He was one of the biggest screen icons and one of the most colorful real-life characters in Hollywood history. Still considered the king of swashbucklers more than 60 years after his death, Errol Flynn’s success was a combination of happenstance, luck and his ability to charm.
Errol Leslie Flynn was born on June 20, 1909, in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia to an affluent family. A natural born rascal, he was thrown out of several private schools, and eventually wandered, working odd jobs. He fell into acting quite by chance when he won the role of Fletcher Christian in the Australian film “In the Wake of the Bounty” (1933). There are conflicting stories of how he landed this part, but it is the film that piqued his interest in acting, and eventually caught the attention of Warner Bros. executives.
In Hollywood, a combination of luck and Flynn’s athleticism and charm landed him the lead...
Errol Leslie Flynn was born on June 20, 1909, in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia to an affluent family. A natural born rascal, he was thrown out of several private schools, and eventually wandered, working odd jobs. He fell into acting quite by chance when he won the role of Fletcher Christian in the Australian film “In the Wake of the Bounty” (1933). There are conflicting stories of how he landed this part, but it is the film that piqued his interest in acting, and eventually caught the attention of Warner Bros. executives.
In Hollywood, a combination of luck and Flynn’s athleticism and charm landed him the lead...
- 6/17/2024
- by Susan Pennington, Misty Holland and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
He was one of the biggest screen icons and one of the most colorful real-life characters in Hollywood history. Still considered the king of swashbucklers 60 years after his death, Errol Flynn’s success was a combination of happenstance, luck and his ability to charm.
Errol Leslie Flynn was born on June 20,1909, in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia to an affluent family. A natural born rascal, he was thrown out of several private schools, and eventually wandered, working odd jobs. He fell into acting quite by chance when he won the role of Fletcher Christian in the Australian film “In the Wake of the Bounty” (1933). There are conflicting stories of how he landed this part, but it is the film that piqued his interest in acting, and eventually caught the attention of Warner Bros. executives.
SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History
In Hollywood, a combination of luck and Flynn...
Errol Leslie Flynn was born on June 20,1909, in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia to an affluent family. A natural born rascal, he was thrown out of several private schools, and eventually wandered, working odd jobs. He fell into acting quite by chance when he won the role of Fletcher Christian in the Australian film “In the Wake of the Bounty” (1933). There are conflicting stories of how he landed this part, but it is the film that piqued his interest in acting, and eventually caught the attention of Warner Bros. executives.
SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History
In Hollywood, a combination of luck and Flynn...
- 6/20/2019
- by Susan Pennington and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
A look at the art photography of Bunny Yeager, starring Bettie Page? We can think of less pleasant ways to pass the time. Savant raises his standards to check out what’s happening in the disc section behind the gray curtain, and finds that the fringe product suppliers are up to their old tricks.
100 Girls by Bunny Yeager
Blu-ray
Cult Epics
1999 / Color + B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 46 min. / Available at Cult Epics / Street Date March 14, 2017 / 29.95
Starring: Bunny Yeager
Produced by Nico B
It doesn’t take long to sort out 100 Girls by Bunny Yeager, a new Blu-ray release from Cult Epics. An instinctive glamour photographer, Ms. Yeager is best known for her pretty images of fresh-faced nude models, taken mostly on the beach near her Florida home. Sort of the Erin Brockovich of nude photography, Bunny was a practical gal who kept it clean and honest and did not...
100 Girls by Bunny Yeager
Blu-ray
Cult Epics
1999 / Color + B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 46 min. / Available at Cult Epics / Street Date March 14, 2017 / 29.95
Starring: Bunny Yeager
Produced by Nico B
It doesn’t take long to sort out 100 Girls by Bunny Yeager, a new Blu-ray release from Cult Epics. An instinctive glamour photographer, Ms. Yeager is best known for her pretty images of fresh-faced nude models, taken mostly on the beach near her Florida home. Sort of the Erin Brockovich of nude photography, Bunny was a practical gal who kept it clean and honest and did not...
- 5/8/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
As we bid goodbye to the Summer action blockbusters, we say hello once more to the serious slate of films looking to pick up award gold in the last few months of the year. And what better subject matter than the true story or the biographical or “bio-pic”? Maybe a good mix of the two, and since Hollywood enjoys celebrating itself why not tackle one of its greatest stars? Though not as highly merchandised today at contemporaries Bogart, Monroe, or Hepburn (either one), few stars shone as brightly in that golden age than Errol Flynn, king of the silver screen swashbucklers. Now Flynn was played by the similarly dashing Jude Law ten years ago in the Howard Hughes story, The Aviator. And previously he was parodied wonderfully by Peter O’Toole as Alan Swann in the raucous comic gem My Favorite Year in 1982 and by former Bond Timothy Dalton as...
- 9/4/2014
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Kevin Kline, Dakota Fanning and Susan Sarandon in Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland's The Last Of Robin Hood: "The real Errol Flynn can't quite live up to Errol Flynn, the idol."
In a Trump SoHo Hotel suite, high above the city, I met up with The Last Of Robin Hood directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland for a conversation on Kevin Kline's portrayal of Errol Flynn. Susan Sarandon and Dakota Fanning as Florence and Beverly Aadland led us to Marjorie Morningstar, starring Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood - Too Much, Too Soon and the Barrymore clan - Groucho Marx and You Bet Your Life - John Huston's Roots Of Heaven and all the way down to Barry Mahon's Cuban Rebel Girls.
Earlier, I had spoken with Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth about 20,000 Days On Earth, their documentary on and with Nick Cave, at the Regency Hotel.
In a Trump SoHo Hotel suite, high above the city, I met up with The Last Of Robin Hood directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland for a conversation on Kevin Kline's portrayal of Errol Flynn. Susan Sarandon and Dakota Fanning as Florence and Beverly Aadland led us to Marjorie Morningstar, starring Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood - Too Much, Too Soon and the Barrymore clan - Groucho Marx and You Bet Your Life - John Huston's Roots Of Heaven and all the way down to Barry Mahon's Cuban Rebel Girls.
Earlier, I had spoken with Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth about 20,000 Days On Earth, their documentary on and with Nick Cave, at the Regency Hotel.
