kirk Douglas as a devious convict. It was innovatory and witty, giving colourful roles to the fine supporting cast, just as its predecessor had done. Having up-ended aspects of the western and gangster genres, the pair were called on for a script indebted to the screwball comedies of the 1930s in general and Bringing Up Baby in particular. Their screenplay, polished by Buck Henry, became What's Up Doc? (1972) and won the WGA's award for best comedy. After contributing to Oh! Calcutta! that same year, they wrote what became Benton's first – and most original – movie. Bad Company (1972) had a youthful cast headed by Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown as draft dodgers from the American civil war, travelling west and leading a small gang into lawlessness on their traumatic journey. Once again the work took an almost perversely original view of its subject, blending dark comedy with a vivid portrait of a world where poverty is rife, thievery is commonplace and the myth of chivalry out west – perpetuated by movies – is completely demolished. Benton gave up journalism, having enjoyed several productive and profitable years, although it was a further five years before his next movie, The Late Show (1977), written by him and produced by Robert Altman. Showing that nothing was sacred, Benton turned his attention to the private eye works of the 1930s and 40s with a sympathetic, even nostalgic, film that added a wryly comic twist to familiar characters. The hard-boiled detective had aged, there was a capricious modernity to the narrative and an elegance in the performances, the script and direction typical of his best work. He received an Oscar nomination for the film and a lucrative commission to help on the screenplay for the 1978 Superman, directed by Richard Donner. After that blockbuster Benton made his first adaptation of a novel for the screen and the result remains his most famous work. Although inherently conventional, Kramer vs. Kramer transcended melodrama to become, in the words of one commentator, 'an upmarket new-fashioned tearjerker'. Its story, of a couple who divorce and start a battle over the custody of their son, struck a chord with audiences and with the less cynical critics. It also struck gold at the Oscars, with Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman collecting statuettes and Benton taking two, for best direction and best adapted screenplay. As usual he had surrounded himself with the cream of the movie business. His rapport with actors meant that stars including Streep, Bridges, Hoffman, Bruce Willis and Paul Newman returned to work with him, as did the composer Howard Shore and designer Paul Sylbert, while the great cameraman Néstor Almendros shot five of his movies, before his untimely death in 1992 after filming with Benton on Billy Bathgate. Despite the success of Kramer, Benton took time out before his next project and, interestingly, never looked to television or the theatre to mop up periods of inactivity. In 1982, another genre fell under his acquisitive gaze and, reunited with Streep, he wrote and directed the thriller Still of the Night. Some critics found Alfred Hitchcock's influence oppressive and the story, of a psychiatrist who falls in love with his possibly murderous patient, conventional. The literary screenplay allowed the actors to adopt an overly serious tone for what was an old-fashioned suspense story brought into the 1980s. Perhaps to shake off the claustrophobia of that movie, Benton headed for his native Texas and a sentimental story, which offered his lead actor, Sally Field, a heaven-sent opportunity to plunder Oscar-ville. It was a chance she successfully took through playing a tough, put-upon farmer battling against the Depression. Places in the Heart was filmed in and around Benton's home town, drawing on locations and values of a time past and containing specific references to his ancestors. The highly personal work gained him another Oscar, for the screenplay, plus the Berlin festival Silver Bear for best direction. Benton remained in Texas for Nadine (1987), a movie with roots in the screwball comedies and thrillers of Hollywood's golden age that reunited him with Bridges. Considered a comparative misfire, it had admirers but proved difficult to assess, since various cuts gave the movie running times of between 78 and 88 minutes. The gap between this mild-mannered movie and Billy Bathgate (1991) was several years, and his ambitious return to period-set gangsterdom failed commercially. It was the first time that he had worked as a director for hire, from a discursive screenplay by Tom Stoppard based on EL Doctorow's novel. Hoffman took the lead, giving an intriguingly mannered performance as the vicious hoodlum Dutch Schulz. Visually it was memorable, but audiences were mystified by the sometimes witty and oblique tone, used as they were to more visceral depictions of 30s gangsterdom. However, Benton was not a director given to compromise. His penultimate movie, Nobody's Fool (1994), was a characteristically graceful work, starring Newman as a wilful 60-year-old living alone in a small town, forced to confront his alienation by the return of his son. Benton introduced personal elements into his screenplay – not least for Newman, whose own estranged son had killed himself, and for Jessica Tandy as an elderly woman facing death. Critically the film was well received, but audiences showed scant regard for such a thoughtful character study. Newman received an Oscar nomination for his cleverly nuanced performance, and four years later made yet another sortie from 'retirement' to star in Twilight, the director's second private eye movie. Heading a cast that included Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon and James Garner, Newman was well cast as another ageing, alcoholic misfit – a detective living with a terminally ill actor and his wife, embroiled in a complicated blackmail scam. Co-scripted with Richard Russo, whose novel was the basis of Nobody's Fool, it owed much to 40s noir movies, but at 90 minutes seemed leisurely and was subject to postproduction editing. Praised for its atmosphere, laconic dialogue and ensemble acting, it proved overly sophisticated for modern-day cinemagoers. The same could be said of his next film, The Human Stain (2003), which he directed, but did not write, from a novel by Philip Roth. