Film &amp; Television

Shooting for the Stars

Philly Film Society exec brings some Hollywood to the home crowd

By:

The man who helped land "Black Swan" for its Philadelphia premiere last year is dancing as fast as he can, putting the city on its cinematic feet. An upcoming movie festival, a just-announced filmmaker's contest, seminars, sneak screenings -- all quite a fete for J. Andrew Greenblatt, who, in the three years since assuming the role of executive director of...

Film & Television

Aargh and Oy!

Does Johnny Depp know about these Jewish 'Pirates of the Caribbean'?

By:

Michael Elkin

Did "Pirates of the Caribbean" miss the boat on its fourth voyage to world box-office dominance? Don't the producers know Jack about the rarely told story of ... Jewish "Pirates of the Caribbean"? Shiver me timbers? Go put a sweater on; there's a draft coming on. And who knows, maybe it's the draft for the fifth screenplay in the dizzyingly...

Film & Television

... and Mel Gibson as "The Beaver"

By:

Michael Elkin

Does it take a brave heart or just foolhardiness to attempt an acting comeback in a movie that Eddie Haskell would love? Mel Gibson is about to find out; the bedeviled and besmirched actor of blue-eyed beauty and green-eyed hatred has taken to the screen in "The Beaver," portraying a diminished depressive damned by the world and divested of hope...

Film & Television

'Nuremberg': Trials and Tribulations on Way to Screen

By:

Michael Elkin

Judgment of "Nuremberg" has been long in arriving. But now, 63 years after the documentary made at the behest of the U.S. War Department and the Office of Strategic Services was completed and shown in Germany -- but shoved into a cubbyhole committed to oblivion in the States -- it is premiering this weekend at the Ritz at the Bourse...

Film & Television

Moscow: The Ultimate Borscht Belt?

'Everybody Loves Raymond' producer finds out the hard -- albeit very funny -- way

By:

Michael Elkin

After a nine-year run on CBS, "Everybody Loves Raymond" was beloved, adored, admired -- but adapted? Only after creator/exec producer Phil Rosenthal decided to bring "Raymond" -- which dominated the network's comedy bloc -- to the former Eastern Bloc did he realize that being bullet-proof was not enough when engaged in a game of Russian roulette. To Russia, with love...