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Cover Story ALAIN DELON- FRENCH SCREEN ICON
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Latest News CRUISE CRUSADE QUARTERLY PUBLICATION Issue 19 | Summer 2022 PUBLISHED BY: Hollywood International Film Exchange ADDRESS: 6565 East Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90040, USA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Sandro Monetti EDITOR: Jimmy Jiang ART DIRECTOR / GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Rosemary Getz PHOTOGRAPHER: Edward Tang IMAGE RESEARCH ASSISTANT: Chris Master Tang EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: Kimberley Kates, Jimmy Jiang, Sandro Monetti FACEBOOK: Hollywood International Express TWITTER: @HiFilmExpress WEBSITE: Hi-Fex.com
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CASTING THE BARBIE MOVIE
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DANIEL RADCLIFFE'S VERY DIFFERENT NEW ROLE
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CAPSTONE UPCOMING RELEASES 10 BAFTA GARDEN PARTY
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GOLDEN FILM AWARDS 15 COPPOLA'S EPIC AMBITION 16 SOCCER AND THE STARS 17 BIG SCREEN - AT CANNES
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MICHAEL J FOX - A LIFE OF ACHIEVEMENT
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Hollywood Spotlight SALUTE TO BRUCE WILLIS
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HOLLYWOOD SHOWS ITS HEART
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SHAKESPEARE ON SCREEN 26
Policy and Regulations CONTACT INFO E-MAIL: Magazine.HiFEX@gmail.com SPONSORS • Big Screen Entertainment Group • Big Screen Holdings • Hollywood International Film Exchange • Hollywood International Film Festival • Hollywood International Express • Diamond Sofa • Fairfax Entertainment • Chinese Creative Culture Organization
CALIFORNIA FIGHTS FOR FILMS
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FLIPPING THE SCRIPT ON PLASTIC
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DISNEY DIGS IN 32
Technology and Developement JURASSIC PUPPETS 34 TECH TO THE FUTURE FILM
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Reviews SANDRO AT THE CINEMA
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Back Cover Story CANNES FILM FESTIVAL RETROSPECTIVE
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COVER STORY
ALAIN DELON: ICON of FRENCH CINEMA
“The one thing I’m completely proud of, is my career.” One of Europe’s most prominent film actors and sex symbols, Delon was a sensation from the start. Spotted while accompanying an actress girlfriend to the Cannes Film Festival in 1956, he was quickly signed up for movie roles and his brooding bad boy quality made him France’s answer to James Dean. Playing lovers at first, then heroes like Zorro and later criminals, his screen career extended for 60 years and saw him working with legendary filmmakers like Antonioni, Visconti and Godard. Old age and declining health eventually saw him step away from the screen. But he returned to the spotlight when given a career achievement award three years ago at the Cannes Film Festival, back where it all started for him. The honor was not without controversy and sparked protest that the veteran actor had made sexist and homophobic comments as well as showing support for far-right politics that made him underserving of such a tribute. The father of four has sparked more controversy recently by saying he would not hesitate to choose to die by euthanasia if his health complications arising from two strokes significantly worsen. As much as he divides opinion, there is no doubting Delon’s impact on cinema. As he has said: “ The one thing I’m completely proud of, is my career.”
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Cruise Makes the Case Superstar Tom Cruise has made a passionate plea for films to continue to premiere in movie theaters rather than on streaming platforms. As the industry increasingly embraces the small screen, traditionalist Tom wants to slam the breaks on that trend. “I understand the business but I make movies for the big screen,” said Cruise. “Cinema is my love, it’s my passion.” The release of his film Top Gun: Maverick was delayed for two years until theaters opened up worldwide post pandemic and Cruise never considered having the film launch on a streaming platform instead. “That was never going to happen, ever,” he explained. Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, Cruise said movies are made for the big screen and are best enjoyed in theaters. “Just like theatre is different from cinema, so is cinema different from television.” He revealed that he is a frequent moviegoer himself and even disguises himself so he can attend opening nights with the public.“I go to movies when they come out in theatres. I put my cap on and sit in the audience and watch the trailers and enjoy the film. I’ve always loved going to movies and I make films for audiences who love that shared experience too.”
