Category: Celebs

Jack Benny in “Casablanca”

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Fans of Jack Benny and/or Humphrey Bogart probably know that they appeared together on an episode of The Jack Benny Show.  But for years there has been a rumor that Jack Benny made an uncredited cameo appearance in Casablanca.

BookSteve’s Library takes a look at the rumor, finds newspaper articles and contests indicating that Benny did make an appearance in Casablanca and comes up with a conclusion that may surprise you.  If this interests you, check out Jack Benny in Casablanca.

The Impact of The Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show”

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On February 9, 1964, The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.  In this age of hundreds of channels, the internet and celebrities having personal access to multiple social media outlets, it may be difficult to understand the impact that the Beatles performing on Ed Sullivan’s show had for those not alive during that time.

I was five.  My mother got me out of bed to watch.  We weren’t alone, as nearly 40% of the US population had tuned in.

Stacy Conradt presents 10 Facts About The Beatles’s ‘Ed Sullivan Show’ Debut,  Here are three of my favorites…

THE BAND DIDN’T COME CHEAP …
Much like The Tonight Show today, being asked to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s was a huge honor for up-and-coming (and established) artists in the 1960s. The publicity generated from an appearance on the show was enough for most talent to say yes. But The Beatles would only agree to appear if the show covered their travel expenses and paid them a $10,000 fee (which would be just over $80,000 in 2019 dollars). Sullivan and his producers agreed, but only if The Beatles would commit to making three appearances. They had a deal.

BUT THEY ENDED UP BEING A RELATIVE BARGAIN.
Though forking over travel expenses and an appearance fee wasn’t the norm for The Ed Sullivan Show, it ended up being a great deal for the program, and proof that Beatlemania was just as thriving in America as it was in the UK. It’s been estimated that close to 74 million people—40 percent of the country’s population at that time—tuned in to watch The Beatles play.

ONE OF THE MONKEES WAS ON THAT NIGHT, TOO.
Davy Jones was also on The Ed Sullivan Show that night, but not as part of The Monkees. Jones was performing with the cast of Broadway’s Oliver! Jones played the Artful Dodger, first in London then in New York, and ended up being nominated for a Tony for the role.

Steranko’s Concept Art for “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”

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What we’re looking at above is extremely rare concept paintings for Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Jim Steranko.  I’d love to see a book of Steranko’s movie concept art (Dracula, Raiders, etc.), but then again, who wouldn’t?

Click on the photo above to see a larger version.

Source: Cool Comic Art

Steranko on Twitter: @iamsteranko

Snake Plissken: The Made & Unmade Movies and More

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When John Carpenter and Kurt Russell developed the character of Snake Plissken for Escape from New York, they knew they had a winning character.  Russell enjoyed playing Snake, Carpenter had plans for many future adventures, and most importantly fans loved Snake Plissken.

Snake (Kurt and Carpenter) returned for Escape from LA.  Although not as well-received as EFNY, Escape from LA was not going to be the final adventure for our one-eyed anti-hero.  Next up was to be Escape from Earth.  Sadly, that film never left the launching pad.

But Snake Plissken didn’t fade away.  There were plans for future films, a tv series, comics (that did happen) and video games.  Kieran Fisher at Film School Rejects discusses them all in his article The Snake Plissken Sequels We’ll Never Get to See.  Since you’ve read this far, my guess is you’ll enjoy it.

 

Donald Westlake’s Ventures in Movies and TV

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The Mind of Donald E. Westlake by Levi Stahl takes a look at Westlake’s ventures into screenwriting and the adaptations of his work for movies and television. It’s worth a look.

Did you know Westlake wrote a screenplay adapting Hammet’s Red Harvest? Sadly it was never made.  Neither was Westlake’s James Bond screenplay.  It’s no secret that Lee Marvin played Westlake’s most popular character Parker on the big screen, but did you know…

 

…that Between Point Blank, in 1967, and Parker, in 2013, Parker (usually under other names) was played by Lee Marvin, Robert Duvall, Jim Brown, Mel Gibson, Jason Statham, and, strangest of all, Anna Karina…

I didn’t.

18 Things We Learned from the New “Waterworld” Blu-Ray

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Max Evry and ComingSoon present 18 Things We Learned from the New Waterworld Blu-Ray.  Here are three of my favorites…

Jack Black is in this movie.
In one of his earliest film roles, comedy superstar Jack Black portrayed the soot-faced Smoker airplane pilot who attacks The Mariner only to get his plane caught on the trimarand’s mast. He’s only in a few scene and is barely recognizable due to the heavy amount of dirt make-up he wears.

Kevin Reynolds did the big explosion stunt himself
One of the major stunts in the film is when Kevin Costner shoots down a wire using a hook as a massive explosion erupts behind him. At first production would not allow Costner to do the stunt, fearing for the actor’s life. To demonstrate that it was perfectly safe for Costner, Reynolds performed the stunt himself.

