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Mike Nichols' Unrealized Projects
During his long career, American filmmaker Mike Nichols has worked on several projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially canceled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team. 1960s ''The Public Eye'' In January 1964, Nichols was announced to make his feature film debut as director with a film adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play ''The Public Eye'', after the rights were bought by producer Ross Hunter. He was still attached to direct the film by December that year when he agreed to direct ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', which would become his debut instead. ''Barefoot in the Park'' In December 1965, Nichols was in talks to helm the screen version of Neil Simon's stage play ''Barefoot in the Park'' for Paramount Pictures, but was reluctant to repeat the same projects in a new medium, as he had already directed it for stage. The following yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (born Igor Mikhail Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theatre director and comedian. He worked across a range of genres and had an aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of their experience. He is one of 21 people to have won all four of the major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). His other honors included three BAFTA Awards, the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute in 1999, the National Medal of Arts in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2010. His films received a total of 42 Academy Award nominations, and seven wins. Nichols began his career in the 1950s with the comedy improvisational troupe The Compass Players, predecessor of The Second City, in Chicago. He then teamed up with his improv partner, Elaine May, to form the comedy duo Nichols and May. Their live improv act was a hit on Broadway, and each of their three albums was no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Last Tycoon
''The Last Tycoon'' is an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 1941, it was published posthumously under this title, as prepared by his friend Edmund Wilson, a critic and writer. According to ''Publishers Weekly'', the novel is "generally considered a roman à clef", with its lead character, Monroe Stahr, modeled after film producer Irving Thalberg. The story follows Stahr's rise to power in Hollywood, and his conflicts with rival Pat Brady, a character based on MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer. It was adapted as a TV play in 1957 and an eponymous film in 1976, with a screenplay for the motion picture by British dramatist Harold Pinter. Elia Kazan directed the film adaptation; Robert De Niro and Theresa Russell starred. In 1993, a new version of the novel was published under the title ''The Love of the Last Tycoon'', edited by Matthew Bruccoli, a Fitzgerald scholar. This version was adapted for a stage production that premiered in Los Angeles, California, in 1998. In 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jay Presson Allen
Jay Presson Allen (born Jacqueline Presson; March 3, 1922 – May 1, 2006) was an American screenwriter, playwright, and novelist. Known for her withering wit and sometimes off-color wisecracks, she was one of the few women making a living as a screenwriter at a time when women were a rarity in the profession.''New York Times'', Obituary. May 2, 2006. Early life Allen was born Jacqueline Presson in San Angelo, Texas, on March 3, 1922, the only child of buyer Willie Mae (née Miller) and department store merchant Albert Jack Presson. She was never particularly fond of her given name, and decided to use her first initial when writing. She would spend all day at the movie house every weekend, from 1 p.m. until somebody dragged her out at 7 p.m. From that time on, movies became very important to her and she knew she would not be staying in her hometown. She attended Miss Hockaday's School for Young Ladies in Dallas for a couple of years, but later said she left the school "having ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Pierson
Frank Romer Pierson (May 12, 1925 – July 22, 2012) was an American screenwriter and film director.Byrge, Duane (July 23, 2012). rank Pierson, Former Movie Academy President, Writer and Director, Dies at 87.''The Hollywood Reporter''Yardley, William (July 24, 2012Frank Pierson, Oscar-Winning Writer, Dies at 87.''The New York Times'' Life and career Pierson was born in Chappaqua, New York, the son of Louise (née Randall), a writer, and Harold C. Pierson. Pierson's family was the subject of his mother's 1943 autobiography ''Roughly Speaking'' and a 1945 movie of the same name, starring Rosalind Russell and Jack Carson as his parents. Pierson served in the Army during World War II, then graduated from Harvard.Frank Pierson obituary. '' |
Warren Beatty
Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, Irving G. Thalberg Award in 1999, the BAFTA Fellowship in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2008. Beatty has been nominated for 14 Academy Awards, including four for Academy Award for Best Actor, Best Actor, four for Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Picture, two for Academy Award for Best Director, Best Director, three for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Original Screenplay, and one for Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay – winning Best Director for ''Reds (film), Reds'' (1981). He was nominated for his performances as Clyde Barrow in the crime drama ''Bonnie and Clyde (film), Bonnie and Clyde'' (1967), a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Star Is Born (1937 Film)
''A Star Is Born'' is a 1937 American Technicolor drama film produced by David O. Selznick, directed by William A. Wellman from a script by Wellman, Robert Carson (writer), Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell (screenwriter), Alan Campbell, and starring Janet Gaynor (in her only Technicolor film) as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March (in his Technicolor debut) as a fading movie star who helps launch her career. The supporting cast features Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine, Lionel Stander, and Owen Moore. At the 10th Academy Awards, it became the first color film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The movie's plot is heavily based on a previous Hollywood production, ''What Price Hollywood?'', released in 1932 though not as widely known. This movie however would garner popularity and kickstart a legacy which led to it being remade three times: in A Star Is Born (1954 film), 1954 (directed by George Cukor and starring Judy Garla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Star Is Born (1976 Film)
