Don’t go into “How to Die Alone” expecting a laugh a minute. There are jokes, to be sure, and star Natasha Rothwell delivers hers with ease. She’s supported by some great and highly comedic performances, notably Arkie Kandola and Christopher Powell as hilarious workplace duo Shawn and Deshawn, and Jaylee Hamidi and Melissa DuPrey as her … Read more
The Telluride Film Festival historically incorporates a fair number of documentary features and shorts alongside the main attraction, narrative features. This year, the documentary programming was thoughtfully political, and the selections thematically aligned well with the narrative features. This permitted my personal programming to have its own common thread and for synchronicities to shine. The … Read more
Louis Gossett Jr., the Oscar-winning star of An Officer and a Gentlemen, has died. According to the Associated Press, Gossett passed away Friday morning in Santa Monica, California. His family has not revealed a cause of death. He was 87 years old. Born in Brooklyn in 1936, Gossett attended NYU, where he studied theater. (A high school English … Read more
Paramount is developing another remake of The Longest Yard, with Rodney Barnes, writer on HBO’s Winning Time, penning the script. The Mean Machine is getting back on the field… again. Deadline reports that Paramount Pictures are developing another remake of The Longest Yard. The 1974 original was a prison sports comedy starring Burt Reynolds as … Read more
Winning Time co-creator Jim Hecht has spoken about and given his reaction to HBO‘s cancellation of the sports drama series. What did Jim Hecht say about Winning Time’s cancellation? In a guest column on The Hollywood Reporter, Hecht wrote about the process of creating the entire series as well as he and his wife’s reactions … Read more
Despite pretty solid reviews from critics, HBO’s Winning Time has been cancelled after just two seasons. The show drew some ire from former Lakers who took issue with their portrayals on the show, like Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and called the series “boring.” Jerry West, a major executive in the NBA, went so far as to … Read more
And yet, this iteration of “Winning Time,” from creatives Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht, doesn’t wholly center Magic (Quincy Isaiah) and Bird (Sean Patrick Small). Instead, the showrunners retrace the steps to that series. It leaps back to 1980, winding through infighting, coaching changes, and new loves before settling into 1984. While the season has … Read more