Wednesday, May 31, 2017

The 'Catwoman' Honest Trailer Is Brutal: 'This Is a Movie Made for No One'

It's a good thing Halle Berry has led such a successful career, or we'd feel horrible for her right about now.

Screen Junkies has released its latest video in the Honest Trailers series, and it has virtually nothing good to say about "Catwoman." To be fair, the narrator asserts that it was a bad era for superhero flicks in general, but the 2004 movie faces some particularly harsh criticism. In fact, the video calls it a "movie made for no one about nothing that never should have existed."

Beyond the usual look we get at cringe-worthy moments, the video includes footage of Berry's Razzie Awards acceptance speech that year. Believe it or not, her commentary is even harsher than the Honest Trailers narrator's is -- she calls the flick a "piece of s--t, godawful movie."

At least DC seems to have done better with the upcoming "Wonder Woman," based on early reviews.



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X-Men Spinoff 'New Mutants' May Add 'Stranger Things' Star Charlie Heaton: Report

Netflix FYSEE Kick-Off Event - ArrivalsThere may be more strange occurrences in Charlie Heaton's future.

The actor, who plays Jonathan Byers in "Stranger Things," is in talks to join the X-Men spinoff film "New Mutants," Variety reports. Although it doesn't take place in Hawkins, Indiana, it will bring equally bizarre phenomena to screen. The film centers on a group of teenagers with mutant powers, including Heaton's reported would-be character, Sam Guthrie. Nicknamed Cannonball, Sam is invulnerable when he's in midair.

If the casting becomes official, the actor will join "Game of Thrones" star Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy of "Split," who have already signed on. Rosario Dawson also looks likely to join and is in negotiations to take on the role of the young superheroes' mentor, Dr. Cecilia Reyes. The film is going to be a horror flick, with a script co-written by Knate Lee and director Josh Boone, so this could get crazier than the Upside Down.

"New Mutants" is slated to hit theaters on April 13, 2018.

[via: Variety]



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Chloe Grace Moretz Responds to Body Shaming Movie Poster Controversy: "The Actual Story Is Powerful"

FRANCE-US-FILM-FESTIVAL-DEAUVILLEA movie poster caused quite a stir among the people of the internet Tuesday, forcing the film's star, Chloë Grace Moretz, to enter the fray.

The poster, which promotes Moretz's upcoming animated film "Red Shoes & the 7 Dwarfs," was accused of body shaming, with plus-size model Tess Holliday leading the charge.

"How did this get approved by an entire marketing team?" she tweeted. "Why is it okay to tell young kids being fat = ugly?"

She wasn't the only one appalled by the poster, which asks, "What if Snow White was no longer beautiful and the 7 dwarfs not so short?" Alongside the words are two images of the fairy tale character: one tall and thin, and the other shorter and stockier. Needless to say, more people were quick to weigh in, discussing how the message contribute to body image issues and calling the poster "disturbing."

With many of the tweets directed at Moretz, the actress responded Wednesday, assuring everyone that she had not approved the poster and was "just as appalled and angry as everyone else." She also shared that the poster wasn't representative of the film, which she says has "a beautiful script."

"The actual story is powerful for young women and resonated with me," she wrote. "I am sorry for the offense that was beyond my creative control."

You can bet they'll be more careful when promoting "Red Shoes & the 7 Dwarfs" in the future.

[via: Twitter; h/t: People]



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Milo Ventimiglia Nabbed 'This Is Us' Role Despite Being 'Completely Different' Than What Producers Wanted

This Is Us - Season 1You may think Milo Ventimiglia is perfect for his "This Is Us" role now, but producers and directors originally imagined someone "completely different" as Jack.

Sitting down with actress Freida Pinto for Variety's "Actors on Actors" series, Ventimiglia revealed he was met with surprise when he first walked in to audition for the part.

"Apparently I wasn't who they were looking for," he told Pinto. "They wanted somebody completely different, and I walked in, you know, with my beard and my long hair, and set my motorcycle helmet down, and they went, 'Who's this guy?'"

Fortunately, they were intrigued, and he soon won them over.

"I think they just saw something different that someone who had practiced the words," the actor said. "And they picked me."

Interestingly, we may owe Robert De Niro gratitude in a roundabout way. As Ventimiglia explained, his long hair worked for the part, and he had it that way because he emulates the older actor in growing out his beard and hair in between jobs. It sounds like the look helped him stand out, and for that, we are extremely grateful.

Watch the interview below.

"This Is Us" returns for its second season this fall.



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HBO's 'Deuce' Teaser Is a '70s Porn Industry Fever Dream

HBO dropped a 'Deuce' teaser trailer.

The new drama is set in the '70s and '80s and follows the rise of the porn industry around Times Square in New York City. James Franco stars as twin brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino, who became fronts for the mob, and Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a sex worker.

The teaser is set to the Curtis Mayfield song "Move on Up" and shows glimpses of the seedy area that Times Square used to be.

The show comes from David Simon ("The Wire"), whose last TV project, the miniseries "Show Me a Hero," was also set in '80s-era New York. Several "Wire" alums are featured in "Deuce" including Lawrence Gilliard Jr. and Chris Bauer.

HBO's last '70s-era drama, "Vinyl," screeched to a halt after just one season, despite high expectations and the involvement of big names like Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger.

"Deuce" premieres September 10.



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The Key to 'The Carmichael Show' Is 'Seeing Things From the Other Side'

Build Series Presents Jerrod Carmichael Discussing '8'Jerrod Carmichael is championing a new generation of sitcom with a dose of social commentary -- and no shortage of laughs.

By the time the 30-year-old standup-turned-actor, writer, and producer of NBC's "The Carmichael Show" was born in 1987, the heyday of the kind of issue-minded, debate-inciting half-hour network comedy that had reigned -- best evidenced by producer Norman Lear's epic roster of classic series including "All in the Family," "Maude," "One Day at a Time," "The Jeffersons," and "Good Times" -- was over, and warmer family- and workplace-driven sitcoms would largely prevail for the next few decades.

But in 2015 -- well before the current moment on non-stop, often heated political and social discourse ensured -- Carmichael brought sharp, often biting commentary back to the sitcom (as had "blackish" a year earlier) with the debut of his series, which during its first two midseason runs generated much critical praise for its injection of topical elements into its humorous plotlines, using its character's different perspective to explore everything from Black Lives Matter and LGBT rights, to Bill Cosby and Donald Trump.

Now "Carmichael," the show, and Carmichael, the star, are back for a third season after nearly a year off the air, and the comedy fodder is as relevant as ever, including issues of sexual consent, patriotism, gun violence, and same sex marriage. And as Carmichael tells Moviefone, he hopes that by leavening the explorations with laughter, perhaps the real-life conversations that result will open minds to other viewpoints.

Moviefone: How did the success of Season 2 and the kinds of stories that you were telling and getting such a positive response creatively energize you for Season 3?

Jerrod Carmichael: It forced you, not forced, but encouraged us to kind of go deeper on things and let us know what our audience could handle. It showed us that there is an appetite in the world for very truthful conversations. And you kind of test the waters a little bit throughout the season, but we got more comfortable and more confident in the writing because of that. People's response was really beautiful, and it inspired us, I think, to come stronger.

The finale of Season 2, the Trump episode, was very well done, in a really fair and measured way. Given how politically minded everybody has been in the last few months, do you want to keep going in that kind of direction, figuring out how to play both sides of an issue?

