johnny cash Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• Edward Behr (c.1926-2007) - British writer of Half Moon Street, starring Sigourney Weaver. He also appears as himself in Otto Preminger's doc Rosebud. (International Herald Tribune)
• Jo Durden-Smith (1941-2007) - Documentary filmmaker who wrote and directed A Horse Called Nijinski, which was narrated by Orson Welles, and produced the rock docs The Stones in the Park, The Doors Are Open and Johnny Cash in San Quentin. He died following a stroke May 10, in the UK. (Guardian)
• Kei Kumai (1930-2007) - Japanese filmmaker who directed The Sea Is Watching (pictured), which was written by Akira Kurosawa. He also directed Tunnel to the Sun, Lady Ogin and Death of a Sea Monster, all starring Toshiro Mifune, and The Sea and Poison, which won the Silver Bear at the 1987 Berlin Film Festival. He died of a brain hemorrhage May 18, in Tokyo. (Variety)
• Bruno Mattei (1931-2007) - Italian cult filmmaker who directed Hell of the Living Dead (aka Zombie Creeping Flesh), Womens Prison Massacre, Violence in a Woman's Prison, Rats: Night of Terror and Zombie 3. He was also the co-editor of Jesus Franco's 99 Women, for which he also directed the hardcore sequences, and Count Dracula. He died of cancer May 21, in Rome. (Contact Music)
• Bud Molin (1925-2007) - Editor on all of Carl Reiner's films between 1970 (Where's Poppa?) and 1993 (Fatal Instinct). He also edited They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!, Police Academy 3: Back in Training, The Man With One Red Shoe and Up the Academy, for which he was also the second unit director. He died May 21 in Rancho Mirage, California. (Variety)
• Charles Nelson Reilly (1931-2007) - Actor and television personality who played "Don Don Canneloni" in Cannonball Run II and appears in an uncredited role in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd. He also voiced characters in Don Bluth's All Dogs Go to Heaven, Rock-A-Doodle and A Troll in Central Park. He died of complications from pneumonia May 25, in Los Angeles. (NY Times)
• G. Srinivasan (c.1958-2007) - Indian producer of Mani Ratnam's last four films, including the director's latest, Guru, which stars Aishwarya Rai. He died May 27 when he fell into a 50-foot gorge near Halan, India. (Earthtimes.org)
• Robert Sully (1918-2007) - Actor who appears in Meet Me in St. Louis, A Guy Named Joe and When Worlds Collide. He died May 15 in Santa Barbara, California. (Santa Barbara News-Press)
• Alberto Verso (1941-2007) - Italian costume designer for Ripley's Game and The Truce and assistant costume designer for The Night Porter, Waterloo and Visconti's L'Innocente. He died May 16 in Rome. (IMDb)
• Ben Weisman (1921-2007) - Composer of the scores to Andy Warhol's L'Amour and Ed Wood's short Crossroads of Laredo. He also wrote tunes for many of Elvis' movies, including Jailhouse Rock, King Creole, Clambake, Blue Hawaii and Roustabout. He died May 20 in Los Angeles. (Variety)
  
• Gretchen Wyler (1932-2007) - Actress who played one of the few female characters in The Devil's Brigade and "Aunt Kissy" in Private Benjamin. She died of complications from breast cancer May 27, in Fresno, California. (FresnoBee.com)

One of my favorite moments from the film Boogie Nights is when John C. Reilly and Mark Wahlberg are in the recording studio trying to throw together a hot single. They're all hopped up on whatever, and in their minds they're creating the greatest song in history. After watching Reilly in that film, he instantly became one of my favorite actors at the time ... and still is. (I won't go into why I'm totally furious over the fact that the man wasn't nominated for a best supporting Oscar for Boogie, but obviously someone had their head up their ass that year.)

Since Boogie, the man has been in a slew of films (his roles in Chicago, The Good Girl, Gangs of New York and Talladega Nights were all fine performances), but I'm still waiting for him to take on another memorable character -- one that sticks with me the way Reed Rothchild did (okay, that sounded a bit weird). Reilly will next be starring in Walk Hard which -- get this -- will spoof all of those recent musician biographies that have flooded the scene, as well the past few Oscar ceremonies. Now, before you scream out, "Man, I hate those f**king spoof movies, they all suck," do keep in mind this particular film will not be coming from four of the twelve writers of Scary Movie. Oh no, the script was co-written by Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow, with Kasdan taking on directing duties. If you're looking for a connection between the two writers -- both of them penned episodes of Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared back in the day. Kasdan went on to direct Orange County, as well as the upcoming The TV Set and Apatow, well, is the genius behind The 40 Year Old Virgin. Feel better now?

