Month: October 2013

Categories
Movies

Darn!! I really want to see it!!

George Clooney’s ‘Monuments Men’ pushed to 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — George Clooney’s World War II drama “The Monuments Men” is being pushed to 2014 and out of the fall awards season.

The movie will now be released in the first quarter of next year, instead of its planned release date of Dec. 18, a spokesman for Sony Pictures said Wednesday. “Monuments Men,” which Clooney directed, co-wrote and stars in, had been expected to be among the top Oscar contenders.

The film could still compete for awards next year, but the early-in-the-year positioning suggests Sony doesn’t expect it to. Movies released early in the year — much less sought-after territory than the lucrative holiday movie-going season — rarely garner any awards interest.

Sony said the film is being delayed so Clooney can finish the film’s extensive visual effects.

“The Monuments Men,” which also stars Matt Damon and Bill Murray, is about a World War II platoon whose mission is to rescue artworks from the Nazis. Based on a true story, the film is adapted from Robert Edsel’s book “The Monuments Men: Allie Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History.”

Reportedly made for $65 million, Clooney has conceived of “The Monuments Men” as a popular period drama tinged with comedy in the mold of “The Great Escape.” While an early 2014 release takes the film out of the awards hunt, it could find more room at a less crowded box office.

“The Monuments Men” is only the latest film to shift out of the fall movie-going season. Previously pushed into 2014 were “Foxcatcher,” ”Grace of Monaco” and “The Immigrant.”

The Los Angeles Times first reported the release date change.

Categories
Television

Personally, I enjoyed Season 4 and I want more!!

‘Arrested Development’: Mitch Hurwitz wants a movie, then Season 5

Mitch Hurwitz has big plans for “Arrested Development’s” future. He’s long been talking about an “Arrested Development” movie, but the comedy TV show’s creator explained why he’d like to be a film to be the next step in the series’ journey during a speech at the New York TV Festival keynote.

Of course, there’s no set schedule for when that dreamed of movie will be made. Hurwitz gave his usual logline — “All I’ve been able to say is, I really want to continue with this, and the cast really wants to continue with this” — before explaining why he’s having such trouble following up Season 4.

“What my new thing is, because it might be tough to get the cast together for the four months you would need to make a series, is to try to get them together for four weeks sooner, and do the movie that is the story that we’ve been building up to in this show,” Hurwitz explains, via The Hollywood Reporter. “And then, bring the series back after that. It’s not my decision, but it’s what I want to do. The reason I’m not just saying, let’s go do the series next, is because I’m worried it’ll take two years to make all those deals — a mess of people, a weird tease to all of us and the audience. So my goal is to do a movie for Netflix type thing, and then go into the series.”

Of what he learned about making “Arrested Development” Season 4, he admits, “What I came to realize is that some perfect version of ‘Arrested Development’ as it exists for me and the actors and the audience and everybody together probably doesn’t exist.”

There was some backlash to the new form Hurwitz experimented with in Season 4, which largely came because it was impossible for the actors’ schedules to align. But Hurwitz takes full responsibility for, as he explains it, not preparing the audience enough for the change of pace in Season 4.

“I felt in many ways, I did not prepare the audience for this,” he says. “Right before the show came out, I thought, I’ve really not said what this is, and what it had become was a novel. I had this unique opportunity here – people are going to get to watch eight hours of this, they’re not gonna spend the next six months of having it doled out to them … so the storytelling changed. That first episode became much more like chapter one of a novel than episode one of a series. And I didn’t prep you guys — I’m really sorry about that.”

Categories
Games

I still have my Wii U, but I must admit that I rarely Wii Use it.

The End of the Wii and What It Means for Nintendo

Nintendo will no longer manufacture the Wii, and the company may stop selling the system entirely. With the lack of commercial sizzle on the next generation – and backward compatible – Wii U, this could be a business decision that, partnered with a recent price cut, may encourage a further growth in sales. With the Xbox One and PS4 less than a month away, the pressure on Nintendo to increase their hardware lead is immense. The company moved roughly 3.5 million systems in the Wii U’s first year, but only 160,000 in the last quarter.

