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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Steven Flynn, Former Gramercy Pictures and Focus Features Marketing Executive, Dies at 70
Steven Flynn, a marketing executive who worked for Gramercy Pictures and Focus Features, among many other companies, died May 23 at Providence Saint John's Health Center after a four-year battle with renal cancer, his family announced. He was 70. Flynn was instrumental in the marketing of such notable films as Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), The Usual Suspects (1995), Dead Man Walking (1995), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), Traffic (2000), Gosford Park (2001), The Revenant (2015), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). More from The Hollywood Reporter Joanne Gilbert, 'The Great Man' and 'High Cost of Loving' Actress, Dies at 92 Renée Victor, Voice of Abuelita in 'Coco,' Dies at 86 Devin Harjes, 'Boardwalk Empire,' 'Daredevil' and 'Gotham' Actor, Dies at 41 In September 1993, Gramercy president Russell Schwartz hired Flynn as senior vp marketing at the recently launched label, a joint venture of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. He stayed on as Gramercy merged with October Films in 1999 to become USA Films and USA combined with Good Machine in 2001 to create Focus Features, where he rose to executive vp marketing through 2007. He then served as a marketing consultant for Vivendi Entertainment, National Geographic, 42 West, 20th Century Fox, Focus and Sony Pictures Entertainment. 'Steven was my first hire at Gramercy Pictures and quickly showed himself to be the most optimistic and problem-solving marketing executive I ever met,' Schwartz said in a statement. 'Under his supervision, he handled everything marketing-related and even organized the entire front and back office during Gramercy's early days. 'Gramercy was the closest company to Camelot that many of us had ever worked at, and Steven's presence was a big part of it. It's no wonder his email address is mrmovies@ Raised in Fenton, Michigan, Steven Francis Flynn graduated from Fenton High School in 1972 and attended the University of Michigan, where he studied electrical engineering. On the side, he worked as a manager at a movie theater in Ann Arbor. In 1977, he coordinated a televised college football halftime show that featured Star Wars during its original theatrical run and caught the attention of Salah M. Hassanein, then-president of UA Theaters' Eastern Division. Hassanein summoned him to New York and hired him. Flynn advanced to senior vp advertising at the UA division through 1990, when he moved to Orion Pictures as vp field publicity and promotions/exhibitor relations. He marketed many of that upstart company's films, including the best picture Oscar winners Dances With Wolves (1990) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). In 1992, Flynn relocated to Los Angeles to launch Edge Marketing before landing at Gramercy. Four years later, he joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Survivors include his partner of 43 years, Timothy; sisters Linda and Patricia; niece Shelby; and nephews Jeff and Sean. A graveside service and memorial is set for June 20 in Flint, Michigan, with an additional life celebration to be held layer in the Los Angeles area. Contributions in his memory may be made to the Motion Picture & Television Fund. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Susan Sarandon's lawsuit against WMass contractor dismissed
SPRINGFIELD — Six months before Oscar winner Susan Sarandon was set to go to trial after suing a Western Massachusetts contractor, the case was dismissed in federal court on May 15. Sarandon, under her corporate businesses, went after Western Massachusetts contractor Chad DeGrenier and his wife over a retirement home and compound in a tiny country setting in Vermont where just over 800 people are listed as residents. In court records, Sarandon has said she regarded the $2 million project as the spot where she will live out some of her last years of life in New England. Sarandon, 78, is best known for her Oscar-winning role as a nun in 'Dead Man Walking,' and other roles in 'Bull Durham,' 'Witches of Eastwick' and more. The federal court record only reflected a stipulation of dismissal among the parties, without providing more detail. A trial was scheduled for U.S. District Court in Springfield beginning Oct. 27 before Judge Mark G. Mastroianni but that has been canceled given the recent development, according to the court docket. The most recent and significant development in the case came through a denied motion for Sarandon's camp to seize a $125,000 piece of equipment. 'Plaintiffs argue they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims of breach of the agreement because it is undisputed that defendants bought the Kubota on behalf of plaintiffs for use at the property, and the agreement provides that, at its termination, defendants will return to plaintiffs any items of property owned by plaintiffs that is in defendants' possession,' U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine Robertson wrote in a decision last year. Sarandon's original complaint alleged the home had man faults, including buckled walls, an unfinished bedroom and other flaws. Mass. weather: Severe weather, chance of tornado, hail this afternoon Girl Scouts of Central and Western MA is hosting a recruitment event at the East Forest Park Branch Library 2nd Bands For Brittney Fundraiser to rock in Hadley on Saturday 'This place is going to come alive': Pride stores founder unveils Hope Center for the Arts Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean Penn expresses doubt about Woody Allen sex abuse allegations: ‘WHO BENEFITTED FROM THAT?'
