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Picture of Pat Sierchio

Pat Sierchio

A new film series of Biblical proportions, The Ten Commandments — they’re baaack!

\”Eight in 10 Americans know two all-beef patties are in a Big Mac, but just over four in 10 — 41% — can\’t name \’Thou shall not kill\’ as one of the Ten Commandments,\” according to a 2007 study. Those not-too-surprising results reported by Kelton Research is why producer Frank Yablans is convinced that this is a critical time to have a studio producing educational, faith-based films. \”We hope to educate young people and families as to where all civilization came from,\” explained the 72-year-old Hollywood veteran. Yablans, born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, said he had a \”typical New York Jewish upbringing.\” For more than 50 years, he has toiled in the film industry, steadily rising through the ranks to president of Paramount Pictures in the early \’70s. \”The Godfather,\” and \”Chinatown\” are just a few of the titles that made it one of the most critically acclaimed and profitable studios of that period. But now, he has turned his focus and passion to his new company, Promenade Pictures, whose first production, a computer-animated film, \”The Ten Commandments,\” is scheduled for release Friday, Oct. 19.

Think you know ‘The Jazz Singer’? You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!

The Warners predicted, correctly, that \”The Jazz Singer\” would be \”without a doubt, the biggest stride since the birth of the industry.\” But the film\’s importance may not rest solely on the fact that it was the first sound film. It was also the first film to boldly address the assimilation of immigrant Jews into American culture.

Feisty, prolific SF author Harlan Ellison bares ‘Sharp Teeth’ in bio-pic

In May 2006, Harlan Ellison received the Grand Master Award from The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking his rightful place among such literary giants of the genre as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury. And now the celebrated writer is the subject of a new documentary, \”Dreams With Sharp Teeth,\” the title taken from a three-volume collection of Ellison\’s stories.

‘The Ten’ (commandments) return to the big screen as a comedy

The Ten Commandments have been around for a long, long time. Ever since the 13th Century B.C.E., to be exact. Yet in all this time there have only been two major live theatrical motion pictures made about them; the 1923 silent version and the 1956 epic starring Charlton Heston, both directed by Cecil B. DeMille. But neither one of them had many laughs. Now, after 3,000 years, writer/director David Wain has delivered unto the world a scathingly funny and irreverent take on the commandments in his new film \”The Ten.\”

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