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Hollywood’s Proud Past Lives Again This Week With AFI, TCM Classic Film Festival And Danny Kaye Centennial

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday April 24, 2013 @ 6:37pm PDTTags: AFI Night At The Movies, Barbra Streisand, Ben Stiller, Danny Kaye, Funny Girl, Max Von Sydow, TCM Classic Film Festival, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Turner Classic Movies
Pete Hammond

In Hollywood they say ‘everything old is new again’ and that has never been more true this week than with a massive celebration of classic films and stars. There is tonight’s AFI Night At The Movies with 13 classic titles (including Best Picture winners like In The Heat Of The Night  and Terms Of Endearment) taking up every screen at Hollywood’s Arclight Theatre complete with in-person introductions from their original stars (Shirley MacLaine, Cher, Sidney Poitier, Sally Field and Harrison Ford among them). There is a year-long centennial celebration of the great Danny Kaye and a reminder of his talent at year’s end with the Fox remake of a Kaye classic, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. And starting Thursday with the World Premiere restoration of Funny Girl, the 4th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival kicks off its four day run in Hollywood.

Even as competing fests this week at Tribeca and in San Francisco try to steal the spotlight for new films from a new generation, The Turner Classic Movies fest has become a big deal focusing on the past. And not only for the network, but as a signature event where studios can show off new digital restorations of classic films with the same hoopla that might have accompanied their original premieres. Though its stars Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif won’t be attending the Funny Girl restoration’s premiere at the Chinese Theatre tomorrow night (Sharif is in Europe; Streisand is sending a statement to be read by TCM host Robert Osborne) many vintage stars including festival honorees like Eva Marie Saint, Ann Blyth, Max Von Sydow and numerous others are expected to walk the red carpet. Competing for attention across the street at the Hollywood Roosevelt Pool will be TCM’s pristine digital presentation of 1958′s South Pacific with stars Mitzi Gaynor and France Nuyen on hand. TCM’s longtime talent exec, Darcy Hettrich has the herculean task of turning out all the great stars of Hollywood’s past  that keep these fans buzzing. READ MORE »

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CinemaCon: Fox Unveils Ben Stiller’s ‘Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’ Which Could Be Oscar Bound

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday April 18, 2013 @ 2:08pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox, Ben Stiller, Chris Aronson, CinemaCon, Jim Gianopulos, Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bullock, The Heat, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Wolverine
Pete Hammond

20th Century Fox (“and it is called 20th Century Fox,” as Distribution President Chris Aronson wryly noted in his welcoming remarks) presented to theater owners at CinemaCon today. The highlight was about 12 minutes of selected scenes from the studio’s holiday release The … Read More »

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Sean Penn In Talks To Join Ben Stiller’s ‘The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’ Remake

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday April 23, 2012 @ 1:03pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox, Ben Stiller, Sean Penn, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Mike Fleming

Sean Penn Walter Mitty MovieEXCLUSIVE: Sean Penn is in negotiations to play a small but pivotal supporting role in 20th Century Fox’s remake of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, the comedy that Ben Stiller is directing, with … Read More »

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Kathryn Hahn And Josh Charles Join ‘The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday April 4, 2012 @ 4:10pm PDTTags: Fox, Josh Charles, Kathryn Hahn, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Mike Fleming

Kathryn Hahn and has been set to join Ben Stiller and Kristin Wiig in 20th Century Fox’s remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Good Wife‘s Josh … Read More »

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Miramax To Manage Films From Samuel Goldwyn’s Library

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday April 2, 2012 @ 6:25am PDTTags: Miramax, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Mike Fleming

When Mike Lang was CEO of Miramax Films, he came to Cannes last year with big plans to move into production, and tap the library for remakes. It was an ambitious plan. Now, Lang surprisingly resigned and it’s not exactly clear what Miramax is going to be. We do know its core business is earning cash from managing the library built up by Bob and Harvey Weinstein that came in the Disney sale for over half a billion dollars. Now, Miramax has taken on the library of films that include Guys and Dolls, Wuthering Heights, The Best Years Of Our Lives and The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. Here’s the announcement: Read More »

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Adam Scott Joins ‘The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday February 13, 2012 @ 7:19am PSTTags: Adam Scott, Ben Stiller, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Adam Scott is in final negotiations to join Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Patton Oswalt and Shirley MacLaine in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the Stiller-directed remake for Red Hour and 20th Century Fox. Between his work on the … Read More »

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Shirley MacLaine In Talks For Fox’s ‘Walter Mitty’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday January 13, 2012 @ 10:30am PSTTags: Ben Stiller, Fox, Shirley MacLaine, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Shirley MacLaine is in negotiations to play the mother of Ben Stiller’s lead character in Fox’s The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. Stiller also is directing the pic, on which he came aboard after sparking to a new script … Read More »

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Ben Stiller Turns Fox’s ‘Walter Mitty’ Reboot From Daydream To Reality

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 7, 2011 @ 7:58pm PDTTags: Ben Stiller, David Cromer, Edie Falco, Gore Verbinski, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Owen Wilson, Ron Howard, Sacha Baron Cohen, Scott Rudin, Steve Conrad, Steven Spielberg, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Will Ferrell, WME
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Stiller is in talks with 20th Century Fox to play the title role in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty after the previous script was finally dumped and a new approach and screenwriter was put on the project. That produced a reboot that Stiller wants to make his next film. Stiller sparked to the new take by Steve Conrad, writer of the Will Smith hit The Pursuit of Happyness. Now that Stiller is coming aboard, Fox will move quickly to lock in a cinematic director who can mix action with a PG rating, and get the picture ready for a late fall start. Stiller is repped by WME.

Mitty is still based on the 1947 Danny Kaye film from the James Thurber short story first published in The New Yorker in 1939. The story of a perpetual daydreamer had been in development so long that it seemed like it might never be more than a daydream. Everyone from Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen flirted with that previous script, and directors who have circled include Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Gore Verbinski. Mitty‘s problems stemmed from that script which was never quite right. But then Conrad started fresh and Stiller felt he knocked it out of the park. Stiller, who has starred in the lucrative Night at the Museum and Meet the Parents franchises, might have another big one on his hands. His Red Hour Films banner is based at Fox. Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and John Goldwyn have been shepherding the project as producers for years. Read More »

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Can Gore Verbinski Crack ‘Walter Mitty’ After So Many Others Tried?

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday June 29, 2010 @ 5:16pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox, Gore Verbinski, Movies, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Mike Fleming

mitty-danny-kaye-movie20th Century Fox confirmed today that the studio is taking yet another crack at remaking the 1947 Danny Kaye classic daydreamer comedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, with Gore Verbinski at the helm. It’s good to see Verbinski on a big … Read More »

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