Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow courtesy Paramount Pictures
Question I saw and liked Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow but was wondering What was the source of Sir Laurence Oliviers performance Ive always wanted to know JayFlickChick The late Sir Laurence Oliviers performance as Professor Totenkopf dead head in German in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow 2004 was digitally built from archival BBC footage of Olivier giving a speech at some fund-raising event The movements of his mouth were manipulated to match the films dialogue and the footage was processed to look like a staticky video holograph The same basic technology was used to alter existing footage of Marlon Brando from Superman 1978 so he could speak new dialogue for Superman Returns 2006 But in Superman Returns the Brando footage looks as real as the rest so its another step toward being truly able to have a living actor appear alongside a dead one the way singers can now do thoroughly convincing duets by integrating their new tracks
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Question: In a recent column you answered a question about the classic Michael Caine/Laurence Olivier movie Sleuth, and it reminded me that I heard some time ago that they were remaking it with Caine in the Olivier role and a younger actor in Caine's old part. Is this true?
Answer: There's been talk for the better part of five years that Stephen Frears was going to direct a rem
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Question: My father and I were chatting about Clint Eastwood's talent for directing actors to Academy Awards, now I'm wondering which director has directed the most actors to Oscar victories. My father is thinking William Wyler. Is he right?
Answer: Yes, he is: It's William Wyler. He directed 31 actors and actresses in performances that earned them Academy Award nominations. Bette Davis (Jezebel), Fay Bainter (Jezebel), Greer Garson (Mrs. Min
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Question: Are ensemble casts ever recognized with an Oscar that's designed especially for a group of actors who worked really well together? Or does someone always have to be singled out as a lead or supporting player? Answer: Although the SAG Awards, which are given by the Screen Actors Guild, regularly honor ensembles, the Academy Awards only recognize individuals. But there have been instances in which all the actors with speaking roles are nominated. They include Sleuth (1972) — which, to be fair, has only two speaking roles, but both Michael Caine and Sir Laurence Olivier were nominated in the best-actor category — and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Virginia W
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Question: I've been reading about the movie Bubble being the first film ever released simultaneously on TV, in movie theaters and on DVD. I don't know why, but I keep thinking some other movie already did that. Do you know if it really was the very first?
Answer: Steven Soderbergh's Bubble (2006) was definitely the first to come to theaters, cable and DVD at virtually the same time — it was shown on HDNet cable on the same Friday it opened in theaters, although it actually came to DVD four days later, because Tuesday is the standard day of the week DVDs (and videos before them) go on sale in stores. But there are a couple of precedents. Back in the 1983 — before DVD was so much as a technological twinkle in anyone's eye and the home-video market barely existed — Universal (a co
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Question: My big brother, who thinks he knows it all, insists that actor Danny Kaye was gay and the lover of Sir Laurence Olivier. I say he was not, that Kaye was married and had children. This has been a bone of contention between us; he thinks I'm being stubborn and that he's right just because he's older. I would seriously like to rub his nose in it. Can you help me?
Answer: To rub your brother's nose in it? Not really, unless you want to claim the high ground by pointing out the difference between gay and bisexual. Needless to say, I wasn't there and can't claim first-hand knowledge of the sex lives of actors Danny Kaye (1913-1987) and Laurence Olivier (1907-1989). But the claim that they had an ongoing relationship for the better part of&nb
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Question: I was reading recently in your column about Sleuth and got to wondering: Wasn't it remade with Michael Caine as the author and Christopher Reeve as the younger man? Answer: Although Deathtrap (1982) isn't a remake of Sleuth (1972), there are similarities, first and foremost that it's also an adaptation of a stage play (by Ira Levin rather than Anthony Shaffer) and it focuses on the cat-and-mouse head games between a successful older writer (Michael Caine, who played the young buck opposite
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Question: What is the smallest cast a modern, mainstream, full-length feature film has ever had?
Answer: I can think of a handful of independent features that have only one cast member, but in terms of mainstream fiction films I would have to go with Sleuth (1972), which is a two-man show. It's a psychological thriller set in a 16th-century country mansion where wealthy author Andrew Wyke (Laurence Olivier), who writes diabolically clever mysteries, plays humiliating head games with the younger man (Michael Caine) who's having an affair with his wife.
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