In comparison, the original Wii absolutely shattered sales figures. Over 67 million Wiis were sold in the system’s lifespan, and unlike the competing Xbox 360 and PS3, the Wii was not a loss-leading venture – each Wii sold returned a healthy profit to Nintendo. But while the hardware was incredibly successful, the Wii’s weak system specs made software success outside of Nintendo’s own IPs (Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong) elusive. While motion controls looked to be the future of gaming – Microsoft and Sony were quick to release their own motion control gimmicks after the Wii penetrated the casual, non-gamer market – the execution on titles that required motion controls often left much to be desired (“I’m waving my hands – why is nothing happening”). A one-trick pony, beyond Wii Sports and a few other must-have titles, the Wii garnered few games worthy of a purchase, and that huge hardware base didn’t mean diddly.

With the anticipation revolving around the PS4 and Xbox One, hardware sales on the Wii U aren’t great. And the formerly reliable franchises may not be up to snuff. If Nintendo can’t unload millions of its own games on a strong user base (a business plan they’ve followed since the GameCube), the company might be in for some serious financial trouble.

With the huge success of the original Wii, you’d think one hardware flop couldn’t spell the end to the most storied video game company ever. But bear in mind – this past hardware generation (the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360) has been eight years long. The Wii U can’t compete with the PS4 and Xbox One for nearly a decade considering its poor early showing. But if Nintendo comes back in a few years with a brand new system. . . we may be seeing shades of Sega.

In 1994, Sega released the Saturn. In 1998 they released the Dreamcast – both systems had (and continue to have) a die-hard following. Unique games, innovative features. . . the Saturn and Dreamcast were each a bit ahead of their time, but suffered from botched launches and poor 3rd party software support.

Sound familiar?

After the failure of the Dreamcast, Sega took its valuable IPs and software experience to other platforms. Now you can play Sonic on a Nintendo system, something that would seem impossible to a generation of kid who grew up on “Genesis does what Nintendon’t!” So if you think you’ll be long dead before seeing Mario collecting coins for Sony, remember – anything can happen.

Categories
Movies

No movies for me this weekend, but I wanted to go. Does that count?

Inside Movies Box office report: ‘Gravity’ scores third weekend win with $31 million; ‘Carrie’ and ‘Escape Plan’ both underwhelm

There’s no force strong enough to pull Warner Bros.’ $100 million smash Gravity back down to Earth. The film, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, easily maintained its perch atop the box office in its third weekend, dropping just 28 percent to $31 million — good for a $170.6 million total after just 17 days.

Gravity is already the tenth highest-grossing film of 2013 in the U.S. (it surpassed Bullock’s other vehicle, The Heat, this weekend), and appears to be headed for a finish of at least $250 million, which would put it ahead of director Alfonso Cuaron’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which grossed $249.5 million in 2004. Worldwide, Gravity has already earned $284.8 million.

Sony’s $55 million Tom Hanks drama Captain Phillips spent a second week in second place, dipping 33 percent to $17.3 million for a $53.3 million total after ten days. The well-reviewed film is playing well ahead of Argo, which had earned $43 million at the same point in its run last year en route to a $136 million finish. Captain Phillips will need some major awards attention in the following months to reach those heights, but thanks to great word-of-mouth, it should reach (or get close to) $100 million domestically.

The R-rated remake of Brian de Palma’s 1976 horror classic Carrie didn’t get elected prom queen by moviegoers. The film, which stars Chloe Grace Moretz (who has had a difficult box office year with Kick-Ass 2 and Movie 43) and Julianne Moore, only conjured $17 million on its opening weekend from 3,157 theaters, yielding a middling $5,385 location average — an especially sad result given the brand strength of Carrie and the proximity to Halloween, which typically boosts horror movie prospects. Carrie cost MGM and Screen Gems $30 million to produce. Audiences, which were 54 percent female and 56 percent below the age of 25, issued the film an unenthusiastic “B–” CinemaScore grade.

In fourth place, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 enjoyed another weekend without any new family film competition and thus dropped just 27 percent to $10.1 million in its fourth weekend. The $78 million animated title has now grossed $93.1 million and should surpass the $100 million mark by this time next weekend. Cloudy 2 is performing in line with the original Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which had earned $95.7 million at the same point in its run in 2009. That film wound up with $124.9 million domestically, and the sequel should finish a tad below that.

