Film producer Richard D. Zanuck dies at age 77

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran Hollywood executive Richard D. Zanuck, the prolific producer behind the blockbuster shark thriller 'Jaws,' the best-picture Oscar-winner 'Driving Miss Daisy' and a string of Tim Burton fantasies, died on Friday of a heart attack at age 77.

Zanuck, son of famed 20th Century Fox chieftain Darryl F. Zanuck, who was named by his father at age 28 as Fox's head of production, making him Hollywood's then youngest-ever studio boss, died at his home in Beverly Hills, a spokesman said.

No further details were immediately available about the circumstances of his death.

Zanuck, who spent the bulk of his career as an independent producer, earned numerous awards during more than 50 years in filmmaking.

Among his accolades were the Academy Award he shared with his wife and collaborator, Lili Fini Zanuck, for their work on 'Driving Miss Daisy,' and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work with longtime associate David Brown.

Steven Spielberg, with whom Zanuck collaborated on 'Jaws,' called the producer 'a cornerstone of our industry, both in name and in deed.'

'In 1974, Dick Zanuck and I sat in a boat off Martha's Vineyard and watched the mechanical shark sink to the bottom of the sea,' Spielberg recalled in a statement. 'Dick turned to me and smiled. 'Gee, I sure hope that's not a sign.''

That moment of wry humor proved to be far from prophetic, as 'Jaws,' the tale of a great white shark that terrorizes a small New England beach town, became one of the biggest hits of its era and helped launch Spielberg's career as a director.

Born in Los Angeles, Zanuck, whose mother was actress Virginia Fox, joined his father as a story and production assistant on two 20th Century Fox films, 'Island in the Sun' and 'The Sun Also Rises.'

He debuted as a full-fledged producer at age 24 on 1959 feature film 'Compulsion,' which starred Orson Welles. Four years later, he was placed in charge of production at his father's studio.

During his eight-year tenure there, the studio cranked out a series of critical and commercial successes, 'The Sound of Music,' 'Patton' and 'The French Connection,' all of which won best film Oscars. Other Fox hits from that period include the original 'Planet of the Apes' series, the Paul Newman and Robert Redford western 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and the Korean War satire 'M*A*S*H.'

HOLLYWOOD HITS AND MISSES

But a handful of big-screen musical flops 'greenlighted' for production by Zanuck, among them 'Doctor Dolittle,' 'Hello Dolly' and 'Star,' cost the studio dearly and ultimately led to his ouster in 1970 by his father.

From there, Zanuck and Brown moved briefly to Warner Bros., where they oversaw the making of the religious thriller 'The Exorcist' and Mel Brooks' parody western, 'Blazing Saddles' before starting their own production company.

It was the Zanuck/Brown label that made Spielberg's 1974 film directorial debut, 'The Sugarland Express,' and his 1975 blockbuster 'Jaws,' which earned Oscars for film editing, score and sound.

Other Zanuck/Brown successes included 'The Sting,' a Depression-era tale of grifters that reunited Newman and Redford and won seven Academy Awards, including best picture; courtroom drama 'The Verdict,' which earned five Oscar nominations, and 'Cocoon,' which won Oscars for best supporting Oscar (Don Ameche) and visual effects.

Zanuck earned his greatest personal filmmaking accolade for the first movie produced under his own Zanuck Company label, the 1989 film 'Driving Miss Daisy,' about the relationship of a stubborn old Jewish woman (Jessica Tandy) and her black chauffeur (Morgan Freeman) in the American South.

The film earned four Oscars, including best actress for Tandy and best picture for Zanuck and his wife.

The latter stretch of Zanuck's career was marked by a close collaboration with director Tim Burton, starting with a 2001 remake of 'Planet of the Apes,' released by 20th Century Fox.

Others included the 2005 hit 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' the critically acclaimed 2007 musical 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' and the 2010 success 'Alice in Wonderland,' all starring Johnny Depp.

The last film of Zanuck's career ended up being his sixth collaboration with Burton, the critical and commercial bomb 'Dark Shadows,' also starring Depp and based on the 1960s television series about lovelorn vampire.

In addition to his wife, Zanuck is survived by his sons Harrison and Dean, and nine grandchildren.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)



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"Green Mile" actor Michael Clarke Duncan hospitalized

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - 'The Green Mile' actor Michael Clarke Duncan has been hospitalized in Los Angeles, a spokeswoman for his reality TV star girlfriend said on Friday.

Priscilla Clarke, a representative for 'The Apprentice' star Omarosa Stallworth, did not provide any further details on why Duncan was taken to the hospital.

Celebrity website TMZ reported that Stallworth discovered early Friday that Duncan had suffered a heart attack and was in cardiac arrest. She revived him with cardiopulmonary resuscitation before he was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital, TMZ reported.