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, it was an intriguing story of a distinguished academic who for years has hidden his racial origins. The film was crafted with Benton's usual skill but was not a commercial success. Two years later he was reunited with his friend Russo on the screenplay of The Ice Harvest, a lively thriller with a witty and literate script directed by Harold Ramis. His final directorial credit was on a meditative film, Feast of Love (2007), concerning four different couples. It was not well received critically and took less than $6m worldwide. However, it could not detract from the brilliant Bad Company, the witty homages to various film genres and the Oscar-winning successes of Kramer vs. Kramer and Places in the Heart by one of Hollywood's most independent and original writer-directors. Sallie died in 2023. Benton is survived by their son, John. Robert Douglas Benton, film writer and director, born 29 September 1932; died 11 May 2025
RTÉ News
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Robert Benton, Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Kramer Vs Kramer, dies at 92
Robert Benton, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who helped reset the rules in Hollywood as the co-creator of Bonnie And Clyde, and later received mainstream validation as the writer-director of Kramer Vs Kramer, has died at the age of 92. His son John said he died Sunday at his home in Manhattan of "natural causes". During a 40-year screen career, the Texas native received six Oscar nominations and won three times: for writing and directing Kramer Vs Kramer and for writing Places In The Heart. He was widely appreciated by actors as attentive and trusting, and directed Oscar-winning performances by Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Sally Field. Although severe dyslexia left him unable to read more than a few pages at a time as a child, he wrote and directed film adaptations of novels by Philip Roth, EL Doctorow and Richard Russo, among others. Benton was an art director for Esquire magazine in the early 1960s when a love for French New Wave movies and old gangster stories inspired him and Esquire editor David Newman to draft a treatment about the lives of Depression-era robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, imagining them as prototypes for 1960s rebels. The project took years to complete as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were among the directors who turned them down before Warren Beatty agreed to produce and star in the movie. Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn and starring Beatty and Faye Dunaway, overcame initial critical resistance in 1967 to the film's shocking violence and became one of the touchstones of 1960s culture and the start of a more open and creative era in Hollywood. Over the following decade, none of Benton's films approached the impact of Bonnie And Clyde, although he continued to have critical and commercial success. His writing credits included Superman and What's Up, Doc? He directed and co-wrote such well-reviewed works as Bad Company, a revisionist western featuring Jeff Bridges, and The Late Show, a melancholy comedy for which his screenplay received an Oscar nomination. His career soared in 1979 with his adaptation of the Avery Corman novel Kramer Vs Kramer, about a self-absorbed advertising executive who becomes a loving parent to his young son after his wife walks out, only to have her return and ask for custody. Starring Hoffman and Streep, the movie was praised as a perceptive, emotional portrait of changing family roles and expectations and won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Hoffman, disenchanted at the time with the film business, cited the movie and Benson's direction for reviving his love for movie acting. Five years later, Benton was back in the Oscars race with a more personal film, Places In The Heart, in which he drew on family stories and childhood memories for his 1930s-set drama starring Sally Field as a mother of two in Texas who fights to hold on to her land after her husband is killed. "I think that when I saw it all strung together, I was surprised at what a romantic view I had of the past," Benton told the Associated Press in 1984, adding that the movie was in part a tribute to his mother, who had died shortly before the release of Kramer Vs Kramer. Benton was born in Waxahachie, Texas, outside Dallas. He owed his early love for movies to his father, telephone company employee Ellery Douglass Benton who, instead of asking about homework, would take his family to the picture shows. The elder Benton would also share memories of attending the funerals of outlaws Barrow and Parker, Texas natives who grew up in the Dallas area. Robert Benton studied at the University of Texas and Columbia University, then served in the US Army from 1954 until 1956. While at Esquire, he helped start the magazine's long-standing Dubious Achievement Award. He married artist Sallie Rendigs in 1964. They had one son. Between hits, Benton often endured long dry spells. His latter films included such disappointments as the thrillers Billy Bathgate, The Human Stain and Twilight. He had much more success with Nobody's Fool, a wry comedy released in 1994 and starring Paul Newman, in his last Oscar-nominated performance, as a small-town troublemaker in upstate New York. Benton, whose film was based on Russo's novel, was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