Rounding out the Top 5 was Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarznegger’s prison-set action film Escape Plan, which tanked with just $9.8 million in its opening weekend. (On the bright side, the film fared better than Benedict Cumberbatch’s The Fifth Estate, which had the worst wide debut of 2013.) Escape Plan‘s stars each suffered bombs earlier this year — Stallone with Bullet to the Head ($9.5 million total) and Schwarznegger with The Last Stand ($12.1 million total) — and their team-up couldn’t draw Expendables-sized numbers. Summit spent at least $50 million on the movie (some reports place the budget closer to $70 million). The audiences who showed up to see it were 55 percent male and 61 percent above the age of 30, and they generally liked what they saw, giving it a “B+” CinemaScore.

1. Gravity – $31 million
2. Captain Phillips – $17.3 million
3. Carrie – $17 million
4. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 – $10.1 million
5. Escape Plan – $9.8 million

In limited release, the much buzzed-about Oscar contender 12 Years a Slave pulled in $960,000 from 19 theaters, giving it a $50,526 per theater average and ensuring it will garner expansion in the weeks to come. Meanwhile, Robert Redford’s critical favorite All Is Lost found $97,400 from six theaters for a $16,233 average, while the Daniel Radcliffe/Dane DeHaan drama Kill Your Darlings found $57,700 from four theaters, for a $14,425 average.

Categories
The Couch Potato Report

The weekend is here and it is time to watch some movies!!

The Couch Potato Report – October 19th, 2013

I always love finding out that big Hollywood action films are made in Canada, even when they don’t do that well at the box office, and PACIFIC RIM did not do that well at the box office. It barely made one hundred million dollars and the made-in-Toronto mindless Summer action film should have done much better.

PACIFIC RIM takes place in a world where giant monsters have come on land from deep below the sea and the only hope that humankind has to defeat them is with giant robots – known as Jaegers.

Yes, this is a movie about giant robots fighting giant sea monsters…sounds a lot like the Godzilla movies, doesn’t it? Well it is a lot like that movie, and ALIENS, and CLOVERFIELD, and INDEPENDENCE DAY.

PACIFIC RIM doesn’t have an original moment in its 131 minute running time, but I still enjoyed it. This is a mindless Summer action movie, so press play on your remote, shut off your brain, and just enjoy watching giant creatures fight, and things blow up real good.

Here’s another mindless Summer action film that is devoid of an original moment. But even though I did shut off my brain before I watched it, I can only mildly recommend THE HEAT because the story is cliché and predicatble, I didn’t laugh once, and the lead characters are completely unlikeable for the majority of the film…right up until the part where the buddy cop comedy playbook fully kicks in and they have to start getting along for the sake of the story.

THE HEAT stars Sandra Bullock from MISS CONGENIALITY and Melissa McCarthy of BRIDESMAIDS. Sandra is a by the book cop who is told she needs to loosen up a bit if she wants a promotion, and Melissa is a rough and ragged officer who needs to get her act together. And wouldn’t you know it?! They become friends by the end!!

THE HEAT is never awful, but it was too predictable and unfunny – even with my brain shut off – to enable me to do anything other than mildly recommend it, and it only gets that mild recommendation because I am a fan of the lead actresses.

If you expect absolutely nothing going in you might mildly enjoy it – and them – too. Good luck!!

I will use the word “love” to describe this third release, but only because the word is in the title.

I actually didn’t love LOVE, MARILYN, even though I do love Marilyn.

In addition to people who knew her sharing their stories, LOVE, MARILYN features modern day celebrities reading and occasionally acting out – quite intensely at times – excerpts from books and memoirs written by others who knew Marilyn Monroe and some of Marilyn’s own recently discovered personal journals and letters.

Even fifty-one years after her death, Marilyn Monroe is still fascinating and so most of LOVE, MARILYN works for that reason. But when some of the people in this movie are trying too hard to get the point of the short note across to us viewers, it doesn’t always work.

But since most of it does work, I can – and do – easily recommend it.

