When gay Jewish filmmaker Jonathan Caouette was a preteen in Houston, he frequented sock hops at the Baptist church near his home. Invariably, church elders warned he was destined for hellfire: \”And I would tell them that I was possessed by the devil,\” Caouette, 31, said
One could call \”Who Killed Woody Allen?\” a \”benign revenge comedy.\” Co-authors Tom Dunn, Dan Callahan and Brendan Connor wrote the whodunit after Allen allegedly withdrew the rights to his play, \”Death,\” from their theater company in 2001.
When Bill Platt pitched his action-oriented \”Darklight\” TV movie two years ago, he hoped to create a new genre: \”Chai-Fi.\”\n\nThe 32-year-old filmmaker intended the project — inspired by the Jewish \”demoness\” Lilith — to merge his heritage with his sci-fi obsession.\n\n\”I wondered if I could make Jewish legend fun for audiences who liked \’The Matrix,\’ he said. \”And I wanted to see if I could create my own Jewish superhero.\”
Free tunes at the Skirball this afternoon, as part of their continuing \”Café Z\” series.
Over a period of 42 years, legendary producer Arthur Cohn has made only 12 films, of which half have been recognized with Academy Awards, giving the Swiss producer the highest batting average in the annals of the motion picture industry. This record has been recognized by the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a star for Cohn, the only foreign producer so honored.\n\nNow, in an unprecedented collaboration, five major Hollywood film companies have joined to release a DVD set of 10 films by Cohn.
Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson star in Nancy Meyers\’ \”Something\’s Gotta Give.\”\n\nA decade ago, filmmaker Nancy Meyers became intrigued by a Hollywood friend who exclusively dated younger women.\n\n\”They were always between 25 and 30,\” said Meyers, 54, who directed the Mel Gibson hit, \”What Women Want.\” \”Over the years, he went from his 40s to his 60s, but the women never got any older.\”
Sitting at a French Cafe in Westwood, Eitan Gorlin comes across as the very antithesis of the Hollywood self-promoter. The writer-director of \”The Holy Land\” has indeed kept such a low profile that, during months of inquiries, his name drew an absolute blank among Israel film mavens in Tel Aviv and Los Angeles.\n\nBut the debut feature by this unknown has already won remarkable recognition in America, including an Independent Spirit nomination for Gorlin as \”Someone to Watch.\”
Oliver Stone, working with French and Spanish producers, makes it harder to follow the already complex thread of the story by constantly intercutting between different scenes and spokesmen.
On Nov. 15, 2002, filmmaker Larry Cohen should have been at the multiplex, gauging opening day reaction to the film he wrote, \”Phone Booth,\” about a man who must outwit a sniper while trapped in the eponymous telephonic cabin. But the Washington Sniper changed all that.\n\nNo, Cohen was not the target of a hit. But his movie was, last October, when 20th Century Fox postponed the release because of the snipers (who were ultimately apprehended after killing 10 people and critically wounding three).\n\n\”Phone Booth,\” directed by Joel Schumacher and starring current \”it boy\” Colin Farrell, opens in theaters April 4. \n\n
When Yale Strom was growing up in a traditional, socialist-Zionist home in Detroit, he was riveted by his father\’s tales of a Jewish state founded 20 years before Israel in a Siberian swamp.
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