- 8/10/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Not at all a follow-up to the 2010 Ridley Scott epic, The Last Of Robin Hood revolves around Errol Flynn, the famous swashbuckler who played the Nottingham outlaw 70 years before Russell Crowe. Kevin Kline stars as the roguish Flynn, in the story of his relationship with chorus girl Beverley Aadland (Dakota Fanning) and her controlling mother Florence (Susan Sarandon). Following its life on the festival circuit, here's a new trailer.Flynn, as the trailer makes clear, had spent a decade treating every day as his last when, aged 50, he met the 17-year-old Aadland and began his romantic pursuit. The struggling actress had had tiny roles in Death Of A Salesman and South Pacific and, encouraged by her mother, saw the attention of Flynn as a career opportunity.The pair worked together on 1959's Cuban Rebel Girls, not quite with the results Aadland hoped for, and were considered to head up Stanley Kubrick...
- 6/25/2014
- EmpireOnline
She’s never afraid of a challenge, and Dakota Fanning plays Beverly Aadland to perfection in the forthcoming flick “The Last of Robin Hood.”
Also starring Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandon and Errol Flynn’s grandson Sean Flynn, the much-lauded project takes a look at the last crazy days of Errol Flynn.
Per the synopsis, “Flynn, known for his wild living and womanizing ways, falls for 15-year-old acting student Beverly Aadland and casts her in his final film “Cuban Rebel Girls.”
“Even Beverly’s mother seems complicit in the scandalous relationship that serves to destroy the remains of Flynn’s reputation, and nobody seems satisfied with the results.”...
Also starring Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandon and Errol Flynn’s grandson Sean Flynn, the much-lauded project takes a look at the last crazy days of Errol Flynn.
Per the synopsis, “Flynn, known for his wild living and womanizing ways, falls for 15-year-old acting student Beverly Aadland and casts her in his final film “Cuban Rebel Girls.”
“Even Beverly’s mother seems complicit in the scandalous relationship that serves to destroy the remains of Flynn’s reputation, and nobody seems satisfied with the results.”...
- 6/24/2014
- GossipCenter
Kristen Stewart and Julianne Moore in ‘Still Alice’: Family drama also to star Kate Bosworth, Alec Baldwin (photo: Kristen Stewart at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival) Kate Bosworth, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart have joined Julianne Moore in Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s family/crippling disease drama Still Alice, based on Lisa Genova’s novel. Julianne Moore will play a psychologist, Alice Howland, who discovers she’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Kristen Stewart will be her youngest daughter, Lydia, who becomes closer to Alice as a result of her illness. If all goes as planned, production on Still Alice will kick off in early March in New York City. TheWrap broke the Kate Bosworth-Alec Baldwin-Kristen Stewart Still Alice casting story, adding that Memento Films International is selling the film at Berlin’s European Film Market. Reportedly thanks to Julianne Moore’s attachment,...
- 1/29/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Late as usual. People are attending Mipcom in Cannes and in November Afm in Santa Monica, and I’m only now getting around to writing about my own private Toronto. I chose films I would not be able to see soon in a theater near me and I chose films because my schedule permitted me to see them. Occasionally I chose films my friends were going to and that happened when my time was not demanding other things be done.
I wish I could have seen 100 other films too but for some reason or another I could not fit them in.
I moderated a wonderful panel (and we did blog on that!) on international film financing with Sffs’ Ted Hope, UTA’s Rena Ronson, Revolution’s Andrew Eaton, and Hollywood-based Cross Creek’s Brian Oliver, and Paul Miller, Head of Film Financing, from the Doha Film Institute, Qatar's first international organization dedicated to film financing, production, education and two film festivals.
I also spoke with Toronto Talent Lab filmmakers and then I filled my days with films – I did get an interview with Gloria’s director Sebastian Lelio and Berlin Best Actress winner Paulina Garcia and with Marcela Said, director of The Summer of Flying Fish but mostly I watched film after film after film – up to five a day, just like in the old days when I had to do it for my acquisitions jobs. This was pure pleasure. Friends would meet before the film, we would watch and disperse. And we would meet again at the cocktail hour or the dinner hour and then disperse again.
My partner Peter had lots of meetings with the Talent of Toronto from the Not Short on Shorts and the Talent Lab Mentoring Programs.
Parties like the Rotterdam-Screen International party gave us the chance to catch up with our Dutch friends whom we have not seen for the last two years. Ontario Media Development Corporation’s presenting the International Financing Forum luncheon gave us the chance to talk to lots of upcoming filmmakers and old friends again who were mentoring them. The panel Forty Years On: Women’s Film Festivals Today, moderated by Kay Armatage, former Tiff programmer, Professor Emeritus University of Toronto, and featuring Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director of Women Make Movies, NYC, Melissa Silverstein, Do-Fojnder an dArtistic Director of the Athena Film Festival in NYC and blogger of Women in Hollywood, So-In Hong, Director of Programming of the International Women’s Film Festival in Seoul had a rapport and didn’t hesitate to challenge each other. It felt like a party even though the subject was quite serious. The SXSW party was crowded as always, filled with everyone we could possibly know. It is always a great party we all want to attend.
One of the great dinners was that of The Creative Coalition Spotlight Awards Dinner honoring Alfre Woodard (12 Years a Slave), Hill Harper (1982, CSI: NY), Sharon Leal (1982), Matt Letscher (Scandal, The Carrie Diaries), Brenton Thwaites (Oculus, Maleficient), Tommy Oliver (1982, Kinyarwanda – I am a great fan of Tommy’s!), Tom Ortenberg (CEO, Open Road Films which has a coventure with Regal Theaters and AMC Theaters recently acquired by the richest man in China), and David Arquette (The Scream series). Our hostess, Robin Bronk is so welcoming and so dedicated to furthering the cause of universal education as a human right, education in the arts as a must. I admire her presence and her good work.
Here is a list of the great (and not so great, but never bad) films I got to see. I also list those I continue to hear about even now. I do not list all the films which were picked up during the festival and later. For that, you can go to SydneysBuzz.com and buy the Fall Rights Roundup 2013 and see all films whose rights were acquired (and announced) and by whom with links to all companies and Cinando for further research. For buyers it will, by deduction, show what is still available for Afm and for programmers, it will show who is in charge of the film for specific territories. The second edition will be issued two weeks after Afm.