That's the fun, for me, as a person, as a standup comedian, it's all about the challenge, challenging whatever your core beliefs are, because it's the only way to really test the mettle of them. So with that Trump episode for instance, it really was the true feelings of "I need to actually try and inject some sort of discourse -- like, true discourse, and nuanced understanding of one another."

So that's just such a true perspective. We try and lean into that with every topic -- not just Trump, but really anything that we do. Just seeing the other side. I think that's probably what so much of the show is about. It's about just trying to see the other side.

Do you have a lot of good debates going on behind the scenes in the writers' room?

Oh, constantly! It's not good unless somebody's mad. Unless someone's arguing and really feeling it. Amongst like me and Danielle [Sanchez-Witzel, executive producer], and me and Ari Katcher, who we write a lot with. It's always a sense of curiosity and exploration for any topic. Questions that we have, unanswerable questions, are usually what we look for.

Obviously, the show's got the smaller-scale dramas that spark a lot of your comedy. Tell me what we can look forward to, as far as the personal clashes that we see on the show all the time.

We have played with a lot of character dynamics, I think, this season more than we have before, because I think we know everyone's perspective. It's fun to see each other kind of trying to help each other – their version of helping, the same way you do with your family or friends. This is the way that I live life, or things that have helped me.

Maxine tries to do that with Bobby, Cynthia and Nekeisha. I think it's warmer in a more interesting way this season, just kind of playing with everyone. Everyone on the show thinks that they're right -- not just thinks, is sure of it. It's fun having our characters trying to lead each other down a different path.

You started with a really strong group of performers. As time's gone by, I'm sure that you have all developed that sort of sense of family that makes it even easier to play these scenes, and more fun. You know how to push each other's acting buttons. Tell me about developing that, and getting to the point where you guys are now with that family feel when the cameras aren't rolling.

I just responded to a group text amongst us a few hours ago! It is a group of people that enjoy each other's company. I can't stress how helpful and important that's been to this process. It's kind of hard to say, because it's a thing that all casts say. It's a good press point: "Oh, we have so much fun, and we laugh ..." But it's like, I hope everyone else is telling the truth, because I definitely am.

It really is such an enjoyable experience. We laugh at each other, we get upset with each other, we argue with each other. It really does kind of play out like a real family. Like me, and Tiff [Haddish], and LilRel [Howrey] have known each other for years. So there was a true friendship there already.

Then over the seasons, with Amber [Stevens West], and David [Alan Grier] and Loretta [Devine], it really is just this core group. I went to church with Loretta and my mom last Sunday. It's like, sometimes, "Oh man, the show's coming to life." It really does feel like that sometimes.

As a standup, you knew what was funny, you knew how to tell a joke, you knew how to tell a story. What have you learned about that in the years that you've been on the show now -- not just acting, but having a hand in the writing and producing? What have you learned, or how have you expanded your skill set in comedy and storytelling?

It makes it hard to do standup! It makes it harder sometimes when I'm in the middle of writing the show, because it sounds like I have schizophrenia because I'm thinking from all sides at once. It's just like, my mind is like immediately arguing, even before I've made my point. It informs it because it really does make you, as a writer of such episodes, see each side of any subject.

As a standup, the most important thing is perspective. Any standup that you care about has a strong sense of perspective. That's what you spend time honing. That's what you spend time all your days just trying to lock down. I think that the show helps. I think the show contributes to that because it makes you see even outside of your own perspective. You know what I mean?

You're writing an argument, you see it, like I hear it as Jerrod, and as someone's from Joe's perspective, or Maxine, or Bobby, or Cynthia. I can kind of hear it from all of their perspectives.

What do you still love about standup? You don't get as far in the game as you got without loving it.

It's so pure. It's such a pure and immediate art form. You're on stage, and you're just baring your soul. Even if it's just jokes and thoughts, you're just up there. And it's a thing that, no matter how good your last set was, it doesn't matter. It kind of starts over each time, and it's a challenge, and I like the challenge of it, in every aspect.

I just went up at The Comedy Store the other night and probably had the worst set ever. Just so many untied thoughts. I just popped in. I try not to advertise that I'm there if I know I'm just in this place of thinking "It's the worst set ever." Even in that, there was some good feeling about it, because I'm like, "Something's there. I feel like there's something there."

So I'm excited to go do it again immediately. It's so pure, and it's just a fun thing to return to, and it's a fun thing to spark thought. You kind of have a thought and you want to see it through. Getting on stage is such a great way to see and test how you really feel about something.

It's a totally different art form working on the show, and a different kind of discipline required. Up until that first staging, there's no feedback other than your little team bubble that creates the show. What do you like about that?

It teaches you to trust your instincts. The good thing where they do go hand-in-hand as a performer, as a standup comedian, you know when something's funny, and you know when something will be meaningful to an audience. So it's like, throughout the process, you hold on to that. You hold on to your gut feeling that like, "Oh -- no, no, no, this works, and this fits."

It's fun. I felt like running with an egg, and I think that's such a true analogy. It is such a delicate thing that you just have to really trust yourself and your ability to carry it through.

A lot of people have compared your show to the classic Norman Lear-type shows. We've had several decades of things largely focused on families, workplaces, and the little things that spark comedy. Do you feel emboldened now to tell bigger stories and stories that have a little more social impact, or import?

I don't think there should have been as long of a gap between the Norman Lear era and now, as far as sitcom, multi-cam or single, as far as like what broadcast shows could do. It's been such a gap of just having honest conversations. You feel emboldened because I don't think we answer any subject or any episode with fear. It's always, we try and go beyond the fear of everything, of talking about a subject with the fear of characters being unlikeable.

That's a big one. Everybody's terrified of that. Networks, writers, creators, everyone is terrified of a character being unlikeable, or saying an unlikable thing. But that's why you get so much cheap material at sitcoms, because usually everyone's trying to protect someone from saying, "Oh, they said a bad thing."

That's why you see reaction shots where if someone does say something remotely unlikable, you see reaction shots of someone smiling at it, and just these non-human things because everyone is so terrified. But what people connect with are those thoughts. Those things that seem unlikable, but they seem real. Those are the things that we get excited to write, and create, and perform as a show.

What's appealing to you about the time of year that you guys come on? Do you feel like you've got actually an advantage being separated from the typical fall season herd?

A little bit. You want to be away from the fire. Everyone gets so excited and so much pressure on the show to do a certain amount of numbers. It makes it so detrimental and hard for a show to grow, and find its audience, and find itself. I think that we've been really blessed. We all know summer isn't the networks spot of pride, if you will. You're literally competing against the sun, literally competing against outdoors for people's attention!

But the way people watch television now, I'm really thankful that we're on Netflix, I'm really thankful that we're able to reach an audience, and try and hopefully grow an audience by the Season 3 premiere. I think being on in the summer has given us the room to grow and be away from the pressure that everyone has at a network for these fall numbers to just be killer.

Because what happens is a lot of times those shows die. Like, a new comedy dies under that much pressure because they want it to be immediately good, and comedies are about growth, and character development, and finding who someone is, and finding a rhythm. You shine this giant spotlight on a show, and it comes out in the fall, and the numbers are not what they were expecting, then they kill the show.

So we're in this age where it's hard for comedies to grow. That's why it is important for outlets like Netflix and Hulu. They used to program reruns in the summer. If you go back, even shows up until the early 2000s, things will come on in the summer so audiences that didn't catch it during the fall line could still see it and have an opportunity to see it. But they don't do it [anymore]. They'd rather make, like, reality television, which I understand. So we look for other outlets to help grow that audience.

