Latest news with #BrianDePalma
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Phantom of the Paradise Stage Musical in the Works From Paul Williams, Sam Pressman (Exclusive)
Phantom of the Paradise, the cult classic 1974 Brian de Palma film that reworked Phantom of the Opera and starred songwriting icon Paul Williams as the manipulative music producer known as Swan, is being made into a stage musical by Williams and Sam Pressman, whose father, Ed Pressman, produced the original. 'I'm excited about having a chance to deliver what fans have been suggesting for years… POTP as a stage musical," Williams said in a statement to MovieMaker. "I think it's time has come!' In addition to starring in the film, which De Palma wrote and directed, Williams composed the score and wrote the songs. Pressman told MovieMaker that he and Williams have spoken to multiple potential writers for the stage musical, including American Psycho and The Shards author Bret Easton Ellis — though no commitments have been made. Pressman told MovieMaker that he, Williams and Ellis had "such an amazing dinner — Bret's such a true fan of Phantom and of Paul and it was awesome to introduce the two of them in person." Ellis has also mentioned the meeting on his podcast, though again, nothing is settled in terms of the stage musical's writer. Asked about De Palma's potential involvement in the new stage play, Pressman said there were potentially "different paths... it's just so early." De Palma has been considering a Phantom of the Paradise stage musical for decades. Pressman noted that he recently revisited a libretto, or book, that De Palma wrote for a prospective stage version of the film back in 1987. He has also talked with De Palma. "We certainly wanted Brian to feel honored," Pressman said. "I went to go see Brian last fall, to talk about the dream. Phantom was an early and significant film for him and I'd say the favorite film of my father in his career. I think the chaos and originality of the whole experience was deeply inspiring." Pressman noted that the plan is to open the stage play "not on Broadway" but "building to that stage." Pressman took over his father's company, Pressman Film, after Ed Pressman's death in 2023. Besides Phantom of the Paradise, Pressman Film's credits include Wall Street, The Crow, and Mary Harron's film adaptation of American Psycho. Sam Pressman, an actor and producer who grew up on film sets, has produced films including Harron's recent Daliland and the 2024 The Crow revamp starring Bill Skarsgård. The original Phantom of the Paradise starred William Finley as naive singer-songwriter Winslow Leach, who is tricked by Williams' Swan into sacrificing his life's work. In revenge, Winslow dons a menacing silver mask — which gives his voice a metallic rasp — and terrorizes Swan's new concert hall, The Paradise, while demanding his songs be sung Swan's new protege, a singer named Phoenix, played by soon-to-be Suspiria star Jessica Harper. Williams is one of the most successful and influential songwriters of all, a legend who has worked with everyone from Barbra Streisand to The Carpenters to Daft Punk. His best known songs include the Oscar-nominated "Rainbow Connection" from 1979's The Muppet Movie, and "Evergreen," from the 1976 Streisand version of A Star Is Born. He wrote the lyrics for the song, which won a Grammy and Oscar. At the time de Palma enlisted him for Phantom of the Paradise, he was best known for writing The Carpenters' 'We've Only Just Begun' and 'Rainy Days and Mondays,' as well as Bobby Sherman's "Cried Like a Baby" — and for clowning around on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. But Phantom of the Paradise let him embrace darkness: His ageless, possibly demonic Swan is like a cult leader, exerting control through musical. De Palma wrote and directed the film long before he became known for classics like Carrie, Scarface and The Untouchables. He was a largely underground filmmaker known for counterculture movies like 1968's Greetings and 1970's Hi Mom, with a then-little-known Robert De Niro, and for the well-received 1972 horror film Sisters, with Margot Kidder. He thought Phantom of the Paradise could be his commercial breakthrough. The film, released by 20th Century Fox. underwhelmed at the box office and received mixed reviews (the Los Angeles Times' Kevin Thomas called it 'delightfully outrageous,' while The New York Times' Vincent Canby said it was 'an elaborate disaster.') But like another groundbreaking mid-'70s rock musical, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, it soon found a passionate, loyal audience who appreciated its beauty and unapologetic weirdness. (It hasn't played at midnight screenings all over the world for half a century like Rocky Horror, but neither has anything else.) The passionate Phantom of the Paradise fandom includes an intensely dedicated following in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as detailed in the documentary Phantom of Winnipeg. Its biggest fan is almost certainly Ari Kahan, keeper of the The Swan Archives — the most comprehensive Phantom of the Paradise collection ever compiled. Kahan and Williams came together last year for 50th anniversary screenings of Phantom. The film's influence may be even greater than many fans realize — Kahan has said he believes The Phantom was a significant influence on Darth Vader, noting that De Palma and Star Wars creator George Lucas are friends and contemporaries. "Nobody that I know of has asked Lucas to his face, but I do know that there was a preview screening of Phantom on the Fox lot in July of 1974, so, four or five months before the film was released," Kahan told MovieMaker last year. "Lucas was at that screening and was sufficiently impressed by Paul Hirsch's editing — and I assume that based on Brian's recommendation of Hirsch, that Lucas brought him on to edit Star Wars. "I can't imagine that between the voice box and the heavy breathing and the black outfit that some of the Phantom didn't creep into Darth Vader. But I have no hard evidence and nobody that I know has ever admitted to it. Lucas has not responded to MovieMaker's request for comment. Main image: William Finley in Phantom of the Paradise. 20th Century Fox. 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Gizmodo
