“Rocky III” Poster by Colin Murdoch
Every week Joblo.com posts Awesome Art We’ve Found Around the Net. This week one of the pieces was the Rocky III poster above by Colin Murdoch. You can see more of Colin Murdoch’s amazing art at his site.
Category: Celebs
“A Fistful of Dollars” Trivia!
Rob Hunter at Film School Rejects came up with 21 Things We Learned from the Fistful of Dollars Commentary. Before you click over, here are three of my favorites and my thoughts on each…
Eastwood was paid $15,000 for the film with a six-week Spanish “holiday” included. Other actors originally considered for the role, including Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Henry Fonda, and others, all asked for too much money. (I always find it interesting to see who was offered a role compared to who ended up playing it. Of the three listed, Charles Bronson is my hands-down favorite. Eastwood is iconic as the Man with No Name, but it would have been interesting to see what Charles Bronson could have done with that role. – Craig)
The opening title credits were designed by Luigi Lardani and based in part on the popular James Bond title credits of the time. (If you watch the opening credits, the 007 title credits influence is clear. It was a smart idea to use modern title credits for a movie set in the old west. – Craig)
You know this already, but the film is very directly based on Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961). Kurosawa had already acknowledged that his samurai films were in some ways a reworking of traditional Hollywood westerns, but A Fistful of Dollars is a very, very clear remake of Yojimbo — “the trouble was that nobody had cleared the rights.” Kurosawa eventually wrote to Leone after seeing the western and said “I like your film very much, it’s a very interesting film, unfortunately it’s my film not your film.” They settled out of court with the Japanese director going on to earn more from this film than from any of his own releases. (Wow! I knew that A Fistful of Dollars was a reworking of Yojimbo, but had no idea that Kurosawa’s settlement made him more money than any of his own films! I also love his quote: “I like your film very much… unfortunately it’s my film not your film.” – Craig)
RIP: Ray Liotta
Word has come that Ray Liotta died in his sleep at the age of 67. No cause of death was given.
In 1978, Ray Liotta graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He then moved to New York, and within six months landed a regular role on the soap opera Another World. Three years later, he left the series and moved to LA where he worked in both movies and television for the rest of his career.
Some of Ray Liotta’s memorable television appearances include: St. Elsewhere, Casablanca, The New Mike Hammer, Frasier, The Rat Pack (tv movie), Family Guy, ER, Texas Rising, The Making of the Mob, Modern Family and Shades of Blue.
Ray Liotta’s most notable feature films include: Something Wild, Field of Dreams, Goodfellas, Unlawful Entry, No Escape, Cop Land, Hannibal, Blow, Narc, John Q, Identity, Control, Revolver, Local Color, Smokin’ Aces, Crossing Over, Killing Them Softly, The Iceman, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and No Sudden Move.
I first became aware of Ray Liotta in Goodfellas. Here was this young actor holding his own with DeNiro and Pesci in a Martin Scorsese film! Who does that almost straight out of the shoot? Think about this — within six months of graduating college, Ray Liotta had an agent and a regular gig on television. Then when he went to California, he quickly began getting roles in films and television. Ray Liotta worked continuously from the very start of his career. That didn’t happen by accident or luck. It happened because Ray Liotta was one of the best actors working.
My favorite Ray Liotta role is as Gary Figgis in Cop Land. Word is Mr. Liotta wanted the starring role as Freddy Heflin. The director wanted Stallone for the part. Some actors would have walked away. Not Ray Liotta, he took the supporting role and turned in one of his all-time best performances. There are some real heavyweight actors in Cop Land including Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel. Often the performance fans talk about first is Ray Liotta’s.
I love it whenever Ray Liotta turns up in a television show or movie. He steals any scene he’s in and makes the production better. If you want to see Ray Liotta in a performance that deserves more attention, check out Narc written and directed by Joe Carnahan. In 2021, Ray Liotta co-starred in No Sudden Move (one of my favorite movies of the year) and turned in a masterful performance. That same year he appeared as two characters in The Many Saints of Newark and once again showcased his acting chops. Those two appearances made me excited for what the future held for Ray Liotta. Although he has a few yet to be released appearances coming, Ray Liotta died too young.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Ray Liotta’s family, friends and fans.