How has your standup audience changed since you became a sitcom star?

I don't know. It's funny: I have no idea about anything because I never go out. I haven't been performing a lot this year. I taped the special, and then I just haven't really been going out a lot. The other night was like my fourth or fifth time on stage probably this year. So I don't really get a chance.

I have no idea about the audience. I have no idea. Every now and then I'll go out for a sandwich and someone will say something nice. That's my gauge. Not on social media. I don't go out. So you have to tell me -- that's my answer. Hopefully, it's grown.

I love watching standups, who have gotten mainstream big success, still go out and work out material. That's one of my favorite things to do, rather than come out with the same old jokes. I love that you went up there and just did what you did and saw how it worked.

Yeah. Growth is everything. It's like, what are you just going to lean on your old stuff? It's boring. Where's the fun and creative energy in that? Try new stuff. You'll bomb a few times, but you'll figure it out.



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'Underground' Canceled By WGN America After 2 Seasons

Acclaimed slavery drama "Underground" has been canceled after two seasons by WGN America.

Despite decent ratings and positive reviews, the show simply did not fit the network's new direction. WGN America is moving away from scripted originals, and also recently canceled "Outsiders," despite the fact that it was the highest-rated drama on the network.

"Despite 'Underground' being a terrific and important series, it no longer fits with our new direction and we have reached the difficult decision not to renew it for a third season," said Tribune Media president and CEO Peter Kern in a statement. "We are tremendously proud of this landmark series that captured the zeitgeist and made an impact on television in a way never before seen on the medium."

Sony is trying to shop "Underground" to other outlets, but show has a streaming deal with Hulu, which complicates any deal. BET and OWN have already passed.

The series, which was produced by Sony TV, followed a group of slaves as they sought freedom amid dangerous circumstances. It starred Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Aldis Hodge and Christopher Meloni and received accolades, including four NAACP Image Awards.



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Keri Russell and Scott Speedman's 'Felicity' Reunion Is Giving Us Ideas

US-ENTERTAINMENT-RUSSELL-STARFelicity and Ben, back together again!

"Felicity" stars Keri Russell and Scott Speedman reunited yesterday — first, at Russell's Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony and later on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." And with the recent trend of revivals like "Gilmore Girls" and "Will & Grace," the idea of bringing back "Felicity" came up.

"I really don't think so," Speedman said of reviving the show, which ended in 2002. "I would do it! Some people are on really high-class shows."

He pointed at Russell, who now stars on FX's "The Americans," for which she's received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations (she won the latter for her role on "Felicity" in 1999).

"I would do it in a heartbeat," Speedman continued, as Russell laughed. "I'll be on Lifetime in no time!"

The two actors are still very good friends in real life, and even dated back in their "Felicity" days (Russell now has a child with partner and "Americans" co-star Matthew Rhys). But Russell acknowledged Speedman wasn't such a good boyfriend.

"A young 20s boyfriend is called a disaster of a boyfriend," she said.

Speedman joked, "Not much has changed!"



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Kate Winslet and Idris Elba Are Stranded in 'Mountain Between Us' Trailer

If "The Mountain Between Us" was a tale of survival of the most attractive, Kate Winslet and Idris Elba would definitely live.

Instead, as the first trailer shows, these two gorgeous strangers are stranded in the mountains and must depend on each other to survive. He's a surgeon trying to get to an emergency operation, while she's a journalist whose wedding is the next day. When their flights are delayed, she suggests they take a charter plane together.

But their plane goes down, she's injured, and there was no flight plan (so little hope of rescue). They must battle brutal conditions to find their way back to civilization.

The pairing of Winslet and Elba looks promising, and they definitely exhibit chemistry in the trailer, which is good since the movie rests almost entirely on their shoulders (plus a cute dog).

"The Mountain Between Us" opens in theaters October 20.



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'Wonder Woman' Officially Banned in Lebanon, Because Gal Gadot Is Israeli

Premiere Of Warner Bros. Pictures' 'Wonder Woman' - Arrivals"Wonder Woman" is earning rave reviews, and eyeing a global box office debut north of $175 million, but Lebanon is going to be left out of the fun.

The Lebanese group Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel-Lebanon pushed for the nation to ban "Wonder Woman" because star Gal Gadot is Israeli and served in the Israel Defense Forces. The official ban was announced on May 31, and confirmed by various outlets.

As Variety reported, the ban was decided by a six-member committee of the Ministry of Economy, and the result was considered somewhat surprising because the same anti-Israeli organization had tried and failed to pull "Batman v. Superman," which also featured Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Also, Gadot's other major films -- "Fast & Furious 6" and "Furious 7," and "Triple 9" and "Knight & Day" -- all played in Lebanon and were popular there. Maybe it's different now that she has the lead role.

According to Deadline, "Lebanon is officially at war with Israel and has a law that boycotts Israeli products and bars Lebanese citizens from traveling or having contact with Israelis. The boycott group has indicated on its Facebook page that Gadot is a supporter of Israel's military policies against the Palestinian region of the Gaza Strip."

"Wonder Woman" was meant to hold its premiere in Lebanon tonight (Wednesday) after a sneak peek Tuesday evening. The movie opens in the U.S. on June 2. Hopefully the people of Lebanon who would like to see it can still (safely) find a way.

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Does This 'Walking Dead' Season 8 Behind-the-Scenes Clip Offer Any Clues?

Kathy Griffin Blasted by Both Sides for Decapitated Trump Photo: 'I Went Way Too Far'

The Hollywood Reporter's Annual Women In Entertainment Breakfast In Los AngelesIt's hard to find anything people on both sides of the political divide can agree on, but -- at least today -- it's Kathy Griffin. Almost everyone thinks her recent photo shoot was disgusting, with the possible exception of the photographer who shot the image. Griffin eventually apologized for the photo, which showed her holding a bloody decapitated head resembling President Donald Trump:

The Right used the image as an example of liberal hypocrisy, talking about love while showing intolerance and hate. The Left used the image to emphasize the point that it's not OK when conservatives cross the line with thinly veiled threats to Obama and Clinton (and they've gone there, multiple times), so it's not OK to do the same to Trump.

Here are some reactions to Griffin's photo shoot:

Here's Griffin's apology:

Photographer Tyler Shields explained and defended the concept of the shoot in a talk with EW.

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'Game of Thrones' Season 7 Finale Runs 'Well Over an Hour'

The "Game of Thrones" Season 7 finale will be "supersized," perhaps giving Tormund just enough extra time to perfect his pitch to Brienne (or maybe just wear her down).

GoT returns July 16 on HBO, and even though Season 7 will only have seven episodes, we know the main cast will have more screen time than ever. However, that doesn't necessarily mean all of the episodes will be longer than ever.

There's been some chatter in the fandom in the past few days about the premiere's running time, which was originally listed by HBO at 58 minutes, then upgraded to 59 minutes. Either way, that's eight or nine minutes longer than the Season 6 premiere, but not a record. Entertainment Weekly cautioned that the upcoming episodes won't be longer in general, but the Season 7 finale will be "well over an hour."

Here's more from EW:

"One of the most frequent questions I get on Twitter — especially since officially confirming that the final season of Game of Thrones will be six episodes last week — is whether the remaining GoT episodes will be longer than usual.

There are seven episodes in the upcoming seventh season (debuting July 16) and six in the eighth and final season.