- Sandro Monetti
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Barbie:: Barbie QUEUE FOR TOP ROLES
An all-star cast is at work on a live-action movie about iconic doll Barbie. Margot Robbie takes the title role with Ryan Gosling co-starring as her boyfriend, Ken. There are 20 other well-known names filling out the supporting roles, including Will Ferrell (Anchorman), America Ferrera (Ugly Betty), Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live), Rhea Perlman (Cheers) and Simu Liu (Shang Chi). There’s big names behind the camera too with three-time Oscar nominee Greta Gerwig directing Barbie, which is due for release in 2023.The movie is a co-production between Warner Bros, Barbie toymaker Mattel and Margot Robbie’s production company, Lucky Chap. No details are being released about the plot beyond the fact it sees the famous doll stepping into the real world. Sandro Monetti
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WeiRd butwonderful
CASTING
It’salongwayfromHarryPotter…In his next movie role, Daniel Radcliffe plays frizzy-haired parody singerWeirdAlYankovic.The film, titled Weird, charts the rise to fame of the five-time Grammy winner whose comedy hits include Eat It and Like a Surgeon.Yankovic co-wrote the script and is also producing the film.
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SILENT NIGHT ExcitementisbuildingaroundSilentNight, whichmarksdirectorJohnWoo’sreturnto Hollywoodactionmovies. JoelKinnamanstarsasatormentedfatherona revengemissioninthisthrillerfromtheproducers oftheJohnWickfranchise. Theeagerlyanticipatedmoviewasshowcasedat theCannesFilmFestivalinMay. 10
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Also coming soon from Capstone…
n i p
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A look at the people and pop stars who shaped the 1970’s music scene, this is a biopic of record producer Neil Bogart, whose acts included Donna Summer, The Village People and KISS. Featuring the fabulous music of that era, the film features Jeremy Jordan as Neil with Michelle Monaghan and Jeremy Isaacs in co-starring roles. Current pop stars feature too with Wiz Khalifa playing George Clinton and Jason Derulo as Ron Isley.
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She Is Love
A divorced couple come face to face for the first time in ten years and see if a path to new beginnings is possible. Hayley Bennett and Sam Riley star.
INTO THE DEEP
A young woman sees dreams of a romantic escape from her small town shattered when the new relationship is overtaken by distrust, danger and violence. The thriller features rising stars Jessica Alexander, Ella-Rae Smith and Matthew Daddario. 13
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Hi-Fex was on the guest list when BAFTA and the British Consul-General threw an elegant garden party celebrating this year's Oscar nominees.
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ON THE MOVE
The Golden Film Awards have been a long established part of the Hollywood awards calendar with features and short films from around the world honored annually at a Los Angeles ceremony celebrating the best emerging talent in international filmmaking. But as the next stage in its evolution, the prestigious event- part of the Hollywood Int'l Film Festival- is truly embracing its international mission by moving to a new home in Macau. Look out for further details shortly as this ceremony devoted to building bridges of understanding and creativity through cinema builds towards its next eagerly awaited gala presentation.
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COPPA-LOAD OF THIS! Fifty years after directing The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola is planning an even more ambitious epic. The veteran moviemaker, now 82, will stop at nothing to bring to the big screen his latest passion project, Megalopolis. The price tag of $120 million for the large-scale love story set in New York may scare off some of the studios and streamers. But it’s not a problem for Coppola who plans to fund it himself, using a large part of the personal fortune he’s amassed from both movie making and wine making. He has been developing the story for years, amid great secrecy, and hopes to crown his glorious career with the film.
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FEMALE POWER PLAYERS Natalie Portman and some famous actress friends have brought a female professional soccer team to Los Angeles. The Oscar winner is one of the founders of Angel City Football Club and she’s recruited Jessica Chastain, Eva Longoria and Jennifer Garner as investors. “Sports are such a joyful way to bring people together,” said Natalie, who has high hopes for success with the club on the field having recruited some world class players. But Angel City has already made a big impact off it, donating 75,000 meals to food-insecure local families as part of a plan to donate 10 percent of the club’s sponsorship money to charitable causes. With retail plans, NFTs, apps and media deals all in the works, Angel City looks set to have a big impact on the sports scene and beyond.
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Makes a big splash at Cannes! Cannes is the most influential, important and respected film festival of all and this year’s event was a glorious one for Big Screen Entertainment Group and some of its key figures. BSEG Board member Michael Manasseri is a producer on War Pony, a powerful drama set on America’s poorest Native American reservation, which won two prizes at the glittering event. Fellow director Sandro Monetti also launched his film, forward-looking documentary Tech to the Future, to great acclaim at Cannes 2022. Sandro also reported daily on the news of the festival for BBC World News TV. Plus the company was kept busy throughout the French event with meetings, screenings, discussions and deals as Big Screen cemented itself as a truly international production and distribution company during the gathering of the globe’s leading cinema professionals.