No, I actually didn’t love LOVE, MARILYN, but most of it was quite fascinating, just like Marilyn herself.

It’s TV time now!!

Time for me to talk about three new TV Show sets that are available for us all to own, starting with THE COMPLETE SEASON EIGHT of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER!

Here is the ongoing story of a guy named Ted who continues to search for the woman of his dreams in New York City…with the help of his four best friends.

This latest season isn’t its strongest…just as the one before this season wasn’t its strongest. HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER continues to get weaker as it goes on. At times it seems as if the writers are running out of ways to keep the show going…instead of just letting us meet the woman Ted falls for.

But even a weak season of this show is better than the best of some of the other shows on the air…even if they continue to make fun of Canada!!

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER is good TV!! I like hanging out with these people…and I also like that – since the show is running out of ideas – they are currently airing what will be their ninth and final season.

So before Ted meets the Mother of his children this Spring, don’t miss THE COMPLETE SEASON EIGHT of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER.

That show was fun, but I must admit that the most fun I had watching a TV show on DVD this week came courtesy of the four disc set that features SEASONS 1 and 2 of the MTV show AWKWARD

AWKWARD is about an unpopular 15 year old girl who slips in the bathroom and becomes popular overnight at high school when everyone mistakes the accident has for a suicide attempt.

Regardless of her new found popularity there are still some other girls who try and keep her down, and a boyfriend who loves her when they are all alone, but doesn’t want anyone to actually know they are together.

And then there are her parents, who are still together, usually quite close together.

Compound all of that with our heroine falling for another boy, and the fact that throughout these seasons she is dealing with a “carefrontation” letter, a note sent to her by a friend meant to help her navigate her way through school.

It’s all AWKWARD.

There’s that other show on television right now that is about girls – called GIRLS – that is getting all the attention and winning awards, but it is nowhere near as good as AWKWARD.

I really enjoyed watching SEASONS 1 & 2, and I need to catch up on SEASON 3, which is running on MTV right now.

This is great stuff. Real kids, with real problems that are actually really funny in this TV show.

The final TV show this week…you say you want a REVOLUTION, well I have one for you!!

Here is a show about what happens when the power goes out, all of the power…goes out, goes away, never to return.

What would happen if that happened? Well, in REVOLUTION, one man starts an army that takes control of and a group of revolutionaries fight to take back control. So the show has fighting.

There is also science in REVOLUTION as another group works to turn the power back on.

THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of REVOLUTION has a lot going on, actually, in addition to the fighting and science, and most of it works. There are a few times when it all slows down and my interest started to wane, but for the most part the show kept me interested from start to finish.

Not enough to start watching season two when it aits every week, but I really enjoyed watching the whole first season all at once, and I will do that again when the next set comes out.

Let’s go to the rink, shall we? The rink, circa 1977 when there weren’t ads on the boards, the Hanson Brothers had just been traded to a new team, and the Charlestown Chiefs ruled the Federal League.

All of that – and so much more – all takes place in SLAP SHOT, a movie universally renowned as the best hockey movie ever. SLAP SHOT has just debuted on blu-ray, my friends, and it looks and sounds amazing!

Paul Newman stars in the film as the aging player-coach who convinces his team to play dirty, only to change his mind when he sees what violence has done to the game, and his teammates.

There are no new extras on this blu-ray of SLAP SHOT, not a single one, and that is disappointing, but I’m in no way disappointed by the film, never have, never will be. It still makes me laugh, it still shows the game of hockey better than any movie has – before or since – and it still features some unforgettable characters and moments.

Pick it up in HD and enjoy it once again

The 1977 classic SLAP SHOT; THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of the very good – but never great – show REVOLUTION; SEASONS 1 and 2 of the very entertaining show AWKWARD; THE COMPLETE SEASON EIGHT of the thankfully it’s coming to an end, once great show HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER; the very interesting documentary LOVE, MARILYN; the not great, completely predictable action comedy THE HEAT; and the mindless fun of the made-in-Toronto action flick PACIFIC RIM are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

And that’s this week’s COUCH POTATO REPORT.

Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here again next time on The Couch!