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘The Phantom of the Paradise' Might Find New Life as a Stage Play
The Phantom of the Paradise, the vastly underrated horror-tinged rock opera from the minds of Brian De Palma (Carrie) and Paul Williams (The Muppet Movie), might be getting a new musical adaptation. Movie Maker reports that Williams and Sam Pressman, whose father Ed Pressman produced the 1974 cult film, are currently developing it as a stage production. 'I'm excited about having a chance to deliver what fans have been suggesting for years… POTP as a stage musical,' Williams said in a statement to MovieMaker. 'I think its time has come!' American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis has been approached to pen it (please, no), but he's not committed according to the report. If you've never heard of The Phantom of the Paradise, get thee to a revival theater screening or rent it online—especially if you're a Muppets fan. I know it seems weird to draw a line from 'Rainbow Connection' and 'no cheeses for us meeces' to a glam and gory '70s riff on The Phantom of the Opera, but stay with me for a moment. Not only did the De Palma and Williams musical predate Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway take on the Gaston Leroux novel, but it inspired so many artists we know and love today. After its release Williams went on to become the Muppetational mind behind the music of The Muppet Movie and The Muppet Christmas Carol. Meanwhile, De Palma continued to genre hop from horror to mob movies and started the Mission: Impossible franchise. The Phantom of the Paradise loosely adapts The Phantom of the Opera by way of Faust with a dash of The Picture of Dorian Gray but re-imagined into masterful musical mayhem. It follows a lowly composer named Winslow Leech who chases a deal with the devil in the form of music producer Swan, played by Williams in a tasty turn for the multi-hypenate. (He later also played the Penguin in Batman: The Animated Series.) Thanks to his association with Death Records, Leech's musical talents are ripped away and pressed just like his face into records that don't give him credit for his songs. This includes the tunes that transform Leech's crush Phoenix, the ingenue played by Jessica Harper (Suspiria), into a pop star. Vowing revenge he becomes the Phantom of the Paradise and violently haunts every artist Swan tries to give his music to, until they enter a deal that Leech's music will only go to Phoenix. And from there things get real messy and bloody, but man, the needle drops are legendary. So legendary that the film, much like its creative minds behind it, also inspired artists across mediums too. Guillermo del Toro is a vocal fan of the film and has been instrumental in making sure it stays in the horror zeitgeist. He even has one of the Phantom's helmets in his Bleak House collection, which I totally didn't imagine pulling a heist for at the LACMA when it was on display there. The film has also become a touchstone for other musicians. One that really struck me personally was finding out that My Chemical Romance was heavily inspired by the film. I didn't see it until I was an adult, which I deserve a shame circle for as a Phantom of the Opera Universal Monsters and original novel fan—but I knew MCR's The Black Parade. The no-skips album is essentially a rock opera and it made total sense to find out Gerard Way was heavily influenced by Phantom in its creation. If anything, Way should write the book for Williams' upcoming staging and star in it too. Another act that's come under Phantom's spell offers an even more fun realization: Daft Punk. Down to the helmets, aesthetic, and sound of the Phantom, that movie really gave us the greatest electronic duo to ever spin. Williams actually appeared on Random Access Memories track 'Touch,' which sounds like it was yanked from a time machine as a Phantom of the Paradise B-side. The Phantom of the Paradise was ahead of its time and the announcement of its stage musical gives me hope it will find its audience. If they modernize it, I wouldn't hate it because I see the vision. The themes are timeless even in our digital age where content creators with talent who try to build a following get ripped off by artificial influencers with clout. That can be very Leech/Phantom versus Swan-coded for sure. Williams is a stone cold legend and his music mastery is a gift that's still giving—he headlined Coachella this year with Yo Gabba Gabba! While the report mentioned De Palma has been approached about the staging, he's not an announced part of it. 'We certainly want Brian to feel honored,' Pressman said in the article. 'I went to go see Brian last fall, to talk about the dream. Phantom was an early and significant film for him and I'd say the favorite film of my father in his career. I think the chaos and originality of the whole experience was deeply inspiring.'