The Waterworld stunt show at Universal is still going!
Originally opening at the same time as the film in 1995, Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular is a live stunt show featuring the Atollers being attacked by Smokers. It is still active to this day at Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Japan, and Universal Studios Singapore.

When Jim Steranko Re-Cast Nick Fury and the Agents of S.H.I.E.LD.

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Brian Cronin’s When Jim Steranko Re-Cast Nick Fury and the Agents of S.H.I.E.LD. at CBR.com is well worth a read. 

But before you click over, let’s have a little fun. 

Cronin contends that Steranko based his version of Nick Fury on an actor famous for his athleticism and rugged good looks.  After reading the article, I agree!

As a bonus, Cronin also suggests that the blonde guy with the big smile in the lower right on the cover above is another famous actor from the same time period.  And, again I think that he’s right.

Do you have any ideas who those two actors could be?

 

Thomas Boatwright’s “Rambo III” Stick Fighter!

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Above is Thomas Boatwright’s art of Sly from Rambo III.  If you like what you see (or love it as I do) then you may want to check out the video below of Boatwright creating it!

Over the years I’ve gotten several Stallone pieces from Thomas.  Click on the link to see what has been posted so far… there are more to come.

If you’d like to see more of Thomas Boatwright’s art check out his blog and his instagram. Send him some love.

The 17 Best Director Cameos in Movie History

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Josh Spiegel at Syfy.com ranks his choices for The 17 Best Director Cameos in Movie History.  Using just Spiegel’s list here are my top three…

  • Roman Polanski, Chinatown (1974)

  • Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles (1974)

  • Alfred Hitchcock, North By Northwest (1959)

…followed by 3 that didn’t make the list.

  • Sylvester Stallone, Staying Alive (1983)

  • Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (1979)

  • Alfred Hitchock, Lifeboat (1944)

Everything You Need to Know About “Rambo V: Last Blood”

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Padraig Cotter at ScreenRant has posted what he believes to be Everything You Need to Know About Rambo V: Last Blood.

The article does a good job of covering the film and is worth a read.  Here are a couple of tidbits that stuck out to me…

  • The star planned to adapt the novel Hunter for Rambo V, which finds a legendary tracker being tasked by the government to track down a feral, man-made monster. Hunter leads a team of mercenaries after the creature, which seemingly cannot be killed.  Since Hunter and Rambo are essentially the same character, Stallone felt the book would make a strong basis for a sequel.

    When Stallone later pitched this version on Ain’t It Cool News, it was met with swift derision from fans, so he soon scrapped the concept; that said, it was recently confirmed he plans to adapt Hunter as a solo movie.

Although at first look, Rambo and Hunter are similar (and the adaptation would have been fairly easy), I was glad that the decision was made to scrap this idea.  I’m even happier that Sly plans to adapt Hunter as a solo movie.

  • First Blood author David Morrell revealed in an interview that, around the time Stallone was working on Creed, he got in touch about working on a script that would mark a “soulful” final journey for John Rambo. The pair collaborated on this concept, which Morrell says would have contained action, but it was more about a man who had spent his life at war contemplating his past.

    The author feels this undiscovered Rambo V concept could’ve garnered awards recognition, but when Stallone took it to producers, they rejected it and wanted to focus on the human trafficking story instead. It appears the star wasn’t happy with this, as Stallone later announced his retirement from both the Rambo and Expendables franchises.

Morrell is not only the creator of Rambo, but an outstanding, award-winning author.  It would have been very interesting to see the direction he took Rambo.  Morrell still owns the rights to publish any Rambo stories but has elected to tell other stories.

With all that said, click over and check out Everything You Need to Know About Rambo V: Last Blood.

The 21 Best Action Movies That Still Hold Up Today

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Philip Pirrello has compiled a list of The 21 Best Action Movies That Still Hold Up Today.  Pirello’s list contains the movies you’d expect, although we probably all would disagree on the order.

For the record, my top three films from the list would be (in alphabetical order):

  1. Cliffhanger
  2. Point Break
  3. Terminator 2

Several actors made two appearances on the list: Tommy Lee Jones, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Will Smith, Wesley Snipes and Sly Stallone.  Only two actors had three appearances and they may surprise you (they did me): Keanu Reeves and Harrison Ford!

Sean Phillips’ Jimmy Cagney!

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Sean Phillips is an amazing artist as you can see from his James Cagney piece above.  The art appears with an article on Angels with Dirty Faces by Kim Morgan that will appear in Criminal #2 dropping on February 12th.

The great thing about the Criminal comic series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is that each issue is packed with a great comic story PLUS bonus features and art.

Source: Kim Morgan.

Which ’80s Action Character was the Deadliest?

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I imagine that many of our regular readers will get a kick out of Evan Hopkins’ The 20 Deadliest ’80s Action Movie Characters Ranked.  Evans’ list is a good one.

Some actors had multiple characters who made the list.  Chuck Norris had 4, Arnold Schwarzenegger had 3, Sly and Mel Gibson had two characters.

Sly Stallone’s Rambo came in first place and Cobra showed up at #11 and you know I won’t argue that.  🙂