One of the first films I saw and still retaining its place as one of my favorites was the documentary Finding Vivian Maier which begins with the discovery of photographs by an unknown woman named Vivian Maier by filmmaker John Maloof. As the mystery of this woman is uncovered, the audience is treated to her stunning work and the story of who she was.
One of my favorite films was by one of my favorite directors, Lucas Moodyson. We Are The Best (Isa: Trust Nordisk) was a great surprise, the story of three teeny-bopper punk-influenced girls who loved getting into unusual situations. It was loving and fun, darling and funny. I would take my children to see it and would delight in seeing it again. It was the biggest surprise for me. I can see why Magnolia snapped it up for the U.S. I thank programmer Steve Gravenstock for giving me the ticket for this film which I would have missed otherwise.
I had missed Jodorowsky’s Dune in Cannes. I am a great fan of El Topo and was eager to see this film. I was surprised at the elegance and skill of Jodorowsky in explaining his vision. Afterward, Gary Springer, our favorite publicist, arranged a wonderful reception at a classic comic book store where we loaded up on some fascinating graphic novels and Gary showed us his depiction on an old issue of Mad Magazine discussing the making of Jaws which he was in. picture here.
A totally unique and unexpected film about the African Diaspora, Belle, written and directed by Amma Asante was not talked about much to my surprise, perhaps because Fox Searchlight acquired all rights worldwide from Bankside before the festival. It is a stunningly beautiful British period piece of the 18th century about a mixed race aristocratic beauty.
My favorite film, on a par with The Patience Stone last year was Bobo (Isa: Wide) by Ines Oliveira starring Paula Garcia Aissato Indjai, produced by my friend Fernando Vendrell who gave me a ticket when I could not get one myself. This story of a woman who does nothing except go to work is forced to accept a claning woman and her young sister from Guinea-Bissau. Together they face down their demons. I love the cross-cultural understanding which results in their shared situations. I recently saw Mother of George and found the same warm connection across great cultural divides, though this one was of generations.
I wish I could have seen Pays Barbare/ Barbaric Land, the Italian/ French doc in Wavelengths about Mussolini’s attempted subjugation of Ethiopia (the only country in Africa never colonized). It sounds like great political poetry.
1982 which had previously won the prize of the jury I served on for Us Works in Progress held in July at the Champs Elysees Film Festival in Paris. It was deeply moving and disturbing film which depicts the shattering and the healing of a family. It also helps feed the pipeline begun with Lee Daniels producing Monster’s Ball who went on to direct to such films as Precious and The Butler. If the African American experience can continue to be expressed so eloquently by such filmmakers as Tommy Oliver, Rashaad Ernesto Green (Sundance 2012’s Gun Hill Road), Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere), then a film literate audience will foster greater growth of even more talent in the coming generation. While I didn’t see All Is By My Side by U.K.’s John Ridley which is about Jimi Hendrix nor (yet!) the most highly acclaimed film of the festival, 12 Years a Slave by U.K.’s Steve McQueen, but I would include them in this discussion of the African American Experience.
On the subject of Africa, where last Sundance God Loves Uganda shocked and upset me, this year Mission Congo (Cinephil) revealed much of the same cultural divide only these two films show the negative impact of the Christian right upon already besieged Africans. What is done in the name of a righteous G-d is cause for dialogue and oversight.
Israel and the Middle East
No major turmoil or denunciations this year (Thank G-d, Allah, or whoever She may be). Katriel Schory, head of the Israeli Film Fund told me that if I could only see one film, then it should be Bethlehem which is the country’s submission for Academy Award Consideration for the Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It was a sad and clear eyed microcosmic view of the issues of trust and betrayals played out among every level of the society. People compared it to Omar by Hany Abu-Assad,the filmmaker of a favorite of mine, Paradise Now, but I did not see Omar.
Rags and Tatters at first seemed like a documentary, and does have doc footage, but it is a circular story that ends where it began but with much more understanding of the chaotic events in Cairo. Really worth watching.
Latino
Of the Latino films two Chilean films, Gloria (Chile) and The Summer of Flying Fish (Review), were accompanied by interviews which you can read on my previous blogs here and here. El Mudo from Peru by the Vega brothers was in the odd vien of their previous film, October. Not sure at the end just what the film was saying…
Toronto Film Fest Programmer Diana Sanchez’s official count of Latino films in the festival is 16. Of these, 5 are by women; 30% is a strong number. Venezuela and Chile are strong with year with two films each. Two other films might have been chosen except they went to San Sebastian for their world premieres. Especially hot this year was Mexico. 4 films are here but she might have chosen 10 if she could have. Costa Rica is making a showing with All About the Feathers and Central America is making more movies. There is lots of industry buzz coming from the good pictures from Brazil like A Wolf at the Door from Sao Paolo production
She is not counting Gravity by Alfonso Cuaron as as Latino film but as a U.S. film.
And Our White Society
The Dinner (Isa: Media Luna) by Menno Meyjes ♀ (Isa: Media Luna), a Dutch film deals with the personal and political as two families disintegrate when the affluent sons kill a homeless woman. Deeply disturbing social issues on the other side of the spectrum from those of 1982 and yet very much the same. How a society can foster such dissonance in class structure today which results in the disintegration of family and even a nation’s political life is, as I said, deeply disturbing. Based on the N.Y. Times best selling book which sold over 650,000 in The Netherlands, and is published in 22 countries, it stars four of Holland’s most renowned actors, Jacob Derwig, Thekla Reuten, Daan Schuurmans, and Kim van Kooten. This is a story that could be remade in America and still maintain its strength. The writer-director Menno Meyjes wrote the Academy Award nominee The Color Purple and collaborated with director Steven Speilberg on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In 2008 he directed Manolete with Penelope Cruz and Adrien Brody.
The Last of Robin Hood was a romp which thrilled us because Peter Belsito, my own dear husband, had a moment on screen (as the director of Errol Flynn’s last film Cuban Rebel Girls). He got the part because he had had an equally small role in the original Cuban Rebel Girls when it filmed in Cuba in 1959, four months after the Revolution. He happened to be there on vacation with his family including his 18 year old sister and his crazy aunt because Puerto Rico was full that year and Cuba had plenty of room. Directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland invited him to play in their film. The film actually had more meaning than merely a romp as it revealed what lays below the June-September love affair between Errol Flynn and 15 year old Beverly Aadland, the nature of fame (“a religion in this godless country” to quote Flynn himself) and ambition. Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandan and Dakota Fanning were all great in the repertoire piece.