Rocky by Erica Galema
Our “Stallone Art Found on Twitter” train keeps rolling. Erica Galema created the nice piece above. You can see more of her art on her Instagram page.
“Beast” Starring Idris Elba – The Poster and Trailer are Here!
Above we have the poster and below the trailer for Beast starring Idris Elba. It’s got to be better than Endangered Species… right?
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Writers: Ryan Engle
Producers: Will Packer, James Lopez, Baltasar Kormákur
Executive Producers: Jaime Primak Sullivan, Bernard Bellew
Cast: Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Iyana Halley, Leah Sava JeffriesSometimes the rustle in the bushes actually is a monster.
Idris Elba (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, The Suicide Squad) stars in a pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator.
Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll series, Maleficent), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.
Iyana Halley (The Hate U Give, This is Us series) plays Daniels’ 18-year-old daughter, Meredith, and Leah Sava Jeffries (Rel series, Empire series) plays his 13-year-old, Norah.
From visceral, experiential filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur, the director of Everest and Universal Pictures’ 2 Guns and Contraband, Beast is produced by Will Packer, the blockbuster producer of Girls Trip, the Ride Along franchise, and ten movies that have opened No. 1 at the U.S. box office, including Night School, No Good Deed and Think Like a Man, by James Lopez, president of Will Packer Productions, and by Baltasar Kormákur. The film is written by Ryan Engle (Rampage, Non-Stop) from an original story by Jaime Primak Sullivan and is executive produced by Jaime Primak Sullivan and Bernard Bellew.
“Murder at Yellowstone City” Starring Gabriel Byrne, Thomas Jane and Richard Dreyfuss – The Poster and Trailer are Here!
Westerns are making a comeback. Murder at Yellowstone City starring Gabriel Byrne, Thomas Jane and Richard Dreyfuss has a cool poster and the trailer ain’t bad.
Murder at Yellowstone City is coming to theaters this June 24th!
The once peaceful and booming Yellowstone City has fallen on hard times, but when a local prospector strikes gold, things seem to be turning around. Any hope is soon shattered when the prospector is found dead and the Sheriff quickly arrests a mysterious newcomer. But nothing is so simple in this sleepy western town, and more than a few of the locals have secrets to keep and reasons to kill. As the brutal murders continue, pitting neighbor against neighbor, Yellowstone City goes down a bloody path to a final showdown that not all will survive.
Starring Gabriel Byrne, Thomas Jane, Isaiah Mustafa, Anna Camp, Nat Wolff, and Richard Dreyfuss
Directed by Richard Gray
Rocky Hitting the Beef by Captain Breaksteel!
Keeping our “Stallone Art Found on Twitter” posts going, today we have Rocky hitting the beef by Captain Breaksteel. You can see more of the good Captain Breaksteel’s art on Twitter.
“The Gray Man” Ryan Gosling & Chris Evans – The New Poster and Trailer is Here!
The Gray Man trailer is here and it looks awesome. Deal me in.
Ryan Gosling is THE GRAY MAN and Chris Evans is his psychopathic adversary in the Netflix/AGBO spy thriller directed by Anthony and Joe Russo – available globally July 22 on Netflix.
Also starring Ana de Armas, with Regé-Jean Page, Billy Bob Thornton, Jessica Henwick, Dhanush, Wagner Moura and Alfre Woodard. Based on the novel The Gray Man by Mark Greaney, the screenplay is by Joe Russo, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
THE GRAY MAN is CIA operative Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling), aka, Sierra Six. Plucked from a federal penitentiary and recruited by his handler, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), Gentry was once a highly-skilled, Agency-sanctioned merchant of death. But now the tables have turned and Six is the target, hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a former cohort at the CIA, who will stop at nothing to take him out. Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. He’ll need it.
Rocky II by Anthony M – Le Duc!
Anthony M – Le Duc created this sketch of Sly from Rocky II. Very nice! I found it and Anthony M – Le Duc on Twitter!
