On June 17, 1972, thieves acting on behalf of Richard Nixon's presidential campaign broke into the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC, the location of the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The group was looking for papers and secrets that would have given Nixon an unfair advantage in the election. Nixon was bafflingly still elected during this kerfuffle and served as president for two more years before enough details about the break-in emerged to warrant his infamous resignation from office. The many, many details of the Watergate scandal have been recorded in innumerable books, documentaries, and Hollywood dramas in the ensuing decades, and Watergate shows are being made to this day; the miniseries "Gaslit" aired in 2022 and "White House Plumbers" in 2023.
The Watergate scandal represented a loss of American innocence for many. It was positive proof that the Republican party was openly corrupt. The scandal was bad enough, but then Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon of all his recorded,...
The Watergate scandal represented a loss of American innocence for many. It was positive proof that the Republican party was openly corrupt. The scandal was bad enough, but then Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon of all his recorded,...
- 1/27/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Liam Neeson hasn’t kept count, but someone in the Open Road marketing department sure did: Marketing for Neil Jordan’s “Marlowe,” which casts the Oscar nominee as Raymond Chandler’s iconic gumshoe Philip Marlowe, note that the actor has reached the milestone of appearing in 100 films. If that’s not reason enough to speak to the 70-year-old Irish actor about the breadth of his cinematic career, what could possibly be?
(Due diligence: Neeson’s IMDb profile currently lists 139 acting roles, including voice work and TV shows, and as Neeson will remind us, documentaries. We did our own count, including TV movies, feature films, voice work, and cameos, and got to 99. We’ll take it.)
So: Over the course of 100 films (give or take), 45 years in the industry, and numerous awards, Neeson has portrayed real people, iconic characters, transcended genre (“Love Actually” and “Star Wars”) — and at the end of it,...
(Due diligence: Neeson’s IMDb profile currently lists 139 acting roles, including voice work and TV shows, and as Neeson will remind us, documentaries. We did our own count, including TV movies, feature films, voice work, and cameos, and got to 99. We’ll take it.)
So: Over the course of 100 films (give or take), 45 years in the industry, and numerous awards, Neeson has portrayed real people, iconic characters, transcended genre (“Love Actually” and “Star Wars”) — and at the end of it,...
- 2/16/2023
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Click here to read the full article.
Fascination over the mysterious identity of Deep Throat, the Watergate whistleblower, helped fuel the success of 1976’s Oscar-winning All the President’s Men, but it also led to another, far unlikelier project: 1999’s Dick, a bouncy comedy about two teen girls who unwittingly find themselves at the center of the scandal.
Dick focused on Betsy (Kirsten Dunst) and Arlene (Michelle Williams), a pair of 15-year-old best friends who wind up as President Nixon’s dog walkers and, somehow, become famed informant Deep Throat for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Will Ferrell) and Carl Bernstein (Bruce McCulloch). (It wasn’t until 2005 that former FBI associate director Mark Felt revealed himself to have been the Post’s anonymous source.)
Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters on June 17, 1972, which led to Nixon’s resignation following his administration’s efforts to cover up its involvement,...
Fascination over the mysterious identity of Deep Throat, the Watergate whistleblower, helped fuel the success of 1976’s Oscar-winning All the President’s Men, but it also led to another, far unlikelier project: 1999’s Dick, a bouncy comedy about two teen girls who unwittingly find themselves at the center of the scandal.
Dick focused on Betsy (Kirsten Dunst) and Arlene (Michelle Williams), a pair of 15-year-old best friends who wind up as President Nixon’s dog walkers and, somehow, become famed informant Deep Throat for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Will Ferrell) and Carl Bernstein (Bruce McCulloch). (It wasn’t until 2005 that former FBI associate director Mark Felt revealed himself to have been the Post’s anonymous source.)
Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters on June 17, 1972, which led to Nixon’s resignation following his administration’s efforts to cover up its involvement,...
- 6/17/2022
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Television Academy Foundation named two new members to its board of directors: Nne Ebong, vice president of overall deals for series at Netflix, and Jamila Hunter, executive vice president of programming and development at Freeform. Both have been elected to three-year terms.
At Netflix, Ebong leads the development of original series under creative partnerships with Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland, Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions and others. She joined Netflix after serving as creative lead at film and television studio Wiip, where she developed and produced projects for cable, streaming and the international marketplace. Her projects at Wiip included HBO’s “The White House Plumbers” and Amazon’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” Ebong also developed series such as “Scandal,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” and “American Crime” while heading drama development for ABC Studios from 2013 to 2018.