Can a Song Save Your Life? garnered great praise as the film that followed the simple pure Once. I found it a bit flat though it kept my interest enough that I was not contemplating leaving. But it lacked the simplicity of Once.
Fading Gigolo proves that a Woody Allen Film is a Genre. John Turturro makes a Woody Allen middle-aged man fantasy of a wished for love affair with a Hasidic woman. Turturro is always lovable on screen, but his directing has something inauthentic about it…the only authentic thing was the twice-stated thought that somewhere in his heritage he was really Jewish. When I saw his previous film Passione, about Italians and passion, the opening song, being one of the first Cuban songs I ever heard, turned me off because again, it was inauthentic. It was Cuban, not Italian. I think he is not comfortable in his Italian guise.
Other films at Tiff I have seen previously:
Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch (Isa: HanWay, U.S. Spc). If you can see it as a dream of night, then the vampires dreaminess might appeal to you. I personally was ready to fall into my own stupor after watching this 123 minute movie of Vampires who have seen it all. Zzzzzz.
Don Jon is sexy and sweet. Scarlett Johansson is a superb comedienne, equal to Claudette Colbert in this film about two totally media mesmerized young lovers. ___ and his father are also great straight men. I loved this film, so funny and sweet and all about sex. Loved it!
Borgman Darkest humor, or is it humor? Creepy and definitely engrossing. Dutch filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam at his best. This is the Netherlands' Official Academy Awards Submission.
What I hear was good:
Aside from the ones that got snapped up for lots of money and are covered in all the trades already, there are films which I keep hearing about even now and will see:
Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
12 Years a Slave (Isa: Summit, U.S. Fox Searchlight)
The Lunchbox (Isa: The Match Factory)
Prisoners (Isa: Summit/ Lionsgate, U.S.: Warner Bros)
Dallas Buyers Clubs (Isa: Voltage, U.S. Focus Features)
Life of Crime (Isa: Hyde Park, U.S.: )
A Touch of Sin (Isa: MK2, U.S. Kino Lorber)
Gravity (Isa: Warner Bros. U.S. Warner Bros.)
Enough Said (Isa: Fox Searchlight, U.S. Fox Searchlight)
La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) (Isa: Pathe, U.S. Criterion) Italy’s submission for Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film
Violette (Isa: Doc & Film, U.S.: ?)
Omar (Isa: The Match Factory, U.S.: ?)
Le Passe (The Past) (Isa: Memento, U.S. Spc) Iran’s submission for Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
To the Wolf (Isa: Pascale Ramonda)
The Selfish Giant (Isa: Protagonist, U.S. IFC)
At Berkeley by Frederick Wiseman (Isa: Doc & Film, U.S. Zipporah)
The Unknown Known (Isa: Entertainment One, U.S. Radius-twc)
Ain’t Misbehavin (Un Voyager) by Marcel Ophuls (Isa: Wide House)
Faith Connections by Pan Nalin (Isa: Cite Films). This Indian French film, produced by Raphael Berduo among others is written about here.
Civil Rights (?)
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
12 Years a Slave (Isa: Summit, U.S. Fox Searchlight)
Belle (Isa: Bankside, all rights sold to Fox Searchlight)
Lgbt
Kill Your Darlings: The youthful finding of himself by Alan Ginsburg as he enters Colombia University and meets Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac and Alan Bourroughs revolves around a murder which actually happened. The period veracity and Daniel Radcliffe’s acting carry the film into a fascinating character study. (U.S. Spc)
Dallas Buyers Club (Isa: Voltage, U.S. Focus Features)
Tom a la ferme / Tom at the Farm by Xavier Dolan Isa: MK2, U.S.:)
L’Armee du salut/ Salvation Army by Abdellah Taia (Isa: - U.S.:-)
Eastern Boys (Isa: Films Distribution)
Pelo Malo/ Bad Hair (FiGa Films)
The Dog (Producer Rep: Submarine)
Ignasi M. (Isa: Latido)
Gerontophilia (Isa: MK2, U.S. Producer Rep: Filmoption)...
I wish I could have seen 100 other films too but for some reason or another I could not fit them in.
I moderated a wonderful panel (and we did blog on that!) on international film financing with Sffs’ Ted Hope, UTA’s Rena Ronson, Revolution’s Andrew Eaton, and Hollywood-based Cross Creek’s Brian Oliver, and Paul Miller, Head of Film Financing, from the Doha Film Institute, Qatar's first international organization dedicated to film financing, production, education and two film festivals.
I also spoke with Toronto Talent Lab filmmakers and then I filled my days with films – I did get an interview with Gloria’s director Sebastian Lelio and Berlin Best Actress winner Paulina Garcia and with Marcela Said, director of The Summer of Flying Fish but mostly I watched film after film after film – up to five a day, just like in the old days when I had to do it for my acquisitions jobs. This was pure pleasure. Friends would meet before the film, we would watch and disperse. And we would meet again at the cocktail hour or the dinner hour and then disperse again.
My partner Peter had lots of meetings with the Talent of Toronto from the Not Short on Shorts and the Talent Lab Mentoring Programs.
Parties like the Rotterdam-Screen International party gave us the chance to catch up with our Dutch friends whom we have not seen for the last two years. Ontario Media Development Corporation’s presenting the International Financing Forum luncheon gave us the chance to talk to lots of upcoming filmmakers and old friends again who were mentoring them. The panel Forty Years On: Women’s Film Festivals Today, moderated by Kay Armatage, former Tiff programmer, Professor Emeritus University of Toronto, and featuring Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director of Women Make Movies, NYC, Melissa Silverstein, Do-Fojnder an dArtistic Director of the Athena Film Festival in NYC and blogger of Women in Hollywood, So-In Hong, Director of Programming of the International Women’s Film Festival in Seoul had a rapport and didn’t hesitate to challenge each other. It felt like a party even though the subject was quite serious. The SXSW party was crowded as always, filled with everyone we could possibly know. It is always a great party we all want to attend.