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Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox is to be awarded an honorary Oscar. The Academy has announced he will receive a special humanitarian award. It will be both for his contribution to film as well as efforts to find a cure to Parkinson’s disease, with which he was diagnosed in 1991. Fox last appeared at the Oscars in 2017 where he received a standing ovation from his peers. Now the Marty McFly star will receive the ultimate Hollywood prize. Fox has won Emmy Awards, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards but this is his first Oscar.
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BRUCE WILLIS : HIS TEN GREATEST ROLES
The news that Bruce Willis is retiring from movies due to health problems has been greeted with sadness and dismay by his millions of fans around the world. The superstar – who is battling the cognitive brain disorder aphasia – has made so many much-loved movies – but which are the best? It wasn’t an easy choice but here’s our selection of the top ten Bruce performances…
#1
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#2
PULP #3 FICTION
The Sixth Sense
#4 ARMAGEDDON
#5
#6
SIN CITY
UNBREAKABLE
#7 12 Monkeys
#8 THE 5TH ELEMENT
Death Becomes Her #9
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AIR STRIKE
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HOLLYWOOD Shows its HEART
Hollywood stars are teaming up in a noble effort to stop bullying. Actress and mental health activist Chase Masterson, best known as Leeta on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, has formed the Pop Culture Hero Coalition. Icons like Jeff Goldblum and George Takei have thrown their support behind the nonprofit’s mission to spread kindness and make people’s lives better through positive messages in movies and TV shows. The organization – which you can learn more about at superheroIRL.org - has also created anti-bullying programs taught at schools, YMCA’s and online.
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By teaching empathy and compasionChase and her co-founder Carrie Goldman, the author of Bullied, hope to make a real difference in people’s lives – especially coming out of a pandemic where depression and PTSD numbers significantly increased. “This isn’t about shaking a finger, it’s about offering a helping hand,” said Chase, speaking at WonderCon, one of the science fiction conventions where she takes the mission and caring message directly to fans. Sandro Monetti 25
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The (Screen) Play's the Thing
The works of William Shakespeare have been adapted into movies ever since the earliest days of film, but which are the best Bard movies? Here’s our choice of the top six…
Hamlet (1990)
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Richard III (1995)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
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Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Henry V (1944)
Romeo and Juliet (1996)
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P O L I C Y A N D R E G U L AT I O N
HOLLYWOOD FIGHTS BACK Hollywood was the home of moviemaking for so many decades – but not anymore. Financial incentives from other states and nations have lured major films away from California in recent years. Marvel movies like Black Panther are made in Georgia, the Star Wars films get shot in the UK, Suicide Squad in Canada and there are countless other examples of films pulled out of Los Angeles attracted by tax credits elsewhere. Now though, Tinseltown is fighting back against runaway production and making movies return to their traditional home. 28
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California has greatly increased the tax incentives available to moviemakers who shoot there and hopes the argument of economics plus the availability of experienced local crews, plenty of studio space and stunning locations will be enough to reverse the trend. Top Gun: Maverick – shot in San Diego – was a big win for the state and other productions have also based themselves in California, where movie making is now back to pre-pandemic levels. Now that policy makers have prioritized film production they will be hoping the trend continues and the mission to return Hollywood as the center of moviemaking can be accomplished.
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FLIPPING THE SCRIPT
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The world’s largest entertainment union is on a mission to ban single use plastic from the movie industry. SAG-AFTRA and its President, Fran Drescher, are prioritizing more environmentally friendly practices on sets. By encouraging a plastic-free world behind the scenes, the aim is to play a part in ridding the planet of plastic pollution and its toxic impacts.
P O L I C Y A N D R E G U L AT I O N
Drescher has formed a Green Council full of actors and environmentalists to help lead the charge. Explaining the intention, she said: “Let’s pivot our industry to become environmentally responsible and become the beacon for all others.” Changes on screen can also impact the wider world and the recent Jennifer Lopez film Marry Me had reusables written into the script while Oscar nominated movie Don’t Look Up also took on the climate crisis.