The simple answer: No, the remaining episodes are not, for the most part, longer. The upcoming seventh season premiere is 58 minutes. Three GoT premieres have been slightly longer than this one, and three have been slightly shorter, making the season 7 premiere's running time perfectly normal (so this season will not have the show's Longest Premiere Ever...). As is often the case, however, the finale this season WILL be super-sized, clocking in at well over an hour."

When GoT does go over an hour, it is usually for a finale, with the Season 6 finale currently holding the title at 69 minutes. Here's Business Insider's rundown of the longest episodes to date:

  • Season 6, Episode 10: "The Winds of Winter" — 69 minutes
  • Season 4, Episode 10: "The Children" — 65 minutes
  • Season 2, Episode 10: "Valar Morghulis" — 64 minutes
  • Season 3, Episode 10: "Mhysa" — 62 minutes
  • Season 5, Episode 10: "Mother's Mercy" — 61 minutes
  • Season 1, Episode 1: "Winter is Coming" — 61 minutes

Of those, only the top three would really qualify as "well over an hour," at least from here.

We don't know the Season 7 premiere title at this point, but it will show up on Sunday, July 16 at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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If There's a 'Prison Break' Season 6, Fans Have One Big Request

"Prison Break" just ended its limited return season, and fans want MORE, especially of one particular character.

Not all fans are pushing for a Season 6, since the Season 5 finale was darn near perfect, giving Michael (Wentworth Miller), Lincoln (Dominic Purcell), and Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies) their happy endings. There was tragedy in the loss of poor Whip (Augustus Prew), leading to his dad (still sounds weird) T-Bag (Robert Knepper) getting revenge. In one glorious final twist, T-Bag ended up back in the OG prison Fox River, as the new bunkmate of Jacob (Mark Feuerstein).

At this point, Fox does not have "Prison Break" on the schedule for this fall, and there are "no plans right now" for the show to return, since the producers and writers have yet to come up with a worthy story. So you can stop asking about it on Twitter.


However, if there is a Season 6 at some point -- if the writers come up with the perfect next chapter -- the fans and executive producer Paul Scheuring all know one thing they want to add: More Sucre (Amaury Nolasco).


Sucre's name also came up at the end of Entertainment Weekly's Q&A with Paul Scheuring:

EW: Is there anything you wish you had gotten to do this season?

Paul Scheuring: "That's a good question. No, this was all outlined pretty copiously before the season started, so we shot exactly what we intended. Obviously you always want bigger action sequences and more time to film and that sort of stuff, but I feel like given the very tiny window we had to make this, I think we've got to do what we want to do, so I feel pretty good about that.

One thing that's funny is, I will say that a lot of fans are really clamoring for Sucre because they haven't seen him since episode 1. I love Sucre, I wish he could've been in the season more, but again, all characters had to be organically within the series and he didn't really have a role other than being the sidekick running around in Yemen, which he really didn't have a skill set for. So I guess I wish there could've been more Sucre, but that would have been creatively disingenuous to include him more than that, but if there's another season maybe there's way more Sucre."

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Tuesday, May 30, 2017

NBC Reverses Decision on 'This Is Us' Season 2 Move: Here's the New Schedule

NBC can't stick with a decision this year -- and we appreciate it! After cancelling, then uncancelling "Timeless," the network has followed up by reversing its decision to move breakout hit "This Is Us" from Tuesdays to Thursdays. It was a surprise move to begin with, especially with Thursday night football interruptions, but it was part of their plan to bring back "Must See TV" on Thursdays.

However, TVLine revealed, "This Is Us" Season 2 will now stay put on Tuesdays at 9 p.m., following "The Voice." (Hopefully NBC doesn't change its mind on giving "This Is Us" the post-Super Bowl spot.) Thursdays will now include the sitcom lineup of "Superstore," "The Good Place, "Will & Grace," and "Great News." That's still Must See TV from here, and a good call to not mess with the good thing of our Tuesday night appointment television.

"Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders" was going to follow "This Is Us" on Thursdays and will now follow the show on Tuesdays. "Chicago Fire" is moving from Tuesdays to Thursdays after all of those sitcoms.

Here's the new fall 2017 schedule:

TUESDAYS
8 p.m.: "The Voice"
9 p.m. "This Is Us"
10 p.m. "Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders"

THURSDAYS
8 p.m. "Superstore"
8:30 p.m. "The Good Place"
9 p.m. "Will & Grace"
9:30 p.m. "Great News"
10 p.m. "Chicago Fire"

The rest of the previously revealed lineup should still be as-is. Many fans are happy at the "This Is Us" change (if not the "Chicago Fire" change), especially "Scandal" fans who didn't want to make the tough call between favorite shows on Thursday nights. ABC may also be relieved to have "This Is Us" away from its TGIT lineup.

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Harley Quinn Confirmed for 'Gotham' Season 3 Finale

Get ready, she's almost here! Margot Robbie brought Harley Quinn to life on the big screen, but Fox is about to introduce its own Clown Princess of Crime in the "Gotham" Season 3 finale.

It was known that Harley would be coming to "Gotham," but not if she'd arrive before Season 4. Star David Mazouz (Bruce Wayne) dropped the news about Harley into a new interview with MoviePilot.

"Something major happens in the very last scene of Season 3 for Bruce. He makes a decision, that decision will influence what he does. I don't know what's happening in Season 4 yet, I haven't had a script or talked to the writers about what's going to happen, but where I see it going is somewhere I've wanted to see it going for a very long time. You'll see what I mean. Bruce is going to be very busy taking on this new role that he assumes at the end of Season 3 and I think it'll be really cool."

MoviePilot asked if Bruce Wayne's upcoming decision may involve Harley Quinn. Here's his answer:

"She's going to be in the finale. Stay tuned."

Barbara Kean (played by Erin Richards) is still seen as the obvious choice to be Harley Quinn, but no one is likely to confirm that before next week's finale.

Here's Fox's press release on the two-hour season ender:

DESTINY AWAITS ON THE ALL-NEW, SPECIAL TWO-HOUR SEASON FINALE OF "GOTHAM" MONDAY JUNE 5, ON FOX

Jada Pinkett Smith Guest-Stars as Fish Mooney

Alexander Siddig Debuts as Ra's Al Ghul

With the deadly virus spreading throughout the city, the search for the antidote continues, as Fish Mooney (guest star Jada Pinkett Smith), The Riddler and Penguin reveal plans of their own. Bruce meets Ra's Al Ghul (guest star Alexander Siddig) and completes his last task in order to fulfill his destiny, but realizes he can't let go of his past. Meanwhile, Gordon tries to win back Lee, and past alliances within Gotham City are broken, while new alliances are formed in the all-new, special two-hour "Heroes Rise: Destiny Calling/ Heroes Rise: Heavydirtysoul" season finale episode of GOTHAM airing Monday, June 5 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (GTH-321/22) (TV-14 L, V)

Cast: Ben McKenzie as Detective James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne, Morena Baccarin as Leslie Thompkins, Sean Pertwee as Alfred, Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean, Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle/the future Catwoman, Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma/the future Riddler, Jessica Lucas as Tabitha Galavan, Chris Chalk as Lucius Fox, Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean, Maggie Geha as the future Poison Ivy, Michael Chiklis as Detective Nathaniel Barnes, Benedict Samuel as Mad Hatter

Guest Cast: Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney, Alexander Siddig as Ra's Al Ghul, Camila Perez as Firefly, Nathan Darrow as Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze, BD Wong as Hugo Strange

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'Grey's Anatomy' Fans Predict Season 14 Fate of Meredith, Riggs, and Megan

How will "Grey's Anatomy" Season 14 play the new love triangle of Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), Nathan Riggs (Martin Henderson), and Megan Hunt (Bridget Regan)? And how should it?