One of the great dinners was that of The Creative Coalition Spotlight Awards Dinner honoring Alfre Woodard (12 Years a Slave), Hill Harper (1982, CSI: NY), Sharon Leal (1982), Matt Letscher (Scandal, The Carrie Diaries), Brenton Thwaites (Oculus, Maleficient), Tommy Oliver (1982, Kinyarwanda – I am a great fan of Tommy’s!), Tom Ortenberg (CEO, Open Road Films which has a coventure with Regal Theaters and AMC Theaters recently acquired by the richest man in China), and David Arquette (The Scream series). Our hostess, Robin Bronk is so welcoming and so dedicated to furthering the cause of universal education as a human right, education in the arts as a must. I admire her presence and her good work.
Here is a list of the great (and not so great, but never bad) films I got to see. I also list those I continue to hear about even now. I do not list all the films which were picked up during the festival and later. For that, you can go to SydneysBuzz.com and buy the Fall Rights Roundup 2013 and see all films whose rights were acquired (and announced) and by whom with links to all companies and Cinando for further research. For buyers it will, by deduction, show what is still available for Afm and for programmers, it will show who is in charge of the film for specific territories. The second edition will be issued two weeks after Afm.
One of the first films I saw and still retaining its place as one of my favorites was the documentary Finding Vivian Maier which begins with the discovery of photographs by an unknown woman named Vivian Maier by filmmaker John Maloof. As the mystery of this woman is uncovered, the audience is treated to her stunning work and the story of who she was.
One of my favorite films was by one of my favorite directors, Lucas Moodyson. We Are The Best (Isa: Trust Nordisk) was a great surprise, the story of three teeny-bopper punk-influenced girls who loved getting into unusual situations. It was loving and fun, darling and funny. I would take my children to see it and would delight in seeing it again. It was the biggest surprise for me. I can see why Magnolia snapped it up for the U.S. I thank programmer Steve Gravenstock for giving me the ticket for this film which I would have missed otherwise.
I had missed Jodorowsky’s Dune in Cannes. I am a great fan of El Topo and was eager to see this film. I was surprised at the elegance and skill of Jodorowsky in explaining his vision. Afterward, Gary Springer, our favorite publicist, arranged a wonderful reception at a classic comic book store where we loaded up on some fascinating graphic novels and Gary showed us his depiction on an old issue of Mad Magazine discussing the making of Jaws which he was in. picture here.
A totally unique and unexpected film about the African Diaspora, Belle, written and directed by Amma Asante was not talked about much to my surprise, perhaps because Fox Searchlight acquired all rights worldwide from Bankside before the festival. It is a stunningly beautiful British period piece of the 18th century about a mixed race aristocratic beauty.
My favorite film, on a par with The Patience Stone last year was Bobo (Isa: Wide) by Ines Oliveira starring Paula Garcia Aissato Indjai, produced by my friend Fernando Vendrell who gave me a ticket when I could not get one myself. This story of a woman who does nothing except go to work is forced to accept a claning woman and her young sister from Guinea-Bissau. Together they face down their demons. I love the cross-cultural understanding which results in their shared situations. I recently saw Mother of George and found the same warm connection across great cultural divides, though this one was of generations.
I wish I could have seen Pays Barbare/ Barbaric Land, the Italian/ French doc in Wavelengths about Mussolini’s attempted subjugation of Ethiopia (the only country in Africa never colonized). It sounds like great political poetry.
1982 which had previously won the prize of the jury I served on for Us Works in Progress held in July at the Champs Elysees Film Festival in Paris. It was deeply moving and disturbing film which depicts the shattering and the healing of a family. It also helps feed the pipeline begun with Lee Daniels producing Monster’s Ball who went on to direct to such films as Precious and The Butler. If the African American experience can continue to be expressed so eloquently by such filmmakers as Tommy Oliver, Rashaad Ernesto Green (Sundance 2012’s Gun Hill Road), Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere), then a film literate audience will foster greater growth of even more talent in the coming generation. While I didn’t see All Is By My Side by U.K.’s John Ridley which is about Jimi Hendrix nor (yet!) the most highly acclaimed film of the festival, 12 Years a Slave by U.K.’s Steve McQueen, but I would include them in this discussion of the African American Experience.
On the subject of Africa, where last Sundance God Loves Uganda shocked and upset me, this year Mission Congo (Cinephil) revealed much of the same cultural divide only these two films show the negative impact of the Christian right upon already besieged Africans. What is done in the name of a righteous G-d is cause for dialogue and oversight.
Israel and the Middle East
No major turmoil or denunciations this year (Thank G-d, Allah, or whoever She may be). Katriel Schory, head of the Israeli Film Fund told me that if I could only see one film, then it should be Bethlehem which is the country’s submission for Academy Award Consideration for the Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It was a sad and clear eyed microcosmic view of the issues of trust and betrayals played out among every level of the society. People compared it to Omar by Hany Abu-Assad,the filmmaker of a favorite of mine, Paradise Now, but I did not see Omar.
Rags and Tatters at first seemed like a documentary, and does have doc footage, but it is a circular story that ends where it began but with much more understanding of the chaotic events in Cairo. Really worth watching.
Latino
Of the Latino films two Chilean films, Gloria (Chile) and The Summer of Flying Fish (Review), were accompanied by interviews which you can read on my previous blogs here and here. El Mudo from Peru by the Vega brothers was in the odd vien of their previous film, October. Not sure at the end just what the film was saying…
Toronto Film Fest Programmer Diana Sanchez’s official count of Latino films in the festival is 16. Of these, 5 are by women; 30% is a strong number. Venezuela and Chile are strong with year with two films each. Two other films might have been chosen except they went to San Sebastian for their world premieres. Especially hot this year was Mexico. 4 films are here but she might have chosen 10 if she could have. Costa Rica is making a showing with All About the Feathers and Central America is making more movies. There is lots of industry buzz coming from the good pictures from Brazil like A Wolf at the Door from Sao Paolo production
She is not counting Gravity by Alfonso Cuaron as as Latino film but as a U.S. film.
And Our White Society
The Dinner (Isa: Media Luna) by Menno Meyjes ♀ (Isa: Media Luna), a Dutch film deals with the personal and political as two families disintegrate when the affluent sons kill a homeless woman. Deeply disturbing social issues on the other side of the spectrum from those of 1982 and yet very much the same. How a society can foster such dissonance in class structure today which results in the disintegration of family and even a nation’s political life is, as I said, deeply disturbing. Based on the N.Y. Times best selling book which sold over 650,000 in The Netherlands, and is published in 22 countries, it stars four of Holland’s most renowned actors, Jacob Derwig, Thekla Reuten, Daan Schuurmans, and Kim van Kooten. This is a story that could be remade in America and still maintain its strength. The writer-director Menno Meyjes wrote the Academy Award nominee The Color Purple and collaborated with director Steven Speilberg on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In 2008 he directed Manolete with Penelope Cruz and Adrien Brody.
