IFFI Goa 2017, XVIII: 55 years of Bondage A thousand eyebrows were raised at the inclusion of a James Bond package in the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Goa 2017. This was a first retrospect/tribute dedicated to a fictional character, the British MI6 spy who first appeared on screen in 1962. It was hotly debated whether the idea had any merit, considering retrospectives were hitherto confined to directors and countries. As many as nine Bond capers were screened, and at the cost ...

Actor Martin Landau, Oscar-winner at 66, dies, aged 89 Martin Landau, who landed his first and only Oscar in 1994, at age 66, playing Bela Lugosi in the Ed Wood biopic, has died, aged 89. He is also well-remembered as the star of the Mission: Impossible TV series (1966-69). Starting his career in 1959, he had been nominated for the Academy Award twice before, for Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Francis Ford Coppola, 1988) and Crimes and Misdemeanours (Woody Allen, 1989). Brooklyn-born Landau ...

Siraj Syed reviews Beauty and the Beast: A veritable feast Beauty and the Beast is a treat for young and old alike, with generous doses of humour and an enchanting musical score to go with it. It is not often that you see a kettle, a tea-cup and saucer, a dressing stool, a wardrobe, a piano, an antique clock, a floating, curvaceous  plumage and a candelabra (no, that’s definitely not a typo)  share screen space with the titular duo, that happen to be Beauty and Beast in this c...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Lord of the Rings has it, Star Wars has it, Indiana Jones, Spider Man, Star Trek, even The Wild Bunch (1969) has it too. But you can find it in Disney movies, nearly from every studio, at least a few big projects. So what is it?  Known by insiders as “The Wilhelm Scream,” a term coined by George Lucas’ sound designer wizard Ben Burtt, this is that familiar toe-curling roar let out by dying Storm Troopers, bit players eate...

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 Last night was the closing of the month long 17th annual nationwide Young Playwrights Festival, at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood, CA. The Festival is an opportunity for teenage playwrights to have their work produced, directed and acted out by professional actors from the the Hollywood community. Twelve winning plays were chosen by a panel of theatre professionals from plays submitted by teenaged playwrights, aged 15 -19 from across the United States. Playwrights were then assigned a ...