''A Star Is Born'' is a 1976 American musical romantic drama film directed by Frank Pierson, written by Pierson, John Gregory Dunne, and Joan Didion. It stars Barbra Streisand as an unknown singer and Kris Kristofferson as an established rock and roll star. The two fall in love, only to find her career ascending while his goes into decline. ''A Star Is Born'' premiered at the Mann Village Theater on December 18, 1976, with a wide release by Warner Bros. the following day. A huge box office success, grossing $80 million on a $6 million budget in North America, it emerged as the second highest-grossing of the year. Reviews praised its performances and musical score, but criticized the screenplay and runtime. At the 49th Academy Awards, the film won Best Original Song for its love theme "Evergreen". The film is a remake of the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, notably adapted in 1954 as a musical starring Judy Garland and James Mason; and subsequently ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Didion
Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won an essay contest sponsored by ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'' magazine. She went on to publish essays in ''The Saturday Evening Post'', ''National Review'', ''Life (magazine), Life'', ''Esquire (magazine), Esquire'', ''The New York Review of Books'', and ''The New Yorker''. Her writing during the 1960s through the late 1970s engaged audiences in the realities of the counterculture of the 1960s, the Hollywood lifestyle, and the history and culture of California. Didion's political writing in the 1980s and 1990s concentrated on political rhetoric and Latin America–United States relations, the United States's foreign policy in Latin America. In 1991, she wrote the earliest mainstream media article to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gregory Dunne
John Gregory Dunne (May 25, 1932 – December 30, 2003) was an American writer. He began his career as a journalist for ''Time'' magazine before expanding into writing criticism, essays, novels, and screenplays. He often collaborated with his wife, Joan Didion. Early life Dunne was born in Hartford, Connecticut and was a younger brother of author Dominick Dunne. He was the son of Dorothy Frances (née Burns) and Richard Edwin Dunne (1894–1946), a hospital chief of staff and heart surgeon. John was the fifth of six children in the family. John's maternal grandfather, Dominick Francis Burns (1857–1940), founded the Park Street Trust Company. John Dunne developed a severe stutter as a child and took up writing to express himself. He learned to manage it by observing others. He attended the Portsmouth Abbey School and graduated from Princeton University in 1954, where he was a member of Tiger Inn. Career Dunne started working as a journalist in New York City for ''Time'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert De Niro
Robert Anthony De Niro ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor, director, and film producer. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Robert De Niro, various accolades, including two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for eight BAFTA Awards and four Emmy Awards. He was honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2003, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2011, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2019, and the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2025. De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. He went on to earn two Academy Awards, his first for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actor for his role as Vito Corleone in the crime drama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elia Kazan
Elias Kazantzoglou (, ; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), known as Elia Kazan ( ), was a Greek-American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway theatre, Broadway and Cinema of the United States, Hollywood history". Born in Ottoman Constantinople, Constantinople (now Istanbul) to Cappadocian Greeks, Cappadocian Greek parents, his family came to the United States in 1913. After attending Williams College and then the Yale School of Drama, he acted professionally for eight years, later joining the Group Theatre (New York), Group Theatre in 1932, and co-founded the Actors Studio in 1947. With Robert Lewis (director), Robert Lewis and Cheryl Crawford, his actors' studio introduced "Method Acting" under the direction of Lee Strasberg. Kazan acted in a few films, including ''City for Conquest'' (1940). His films were concerned with personal or social issue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fortune
''The Fortune'' is a 1975 American black comedy film starring Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, and directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Carole Eastman (credited under the pseudonym Adrien Joyce) focuses on two bumbling con men who plot to steal the fortune of a wealthy young heiress, played by Stockard Channing in her first film starring role. Plot Nicky Wilson and Oscar Sullivan are inept 1920s scam artists in the Northeastern United States who see pay dirt in the guise of Fredericka Quintessa "Freddie" Bigard, the millionaire heiress to a sanitary napkin fortune. She loves the already married Nicky, but because the Mann Act prohibits him from taking her across state lines and engaging in immoral relations, he proposes that she marry Oscar and then carry on an affair with the man she wants. Oscar, who is wanted for embezzlement and anxious to get out of town, is happy to comply with the plan, although he intends to claim his spousal privileges after they are wed. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