The Season 13 finale left us with a few relationship cliffhangers, from whatever nonsense is happening with Japril + Maggie, to the unresolved stuff between Alex Karev, Jo Wilson, and Jo's ex. And then there's Mer, who cannot be happy for one full minute without some new drama threatening to take the happy away.

Season 13 ended with Meredith telling Nathan that Megan was actually alive, fully supporting that he go off to reconnect with his long missing and presumed dead ex-girlfriend. ("If this were Derek, I'd already be gone." TEARS!) Riggs had a complicated relationship with Megan, since he had cheated on her, and that also caused friction in his friendship with Megan's brother Owen (Kevin McKidd). So now, not only do we need to see how Megan affects Mer and Riggs, we need to see what's next for the bromance of Owen and Riggs.

TVLine decided to present its readers with a poll asking what will happen next for the Megan love triangle; here are the results, as of this moment:

• Though Nathan tries to stand by Megan, he continues to be drawn to Mer, and ultimately, he and Grey reunite. 46.57%

• Though Nathan tries to stand by Megan, he continues to be drawn to Mer. But she pushes him away, refusing to be the other woman. 32.23%

• Megan rejects Nathan, so he and Mer resume their relationship. 12.15%

• Nathan helps Megan recover, and, along the way, they rekindle their romance and reunite. 9.05%

It's possible none of those options will be correct, but the current No. 1 choice closely matches what "Grey's" already did with Meredith, Derek and Addison. Should that discount it? "Grey's" does like to repeat storylines, so that may make it the most likely option.

Answers will arrive with "Grey's Anatomy" Season 14, which premieres this fall on ABC.

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Millie Bobby Brown Says 'Logan' Was Her Best Audition, Despite Being Rejected

The 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet"Stranger Things" breakout star Millie Bobby Brown recently named her best and worst auditions in a sit-down chat with "Westworld" queen Evan Rachel Wood, and both answers were pretty surprising.

Millie has had an incredible year, winning praise and awards as Eleven in the Netflix series, with more to come in Season 2 this Halloween. However, that doesn't mean she hasn't faced rejection along the way. One surprising aspect is that she named a rejected role as her best audition.

In a scene from Variety's latest season of "Actors on Actors," MBB revealed to ERW that she read for the role of Laura/X-23 in "Logan." The role ultimately went to Dafne Keen, but Brown was still happy with the experience:

"The best audition for me was Wolverine. I went for 'Logan,' I went for the little girl. I watched it, she was incredible. It meant so much to me. I was filming 'Stranger Things' and I was like, 'It's going to be amazing, I'm going to really prepare,' and I sat in my room reading the lines. And, honestly, for me, I felt so -- I felt [like] an actor, in the audition room, hitting Hugh Jackman and [director] James Mangold sitting right in front of me. I was like 'Oh my goodness.' I was one of the best auditions."

Yeah, you can't knock any time you get to spend with The Jackman, even if you don't get asked to spend even more time with him.

As for Millie's worst audition? It was for an "awkward" Barbie commercial. She had to jump up and down and hold this thing, and pretend to play with another girl. It was not the best experience.

Watch more here:
The full interview will air June 13 on Variety's "Actors on Actors" Season 6, on PBS SoCal.

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'The Bachelorette' Stars Mourn Suitor Michael Nance, Dead at 31

Bachelor Nation is in mourning, once again, after the death of Michael Nance, 31, one of Emily Maynard's suitors on "The Bachelorette" Season 8.

Nance was 26 when he competed on the 2012 season; the Austin, Texas resident was featured as a musician, with ABC listing his occupation as Rehab Counselor.

A spokesperson with the Austin Police Department told Entertainment Tonight that officers responded to a call about an unresponsive male at 2:10 a.m. on Monday; Nance was pronounced dead just before 3 a.m.

"At this point it is not a suspicious death and the manner will be determined by the Medical Examiner," the department told ET. "The cause and manner of death will be determined by the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office."

Emily Maynard, and several of her Season 8 bachelors, reached out with condolences:

Sadly, Bachelor Nation is no stranger to early deaths. Gia Allemand of "The Bachelor" and "Bachelor Pad" took her own life in 2013, at age 29, in just one of way too many examples.

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Did 'The Walking Dead' Have an Easter Egg in 'Pirates of the Caribbean 5'?

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" may have paid back "The Walking Dead" for its own Johnny Depp Easter egg. A head for a head!

You may recall that "The Walking Dead" Season 6 kinda sorta had a Johnny Depp cameo when TWD created some severed heads for a particular scene, and one was based on a mold of Johnny Depp's face.

Fast-forward to "Pirates of the Caribbean 5," and one scene -- MILD SPOILER ALERT -- showed Depp's Jack Sparrow discovering what happens in the newly invented guillotine, when he sees a basket of severed heads. One of those heads may or may not have been based on "The Walking Dead" star Andrew Lincoln, in a callback to what TWD did for Depp.

Comicbook.com brought up the idea, writing that after their staff first heard that there might be a TWD Easter egg, "additional staff went into Pirates 5 for a second look. The moment is so quick that it's hard to confirm, but it definitely isn't outside the realm of possibility."

The site added that they reached out to folks at both "The Walking Dead" and Disney, which produced "Pirates." The "Walking Dead" people they spoke to didn't know anything about it, and the Disney peeps haven't responded yet. The "Pirates" crew would be the ones in the know, so fans will just have to wait for official word -- or wait for the movie to come out on digital or DVD so they can freeze frame the moment for a closer look.

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'House of Cards' Season 5 Teaser Dials Up the Terror: 'There's No Coming Back From This'

The Underwoods are as ominous as ever.

With "House of Cards" Season 5 hitting Netflix on Tuesday, the streamer released a new trailer. It reunites viewers with Frank (Kevin Spacey) and Claire (Robin Wright) Underwood, the president and first lady, and paints a sinister picture of what lies ahead for the country. There is definitely trouble coming, including protests, violence, and even talk of the president's removal.

Whatever threats they face, the scheming Underwoods won't be caught lying down.

"We need to dial up the terror," Claire says at one point in the teaser.

"I will not yield," Frank promises at another.

As you can see in the teaser below, Season 5 promises to be full of suspense, unrest, and conflict.

The show has racked up numerous awards nominations over the years, including Emmys and Golden Globes. We'll see if the latest season is worthy of more.

"House of Cards" Season 5 is now on Netflix.



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Kim Kardashian Says Kendall Jenner Was Never in Taylor Swift's Squad

The 57 Greatest Westerns Ever, Ranked

It's fitting that Clint Eastwood and John Wayne both have the same birthday week. (Wayne, who died in 1979, was born May 26, 1907, while Eastwood turns 85 on May 31). After all, these two all-American actors' careers span the history of that most American of movie genres, the western.

As a birthday present to Hollywood's biggest heroes of the Wild West, here are the top 57 westerns you need to see.

57. 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010)
Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her frequent leading lady, Michelle Williams, are the talents behind this sparse, docudrama about an 1845 wagon train whose Oregon Trail journey goes horribly awry. It's an intense story of survival that happens to note the marginalized role of women in the patriarchal Old West. Worth seeking out.