When we first reported on this film back in August, there was no word on a start date. Well, now we're happy to inform you the pic will begin shooting sooner than expected -- this January -- and so there's a good chance it will arrive in theaters late next year. In Walk Hard, Reilly will play the fictitious music legend Dewey Cox. The character is a cross between Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Waylon Jennings and, in case you were wondering, Reilly will be performing all of the songs himself. Okay, I'm officially hooked -- who's with me?

It's been almost ten years since Tony Kaye's American History X debuted. Okay -- it's been exactly eight years last week, but it's been close enough to ten for the director to be prepping for a 10th Anniversary DVD. In order for everything to run smoothly with the special edition release, he's patched up things with New Line, the studio he fought with over the final cut of History, which was his first feature. In these eight years since that film's release, Kaye has not been able to put out another feature -- possibly because of his reputation following the New Line battle. However it's not as if Kaye was idle during that time-- and has been screening his newest project, a documentary about abortion titled Lake of Fire. The doc premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was reportedly well-praised, but Kaye's still trying to find distribution for it. It is unclear whether distributors are apprehensive in dealing with Kaye out of fear that he will put them through a similar battle as he had with New Line. Since Kaye claims to have spent 16 years and upwards of $8 million on the film, it would be a shame if no company bites with a substantial deal, especially since Kaye's announced that he does not need to make anymore changes to it, even though he kinda wants to.

In addition to shopping Lake of Fire, Kaye is keeping very busy and with many projects for the future. Aside from his success directing commercials and music videos (including the new Johnny Cash video for "God's Gonna Cut You Down"), he's apparently doing well as a director-for-hire and is currently working on special assignments for Johnson and Johnson and the United Arab Emirates. For his next fictional feature, he will be concentrating on a script by Robert McKee titled Madness (this would ironically be the first feature film written by McKee, who is famous for his books and seminars on the craft of screenwriting -- he is the guy portrayed by Brian Cox in Adaptation), which focuses on a doctor with a cure for schizophrenia who marries a former patient.

In order to cash (pun intended) in on the film's Oscar buzz, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced they will release Walk the Line on DVD this February 28th. Not only that, but there will be three different discs to choose from. Line will join a small list of major Oscar nominated films (Crash and Hustle and Flow to name two) actually available at the video store come awards time...and that makes me plenty happy because I have not seen it yet and am way too lazy to drag my ass out in the snow right about now.

Consumers (that's you!) will have a choice between a single-disc widescreen edition, a single-disc full-screen edition and, for those of you really into Johnny,  a two-disk special edition featuring three extended musical sequences, three featurettes and collectible postcards. Don't fret cheapos, both single-discs will also include a full-length commentary by director James Mangold and 10 deleted scenes. Though it was snubbed for Best Picture, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon (both Golden Globe winners) are up for the Best Actor and Actress award. You can catch the awards on ABC this March 5th.

• In today's Most Meta Item Involving Convicted Felons: Folsom State Prison has "invited" (there seems to be something weird about that, no?) 20th Century Fox to screen their Johnny Cash biopic, Walk the Line, at the prison for inmates. The film features a scene depicting Cash's legendary 1968 concert at the penitentiary, but because the $30 million production couldn't afford to travel, they recreated Folsom on a soundstage in Memphis. The Variety piece is full of blushing praise from both the filmmakers and prison representatives, in regards to Johnny Cash's "redemptive" potential; still, if I was in prison and I was "invited" to watch a bunch of actors play-acting my predicament from the safety of a soundstage, I think the last thing I would feel would be "redeemed".
  
• What is AMPAS's problem? The Academy is disqualifying candidates for Best Foreign Language Film left and right; they've just felled their eighth victim this year, Singapore's Be With Me, on grounds that the picture incorporates too many languages. Though much of the dialogue is in Chinese, Mandarin and even sign language, after a dispute, the picture was timed, proving that the dominant language in the film is actually English.
• AMC and Loews will sell 10 theaters in six cities in order to satisfy anti-trust concerns arising around their merger-in-progress. Included on the for-sale list: Loews' E-Walk, a huge complex right across the street from AMC's equally oversized Empire on 42nd street in Manhattan.
• We're not the only ones who love Pride and Prejudice – the latest Austen adaptation picked up a whopping eight nominations from the London Critics Circle yesterday, including nods for Keira Knightley and four other actors.