Ebong’s humanitarian work includes being a “big sister” through...
At Netflix, Ebong leads the development of original series under creative partnerships with Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland, Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions and others. She joined Netflix after serving as creative lead at film and television studio Wiip, where she developed and produced projects for cable, streaming and the international marketplace. Her projects at Wiip included HBO’s “The White House Plumbers” and Amazon’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” Ebong also developed series such as “Scandal,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” and “American Crime” while heading drama development for ABC Studios from 2013 to 2018.
Ebong’s humanitarian work includes being a “big sister” through...
- 10/15/2021
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Patton Oswalt (A.P. Bio), Nat Faxon (The Way Way Back), Erinn Hayes (Childrens Hospital), Patrick Walker (The Resident), Carlos Valdes (The Flash) and Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon a Time) are set for heavily recurring roles opposite Julia Roberts and Sean Penn in Starz’s Watergate drama Gaslit. Also joining in recurring roles are Anne Dudek (House), Chris Conner (Altered Carbon), Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker), Nelson Franklin (Veep), Reed Diamond (Moneyball), Johnny Berchtold (The Wilds), Adam Ray (The Heat) and Billy Smith (Sully).
Based on the first season of the Slate podcast Slow Burn, Gaslit is a modern take on Watergate that focuses on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal – from Nixon’s bumbling, opportunistic subordinates to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down.
The story will center on Martha Mitchell...
Based on the first season of the Slate podcast Slow Burn, Gaslit is a modern take on Watergate that focuses on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal – from Nixon’s bumbling, opportunistic subordinates to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down.
The story will center on Martha Mitchell...
- 10/15/2021
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
HBO has released the first photo of Justin Theroux as G. Gordon Liddy and Woody Harrelson as E. Howard Hunt in The White House Plumbers, its five-part limited series that revisits one of the biggest political scandals in American history, Watergate. You can see the photo below.
The project hails from Veep executive producers Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, David Mandel and Frank Rich, and Ruben Fleischer and David Bernad’s The District. The limited series is a co-production between HBO and wiip.
Created and written by Gregory and Huyck and directed by Mandel, The White House Plumbers is based part on public records and the book Integrity by Egil “Bud” Krogh and Matthew Krogh. The series tells the true story of how Nixon’s own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds, E. Howard Hunt (Harrelson), and G. Gordon Liddy (Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they zealously were trying to protect.
Cast...
The project hails from Veep executive producers Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, David Mandel and Frank Rich, and Ruben Fleischer and David Bernad’s The District. The limited series is a co-production between HBO and wiip.
Created and written by Gregory and Huyck and directed by Mandel, The White House Plumbers is based part on public records and the book Integrity by Egil “Bud” Krogh and Matthew Krogh. The series tells the true story of how Nixon’s own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds, E. Howard Hunt (Harrelson), and G. Gordon Liddy (Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they zealously were trying to protect.
Cast...
- 5/21/2021
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Just a couple of days after HBO announced several major additions to “White House Plumbers,” the cast has grown again. Nelson Ascencio, Gary Cole, Toby Huss, Zoe Levin, John Carroll Lynch, Zak Orth, Tony Plana and Tre Ryder have joined the upcoming political series, currently in production, Variety has learned exclusively.
“White House Plumbers” is based on the book “Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices, and Life Lessons from the White House” by Egil “Bud” Krogh and Matthew Krogh, as well as public records. It follows how Watergate masterminds E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux) accidentally toppled the Nixon presidency that they had been trying to protect.
Levin will play Lisa Hunt, E. Howard Hunt’s “bright and outspoken” eldest daughter who struggles with her mental health and embraces the counterculture, which puts her at odds with her “image-conscious” father. Levin is represented by Anonymous Content,...
“White House Plumbers” is based on the book “Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices, and Life Lessons from the White House” by Egil “Bud” Krogh and Matthew Krogh, as well as public records. It follows how Watergate masterminds E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux) accidentally toppled the Nixon presidency that they had been trying to protect.
Levin will play Lisa Hunt, E. Howard Hunt’s “bright and outspoken” eldest daughter who struggles with her mental health and embraces the counterculture, which puts her at odds with her “image-conscious” father. Levin is represented by Anonymous Content,...
- 5/14/2021
- by Danielle Turchiano
- Variety Film + TV
Hal Holbrook, who died last month at 95, had so many memorable character roles, not the least of which was playing Deep Throat in the 1976 classic All The President’s Men.
At the time, the identity of Deep Throat was one of Washington’s best kept secrets — it wouldn’t be for another 30 years or so that Mark Felt would come forward and reveal himself.