56. 'El Topo' (1970)
Alejandro Jodorowsky's surreal, psychedelic tale virtually invented both the acid western and the midnight-movie cult hit. The director himself plays the messianic title character, a mystical gunslinger who seems to anticipate the characters Clint Eastwood will play in "High Plains Drifter" and "Pale Rider." Imagine a Sergio Leone spaghetti western with the circus atmosphere of a Fellini movie, the surrealism of a Bunuel or David Lynch picture, and the transgressive outrage of an early John Waters movie, and you'll have an idea of what Jodorowsky accomplished here.

55. 'The Great Train Robbery' (1903)
Edwin S. Porter's pioneering film is one of the very first westerns. It ends with the famous, influential, still-shocking shot of a gunman aiming his pistol right at the viewer and opening fire.

54. 'Way Out West' (1937)
In one of the earliest western spoofs, Laurel and Hardy are tasked with delivering a mine deed to an heiress, a task they screw up epically and hilariously.

53. 'The Professionals' (1966)
Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster star in this twisty, noir-like tale of four mercenaries hired to rescue a rancher's kidnapped wife, only to find more than they bargained for once they find her. It's the "Out of the Past" of westerns.

52. 'One-Eyed Jacks' (1961)
The only movie Marlon Brando ever directed is a gritty, Freudian, dreamlike gloss on the Pat Garrett/Billy the Kid legend. Brando stars as a young outlaw, whose much older partner (frequent Brando co-star Karl Malden) has abandoned and betrayed him and gone straight. Brando the storyteller plays up the Oedipal tensions as the two men head toward the inevitable showdown.

51. 'Silverado' (1985)
The western had been essentially dormant as a genre for a decade when Lawrence Kasdan tried to revive it with this deliberate throwback to the classics. A disparate quartet of cowboys, including Kevin Kline and an unusually animated Kevin Costner unite against a corrupt sheriff (Brian Dennehy). Any western that can find room to cast John Cleese, Linda Hunt, and Jeff Goldblum is, by definition, going to be pretty fascinating.

50. 'Johnny Guitar' (1954)
Sterling Hayden plays the title troubadour, but Nicholas Ray's unique, lurid western is all about the women. Joan Crawford is the saloon-keeper with a past, and Mercedes McCambridge is the bitter local who bears a murderous grudge against her.

49. 'El Mariachi (1992)'
Robert Rodriguez' debut film, famously made for just $6,000, is a brilliantly staged spaghetti-western homage about an aspiring troubadour (Carlos Gallardo) in a picturesque village who gets mixed up in a bloody crime war and becomes a lethal gunslinger instead . Rodriguez had a bigger budget and bigger stars (Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek) in the two sequels ("Desperado" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico"), but this one is still the most fun.

48. 'The Big Country' (1958)
Gregory Peck stars in this sweeping saga as a tenderfoot from Maryland who becomes embroiled in a feud between two powerful ranching families. Charlton Heston co-stars as a rowdy ranch hand and romantic rival (they both love Carroll Baker), and it's a treat to watch these two masters of the clenched-jaw school of Hollywood movie acting confront each other.

47. 'Jeremiah Johnson' (1972)
Sydney Pollack's based-in-fact drama stars Robert Redford as a fur trapper in the Rockies. Like Pollack and Redford's later "Out of Africa," it's the story of an immigrant who's a bit out of his depth dealing with the difficulties of the local terrain, the climate, and an uneasy coexistence with the natives. The scenery is stunning; it's no wonder Redford fell in love with Utah.

46. 'The Gunfighter' (1950)
Gregory Peck is Jimmy Ringo, a fast-draw artist who tries to settle down and enjoy a peaceful life. But he can't escape his reputation and is sought out by enemies and young gunslingers trying to make a name for themselves by challenging him. One of the finer examples of this familiar plot.

45. 'The Long Riders' (1980)
The gimmick in Walter Hill's account of the James-Younger gang is that all the characters who were brothers are played by real-life brothers. (Theres the Carradines, the Quaids, the Keaches, and the Guests.) The gimmick works surprisingly well; it makes the history among these outlaws seem a lot more personal.

44. 'The Shootist' (1976)
John Wayne gets a fitting sendoff in his last movie. Playing an old gunslinger dying of cancer, and feeling out of place in the 20th century (it's 1901), he tries to live out his last days in peace and even courts a pretty widow (Lauren Bacall) whose teenage son (Ron Howard) idolizes the old man. But, of course, his past catches up to him -- giving Wayne a chance to go out in a blaze of glory.

43. 'Little Big Man' (1970)
Arthur Penn's movie is the revisionist western to end all revisionist westerns. Dustin Hoffman plays Jack Crabb, a 121-year-old white man who recalls a youth spent living among the Sioux and becoming the only white man to survive Custer's Last Stand. You can read it as an anti-Vietnam War allegory, or just as a colorful story that upends everything you thought you knew about the Old West.

42. 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid' (1973)
Sam Peckinpah's take on the notorious outlaw's pursuit by his former friend was a countercultural allegory back then. Today, it's just a poetic and terribly sad western with top performances by James Coburn (as Garrett), Kris Kristofferson (as Billy), and Slim Pickens as an aging gunfighter. His death scene -- wordless, drawn out, and scored to Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" -- is one of the most haunting and tragic in any western. (Dylan also made his acting debut in the film.)

41. 'Dead Man' (1995)
Jim Jarmusch's unique western is a surreal nightmare. Johnny Depp plays a meek city slicker who receives a fatal bullet wound when mistaken for a gunslinger. Accompanied by a grumbling Indian named Nobody (Gary Farmer), the slowly dying man travels further west, on a quest for spiritual release, through increasingly violent country, until he becomes the bloody desperado everyone thinks he is. Shot in deliberately grainy black-and-white, with a jangly score by Neil Young, it's a black-comic journey into the heart of darkness.

40. 'Rango' (2011)
Johnny Depp stars in this clever animated western spoof. He plays a chameleon who stumbles into a dry desert town populated by anthropomorphic critters, and he's enlisted to drive off some predatory outlaws. With explicit nods to "High Noon," "Chinatown," and Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns, "Rango" is a film full of sly references that kids won't get but adults will appreciate.

39. 'Dances With Wolves' (1990)
Kevin Costner won Best Picture and Best Director for his revisionist epic, in which he plays an army lieutenant who comes to respect a tribe of plains Indians so much that he goes native and tries to protect them from his former comrades. It's a sad, sweeping story -- but not without its thrills, like the stirring buffalo hunt sequence.

38. 'Seven Men From Now' (1956)
Director Budd Boetticher made a series of gritty, dark westerns with star Randolph Scott that, like Anthony Mann's work with James Stewart, belies the convention that 1950s westerns were simple black-hat-white-hat morality plays. Here, Scott is a lawman who leaves a bloody trail of revenge on his search for the robbers who killed his wife.

37. 'Winchester '73' (1950)
Anthony Mann made several westerns in the 1950s that revealed a darker, more violent side of James Stewart that must have shocked fans of his aw-shucks persona. This first collaboration is the best. Stewart plays a man bent on avenging his father's death, who tracks a stolen rifle through several owners on his way to finding the killer.

36. 'The Ox-Bow Incident' (1943)
Henry Fonda stars in this stark, compact (just 75 minutes) morality tale about mob justice, playing a cowboy who stumbles onto a lynch mob bent on killing three men who may not actually be guilty. Nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, the film was an inspiration for Fonda's later classic, the jury room drama "12 Angry Men."

