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Cover Story Throwback: Bruce Lee (1971)

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Launches Jewish History Exhibit

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced its first permanent exhibition titled 'Hollywoodland' and dedicated to the Jewish history of the film industry.

Blazing Saddles remains a roaring success 50 years on

It was 50 years ago, but I can still remember the roar. The roar of loud, uncontrollable laugher which ran across the audience. It started with a few chuckles and then the sort and scale of laughter I have never heard before or since in a cinema. A roar that was still going on a few minutes into the next scene.

Blazing Saddles at 50: Against all odds, Mel Brooks created the wackiest western ever made

It was “too dirty” for John Wayne to accept a part. Too “disgusting and vulgar” for Ted Ashley, the chairman of Warner Brothers, who threatened to “bury” the film. But director Mel Brooks stuck to his guns, refusing to make edits, and was vindicated. Blazing Saddles, 50 this February, was a massive hit, one Brooks declared “the funniest motion picture ever”.

The Exorcist at 50: Looking back at the iconic horror masterpiece

How The Exorcist Became The Most Respected Horror Movie Of All Time (And A Box Office Smash Hit)

The Exorcist possessed the box office not once, but twice, and the William Friedkin-directed film made horror mainstream in a way no film has done since.

Legendary Director John Boorman talks morality, living in Ireland, and 50 years in film

Based in Wicklow for nearly 50 years, legendary film director John Boorman is celebrated for classics like Point Blank and Deliverance. In a fascinating inte...

Warner Bros. Was Convinced Animal House Could Never Be A Movie (And Wow, Were They Wrong)

Animal House may have been a big deal for American cinema, but the bigwigs at Warner Bros. absolutely did not want to make the movie at all.

Douglas Trumbull on creating sci-fi classics

In our Spring 1985 issue, Douglas Trumbull – the legendary special effects supervisor who sadly died this week, aged 79 – recalled working with Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg, and directing Silent Running and Brainstorm

WB tried to make Mel Gibson their Batman

20k Views In the late ’80s, Mel Gibson was a Warner Bros darling. Thanks to his success in the shingle’s “Mad Max” and “Lethal Weapon” franchises, the adopted Aussie thesp was always the first name on the wish list for many of the studio’s big tentpoles back in the day. As production came to a close on the studio’s “Tequila Sunrise” in 1988 – a film in which Gibson gives a terrific, somewhat against-type turn as a former drug dealer – CEO Ted Ashley tried to make ‘Mel Gibson as Batman’ happen. And it wasn’t the first time : Back when Richard Donner (of “Superman” fame) was going to direct the film, he and Warner Bros also wanted Gibson.