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Feds: South Minneapolis law enforcement action was related to seizure of 900 pounds of meth
A demonstrator watches while an officer sprays mace following a raid at Las Cuatro Milpas in Minneapolis, Minnesota Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) Law enforcement officers found 900 pounds of methamphetamine in a Burnsville storage locker recently, which led them to raid eight Twin Cities metro locations seeking evidence related to the drug find, as well as evidence of bank fraud, illegal guns and human trafficking, according to a federal court filings. The details of the raid were revealed in a federal indictment announced on Tuesday against a 27-year St. Paul woman for 'assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers' during a protest at one of the search locations, Las Cuatro Milpas in south Minneapolis. The indictment is filled with details that would seem to be tangentially related to the alleged assault on an officer, but shed light on the larger operation. The attempt to execute a search warrant in south Minneapolis led to a contentious confrontation last week between a bevy of law enforcement agencies and demonstrators, who feared an ICE raid amid the agency's increasingly militarized tactics. The indictment also confirms that the operation was not related to immigration per se but was an ongoing investigation of major drug trafficking. Federal officials say they found the meth — valued between $22-25 million — in Burnsville and were then granted eight search warrants for locations in Bloomington, Inver Grove Heights, Northfield, Burnsville and Minneapolis. They found two gold-plated guns, documents, digital evidence and images from the Brian De Palma film, 'Scarface,' which is a common homage of narco-traffickers, according to the indictment. At Las Cuatro Milpas on East Lake Street last week, officers showed up to serve the warrant wearing the uniforms of ICE, DEA, FBI, the criminal investigation arm of the IRS. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office was also present as was the Minneapolis Police Department, though only for crowd control. An ICE spokesperson said the 'groundbreaking' operation was Minnesota's first under President Donald Trump's Homeland Security Task Force, which he established via executive order on the first day of his second term. The overwhelming show of force motivated people in the community — fearing an immigration raid — to protest. The demonstration led to clashes with police A slew of local elected officials questioned the effectiveness and purpose of the law enforcement operation. Gov. Tim Walz called it 'chaotic.' Attorney General Keith Ellison said 'it seemed like the point was to inflict terror and fear into the community.' Minneapolis City Councilman Jason Chavez told MPR's Cathy Wurzer that the operation was intended to intimidate residents. 'It felt like a very tactical decision to escalate, cause pain and trauma, to the people that live here in the heart of south Minneapolis, and it felt like an intentional decision to unfortunately scare the people that live here.' Despite the new information on the south Minneapolis operation, federal law enforcement is still likely to face skepticism in the Twin Cities following the raid, especially given the Trump administration's escalation of immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, which now includes use of the U.S. military.
South China Morning Post
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Film buff Stephen King on The Life of Chuck adaptation, and the one movie he walked out of
Stephen King 's first editor, Bill Thompson, once said: 'Steve has a movie camera in his head.' So vividly drawn is King's fiction that it has offered the basis for some 50 feature films. For half a century, since Brian De Palma's 1976 film Carrie, Hollywood has turned, and turned again, to King's books for their richness of character, nightmare and sheer entertainment. Open any of those books up at random, and there's a decent chance you'll encounter a movie reference, too. Rita Hayworth. The Wizard of Oz. Singin' in the Rain. Sometimes even movies based on King's books turn up in his novels. Play 'I love anything from The 400 Blows to something with that guy Jason Statham,' King says, speaking by phone from his home in the US state of Maine. 'The worst movie I ever saw was still a great way to spend an afternoon.' 'The only movie I ever walked out on was Transformers. At a certain point I said, 'This is just ridiculous.''