Categories
Television

Community is back, y’all!!

NBC Pulls ‘Welcome to the Family,’ ‘Ironside,’ Sets ‘Community’ Return

‘Community’ to begin new season with back-to-back episodes

NBC has removed “Welcome to the Family” and “Ironside” from its schedule and set a Jan. 2 return date for “Community.”

The Peacock also said that “Chicago Fire” spinoff “Chicago P.D.” will premiere Jan. 8 in the former 10 p.m. Wednesday timeslot of its forerunner, which now airs on Tuesdays.

“Ironside,” starring Blair Underwood, will vacate that time period after its fourth episode airs Oct. 23, in favor of editions of “Dateline” and various specials (including “Saturday Night Live”-themed specials, as well as consecutive holiday outings for Kelly Clarkson and Michael Buble in December) through the end of 2013.

Meanwhile, “Welcome to the Family” is being axed immediately after three episodes. An encore episode of “The Voice” will air on Thursday for NBC next week, with an “SNL Halloween” special a week later. Then, a live episode of “The Voice” will air Nov. 7, before “Parks and Recreation” returns with back-to-back episodes on Nov. 14 and again on Nov. 21.

“Community” will begin its fifth season and first after a year’s hiatus for showrunner Dan Harmon with back-to-back episodes before settling into an 8 p.m. timeslot on Jan. 9, bumping “Parks and Recreation” to 8:30 p.m.

NBC’s Thursday programming has been struggling since the start of the fall season, and even though “Family” showed a slight gain in its most recent airing, the newcomer remained stuck with a sub-1.0 rating among adults 18-49. A night earlier, “Ironside” fared little better with a 1.1 rating.

Next week’s “Voice” airing might provide a small boost to remaining Thursday freshman “Sean Saves the World” and “The Michael J. Fox Show,” which drew demo ratings of 1.1 and 1.2 this week, respectively.

Categories
Music

Awesome!!

Arcade Fire to Play ‘Colbert Report’

Indie-rock giants Arcade Fire will appear on The Colbert Report this Monday, October 21st, a representative for Comedy Central confirmed to Rolling Stone. The group will be promoting its upcoming fourth LP Reflektor and will perform as the Reflektors. Stephen Colbert will also interview the group.

The band began promoting their forthcoming release in late September with an appearance on Saturday Night Live, where the heavily made-up Montrealers played Reflektor’s disco-inflected eponymous cut and a moody, new-wave-y track called “Afterlife.” That night, the group premiered a star-studded NBC special, Arcade Fire in Here Comes the Night Time, directed by Roman Coppola, which featured the Reflektor cuts “Here Comes the Night Time,” “We Exist” and “Normal Person” amid cameos by Zach Galifianakis, Bono, Ben Stiller, Aziz Ansari, Michael Cera and more. The group filmed the special in Montreal for about 100 lucky fans (give or take a celeb) last September at a gig they put on under the nom-de-rock “the Reflektors.”

The group has also booked a series of upcoming shows using the the Reflektors name in Brooklyn, Miami and Los Angeles. Arcade Fire will also appear at Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, California, alongside Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tom Waits, Queens of the Stone Age, Jack Johnson and Elvis Costello.

Categories
Awards

2014 could be the greatest induction class ever!!

Nirvana, KISS under consideration for Rock Hall of Fame

Nirvana, Linda Ronstadt, Peter Gabriel, Hall and Oates, and The Replacements are among first-time nominees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The hall of fame announced its annual list of nominees Wednesday morning and half the field of 16 were first-time nominees. YES, Link Wray and The Zombies also received their first nominations.

More than 600 voters will determine the class of 2014. Inductees will be announced in December and a ceremony will be held next April in New York. The induction will air on HBO in May.

Nirvana is nominated in its first year of eligibility. If selected for induction, the band would enter the hall of fame almost exactly 20 years after frontman Kurt Cobain’s suicide at age 27.

Ronstadt receives her first nomination not long after she shared news that she has Parkinson’s disease. Fans have long questioned her absence from the hall’s roster of stars. Similarly, long-denied YES joins the list after Rush finally struck a blow for prog rock with its induction earlier this year.