Sean Penn weighed in on Woody Allen's alleged sexual abuse of adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, and said he would happily collaborate with the director again. 'I'd work with him in a heartbeat — if it was the right thing,' Penn said on Tuesday's episode of the Louis Theroux Podcast. Penn starred alongside Samantha Morton, Uma Thurman and Anthony LaPaglia in the 1999 musical comedy Sweet and Lowdown, which Allen wrote and directed. Theroux asked the two-time Oscar winner whether he thought the 89-year-old filmmaker had 'a bad rap.' Penn replied: 'With these things, I don't know anyone well enough to say, '100%, this didn't happen, that didn't happen.'' He added: 'The stories are mostly told by people that I wouldn't trust with a dime. It just seems so heavily weighted in that way.' Penn scoffed when Theroux pointed out that it was both Dylan, 39, and her journalist brother, Ronan Farrow, who made the allegations, which were initiated by their mother, Mia Farrow.. 'Well, you gave him that title, not me. But yes, Ronan Farrow,' Penn snapped, prompting Theroux to point out that Ronan 'writes for the New Yorker' and is 'quite respected.' Penn admitted that he is 'an ignoramus,' but noted, 'I am not aware of any clinical psychologist or psychiatrist or anyone I've ever heard talk or spoken to around the subject of pedophilia that in 80 years of life, there's accusations of it happening only once.' In 1992, Dylan alleged that her adoptive father had molested her when she was seven, though he has long denied any accusations of sexual abuse and was never charged. Allen responded that Mia concocted the allegation after they broke up and he started dating her other adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn — whom he married in 1997. Dylan has maintained her story for decades. She first went public in 2014 with an open letter in the New York Times. Four years later, following sex abuse allegations involving the now-convicted Harvey Weinstein, Dylan penned an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times asking, 'Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?' The Dead Man Walking star suggested the general public 'check him with the facts separate from the moment and the (#MeToo) movement and all.' Penn asked: 'Who benefitted from that? Let's just take a second. That's all I'm saying.' The 64-year-old added that he presumes Allen is 'innocent' because he has never been proven guilty of a crime. Sean Penn 'frustrated' with the world and is 'glad' he's old Sean Penn says he felt 'misery' making movies for years. Then Dakota Johnson knocked on his door Sean Penn slams Oscars for its 'cowardice' in fiery rant
New York Times
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Review: ‘Moby-Dick,' the Opera, Cuts the Blubber
The opening line of Herman Melville's 'Moby-Dick' is one of the most famous in literature. But Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, whose moody, monochromatic 2010 adaptation arrived at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday, conspicuously avoid placing those classic three words at the start. It's an early declaration of independence, the kind that artists have always had to make when turning a well-known novel — especially one as sprawling and shaggy as Melville's — into singing. Heggie, who also composed the well-traveled opera 'Dead Man Walking' (2000), and Scheer, an experienced librettist, have narrowed one of the canon's most overflowing works to its core plot. For readers who enjoyed 'Moby-Dick' but yawned through the rambling digressions about whaling, do I have an opera for you. The compressed adaptation is direct and clear, at least. Some contemporary operas, of which the Met has offered a burst over the last few seasons, lean heavily on confusing devices: complicated flashbacks; characters shadowed by doubles; singers playing metaphorical qualities like Destiny and Loneliness; split-screen-style scenes crossing place and time. 'Moby-Dick' wants none of that. It stretches across a year or so, but in a linear way. It never leaves the ship Pequod and its salty surroundings. Its characters are flesh-and-blood people. Yet the opera only rarely takes on flesh-and-blood urgency. While the story is streamlined and straightforward — a ship's crew struggles with the demanding whims of a vindictive captain — Heggie and Scheer also want to capture Melville's brooding grandeur, philosophical profundity and portentous language. So the prevailing mood is a dark, ponderous blue — a lot of stern, turgidly paced musings directed straight at the audience. The goal seems to have been to create a piece that's lucid and vibrant, but also dreamlike and meditative. A piece, in other words, much along the lines of 'Billy Budd,' Benjamin Britten's opera based on another seafaring Melville tragedy in which a ship becomes a petri dish for archetypal struggles. This is where the ambitions of Heggie's 'Moby-Dick' adaptation run up against his limitations as a composer. 