Duncan, 54, starred in the 1999 prison drama 'The Green Mile' and had roles in the 2003 comic book movie 'Daredevil' and 2005 release 'Sin City.'

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)



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Sigourney Weaver turns political animal for new TV show

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In new TV series 'Political Animals,' Secretary of State Elaine Barrish Hammond, who has just lost a presidential bid, laments that the country just doesn't adore her as much as her womanizing husband and former President.

If that sounds like current Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, actress Sigourney Weaver, who portrays Elaine, disagrees.

The similarities between the real-life politician and the TV one are clear in the frothy series premiering July 15 on the USA Network, yet Weaver swears she did not have Clinton in mind. She points to other women she has met, mostly those in non-profit work, upon which she based the character.

'I admire Mrs. Clinton immensely, (but) I don't know anything about her except the little bit we are allowed to know. I never think of her when I am playing this part,' Weaver told Reuters in a recent interview.

The 62-year-old actress said 'Political Animals,' a soapy dramatization of sex, greed and politics in the White House, is based on many families who have lived there - not just the Clintons. She noted that while Elaine's ex-husband, Bud Hammond, 'had been a successful president, not unlike Bill Clinton,' her character 'was first lady, then became a governor, then ran for president, failed, then became secretary of state.'

'Some of the details are similar to the Clintons, but in fact, if you talk to the creator, he has been a real political junkie for most of his life, and he is fascinated by all these families who have been in the White House,' she said.

Creator Greg Berlanti gives the show's pilot a light tone, setting it apart from more serious, recent political TV dramas such as 'Game Change' about Sarah Palin.

SOAPY WHITE HOUSE

In the pilot episode, Elaine divorces her husband, tries to help her gay son with finances while he battles drug addiction and chastises a Russian foreign minister for patting her bottom during a press conference.

Elaine offers a steely image in public, but lets her guard down in private, showing disappointment she wasn't popular enough to secure the presidential nomination.

'The country loves you Bud. They will always love you, but it's me they have mixed feelings about, ' she tells her husband at the start of the first episode. Two years later, however, she has earned a measure of popularity as a hardworking Secretary of State - much like Hillary Clinton.

Weaver, who has a history of playing strong women, most notably as Ripley in the four 'Alien' space films, said that to prepare for the role she read former Secretary of State Albright's 2009 memoir, 'Read My Pins,' about global politics.

She also leaned heavily on her views of women she met in the non-profit sector more than any real-life political figures.

The miniseries reaches audiences following other political shows centered on female characters during the current U.S. presidential election year, including HBO comedy series 'Veep,' featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as a U.S. vice president and HBO movie 'Game Change,' which starred Julianne Moore as conservative firebrand Sarah Palin.

'It's more enticing to watch fake politics on television than real politics because real politics is difficult to watch. Everything is even more dysfunctional than my own family,' Weaver said with a smile.

Elaine is the type of fearless female that real-life Washington needs more of, said Weaver, who believes women are more likely to cross the political aisle and 'get down to work.'

'Women naturally roll up their sleeves,' she said. 'They support each other on both sides of the aisle. It's a much more collaborative, team-building kind of inclusiveness about their work, and I feel like we need that kind of energy in the Washington politics-as-usual.'

A Democrat with a businessman father she described as 'a Nelson Rockefeller Republican,' the actress is worried about the current trend of partisanship and what she sees as the common person being left behind in today's economic policies.

'What politicians have to be talking about is the needs of real people. To me, as long as the Republicans are the champions of big business, that can't happen. Because the common man is being left out of all of this. And this trickle-down idea is fallacy,' she said.

(Reporting By Christine Kearney Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Eric Walsh)



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Broadway's Nina Arianda tapped for Janis Joplin film

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The makers of a planned film about rock icon Janis Joplin have tapped recent Tony Award winner Nina Arianda to play the part of the 1960s singer in a biographical movie directed by Sean Durkin, a spokesman for the director said on Tuesday.

The independently-produced film, titled 'Joplin,' looks at the last six months in the life of the raspy-voiced singer who died in 1970 of a drug overdose following chart success with classic rock hits such as 'Down on Me' and 'Piece of My Heart.'

Producer Peter Newman told show business news website Deadline that 'Joplin' would have a production budget under $20 million and it would be in production early next year.

Arianda won raves in 'Venus in Fur,' a sex comedy in which she portrays a struggling actress named Vanda who staggers into an audition late then proceeds to put on the performance of her life. The role won her Broadway's Tony for best actress, and she recently appeared in Woody Allen movie, 'Midnight in Paris.'