“Vengeance” Written, Directed and Starring B.J. Novak – The Trailer is Here!
I like the look of the Vengeance trailer. This is one to keep an eye on.
VENGEANCE, the directorial debut from writer and star B.J. Novak (“The Office”), is a darkly comic thriller about Ben Manalowitz, a journalist and podcaster who travels from New York City to West Texas to investigate the death of a girl he was hooking up with.
With an ensemble cast that includes Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher, Boyd Holbrook, J. Smith-Cameron, and Dove Cameron.
“Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One” Starring Tom Cruise – The Trailer is Here!
I’m a fan of Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible movies. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One looks to be another winner. I just wish that it wasn’t released in two parts. I’d much rather see a 3 or 4 hour film in one sitting than to have to wait a year for the conclusion. In my way of thinking a movie is a complete story.
We all share the same fate. Watch the official teaser trailer for #MissionImpossible – Dead Reckoning Part One starring Tom Cruise. Coming to theatres 2023.
Rambo by Jon Lankry!
One of the things that I love about Twitter is that you can find so many things of interest on it. While scrolling the other night I came across this fun sketch of Rambo created by Jon Lankry way back in 2014! It kind of reminds me of a Rambo/Terminator mash-up and I like it!
You can see more of Jon Lankry’s art on Twitter.
Rocky by Richard Cox
Richard Cox created the cool Rocky art above. I was able to get on Richard’s commission list at HeroesCon 2019 and he came through like a champ. (See what I did there?) You can see more of RIchard’s art on his Twitter feed and here.
Frank Miller’s The Geek Art Plus More About New “Sin City” Yarns and “Ronin II”
Since the news was announced that Frank Miller was returning to comics in a big way with his Frank Miller Presents publishing company, news has continued to come out detailing what we can expect. IGN posted Frank Miller Presents: Why the Acclaimed Comic Book Creator Is Reviving Sin City and Ronin. If you click over you’ll see Miller’s The Geek (above) as well as Phillip Tan art for Ronin II and more.
House of Wax (1953) / Z-View
House of Wax (1953)
Director: André De Toth
Screenplay: Crane Wilbur based on The Wax Works by Charles S. Belden
Starring: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, Roy Roberts and Charles Bronson (as Charles Buchinsky).
Tagline: UNLIKE ANYTHING YOU’VE SEEN BEFORE!
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Henry Jarrod (Price) is a skilled sculptor who creates life-like wax figures of famous people from history. Jarrod’s business partner, Matthew Burke (Roberts) feels their wax museum would do better business if Jarrod sculpted scenes of murderers and their victims. Jarrod refuses. So for the insurance, Burke sets the museum on fire. He douses Jarrod with kerosene and leaves him to burn alive!
Months later a horribly disfigured man murders Burke. Coincidently (?), Henry Jarrod reappears. Although the fire didn’t disfigure his face or kill him, Jarrod is confined to a wheelchair. His burned hands are no longer useful. Jarrod plans to create a new wax museum with the help of his assistant, Igor (Bronson) and some of his art students. When Burke’s fiancé is murdered by a disfigured man, the police begin looking for a serial killer. And isn’t it strange that Jarrod’s new figures look amazingly like women who have recently been killed?
The disfigured man has his sights on more victims… will the police discover his identity in time to stop him?
House of Wax was originally presented in 3D, so there are some scenes specifically to take advantage of the process. This is one of Vincent Price’s most famous roles and rightly so. Carolyn Jones is a standout in one of her earliest roles. Charles Bronson is effective as Igor, Price’s deaf/mute assistant.
House of Wax is a reworking of 1933’s Mystery at the Wax Museum (which is also worth a watch). Interestingly enough, the success of the 1953 film, gave Warner Bros. the idea to create a weekly television series involving bizarre murders solved by a trio of amateur detectives who own a wax museum. A pilot was filmed, but rejected as too intense for television. The pilot was then expanded into a full length feature, titled Chamber of Horrors and released to theaters!
House of Wax rates 4 of 5 stars.