The Last of Robin Hood was a romp which thrilled us because Peter Belsito, my own dear husband, had a moment on screen (as the director of Errol Flynn’s last film Cuban Rebel Girls). He got the part because he had had an equally small role in the original Cuban Rebel Girls when it filmed in Cuba in 1959, four months after the Revolution. He happened to be there on vacation with his family including his 18 year old sister and his crazy aunt because Puerto Rico was full that year and Cuba had plenty of room. Directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland invited him to play in their film. The film actually had more meaning than merely a romp as it revealed what lays below the June-September love affair between Errol Flynn and 15 year old Beverly Aadland, the nature of fame (“a religion in this godless country” to quote Flynn himself) and ambition. Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandan and Dakota Fanning were all great in the repertoire piece.
Can a Song Save Your Life? garnered great praise as the film that followed the simple pure Once. I found it a bit flat though it kept my interest enough that I was not contemplating leaving. But it lacked the simplicity of Once.
Fading Gigolo proves that a Woody Allen Film is a Genre. John Turturro makes a Woody Allen middle-aged man fantasy of a wished for love affair with a Hasidic woman. Turturro is always lovable on screen, but his directing has something inauthentic about it…the only authentic thing was the twice-stated thought that somewhere in his heritage he was really Jewish. When I saw his previous film Passione, about Italians and passion, the opening song, being one of the first Cuban songs I ever heard, turned me off because again, it was inauthentic. It was Cuban, not Italian. I think he is not comfortable in his Italian guise.
Other films at Tiff I have seen previously:
Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch (Isa: HanWay, U.S. Spc). If you can see it as a dream of night, then the vampires dreaminess might appeal to you. I personally was ready to fall into my own stupor after watching this 123 minute movie of Vampires who have seen it all. Zzzzzz.
Don Jon is sexy and sweet. Scarlett Johansson is a superb comedienne, equal to Claudette Colbert in this film about two totally media mesmerized young lovers. ___ and his father are also great straight men. I loved this film, so funny and sweet and all about sex. Loved it!
Borgman Darkest humor, or is it humor? Creepy and definitely engrossing. Dutch filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam at his best. This is the Netherlands' Official Academy Awards Submission.
What I hear was good:
Aside from the ones that got snapped up for lots of money and are covered in all the trades already, there are films which I keep hearing about even now and will see:
Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
12 Years a Slave (Isa: Summit, U.S. Fox Searchlight)
The Lunchbox (Isa: The Match Factory)
Prisoners (Isa: Summit/ Lionsgate, U.S.: Warner Bros)
Dallas Buyers Clubs (Isa: Voltage, U.S. Focus Features)
Life of Crime (Isa: Hyde Park, U.S.: )
A Touch of Sin (Isa: MK2, U.S. Kino Lorber)
Gravity (Isa: Warner Bros. U.S. Warner Bros.)
Enough Said (Isa: Fox Searchlight, U.S. Fox Searchlight)
La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) (Isa: Pathe, U.S. Criterion) Italy’s submission for Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film
Violette (Isa: Doc & Film, U.S.: ?)
Omar (Isa: The Match Factory, U.S.: ?)
Le Passe (The Past) (Isa: Memento, U.S. Spc) Iran’s submission for Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
To the Wolf (Isa: Pascale Ramonda)
The Selfish Giant (Isa: Protagonist, U.S. IFC)
At Berkeley by Frederick Wiseman (Isa: Doc & Film, U.S. Zipporah)
The Unknown Known (Isa: Entertainment One, U.S. Radius-twc)
Ain’t Misbehavin (Un Voyager) by Marcel Ophuls (Isa: Wide House)
Faith Connections by Pan Nalin (Isa: Cite Films). This Indian French film, produced by Raphael Berduo among others is written about here.
Civil Rights (?)
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
12 Years a Slave (Isa: Summit, U.S. Fox Searchlight)
Belle (Isa: Bankside, all rights sold to Fox Searchlight)
Lgbt
Kill Your Darlings: The youthful finding of himself by Alan Ginsburg as he enters Colombia University and meets Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac and Alan Bourroughs revolves around a murder which actually happened. The period veracity and Daniel Radcliffe’s acting carry the film into a fascinating character study. (U.S. Spc)
Dallas Buyers Club (Isa: Voltage, U.S. Focus Features)
Tom a la ferme / Tom at the Farm by Xavier Dolan Isa: MK2, U.S.:)
L’Armee du salut/ Salvation Army by Abdellah Taia (Isa: - U.S.:-)
Eastern Boys (Isa: Films Distribution)
Pelo Malo/ Bad Hair (FiGa Films)
The Dog (Producer Rep: Submarine)
Ignasi M. (Isa: Latido)
Gerontophilia (Isa: MK2, U.S. Producer Rep: Filmoption)...
- 10/8/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Last of Robin Hood
Written by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
Directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
USA, 2013
The Last of Robin Hood depicts the last romance of Errol Flynn’s life from the not-so-tender age of 48 until his death. Who was the lucky girl? Beverly Aadland. One person’s definition of luck is most people’s definition of statutory rape—something that Flynn had some trouble with before—as Miss Aadland was under 18 at the time. This is the crux of the conundrum behind the story and what would regularly confound a filmmaker in bringing it to the screen—even Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita screenplay was rejected and reworked by Stanley Kubrick. Fortunately for the audience, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland are no regular filmmakers (see Grief, The Fluffer, and Quinceanera). They have written and directed a film about three protagonists (Beverly Aadland, her mother Florence, and...
Written by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
Directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
USA, 2013
The Last of Robin Hood depicts the last romance of Errol Flynn’s life from the not-so-tender age of 48 until his death. Who was the lucky girl? Beverly Aadland. One person’s definition of luck is most people’s definition of statutory rape—something that Flynn had some trouble with before—as Miss Aadland was under 18 at the time. This is the crux of the conundrum behind the story and what would regularly confound a filmmaker in bringing it to the screen—even Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita screenplay was rejected and reworked by Stanley Kubrick. Fortunately for the audience, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland are no regular filmmakers (see Grief, The Fluffer, and Quinceanera). They have written and directed a film about three protagonists (Beverly Aadland, her mother Florence, and...
