San Diego Comic-Con 2017: Preview

Posted on July 19, 2017 at 3:09 pm

It’s my favorite event of the year, San Diego Comic-Con!

Some of what I’m looking forward to:

The annual MAD Magazine panel
Behind-the-scenes panels with designers, finding out about costumes, sets, and props
Superhero movie composers
The Simpsons panel
Women in Animation and Women Rocking Hollywood (women directors), hosted by my friend Leslie Combemale
Marty Krofft and the new Sigmund and the Sea Monsters!

And, as always, the costumes and new technology and movie previews and surprises!

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Festivals

Edna Mode: A Fashion World Tribute

Posted on July 19, 2017 at 8:00 am

The fans at Disney’s D23 gathering were treated to this adorable tribute to “The Incredibles” breakout star, Edna Mode. She’ll be returning for “Incredibles 2!”

Dog Day Afternoon: The Real Story

Posted on July 19, 2017 at 8:00 am

Bilge Ebiri explores the real story behind one of the most indelible movies of the 1970’s, Dog Day Afternoon. The gritty reality of Sidney Lumet’s direction, the strangeness of the story (according to the film, the motive for the robbery was money to pay for the sex reassignment surgery of the transgendered romantic partner of one of the robbers) and the stunning performances by Al Pacino, John Cazale, and Chris Sarandon captured the moment. Audiences of the era remembered the bungled bank robbery as it unfolded, with the hapless criminals stuck inside the surrounded bank ordering pizzas and the hostages and the crowd outside rooting for the robbers.

Ebiri looks at the contemporary coverage of the robbery and the film. According to this story, there was a mob involvement as well. And the guy behind it all learned that “moviemaking, like crime, does not pay.”

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The Real Story

Dunkirk: The Real Story

Posted on July 18, 2017 at 10:02 pm

Dunkirk was in most ways a loss, the Allies driven by the enemy to the shore and trapped there to be picked off. But it became a moral and morale victory that has resonated for nearly seventy years. It is featured in two films this year. “Their Finest” depicts a fictionalized version of the WWII propaganda operation that selected the rescue at Dunkirk as ideal for reassuring the British civilians. And Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” is a gorgeously filmed re-telling that is grand in scope but intimate in focus. While some of the details and characters are imagined, the overall story is true.

To learn more about the real story of the heroic evacuation of more than 300,000 men, watch some of the documentaries about the rescue operation.

And read The Miracle of Dunkirk by Walter Lord.

Here is then-new Prime Minister Winston Churchill giving one of the most famous speeches of the 20th century after Dunkirk.

Never surrender!

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The Real Story

Tribute: Martin Landau

Posted on July 18, 2017 at 3:57 pm

We mourn the loss of Oscar-winning actor Martin Landau, who died on July 16, 2017 at age 89. His career goes back to the legendary years of the Actors Studio, where his classmates included Steve McQueen. He rode motorcycles with James Dean and appeared with Cary Grant and James Mason in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest.

In the 1960’s, he and then-wife Barbara Bain starred in the hugely popular television series Mission Impossible.

He won an Oscar for a wonderfully witty portrayal of real-life horror movie star Bela Lugosi, making his final film with worst-director-ever Ed Wood, played by Johnny Depp.

May his memory be a blessing.

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Actors