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Impossibly frustrating: why Mission: Impossible 8 was a major letdown
If the title is sincere, and this really is the final reckoning, then it's been a franchise of two halves. Mission: Impossible diehards tend to underrate the first half (which ran from Brian De Palma's brisk 1996 original to 2011's fun Ghost Protocol) as much as they overrate the second (which launched with 2015's Rogue Nation). Yet the rumbles and grumbles emanating from public screenings suggests a disgruntled consensus is forming around the concluding instalment: that this is an altogether disjointed way to resolve the affairs of Ethan Hunt and his IMF crew, and a shaky way to ignite the movie summer season. Ninety minutes in which nothing happens over and over again, followed by 70 minutes of M:I B-roll. To better diagnose this latest glitch in the Hollywood machine, we need to return to the relighting of the fuse. This was the franchise to which Tom Cruise retreated in the wake of the commercial underperformance of 1999's Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia – the two most rigorous turns of this star's career, films in which Cruise allowed himself to be rattled and seen to be rattled, only to be met with widespread public and awards-circuit indifference. The Mission: Impossibles, by contrast, would be the sort of 4DX-coded sure thing for which audiences have routinely turned out, a creative safe space, even as the films' constituent set pieces pushed their prime mover into performing ever riskier business to ensure bums on seats. In those early films, the character of Hunt was as much martyr and marked man as saviour or secular saint, targeted at every turn by directors with comparably forceful visions. The sensationalist De Palma revelled in the set-up's potential for spectacle; and while, in retrospect, the motorbike-and-mullet combo of 2000's M:I 2, directed by John Woo and set to a bruising Limp Bizkit beat, was bound to date rapidly, the sometime animator Brad Bird, in Ghost Protocol, had the bright idea of turning the series into a live-action cartoon, with Cruise defying gravity and nature alike by hanging off the side of the Burj Khalifa and personally outrunning a sandstorm. The last four films, however, bear the imprint of screenwriter turned director Christopher McQuarrie, who concluded that what this series needed was a little more conversation, overseeing the construction of a vast story framework for his star to dangle off one-handed. That approach reaches its apotheosis in The Final Reckoning, but the scaffolding now overwhelms the spectacle. The attempt to solder eight films together ends in much-rewritten incoherence – see Ving Rhames's confused sendoff – and, worryingly, results in missions being described rather than shown. You wonder whether the insurers blanched after Cruise crocked an ankle shooting 2018's Fallout; now we're left with folks talking at length in nondescript rooms. Is this a Mission: Impossible movie, as advertised, or some M:I-themed podcast? The spectacle, when it tardily follows, is subpar; nothing rivals the train derailment in 2023's Dead Reckoning, which perversely benefitted from McQuarrie's yen for stringing matters out. A soggy deep dive, cramped and claustrophobic, offers another (this time depressurised) chamber piece; during a rote subterranean shootout, we learn world-ending AI generators can apparently be stored in complex cave systems. (I mean, how long's the extension cable?) The biplane conclusion feels more like the M:Is of yore, but chiefly reminds you of Top Gun: Maverick's superior engineering. Too often, McQuarrie has deferred to Cruise and his exhausted stunt coordinators; as a result, the series' bank of memorable images has dwindled. At this length, other flaws become apparent. While the cast expanded once the series set up shop in London, the supporting players now have far less to do, save raise sporadic eyebrows in Hunt's direction. McQuarrie has penned great intros for his women (Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell), but they're then stranded because Cruise is neither Cary Grant nor Colin Farrell. (Onscreen chemistry remains his most impossible mission.) Making artificial intelligence (AI) the villain in 2025 is a resonant choice, but it's never developed beyond abstract concept; the human big bad (the ever-underused Esai Morales) is an afterthought. Late M:I is mostly All About Tom, or as the credits frame it: Tom Cruise in A Tom Cruise Production. Maybe the star still has enough goodwill in the tank to get the series over the line financially, but creatively, The Final Reckoning is a busted flush: the fact it's been outperformed on opening weekend by a live-action Lilo & Stitch seems in some way telling. For his part, Cruise has earned the right to stand alone and unbowed atop the BFI Imax like the world's most celebrated Antony Gormley figure; his stardom has only been reaffirmed over the course of the past quarter-century. But it's a problem when your publicity stunts generate punchier images than anything in the film you're promoting. That long-lit fuse flickered out before it reached the explosives; and in any event, the gelignite has been swapped for flannel and waffle.