Durkin is best known for making 2011 independent film 'Martha Marcy May Marlene,' which led to the director's award at last year's Sundance Film Festival.

Joplin, who died at age 27, had a short career but lived a full life and was iconic for the Woodstock generation.

She gained rock stardom as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, then cemented her fame with backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band.

Newman said Arianda will sing all the songs in the film.

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Bernard Orr)



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Batman could fly, but he'd crash and die

LONDON (Reuters) - Holy crash landing Batman! The crime-fighting caped crusader could fly but if he did, he would smash into the ground and probably die, a group of British physics students have calculated.

Dashing the dreams of comic fans across the world, four students from the University of Leicester said that while Batman could glide using his cape as he does in the 2005 film 'Batman Begins', his landing would almost certainly prove fatal.

The superhero is back in cinemas later this month in 'The Dark Knight Rises' and they suggested Batman should go shopping before trying a similar attempt to become airborne over Gotham City.

'If Batman wanted to survive the flight, he would definitely need a bigger cape,' said David Marshall, 22, one of the students in the final year of their four-year Master of Physics degree.

'Or if he preferred to keep his style intact he could opt for using active propulsion, such as jets to keep himself aloft.'

In a paper titled 'Trajectory of a falling Batman', the group argued that if he jumped from a 150-metre (492-foot) high building, the 4.7 meter (15-foot) wingspan of Batman's cape would allow him to glide 350 meters (1148 feet).

However, he would reach a speed of 68 miles per hour (109 km per hour) before hitting the ground at a life-threatening speed of 50 mph.

(Reporting by Michael Holden, editing by Paul Casciato)



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Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine dead at 95

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Ernest Borgnine, whose barrel-chested, bulldog looks made him a natural for tough-guy roles in films like 'From Here to Eternity' but who won an Oscar for playing a sensitive loner in 'Marty,' died on Sunday at age 95, his publicist said.

The real-life U.S. Navy veteran who became a household name during the 1960s by starring as the maverick commander of a World War Two patrol boat in the popular television comedy 'McHale's Navy,' died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, longtime spokesman Harry Flynn said.

Borgnine, who continued to work until very recently, had been the oldest living recipient of an Academy Award for best actor, Flynn said.

A statement from the actor's family said he 'had been in excellent health until a recent illness.' Flynn said Borgnine recovered from unspecified surgery he underwent a month ago but his condition deteriorated rapidly after he visited the hospital on Tuesday for a medical checkup.

His last screen credit was the lead role of an aging nursing home patient in a film set for release later this year, 'The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez.' The performance earned Borgnine a best actor award at the Newport Beach Film Festival, where it debuted in April, Flynn said.

With his burly profile, gruff voice and gap-toothed leer, Borgnine was on the verge of being typecast as the bad guy early in his career, following a string of convincing performances as the heavy in such films as 'Johnny Guitar' in 1954 and 'Bad Day at Black Rock in 1955.'

Borgnine's most memorable turn as a menacing tough guy was his breakout role in the 1953 Oscar-winning film 'From Here to Eternity' as the sadistic Sergeant 'Fatso' Judson, who terrorizes and eventually kills Frank Sinatra's character, Private Angelo Maggio.

UGLY DUCKLING ROLE

But Borgnine broke free from the bad-guy rut and won his own Oscar with a rare leading-man role in 1955's 'Marty,' playing a warm-hearted New York butcher who lamented, 'One fact I gotta face is that, whatever it is that women like, I ain't got it.'

In addition to his Academy Award, Borgnine's work in 'Marty' led to more sympathetic roles in such films as 'Jubal' (1956) and 'The Best Things in Life Are Free' (1956).

Critic Bosley Crowther described Borgnine's Oscar-winning performance in 'Marty,' a film version of a television play by Paddy Chayevsky, as 'a beautiful blend of the crude and strangely gentle and sensitive.'

Some critics hinted that Borgnine was a 'Marty' in real life, but the actor, who was married five times, took exception by saying, 'I'm no playboy, but I'm no dumb slob either.'

'Marty' also won Oscars for best picture, best director and adapted screenplay.

'Ernie is the nicest man I've ever worked with,' said Sidney Lanfield, who directed him on the TV sitcom 'McHale's Navy.' 'When he says, 'Hello! How are you?' or 'Glad to see you!' you can bet the line has not been rehearsed.'

The television show, in which he starred as the skipper of a misfit PT boat crew skirting Navy regulations while chasing Japanese submarines, ran on ABC from the fall of 1962 until August 1966 and reinvigorated Borgnine's career. Funnyman Tim Conway co-starred as McHale's ensign.

He starred again as Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale in a 1964 big-screen adaptation of the TV show, and returned to supporting character work in such movies such as 'The Flight of the Phoenix' (1965), 'The Dirty Dozen' (1968), Sam Peckinpah's 'The Wild Bunch' (1969) and 'The Poseidon Adventure' (1972).