'Billy Budd' fascinates because of the haunting complexities of Britten's music, but the meditations in this 'Moby-Dick' end up feeling dully one-note, as shallow as a tide pool. Even the circumscribed world of the opera includes a storm, a mast lit up by St. Elmo's fire, intimations of the South Seas, night and day, stillness and dance, vast expanses of sky — yet the music fails to meet the demand for these textures and colors. Heggie doesn't have many ideas beyond squarely undulating minor-key references to Philip Glass, John Adams and Britten himself. Every composer's work has influences, but these quotations are startlingly unadorned, even if played with spirit by the Met's orchestra under the conductor Karen Kamensek. Lovers of traditional operatic forms will find much to admire here, as Heggie and Scheer have embraced the kind of ensembles — duets, trios, quartets — that allow this art form to present multiple perspectives at once. But the variety in the text is not matched by variety in the score, and the conflicts that should energize the story don't always feel vital. The real tension is — or should be — between Captain Ahab, whose obsessive pursuit of the whale Moby Dick has drowned his humanity, and Starbuck, the sensible first mate who tries to steer the whole operation clear of disaster. But the opera gets distracted by a side plot about finding brotherhood amid racial and religious difference: Greenhorn — the name the opera gives the novel's narrator — first fears and then befriends Queequeg, the Polynesian harpooner. It's not until nearly an hour and a half into the three-hour opera that it really holds your attention for the first time. In a ruminative aria, Starbuck mulls whether to murder the sleeping Ahab to save himself and his shipmates. In the end, he can't bring himself to do it, and he slinks out as Ahab softly moans and the curtain falls. The sequence is riveting — but we've waited until the end of the first act for it. For the other highlight, we have to wait again, until late in the opera, when Ahab finally lets down his guard with Starbuck and confronts the cost of his single-minded mania. It is the calm before the final, doomed hunt, and Heggie endows it with real tenderness. Ahab, though, primarily expresses himself through drearily similar monologues, grounded in Melvillean diction and given a similarly antiquated musical feel through robustly shaking Handel-style coloratura. The tenor Brandon Jovanovich, stalking the stage with a belted-on peg leg, conveys a sense of Ahab's weariness more than of his intensity. The cast is entirely male, with the exception of the soprano who plays the young cabin boy Pip; Janai Brugger captures the boy's otherworldly purity. The baritone Thomas Glass was a solid Starbuck and acted with remarkable confidence, given that he was announced as a replacement for an ill Peter Mattei just a few hours before the opening on Monday — a performance that began with the orchestra playing the Ukrainian national anthem, the Met's latest gesture of solidarity with that country. While the tenor Stephen Costello was a plangent Greenhorn, the bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green sounded underpowered as Queequeg, with little to do except intone native prayers. The sweet-toned tenor William Burden was piquant among the smaller roles. Leonard Foglia's handsome production, with sets by Robert Brill, costumes by Jane Greenwood and lighting by Gavan Swift, is dominated by masts and rigging. The deck cleverly curves up into a backdrop that cast members can climb up and tumble down, seeming — with the help of Elaine J. McCarthy's projections — to be lost at sea as their boats are broken in the whale hunts. It is a clear staging of a clear piece. But that piece lacks the ingenuity and depth to hold its own with its source material, let alone break free. And it turns out that Heggie and Scheer's opening salvo of independence was just a coy deferral until the opera's closing moment. As Greenhorn, the Pequod's only survivor, is rescued by a passing ship, the captain asks his name. Costello answers, singing low and mournful: 'Call me Ishmael.'