- 9/15/2013
- by Diana Drumm
- SoundOnSight
Recently Sydney was at a gathering here in L.A. and she ran into our dear friends from 'the biz' Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. They were excited about to begin directing a new film they had written about the last days of cinema great Errol Flynn in Cuba detailing, among other things, the making of his final film Cuban Rebel Girls.
Sydney looks at them and says, "Peter's in that film!"
Yes I was in Errol Flynn's final film Cuban Rebel Girls and as a result of that fortuitous conversation, I also —ahem -- "appear" in the new film with Kevin Kline, Dakota Fanning and Susan Sarandon. The producer is the amazing person and great filmmaker Christine Vachon of New York's Killer Films.
The story then is like this ....
When I was a boy -- a young teen from Whitestone Bayside Flushing Queens New York City -- and my schoolteacher Mom would be off from school, my dad, an attorney, would take us on travel holidays for Easter vacation.
One year he goes to the Flushing travel agent and says, "What do you have for Puerto Rico?" The travel agent looks down and says, "Puerto Rico's full up ... but Cuba's wide open!" So my Dad books it.
April 1959: My Mom, Dad, Sister Brenda (19 years old and looking good), Uncle Frank and Auntie Lala (Mom's kid sister) and I land in Havana.
Four months after the Revolution. Much Much to say about what was going on and what happened and what we saw and experienced for that's another story.
We stayed at the El Comodoro Hotel on the beach west of Havana central (still there and not changed so much now).
What's relevant here is that soon after we arrive a film crew pulls into the hotel. It's the actor Errol Flynn coming to make, as he told us, "...my version of how I saved the Revolution for Che and Fidel in the Sierra Maestre." At this time the U.S. had not yet turned against the Castro brothers (that would come in mid 1960 after the Russian connection and Fidel's love of Marxism became evident) and during their revolutionary struggle in the mountains U.S. celebrities visited them (i.e., much as such types do now in places like Haiti).
My sister and I were recruited to do a walk-on as Cuban kid autograph seekers when Flynn drives up to the Hotel. (Fyi - I got the DVD of that film, Cuban Rebel Girls from Amazon and checked and Yes! our scene is still in it the first 10 minutes.)
So cut to Atlanta last week where I stopped for a day returning home from the Berlinale Festival and Efm Market.
Now I can announce that I am (briefly) in this new film about the last days of Flynn entitled The Last of Robin Hood, written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. When they heard I was in the original film with Flynn they thought it would be cool to put me in the new one as I would be the only (alive) person in both films!!
In "my scene" in the new film I play the director of Flynn's last movie (with Kevin Kline as Flynn hovering over my shoulder) and I am watching / directing a scene between Dakota and a "Cuban" girl. Dakota plays the tabloid notorious (and then famous) 17 year old blond hottie, and Flynn's supposed girlfriend, Beverly Aadland. She was at our hotel with her mother as I recall, and the photo here, which I took then, shows her and Flynn poolside.
I can say that Kevin and Dakota were very good in "my scene" and I have one line, or one word actually, 'Cut!' As it is a key scene (Dakota / Beverly flirts with a teen boy and Kevin / Flynn gets upset) and the two stars are in it (and both very good!) I have a feeling the scene will end up in the film.
As I was working, taking photos was hard and Kevin didn't want any, but the one included here of the Cuban Rebel Girls running at the camera says it all.
I think the film will be good; from what I saw it also looked really interesting. Can't wait until it shows.
Postscript note - About a year and a half later the Flynn film Cuban Rebel Girls came out (he had died in December of 1959 a few months after our encounter) I took a group of my high school buddies to see it in, of all places, Times Square (which was very different then, quite seedy and low class). I was shocked and we all agreed it was one of the worst films we'd ever seen. But Flynn himself is a great story, and my gut says from all I saw that the new film will be Terrific!! I hope so.
Sydney looks at them and says, "Peter's in that film!"
Yes I was in Errol Flynn's final film Cuban Rebel Girls and as a result of that fortuitous conversation, I also —ahem -- "appear" in the new film with Kevin Kline, Dakota Fanning and Susan Sarandon. The producer is the amazing person and great filmmaker Christine Vachon of New York's Killer Films.
The story then is like this ....
When I was a boy -- a young teen from Whitestone Bayside Flushing Queens New York City -- and my schoolteacher Mom would be off from school, my dad, an attorney, would take us on travel holidays for Easter vacation.
One year he goes to the Flushing travel agent and says, "What do you have for Puerto Rico?" The travel agent looks down and says, "Puerto Rico's full up ... but Cuba's wide open!" So my Dad books it.
April 1959: My Mom, Dad, Sister Brenda (19 years old and looking good), Uncle Frank and Auntie Lala (Mom's kid sister) and I land in Havana.
Four months after the Revolution. Much Much to say about what was going on and what happened and what we saw and experienced for that's another story.
We stayed at the El Comodoro Hotel on the beach west of Havana central (still there and not changed so much now).
What's relevant here is that soon after we arrive a film crew pulls into the hotel. It's the actor Errol Flynn coming to make, as he told us, "...my version of how I saved the Revolution for Che and Fidel in the Sierra Maestre." At this time the U.S. had not yet turned against the Castro brothers (that would come in mid 1960 after the Russian connection and Fidel's love of Marxism became evident) and during their revolutionary struggle in the mountains U.S. celebrities visited them (i.e., much as such types do now in places like Haiti).
My sister and I were recruited to do a walk-on as Cuban kid autograph seekers when Flynn drives up to the Hotel. (Fyi - I got the DVD of that film, Cuban Rebel Girls from Amazon and checked and Yes! our scene is still in it the first 10 minutes.)
So cut to Atlanta last week where I stopped for a day returning home from the Berlinale Festival and Efm Market.
Now I can announce that I am (briefly) in this new film about the last days of Flynn entitled The Last of Robin Hood, written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. When they heard I was in the original film with Flynn they thought it would be cool to put me in the new one as I would be the only (alive) person in both films!!