He appeared in dozens of films in all.

NAVY SERVICE

He was born Ermes Effron Borgino in Hamden, Connecticut, and did not take up acting until after a 10-year hitch in the U.S. Navy, including a stint during World War II as a gunner's mate on a destroyer in the Pacific.

'I just couldn't see myself going into a factory where I saw these pasty-faced fellows walking in and walking out after stamping their cards,' Borgnine once said.

Using money he earned from the G.I. Bill, Borgnine studied at the Randall School of Dramatic Arts in Hartford and performed on stage for several years at a Virginia theater.

His first Hollywood job was a low-budget picture, 'China Corsair,' in 1951, starring in ethnic makeup as the Chinese proprietor of a gambling club.

He made his Broadway debut in the 1949 Mary Chase comedy 'Harvey,' and after a trio of early-'50s films appeared on Broadway again in 1952 in another Chase production, 'Mrs. McThing,' this time opposite Helen Hayes.

Hayes ended up being a godmother to the eldest of Borgnine's three children, daughter Nancee, by his first wife.

Borgnine returned to series television as co-star of the mid-1980s action film 'Airwolf.' And in 1988 he portrayed a mafia chief in the big-screen film 'Spike of Bensonhurst.'

Working well into his 90s, Borgnine earned an Emmy nomination for his 2009 guest appearance on the final two episodes of the television hospital drama 'ER,' playing the husband of a dying elderly woman. The following year, he notched a cameo role as a CIA records keeper in the spy thriller 'Red.'

He performed voice work for animated productions late in his life, including 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and 'All Dogs Go to Heaven.'

Borgnine's 1964 marriage to singer-actress Ethel Merman barely lasted a month. He said it broke up because fans paid more attention to him than her during their honeymoon.

The longest of Borgnine's five marriages was his last - to Tova Traesnaes, whom he married in 1973. Despite his rough looks, Borgnine appeared in ads touting the face-rejuvenating powers of beauty products from a company she started.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman.; Editing by Bill Trott and Christopher Wilson)



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Emotional Jolie visits Sarajevo Film Festival

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Angelina Jolie, whose directorial debut tackled the 1992-95 Bosnian war, attended the 18th Sarajevo Film Festival on Saturday and became an honorary citizen of the Bosnian capital in recognition of her film.

'This means so much to me. My heart is in this city,' said a tearful Jolie on receiving the award from Sarajevo authorities. She arrived with her three children on a private plane.

Jolie's film 'In the Land of Blood and Honey' tells the story of the war through the relationship between Danijel, a Bosnian Serb, and Ajla, a Bosnian Muslim woman, whose affection becomes hostage to their respective ethnic groups.

'It was the hardest thing I have ever done because of my deep respect for the people that really experienced it. The experience here was so unique for me that I felt very connected to the people,' Jolie told Reuters.

But the Oscar-winning actress, who has used her fame to draw attention to humanitarian disasters across the world, said she was hesitant about embarking on a new directorial project tackling another conflict, such as the one in Afghanistan.

'I have been writing and I'd love to try at some point to direct another film. I would like to try to learn about countries like Afghanistan but I don't know if I am the best person to make the film about the subject matter,' she said.

'Unless I felt I was somebody that can really contribute, I don't think I would do it,' she added.

'I think it's important for film-makers to know what they are trying to say when they make a film. If you're gonna do something about another country, make sure to surround yourself by extraordinary people from that country and really know that country and let that country speak through you. Don't try to give the country your own voice.'

This is Jolie's second attendance of the festival, the largest southern European film gathering.

She also threw her support behind the Sarajevo Talent Campus program, which gives young film talents from the region the chance to learn from established film professionals willing to share their knowledge.

The program seeks to give writers, actors and directors access to further education, an entry to the international film industry, and an incentive to make their first joint projects with colleagues from the region.

'I hope to spread to the world to pay more attention to the artists from this region,' said Jolie.

The film festival, which opened late on Friday, acts as a major regional showcase. This year it will show more than 200 movies during its nine days.

Nine feature films from Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Turkey, Austria and Romania are competing for the Heart of Sarajevo, the festival's main award.

Apart from Jolie, the most famous guests are Spanish actress Victoria Abril, who stars in Macedonian film 'The Woman Who Brushed Off Her Tears', and American director Todd Solondz, whose films will be screened in a special retrospective program.

Every year the festival hosts about 100,000 film fans, many from neighboring countries, and hoteliers and tourism officials say that nearly all accommodation is booked up during the event.

(Reporting By Maja Zuvela; Editing by Pravin Char)



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