35. 'Lone Star' (1996)
In John Sayles' modern-day western, Chris Cooper is a Texas border-town sheriff laboring under the shadow of his late, legendary lawman father (played in flashback by Matthew McConaughey). Probing a 40-year-old murder mystery that involved his father, while also rekindling a romance with an old sweetheart (Elizabeth Pena), he finds out more than he wanted to know about the truth behind his father's legend. The film is a sprawling allegory about life on the border, the way old myths continue to shape our lives, and the uneasy coexistence of many different peoples in the new West.

34. 'Lonely Are the Brave' (1962)
Kirk Douglas' favorites among his own movies. He's a modern-day cowboy and drifter, one who's not at home with the rules, technology, or enclosed spaces of the 20th century. He tries to bust a pal out of jail, but when the friend won't leave, he breaks out himself on a doomed, existential quest for a kind of freedom that's no longer possible in the New West.

33. 'Open Range' (2003)
Best known for its sweeping anamorphic vistas and very grounded approach to shootouts, Kevin Costner both directs and stars in this underrated Western about two cattleman (Costner and Robert Duvall) who find both trouble and purpose when they cross paths with a ruthless land baron (a sinister Michael Gambon). The tense, climatic gunfight -- depicting cowboys as real people who miss and sometimes fumble with their guns -- is a high point, as are Costner's understated direction and performance.

32. 'High Plains Drifter' (1973)
Clint Eastwood's darkest role finds him playing another man with no name (or maybe the same one as before) who offers his protection services to a town awaiting an outlaw onslaught. But his security comes at a price that's more than the town bargained for. Is he an angel, a demon, or just a man with a vindictive sense of humor? Funny, nasty, and bleak.

31. 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' (1976)
One of Eastwood's favorites among his own films is this saga of a farmer and Confederate soldier on a long odyssey of revenge against the Union fighters who killed his family, a quest that continues well after the Civil War has already ended. It's a film whose stature has only grown with time.

30. 'Brokeback Mountain' (2005)
Western notions of masculinity are re-examined in Ang Lee's stately tearjerker about a ranch hand (Heath Ledger) and a rodeo rider (Jake Gyllenhaal) who fall in love. Lee's elegant direction and Ledger's laconic performance all but dare viewers to find a reason to consider these two cowboys less than manly just because of who they love.

29. 'Tombstone' (1993)
This isn't the most accurate account of the O.K. Corral gunfight, but it's the most sheerly entertaining, thanks largely to smart casting. Michael Biehn and Powers Boothe are fine villains, Kurt Russell makes a surprisingly good Wyatt Earp, Sam Elliott should be in every western, and Val Kilmer gives the performance of his career as Doc Holliday, a rogue who can get away with anything because he has nothing left to lose. Kudos to whoever groomed the luxuriant mustaches; they're some of the best facial hair in any movie ever.

28. 'Django Unchained' (2012)
Quentin Tarantino's inevitable spaghetti-western homage turned out to be an epic, brutal tale of two bounty hunters (Jamie Foxx and Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz) who target the horrifically cruel plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio) who once enslaved Foxx's Django and still has Django's wife (Kerry Washington). Tarantino meant the tale as a corrective to "Birth of a Nation" and a century of cinema that failed to depict American slavery as the absolute horror it was. But since it's Tarantino, it's also a headlong rush of violent adventure.

27. 'True Grit' (2010)
With all due respect to the 1969 original that won John Wayne his only Oscar, the recent Coen brothers remake starring Jeff Bridges as grizzled, one-eyed bounty hunter Rooster Cogburn is the richer film. (It's also more faithful to Charles Portis' novel.) By rights, Bridges should own the movie, but he shares it with Matt Damon's peevish young Texas ranger and all but gives it away to Hailee Steinfeld, as the revenge-driven teen who hires Cogburn to track her father's killer. Even though her longing for vengeance costs her a lifetime of pain, she demonstrates as much true grit as anyone in the movie.

26. 'Destry Rides Again' (1939)
George Marshall's western is almost ridiculously entertaining. James Stewart, in a sly performance, plays a lawman who's reluctant to use his gun, even though he's an expert sharpshooter. Marlene Dietrich (in the performance that Madeline Kahn spoofs in "Blazing Saddles") is the saloon singer who catches his eye. Comedy, music, and all the action you could want.

25. 'My Darling Clementine' (1946)
John Ford's climactic staging of the shootout at the O.K. corral is reportedly very accurate. The movie that precedes that moment is mostly hogwash, but it's well-made hogwash, with Henry Fonda playing Wyatt Earp as the reluctant gunfighter forced to strap on his holster once again, and a shockingly frail Victor Mature as a dying Doc Holliday.

24. 'Fort Apache' (1948)
The first film in John Ford's cavalry trilogy features John Wayne and Henry Fonda clashing as commanders of a garrison under siege. Like the two movies that followed ("She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Rio Grande"), its a fascinating study in styles of leadership and management, as well as a crackling adventure.

23. '3:10 to Yuma' (2007)
James Mangold's remake of the old Glenn Ford-Van Heflin western is actually better than the original. Christian Bale plays the Heflin role of a desperate farmer who agrees to take on the lucrative but hazardous job of escorting a captured criminal (Russell Crowe, in the Ford part) to the train that will take him to prison, with both men aware that the outlaw's gang will stop at nothing to free him. Bale, Crowe, and Mangold turn this simple obstacle course into something epic.

22. 'Ride the High Country' (1962)
Sam Peckinpah's first masterpiece, and Randolph Scott's swan song, is this elegiac western about two aging gunslingers (Scott and Joel McCrea) who have a falling out over the opportunity for one last big score. Like many later revisionist westerns, including several of Peckinpah's own films, this one bears the sense of loss of an old order defined by rules, giving way to a new cruelty where anything goes.

21. 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford' (2007)
This unjustly overlooked recent western takes a modern look at the Jesse James legend. Brad Pitt plays the outlaw as a man painfully self-conscious about his own fame. Casey Affleck plays Ford as a frustrated celebrity stalker, one who turns against his idol when his idol worship goes unrequited.

20. 'No Country for Old Men' (2007)
It takes place in the recent past, but the Coen brothers' Best Picture-winning adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel qualifies as a modern-day western. Josh Brolin is the Texan who stumbles onto a fortune, Javier Bardem (who also won an Oscar) is the implacable desperado who tracks him down, and Tommy Lee Jones is the lawman overwhelmed by evil he can't comprehend. Like many westerns, this one laments the passing of the old ways, to be replaced by a new, even more ruthless kind of savagery.

19. 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller' (1971)
Gambler Warren Beatty teams up with madam Julie Christie to open a brothel in a remote frontier town, and all goes well until the big businessmen move in on them. Robert Altman's countercultural parable, complete with a mournful Leonard Cohen soundtrack, doesn't look like any other western, thanks to the snowbound visuals, gorgeously photographed by Vilmos Zsigmond.

18. 'Blazing Saddles' (1974)
Mel Brooks' spoof remains the best western comedy of all time. For all the movie's daring humor (the bean scene!) and racial commentary (Richard Pryor co-wrote the script), it also works as a classic western, one that borrows plot elements from "Rio Bravo" and "Destry Rides Again," with shout-outs to "High Noon," "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," and Randolph Scott.

17. 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' (1949)
John Ford's second movie in his Cavalry trilogy (and the only one of the three that's in glorious Technicolor) stars John Wayne as a retiring commander who takes on one last mission, escorting two women to safety while trying to forestall an Indian uprising. Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Ford turns the story into an unforgettable drama of loyalty and regret.