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix just got an emotional biographical drama movie — and it's already crashed the top 10
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Netflix top 10 has shifted quite a bit in recent days. For starters, the original rom-com 'La Dolce Villa' has rocketed straight to No. 1 spot over the Presidents' Day weekend, while action-thriller 'Aftermath' sits in the runners-up spot. However, it's the flick just behind these two that has caught my eye. 'Trial by Fire' was added to Netflix last week (on Thursday, February 13), and while this 2018 biographical drama struggled to gain much traction in theaters, it's finding a whole new audience via the world's most popular streaming service. As of writing, 'Trial by Fire' ranks as the No. 3 most-watched movie on Netflix U.S. charting ahead of Amy Schumer's 'Kinda Pregnant', Sly's curtain-closer 'Rambo: Last Blood' and animated family smash hit 'Sing.' Never heard of 'Trial by Fire'? I'm not super surprised. As noted, the drama made barely a splash upon release (its box office haul was a measly $150K). The largely forgotten drama flick recounts a tragic true story and packs two strong performances from Jack O'Connell and the ever-reliable Laura Dern. So, here's everything you need to know about this new to Netflix movie… 'Trial by Fire' chronicles the true story of Cameron Todd Willingham, a man accused of purposefully setting a deadly house fire that killed his three young daughters. A heavy metal music fan with a violent past, prosecutors are convinced Willingham set the fire to cover up his own domestic abuses. Sentenced to death by the state, Willingham (played by Jack O'Connell) strikes up an unlikely friendship with Elizabeth Gilbert (Laura Dern), a playwright sympathetic to his pleas that he is actually innocent. The two bond over their shared experiences of parenthood, and as Gilbert begins to investigate the case she uncovers some disturbing concerns about the high-profile trial. Gilbert's findings suggest that some of the state's key witnesses aren't as reliable as presented. She also learns that evidence that could raise a reasonable doubt about Willingham's guilt is being suppressed. But as Gilbert pushes for the case to be re-opened, the date of Willingham's execution draws ever closer, and there may not be enough time to save his life. Anyone who has seen the 1990s Oscar winner 'Dead Man Walking' with Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn may feel a sense of déjà vu when watching 'Trial by Fire.' Both movies explore a surprising relationship between a death row inmate and a compassionate stranger sympathetic to their plight. The key difference between the two is the element of doubt. In 'Dead Man Walking,' Matthew Poncelet's (Penn) guilt is never in question. However, 'Trial by Fire' adds an element of mystery with Willingham's denial of starting the fire presented as more open-ended. Or at least, initially, it's presented this way. The movie does eventually come down on a clear side of the debate, but for the first act, you'll be thinking to yourself 'did he do it?' As with many biopic dramas, 'Trial by Fire' lives on the strength of its leading performances, and this movie is blessed with two strong actors. Laura Dern's role is well within her wheelhouse. Playing Gilbert doesn't challenge her, but she's as reliable as ever. Jack O'Connell is given the film's most intense material and thrives on it. Willingham is a complex character. He's a deeply flawed individual, but O'Connell manages to make him equally sympathetic. Plus, the movie's exploration of the morality of the death penalty is engaging. 'Trial by Fire's' biggest flaw is that it leans a little too heavily on emotionally manipulative techniques that have become commonplace in the genre. This is especially apparent in the third act. Rarely are the emotions of a scene left to breathe. Instead, everything is ramped up to ensure maximum melodrama. Director Edward Zwick would have benefited from trusting the viewer more and allowing the emotions to flow naturally instead of trying to force things. Over on Rotten Tomatoes, 'Trial by Fire' has scored a respectable 63% with critics. The performances of Dern and O'Connell were praised by reviewers, with the story also labeled 'heartbreaking' but the aforementioned manipulative approach was seen as the main flaw. Audiences were similarly impressed rating the movie 70% on RT's meter. The most recent user reviews call the movie 'powerful' and 'harrowing' praising its 'emotional depth.' 'Trial by Fire' definitely shouldn't be at the top of your Netflix watchlist if you want something light and breezy to kickstart your week. However, if you want to stream something with a real emotional punch that asks some difficult questions about what is justice and how the system can be rigged against those from disadvantaged backgrounds, 'Trial by Fire' is worth considering. It's by no means an easy watch, but it's got some important things to say. The lead performances from Jack O'Connell and Laura Dern are the biggest draws, and the two have a great on-screen chemistry as well. Just be warned, 'Trial by Fire' isn't afraid of resorting to some cheap tricks in an effort to make you reach for the tissues. Ironically, if the movie was more willing to let emotions flow naturally, it would probably hit even harder. Nevertheless, it's a well-made biographical drama that makes a compelling case for itself. If you're looking for some alternative options, be sure to check out our roundup of everything new added to Netflix in February 2025. Watch "Trial by Fire" on Netflix now New on Prime Video in February 2025 Netflix just got an overlooked sci-fi thriller movie New on Netflix: 5 movies and shows to watch this week
