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Time of India
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Remembering Frederick Forsyth
This is not an obituary of Frederick Forsyth, just a fan's recollection. Obituaries will be many (if the team at The Economist becomes a little 'pop' and less woke perhaps it will do it). Forsyth's demise is passing of an era, a genre of writing that was an intersection of espionage, wars, racy thrillers with pop heroism, crime intertwined in the history and the geo-politics of world war II, Cold war and post-colonial era. All these themes churned well into a large and rich corpus of best sellers that Frederick Forsyth produced over five decades, with remarkable success- Day of the Jackal, Odessa File, Devil's Alternative, Dogs of War, The Shepherd, Fourth Protocol, Phantom of Manhattan, The Afghan, Kill List- among others. Eminently readable, the racy novels interspersed with superb short stories collections: No Comebacks, The Veteran, The Deceiver. Quite a few of these were made into movies- successful ones. For the Gen X types (me included), these books were the closest we could come to the thrills, the intrigues and complexities of the post-colonial, cold war era. The 70s and 80s, the pre-globalization era, when India was a distant spectator to the bipolar world and when our windows to the world was confined to the papers, Illustrated Weekly, Archies, Commandos- Frederick Forsyth, Alistair Maclean, Leon Uris, Robert Ludlum were our windows to the world of espionage, global politics and statecraft. And in this genre Forsyth was in a class of his own. Alistair Maclean was too World War II British type. Ludlum too racy and too American, Leon Uris was too historical (and boringly voluminous to many). Forsyth was the perfect mix of the setting, context, events and of course a good story. The humanness of his characters, their strivings, success and failures, was endearing. None were superheroes, at best a phantom like Johnny Kravanagh in The Shepherd (made into a short film starring Ben Radcliffe and John Travolta (available on Disney Hotstar). The stories, actors were so close to reality that to an impressionable mind growing up in the 1980s, it all seemed real. That Forsyth was a trained Royal Air Force Pilot who saw action in the 1960s, an intelligence operative, BBC correspondent (when BBC was credible and respected) helped imparting that sense of realism to his racy scripts. Meticulous research, delving deep in history, and immaculate detailing made his writing so vivid that one did not need a motion picture adaptation- be it the murky world of the mercenaries in the 1960s Africa (Calo 'Cat' Shannon and his bunch in The Dogs of War) or the sordid saga of a concentration camp in Riga and the hunt for a Nazis war criminal in The Odessa File (the movie was so damn underwhelming). From the point of recall value, Day of the Jackal remains Forsyth's number one- again it was the detailing- whether forgery of documents, the ballistics and the taut plot woven so intricately around historical events that it all seemed real. His canvas stretched wider with cold war thrillers like Devil's Alternative which perhaps for the first time revealed Ukrainian subnationalism to the English-speaking world which had hitherto seen USSR as a Russian megalith, and the Fourth Protocol. In the 1990s and the subsequent decades after the cold war, his works centered around the themes of international terrorism, narcotics, and theaters in West Asia and Afghanistan in the works like The Afghan, The Veteran. These books may have lacked the nostalgia, the appeal and the readership of his earlier works, but they held their own against the forces of new mass media and information overload, which had somewhat demystified the arcane world of global geo-politics, espionage, crime syndicates and all. The last book of Forsyth that I read was the Kill List, it had all the attributes of a good Frederick Forsyth novel. It was to be made into a film and I just hope with so many OTT platforms and the popularity of the genre someone will take up that work. A writer's impressionability is to a great extent determined by the reader's age and sensibility. Like today, in my 50s, it is more of Pico Iyer or the right of center Political Economists and historians and scientists turned philosophers. But even to an ageing mind, the knowledge of these scholars and their wisdom is absolutely no match for the taut plot, storytelling and attention to detail and research of Frederick Forsyth- especially for the generation that grew up in the 70s and the 80s. Though sorry for his demise- even at 86 he had some juice left in the tank- it was a life well lived. It was disciplined, organized, successful and fulfilling. Thank you, Frederick for enriching ours. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Art inspired by Detroit's landscape breaks new ground at The Shepherd
The rich and shifting landscape of Detroit is the inspiration for a vibrant art exhibition currently on display at The Shepherd, a major Detroit cultural center. 'The Sea and the Sky, and You and I' opened last month to more than 500 visitors for its May 17 premiere, and has continued to draw attention and foot traffic over the following weeks. The show's 28 artists — 17 of them from Detroit — are: Halima Afi Cassells, Wesaam Al-Badry, Candida Alvarez, Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Dawoud Bey, LaKela Brown, Ashanti Chaplin, David Antonio Cruz, Olayami Dabls, Bryce Detroit, Chantell Donwell, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Olivia Guterson, L. Kasimu Harris, Scott Hocking, Doug Jones, Louise Jones, Joanna Keane Lopez, Paul Kremer, Le'Andra LeSeur, Dameon Miller, Keisha Miller, Mario Moore, Ebony G. Patterson, Benjy Russell, Neha Vedpathak, Jordan Weber and Rosha Yaghmai. The exhibition's title is taken from the first line in lyrics Oscar Brown Jr. wrote to the classic Miles Davis composition 'All Blues.' It was suggested by legendary Detroit artist (and jazz lover) Allie McGhee, said curator and Shepherd artistic director Allison Glenn. 