David Wyler, the son of Ben-Hur director William Wyler, is producing a miniseries version of the saga, it was announced just days after Charlton Heston passed away. The $30 million project, which starts lensing this year, has already been sold to outlets in Spain, Germany and Canada, and is currently being shopped in the U.S. to two networks and a cable channel. "This is dedicated to my dad and Chuck," Wyler tells Variety. "It's a great way to keep his memory alive."Versus previous takes (including the 1959 film), the mini will adhere more closely to the 1880 Lew Wallace novel... yet skew the lead role younger (placing Ben-Hur in his mid-twenties) and downplay the story's religious aspects. — MWM
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DVD Tuesday When Charlton Heston met Orson Welles in praise of Touch of Evil one wild and sleazy ride through the darkness at the edge of border townsWhen you think Charlton Heston you think Ben-Hur Planet of the Apes The Omega Man the nuttier of two precursors to Will Smiths I Am Legend The Ten Commandments and Soylent Green spoiler alert Soylent Green is people But one of my favorite Heston movies is one of his less well-known the thriller Touch of Evil directed by and costarring Orson Welles along with Janet Leigh Marlene Dietrich Joseph Cotten and Zsa Zsa Gabor now thats a cast And it opens with one of the most justly famous tracking shots in movie history a sinuous three-minute and 20-second glide through the crowded streets of seedy Los Robles following behind a white convertible en route to the US border with an ominous tick tick tick always audible through the clamor of ambient noise and Henry Mancinis ominously jazzy
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Charlton Heston an Oscar winner for his 1958 performance as Ben-Hur and well-known for his portrayals of such figures as Moses Michelangelo and El Cid died Saturday night at age 84 with his wife Lydia at his side A family spokesman declined to comment on the cause of death but Heston in 2002 was revealed to have symptoms consistent with Alzheimers diseaseCharlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life his family said in a statement He was known for his chiseled jaw broad shoulders and resonating voice and of course for the roles he played No one could ask for a fuller life than his No man could have given more to his family to his profession and to his countryThe actors publicist tells the AP If Hollywood had a Mt Rushmore Hestons face would be on it He was a heroic figure that I dont think exists to the same degree in Hollywood todayOff-screen Heston served as president of the Screen Actors Guild chairman of the American Film Institute
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ABC's Lost wouldn't be our favorite twisty-mystery series if the season-ender didn't bring up more questions than it answered. Here's our take on the most mind-bending moments from this year's finale.
The OthersThey say they're "the good guys" — and we agree. We think "Henry Gale" and Co. are one-time Dharma Initiative members gone rogue. Now they are committed to stopping the Initiative's crazy testing and they need strong-willed Jack, Kate and Sawyer to help them.
The Dharma InitiativeSo the Initiative — with all its testing in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology and electromagnetism — is evil? Hell, yeah. Polar bears in the tropics, a phoenix rising and human guinea pigs — this can't be good.
Widmore L
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"What's with all the carnage lately?" a viewer e-mailed me recently. He has a point. The body count on TV this season has been unusually high.
For some, these tragic twists seem like cheap stunts, a real turn-off. For me, they're a reason to tune in. Not because I'm blood thirsty. But on shows where the stakes are high — shows like 24, Lost, The Shield, The Sopranos, even a fantasy like Smallville — I expect to be taken out of my comfort zone into a world where bad things can happen at any time to characters we care about.
Facing mortality is essential to any morality play. When Shannon was fatally shot by Ana Lucia on Lost, it cast a pall of suspicion and grief over the merging of the survivors. When Smallville's Clark Kent lost his beloved father figure Jonathan to a heart attack, it was a necessary rite of passage for this superhero-in-the-making.
Nowhere has the death rate been higher than on 24
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