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DISNEY Digs In P O L I C Y A N D R E G U L AT I O N
Disney is standing firm on its inclusion policy even at the cost of profits. The entertainment giant’s latest Pixar movie, Lightyear, was banned in 14 countries – reportedly due to featuring a same sex kiss. But instead of bowing to pressure from some foreign censors to cut the scene, Disney refused to take it out and instead took the consequences. The move came after some internal pressure from Pixar employees, frustrated that scenes with LGBTQ themes had been cut from their previous movies, Onward and Turning Red, so as not to fall foul of censors in certaincountries. Star Chris Evans, who plays the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story prequel, joined the rest of the cast in applauding the move. Disney also refused to cave in over a similar issue with their recent Marvel picture, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Given its global reach and influence, the corporation seems set on a policy of inclusion even if it means being shut out of some foreign markets.
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TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT
Despite huge advances in CGI technology, Jurassic World Dominion director Colin Trevorrow decided on an old-fashioned approach for the recent dinosaur epic. He used more animatronic creatures than computer generated ones in the film, saying the actors interact with those better and consequently bring more realism to the movie. “Animatronics give them the ability to interact with it as if it’s another actor because there’s another performer behind it. It really is a human and a human communicating via a puppet, which is a beautiful kind of art,” he explained. Examples of their use in the film come when a Giganotosaurus is slowly stalking the characters and when a cute baby Nasutoceratops is interacting with them. Reviews for the film have been largely negative, suggesting the franchise may have run its course despite big box office numbers. But there has been nothing but praise for the special effects and visuals with the technology some of the best in the entire series.
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TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT
Launched at the Cannes Film Festival, Tech to the Future is an acclaimed new documentary film written and directed by Sandro Monetti and hosted by futurist Francis Hellyer, the film showcases amazing new inventions of today that are set to give the world a better tomorrow.
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REVIEWS
Editor-in-chief Sandro Monetti reviews recent movie releases and rates them with a percentage score.
AMBULANCE 80% Thrill-a-minute, pulse-pounding action of the kind not made this well since the 90’s - and Jake Gyllenhaal brilliant as the bank robber.
The
SECRETS of 20%
DUMBLEDORE
The magic has gone from this fading franchise. Now it’s more like Dumble-bore. Hugely disappointing.
UNBEARABLE WEIGHTOF MASSIVE TALENT
THE
70%
NicolasCage’sbestfilminyearsisoften hilariousasheplaysafictionalversionof himselfaskedbytheCIAtousehisaction movieskillsforrealonamissionfortheCIA.
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Morbius 60%
A disabled doctor develops some dangerous superpowers in an intriguing and exciting story starring the always charismatic Jared Leto.
THE 90% OUTFIT
Tension packed best film of 2022 and best performance too, as Mark Rylance plays a tailor reluctantly mixed up with the mob in Chicago.
THE
LOST CITY 35%
A lost opportunity for comedy and a waste of some great talent. The only funny moments are when Brad Pitt in on screen and those are too few and far between.
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C A N 75 N E S BACKCOVER STORY
Film Festival 2022 YEARS OF MAGICAL
MOVIE MEMORIES
The stars were out, the sun was shining and the movies were marvelous at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival..Tom Cruise,Julia Roberts,Viola Davis and Sharon Stone led a host of big names on the red carpet. Buzzed about films included Crimes of the Future withViggo Mortensen,Triangle of Sadness starring Woody Harrelson, ArmageddonTime with Anthony Hopkins and the Korean spy film Hunt from Squid Game’s LeeJung-jae. This was the 75th Cannes Film Festival and, as the pictures on the following pages show, it continued a grand tradition of glamor, quality and class.
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C FA SHION N Through N Ages E S BACKCOVER STORY
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The big winners at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival also made themselves frontrunners for the next Oscar race. That’s because the festival traditionally launches leading contenders for the film world’s ultimate prize. Winning the best picture honor, the festival’s coveted Palme d’Or, was Triangle of Sadness, about shipwrecked passengers from a cruise for the super-rich. Woody Harrelson heads the cast. Parasite star Song Kang-ho won Best Actor for Broker, which is about abandoned babies, while Zar Amir-Ebrahimi was Best Actress for serial killer drama Holy Spider. The Best First Film prize was presented to Riley Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis Presley, for her directorial debut, War Pony. Meanwhile the Elvis film premiered at Cannes out of competition but received this year’s longest standing ovation from the festival audience – a rapturous 12 minutes.
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YES WE
CANnes!