In "my scene" in the new film I play the director of Flynn's last movie (with Kevin Kline as Flynn hovering over my shoulder) and I am watching / directing a scene between Dakota and a "Cuban" girl. Dakota plays the tabloid notorious (and then famous) 17 year old blond hottie, and Flynn's supposed girlfriend, Beverly Aadland. She was at our hotel with her mother as I recall, and the photo here, which I took then, shows her and Flynn poolside.
I can say that Kevin and Dakota were very good in "my scene" and I have one line, or one word actually, 'Cut!' As it is a key scene (Dakota / Beverly flirts with a teen boy and Kevin / Flynn gets upset) and the two stars are in it (and both very good!) I have a feeling the scene will end up in the film.
As I was working, taking photos was hard and Kevin didn't want any, but the one included here of the Cuban Rebel Girls running at the camera says it all.
I think the film will be good; from what I saw it also looked really interesting. Can't wait until it shows.
Postscript note - About a year and a half later the Flynn film Cuban Rebel Girls came out (he had died in December of 1959 a few months after our encounter) I took a group of my high school buddies to see it in, of all places, Times Square (which was very different then, quite seedy and low class). I was shocked and we all agreed it was one of the worst films we'd ever seen. But Flynn himself is a great story, and my gut says from all I saw that the new film will be Terrific!! I hope so.
- 3/1/2013
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
1.) Details have emerged for the WWE Studios Leprechaun reboot Leprechaun: Origins. The script is still in the works, but we do know WWE superstar Dylan "Hornswaggle" Postl is taking over the lead role from Warwick Davis, who starred in franchise's previous six (Six?!) entries. Studio President Michael Luisi did say there's a chance Davis could make a cameo in the film, which he says will have a darker tone than fans of the series might be used to. "We're trying to find a way to please fans of that genre but at the same time this is really being played for scares," he concluded. Crave 2.) Rosario Dawson has joined the cast of Queen of the Night for director Atom Egoyan (Chloe, The Sweet Hereafter). Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman and Mireille Enos were previously cast in the thriller. Reynolds will play the father of an abducted child who begins uncovering clues...
- 1/24/2013
- by Kevin Blumeyer
- Rope of Silicon
New biopic of silver screen star will feature Dakota Fanning as 15-year-old girl with whom he had two-year affair
It is one of Hollywood's most infamous sex scandals: the story of how the swashbuckling Errol Flynn conducted a two-year affair with a 15-year-old ingenue that lasted until his premature death in 1959. Now Dakota Fanning is set to play the young actor seduced by the 50-year-old Flynn in a new movie titled The Last of Robin Hood. Kevin Kline will play the faded star in his final years.
At the time of the affair Flynn, who had a reputation as an incorrigible womaniser, had already been accused – and found not guilty – of the statutory rape of two underage girls in 1942. According to the target of his attentions, Beverly Aadland, he was planning to marry her after securing a divorce from his third wife, Patrice Wymore. However, the Australian-born star of 1938's...
It is one of Hollywood's most infamous sex scandals: the story of how the swashbuckling Errol Flynn conducted a two-year affair with a 15-year-old ingenue that lasted until his premature death in 1959. Now Dakota Fanning is set to play the young actor seduced by the 50-year-old Flynn in a new movie titled The Last of Robin Hood. Kevin Kline will play the faded star in his final years.
At the time of the affair Flynn, who had a reputation as an incorrigible womaniser, had already been accused – and found not guilty – of the statutory rape of two underage girls in 1942. According to the target of his attentions, Beverly Aadland, he was planning to marry her after securing a divorce from his third wife, Patrice Wymore. However, the Australian-born star of 1938's...
- 1/24/2013
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
Here’s something interesting – Dakota Fanning has joined the cast of The Last of Robin Hood, an upcoming biopic of Hollywood legend Errol Flynn. In case you’re not so familiar with this fresh project, let us first inform you that Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland are in charge for the whole thing, and that the rest of the cast looks great as well. For more details – check out the rest of this report…
So, The Last of Robin Hood is both written and directed by Quinceanera helmers Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, and at this moment we know that the movie will chronicle the final years of Errol Flynn‘s life.
Kevin Kline will take the lead role while Dakota Fanning is set to play his teenage lover Beverly Aadland, a 17-years-old girl who was by Flynn’s side when he died at age 50 in 1959.
Susan Sarandon is also...
So, The Last of Robin Hood is both written and directed by Quinceanera helmers Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, and at this moment we know that the movie will chronicle the final years of Errol Flynn‘s life.
Kevin Kline will take the lead role while Dakota Fanning is set to play his teenage lover Beverly Aadland, a 17-years-old girl who was by Flynn’s side when he died at age 50 in 1959.
Susan Sarandon is also...
- 1/24/2013
- by Jeanne Standal
- Filmofilia
Fear not, faithful reader. We have not suddenly gone all La tabloidly with scandals about older actors dating starlets or what coffee enema is all the rage among the A-list* these days. No, we’re simply bringing word that Dakota Fanning has landed the female lead alongside Kevin Kline in Errol Flynn film The Last Of Robin Hood.Kline will be playing Flynn in his final years before he died of a heart attack at the age of 50. But in those remaining months, he romanced teenage actress Beverly Aadland, who was at his side when he died.The affair, which began in 1957 when Flynn met Aadland on the Warner Bros. lot, led to him securing a part for her in 1959’s Cuban Rebel Girls. This was all while he was A) still married to fellow actress Patrice Wymore and B) followed by rumours after being cleared of statutory rape charges...
- 1/23/2013
- EmpireOnline
Though your brain might not naturally flick to Kevin Kline when you hear that someone will be playing screen legend Errol Flynn, he does at least have the voice and the chin for the role. And since The Last Of Robin Hood is set during Flynn’s last days at the age of 50, he could be perfect casting.Kline is attached to play Flynn in the time shortly before he died of a heart attack. He spent his last couple of years romancing 17 year-old Beverly Aadland who he allegedly first seduced when she was 15 and had co-starred in his last film, Cuban Rebel Girls.Susan Sarandon is also looking to take part as Florence, Beverly’s stage mother who pushed her daughter into performing when her own aspirations to be a star didn’t work out.Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland have collaborated on the script and plan to start directing the movie in January,...
- 10/10/2012
- EmpireOnline
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