16. 'Lonesome Dove' (1988)
Yes, it was a TV mini-series, not a theatrical film, but it was so good that it deserves a place on this list. Larry McMurtry's tale of two Texas Rangers (Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones) leading a 2,500-mile cattle drive is a classic tale of friendship, adventure, and loss. Anjelica Huston, Diane Lane, and Danny Glover round out an all-star cast.

15. 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1969)
Like Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" the same year, it's easy to see this film about outlaws who draw the wrath of the government in two different countries as a parable of the counterculture vs. the establishment But mostly, it's a fun buddy movie (and an influential one, the first of its kind), one that coasts largely on the immense charm and charisma of the Paul Newman-Robert Redford pairing.

14. 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' (1962)
One of John Ford's final westerns takes a look at the mythmaking he and other western storytellers had been practicing all these years. James Stewart is the city-slicker senator who made his reputation with the killing of the title outlaw (a scary Lee Marvin), and John Wayne is a typical Wayne man of action, one whose ease with violence helps create a civilized society that has no place for a man like himself.

13. 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' (1948)
It takes place in Mexico, but it feels like a western -- there's gold prospecting, bandits, murder, and greed. Humphrey Bogart's never been more hard-boiled. John Huston directed his father Walter to a Supporting Actor Oscar as the old prospector who should have known better.

12. 'Red River' (1948)
John Wayne offers a shockingly intense portrayal of obsession as a cowboy leading a lengthy cattle drive through dangerous territory. In his starmaking role, Montgomery Clift is his adopted son, who rebels against Wayne's martinet ways. It's another Howard Hawks movie that explores different varieties of masculinity, and one of the best.

11. 'High Noon' (1952)
Gary Cooper won an Oscar as the marshal who tries and fails to recruit locals to help him defend the town against outlaws who are due to arrive on the midday train. Fred Zinnemann's meticulous direction allows the film to unfold in real time. But the real trick in the script by Carl Foreman, himself a victim of the Hollywood blacklist, is that it can be read as either an anti-communist allegory or an anti McCarthyist allegory. Seen today, stripped of its politics, it's just a terrifically suspenseful thriller and a statement against the dangers of conformity.

10. 'The Magnificent Seven' (1960)
John Sturges' wildly successful transposition of Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" to a western setting stars Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson as mercenaries who agree to defend a Mexican town from a bandit (Eli Wallach) and his gang. The film made McQueen a movie star and embedded Elmer Bernstein's rousing theme music in everyone's DNA; even if you haven't seen the film, you know the melody.

9. 'Shane' (1953)
George Stevens' majestic western looks like a cliche today, but only because it launched so many of them. It's the archetypal movie about a retired gunslinger (Alan Ladd) who wants nothing more than to be a farmhand for homesteader Van Heflin, his wife (Jean Arthur), and their impressionable boy (Brandon de Wilde). But Shane is forced back into action to defend his adopted family against evil (in the form of hired gun Jack Palance). There's a lot going on here, most of it unspoken, from the history of range wars between farmers and ranchers, to Shane's unintentional displacement of Heflin in the affections of the wife and the son. It's also a gorgeously shot film, with Oscar-winning cinematography. By the time the film's over, you'll be echoing de Wilde's admiring child, begging Shane to come back.

8. 'Once Upon a Time in the West' (1968)
After his "Dollars" trilogy, Sergio Leone brought his spaghetti-western sensibility to Hollywood, with striking results. In this epic about a beautiful widow (Claudia Cardinale) trying to hold out against ruthless railroad barons, Henry Fonda plays against type as a cold-blooded killer, while Charles Bronson has a starmaking performance as a mysterious, harmonica-playing hero.

7. 'Rio Bravo' (1959)
Howard Hawks and John Wayne felt that "High Noon" merited a response, a story where at least some townsfolk are brave enough come to the marshal's aid when outlaws threaten the town. But Wayne's allies here are few and unlikely -- a drunk (Dean Martin), a frail oldtimer (Walter Brennan), and a cocky kid (Ricky Nelson). As in any Hawks movie, the emphasis is as much on male bonding as it is on adventure. Dino even gets to croon a couple tunes. Still, this is as satisfying as any western ever made.

6. 'The Wild Bunch' (1969)
Sam Peckinpah's most notorious and influential revisionist western is this one, about a group of tough-guy aging outlaws (including William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, and Ben Johnson), feeling out of place in the newly-civilized West, who head to Mexico for one last adventure. The movie's final bloodbath, choreographed like a ballet as bullets tear bodies apart in slow motion and send blood flying, is Peckinpah's signature moment as a director, his grand statement on change in the old West, and a sequence that has been the template for the presentation of movie violence for nearly half a century now.

5. 'A Fistful of Dollars' (1964)
Here's the movie that changed westerns forever. It popularized the spaghetti western (so-called because it was directed by an Italian and shot in Europe, giving it an otherworldly, surreal quality that homegrown westerns lacked), demonstrated a cynicism about frontier morality that was new to the genre, and made a movie star out of TV cowpoke Clint Eastwood. The plot, in which Eastwood's gunslinger exploits the blood feud between two powerful families for his own ends, comes from Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo." In his first film as the iconic, poncho-clad, cigarillo-smoking Man With No Name, Eastwood has already perfected the squint and the soft-spoken delivery that will carry him through the rest of his long and celebrated career.

4. 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' (1966)
In the final movie of Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy, the title refers to the characters played by Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach, respectively. But nobody in the film is all that good; Eastwood's Man With No Name may be a little more honorable than the others, but that's all. The three men compete over a stash of gold, leading to the epic three-way standoff at the film's climax. Ennio Morricone adds to the agonizingly ominous atmosphere with the most iconic instrumental score in western movie history.

3. 'Unforgiven' (1992)
Clint Eastwood's Best Picture winner is also his farewell to the genre that made him famous. It's an unflinching look at the true costs of the violence usually valorized in westerns -- and indeed, throughout American culture. Eastwood plays a reformed outlaw, failing at supporting his family through honest work. He straps on guns again to chase a bounty on a couple of cowboys who disfigured a prostitute.

Lending the whole enterprise some gravitas is a cast of fellow old-timers -- Morgan Freeman as Eastwood's old partner in crime, Richard Harris as an arrogant English-born gunslinger, and an Oscar-winning Gene Hackman as a town sheriff who doesn't mind resorting to violence to keep the peace. No one comes out of this situation unscathed; the violence leaves everyone either dead or damned. Even the viewer is implicated; you'll get the cathartic, climactic bloodshed you crave -- but you'll feel squeamish for wanting it and enjoying it.

2. 'Stagecoach' (1939)
Here's the movie that made John Wayne a star and John Ford the king of all western directors. Wayne's a young gunslinger eager to prove himself, and one of several passengers from diverse walks of life on a stagecoach traveling through hostile Apache territory. Ford makes his first great use here of the majestic scenery of his beloved Monument Valley, and stuntman Yakima Canutt stages some of the most hair-raising stunt work and chase shots in film history.

1. 'The Searchers' (1956)
Anyone who thinks John Wayne played the same, simple, white-hatted hero in every film needs to see this movie that demonstrates not just his range as an actor but also how willing he was to make himself unlikable. As a man who spends years on an obsessive quest to find a niece (Natalie Wood) kidnapped by Comanches, he's an unredeemable racist, one who seems as apt to kill the girl for going native as to bring her safely home.

Besides being an indisputably great movie, it's also an incalculably influential one, a film that hints at the revisionist westerns to come and that served as a one-movie film school for directors like Coppola, Scorsese, and Spielberg. The final shot alone, with Wayne framed in the doorway of a home he feels banished from, has been stolen countless times by Ford's admirers.

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