Repeat nominees are KISS, LL Cool J, N.W.A., Cat Stevens, Deep Purple, The Meters, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Chic.

It’s the eighth nomination for Chic since 2003, but comes as co-founder Nile Rodgers is enjoying widespread attention after his collaboration with Daft Punk earlier this year.

KISS, LL Cool J and Stevens return to the list after absences of several years.

Categories
South Park

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Who Killed South Park?! Matt Stone & Trey Parker Miss Wednesday Deadline for the First Time

What bastards killed tonight’s new episode of South Park?!

Er…nature?

Though Matt Stone and Trey Parker seemed destined to miss a deadline one of these days thanks to their one-episode-per-week work load that they have admitted hews more to the right-before-Wednesday portion of the week, it turns out that a power outage was the culprit behind the scheduling hiccup.

“On Tuesday night, South Park Studios lost power,” Comedy Central said in a statement. “From animation to rendering to editing and sound, all of their computers were down for hours and they were unable to finish episode 1704, ‘Goth Kids 3: Dawn Of The Posers’ in time for air tonight.”

To make up for what possibly could’ve been avoided if they weren’t such usually proficient procrastinators, the South Park powers that be live-tweeted tonight’s repeat of the episode “Scott Tenorman Must Die” and offered up all sorts of fun-fact trivia and pics of the crew looking all bummed out in the darkened studio.

“It sucks to miss an air date but after all these years of tempting fate by delivering the show last minute, I guess it was bound to happen,” Parker admitted in a statement after delivering 240 other episodes on time.

Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers will air Oct. 23 instead. Who wants to bet that Matt and Trey are going to use that extra week to get a head start on their next new episode?!

Neither do we.

Categories
People

May he rest in peace

Veteran character actor Ed Lauter dies at age 74

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Veteran character actor Ed Lauter, whose long, angular face and stern bearing made him an instantly recognizable figure in scores of movies and TV shows during a career that stretched across five decades, died Wednesday. He was 74.

Lauter died of mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer most commonly caused by asbestos exposure, said his publicist, Edward Lozzi.

Whether he was an irascible authority figure, a brutal thug or a conniving con man, Lauter’s presence made him all but impossible to miss in any film he was in. That was so even on those occasions when he was playing a character more bumbling than menacing, although menacing was clearly his forte.

He was the brutal prison guard who was Burt Reynolds’ nemesis in the 1974 comedy-drama “The Longest Yard” and the sleazy gas station attendant in Alfred Hitchcock’s last film, “The Family Plot.” In “Death Wish 3,” he was the violent cop who teams with Charles Bronson’s vigilante to rid New York City’s streets of criminals, not by incarcerating them but by killing them.

More recently he was the butler to Berenice Bejo’s French ingenue in the 2011 Oscar-winning film “The Artist.”

Lauter described himself in a 2010 interview with Cinema Shock magazine as a “turn” actor, someone who shows up at some point in the film and suddenly turns the plot in a different direction.

He credited the cast of real-life characters he grew up observing in his native Long Beach, N.Y., as inspiring many of the characters he would go on to portray.

He laughed at being someone frequently recognized in public for his roles.

“But sometimes people don’t know my name,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘Oh, yeah! There’s that guy! You were in … you were in … ”

He was in “Trouble With the Curve” in 2011 with Clint Eastwood and in “Born on the Fourth of July” with Tom Cruise. He was also in “The New Centurions” with George C. Scott and in “My Blue Heaven,” ”Revenge of the Nerds 2″ and “Not Another Teenage Movie,” among many other films.

TV appearances included “The Office,” ”ER,” ”Murder, She Wrote” and “The Rockford Files.”

Among his favorite roles, he said in 2010, was “The Longest Yard.”

He recalled that director Robert Aldrich told him he didn’t have to read for the part but would have to accompany Aldrich to a nearby park so the director could ensure that he could throw a football like a quarterback would. When he hit former NFL receiver Pat Studstill, who was a stuntman in the movie, right in his jersey number with the first pass, Lauter said Aldrich told him he had the job.

Lauter, who continued to work until a few months ago, had completed roles in several films still to be released.

He is survived his wife, Mia, and four children.