'This is the second chapter of a two-part exhibition series that was really looking at the landscapes and histories of Detroit,' Glenn said. 'This was prompted by my return to the city to work, and looking around the east side and remembering parts of the city's art history, and also noticing that, while much has changed, certain things had not changed. A real core tenet of that was the artist- and community-led public art projects that continue to happen around the city, which really started in the 1970s and '80s. 'After there was big divestment from the city, artists really paved the way — artists like Tyree Guyton and Olayami Dabls influenced artists like Bryce Detroit and Tanya Stephens and Kim and Rhonda Theus, the sisters behind the Canfield Consortium. This exhibition provided an opportunity to ask what it would look like for an organization to work in collaboration with multiple already existing, site-specific artist- and community-led projects. So programmatic partnerships really came into play, allowing The Shepherd to be in dialogue with all these other long-standing arts organizations in the city.' See also: DIA's revamped African American art galleries to reopen in heart of museum this fall Glenn said she hopes visitors have an opportunity to really understand the changing landscapes of the city. 'In order to look forward, we have to look back,' she said, 'and so we're situating the work that we're doing within this longer legacy of artists and cultural producers in the city of Detroit over a 50-plus-year legacy, honoring that work and wanting to be in dialogue with it. I hope that people walk away with a clearer understanding of how artists engage with the materiality of built environments.' 'The Sea and the Sky, and You and I' is on view through Aug. 30, 2025, at The Shepherd, 1265 Parkview St., Detroit. For more information, go to Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Art inspired by Detroit's landscape breaks new ground at The Shepherd
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
David Dastmalchian, Georgina Campbell Teaming for Horror ‘The Shepherd,' Anton Launching Sales in Cannes (EXCLUSIVE)
The stars of horror hits 'Late Night With the Devil' and 'Barbarian' are uniting to take another potentially hair-raising step into the genre world. 'The Shepherd' is set to team David Dastmalchian ('Oppenheimer,' 'The Dark Knight,' 'Dune') and Georgina Campbell ('The Watchers,' 'Black Mirror'). The horror-thriller comes from Spooky Pictures — Image Nation (also behind 'Late Night With the Devil'), with Anton launching sales in Cannes. More from Variety Leslie Grace to Play Diver Swallowed by Giant Sperm Whale in Survival Thriller 'Propel,' Altitude Launching Sales in Cannes (EXCLUSIVE) Cynthia Erivo-Led 'Prima Facie' Film Adaptation Heading to Cannes Market, With Embankment Launching Sales Andrew Karpen Remembered: Bleecker Street Media Founder Was a Force in Indie Film, Beloved for Integrity and Kindness The film is being directed by John Hyams ('Sick,' 'Alone,' HBO's documentary 'The Smashing Machine') and written by Alexander Gustaveson. Anton is handling worldwide rights and co-repping North American rights with UTA Independent Film Group and Cinetic. Set in the desolate Nevada night, 'The Shepherd' follows a young woman in labor fleeing an abusive past who has her escape hijacked by a mysterious stranger hiding an ominous threat in the back of her car. Reuniting the producers behind the box-office hit 'Late Night with the Devil,' 'The Shepherd' is produced under the Spooky Pictures – Image Nation partnership with Steven Schneider ('Paranormal Activity,'' Insidious,' 'Split') and Roy Lee ('It' franchise, 'Barbarian,' 'A Minecraft Movie') for Spooky Pictures ('Strange Darling,' Chloe Okuno's 'Watcher'); Ben Cornwell, Jordan Foley and Nick Smith for Paperclip Ltd. ('Alone,' 'Snack Shack') along with Jonathan Rosenthal ('Alone,' 'The Abandon'); and Sébastien Raybaud ('Fuze,' 'Greenland: Migration,' 'Greenland,' 'The Night House') for Anton. The film is executive produced by Dastmalchian under his Good Fiend Films banner, Campbell, Ben Ross and Derek Dauchy for Image Nation, Rami Yasin for Spooky Pictures, and Yeardley Smith for Paperclip Ltd. Anton and Image Nation are financing the film, with production set to start on 'The Shepherd' in the fall, 2025. 'Once I turned the first few pages of 'The Shepherd' I was hooked,' said Dastmalchian. 'I immediately wanted to see this high-octane, horrifying world brought to life and John is the perfect person to make it happen. After collaborating with Roy and Steven on 'Late Night with the Devil,' I have been looking forward to getting back in the sandbox with them and I can't wait to bring the genre force of Good Fiend Films into the equation.' 'Following the success of 'Late Night with the Devil,' we're excited to be working with David Dastmalchian once again on 'The Shepherd,'' added Image Nation CEO Ben Ross. 'David brings a distinctive energy and depth to every project he's part of, and this film marks another strong collaboration in our ongoing partnership with Spooky Pictures.' 'The Shepherd' is part of a slate of upcoming projects from Spooky Pictures and Image Nation including Charlie Polinger's 'The Plague' starring Joel Edgerton, which will premiere in Cannes' prestigious Un Certain Regard competition, Randall Okita's 'Menace' starring Isabel May, and Damian McCarthy's 'Hokum' starring Adam Scott. Dastmalchian is repped by Atlas Artists. Campbell is repped by UTA, Entertainment 360, Independent Talent Group and Felker Toczek Suddleson McGinnis Ryan LLC. Best of Variety Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