In a 2015 interview with PopPolitics on SiriusXM, Holbrook said that the anonymity of Deep Throat at first made him think that there wasn’t too much to the role, and he turned it down.
Robert Redford, who had acquired the rights to the Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein book, then came to Holbrook’s house to try to convince him otherwise.
Holbrook recalled, “I said, ‘Bob, there’s nothing here. It’s in the dark. There’s hardly anything to the role. …Nobody will see me.”
Redford,...
At the time, the identity of Deep Throat was one of Washington’s best kept secrets — it wouldn’t be for another 30 years or so that Mark Felt would come forward and reveal himself.
In a 2015 interview with PopPolitics on SiriusXM, Holbrook said that the anonymity of Deep Throat at first made him think that there wasn’t too much to the role, and he turned it down.
Robert Redford, who had acquired the rights to the Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein book, then came to Holbrook’s house to try to convince him otherwise.
Holbrook recalled, “I said, ‘Bob, there’s nothing here. It’s in the dark. There’s hardly anything to the role. …Nobody will see me.”
Redford,...
- 2/2/2021
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Update, 9:26 Pm Pt: Miles Taylor appeared on Chris Cuomo’s CNN show and explained why he lied to Anderson Cooper in August about being Anonymous, the Trump administration figure who wrote a scathing New York Times op ed and book.
“Why should CNN keep you on the payroll after lying like that?” Cuomo asked Taylor, who has been a CNN contributor since August.
“It’s a great question, and I will just give you the blunt truth,” he said. “When I said in A Warning, I said in the book that if asked, I would strenuously deny it, that I was the author. And here’s the reason, because the things I said in that book were ideas that I wanted Donald Trump to challenge on their merits. We have seen over the course of four years that Donald Trump’s preference is to find personal attacks and distractions...
“Why should CNN keep you on the payroll after lying like that?” Cuomo asked Taylor, who has been a CNN contributor since August.
“It’s a great question, and I will just give you the blunt truth,” he said. “When I said in A Warning, I said in the book that if asked, I would strenuously deny it, that I was the author. And here’s the reason, because the things I said in that book were ideas that I wanted Donald Trump to challenge on their merits. We have seen over the course of four years that Donald Trump’s preference is to find personal attacks and distractions...
- 10/29/2020
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Although Ridley Scott still has to finish shooting his period drama The Last Duel, his follow-up is looking to land a monster cast. We are hearing that Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Huston and Reeve Carney all are in talks to join MGM’s Gucci. Lady Gaga is attached to star as Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci who was tried and convicted of orchestrating her his assassination on the steps of his office in 1995. She served 18 years in jail before being let out in 2016.
It is the first project Lady Gaga has attached herself to since her Best Actress nomination in a breakout turn opposite Bradley Cooper in 2018’s A Star Is Born. She won an Oscar for writing the song “Shallow,” one of a number of hits on the soundtrack. MGM landed the rights to the package back in April with...
It is the first project Lady Gaga has attached herself to since her Best Actress nomination in a breakout turn opposite Bradley Cooper in 2018’s A Star Is Born. She won an Oscar for writing the song “Shallow,” one of a number of hits on the soundtrack. MGM landed the rights to the package back in April with...
- 8/20/2020
- by Justin Kroll
- Deadline Film + TV
Read more from Variety’s Directors on Directors, in which filmmakers praise their favorite movies of the year, here.
Scott Z. Burns’ “The Report” tells the story of the Herculean efforts of Daniel J. Jones to make sure that the Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture saw the light of day.
Its powerful resonance with “right now” is because it makes us imagine how many thousands of unseen Daniel J. Joneses — mid-range white-collar workers with normal values and decent character — in government are leaving in droves from Justice, State, Fda, Epa, DEA … etc.
Dan Jones is a whistleblower in the tradition of Mark Felt, Karen Silkwood and Jeffrey Wigand; and Scott’s film fully earns its place at the table alongside the iconic pictures of Alan J. Pakula, Sidney Lumet and Mike Nichols, not just because “The Report” is similarly grounded in Washington and government, but because Scott perfectly conveys...
Scott Z. Burns’ “The Report” tells the story of the Herculean efforts of Daniel J. Jones to make sure that the Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture saw the light of day.
Its powerful resonance with “right now” is because it makes us imagine how many thousands of unseen Daniel J. Joneses — mid-range white-collar workers with normal values and decent character — in government are leaving in droves from Justice, State, Fda, Epa, DEA … etc.
Dan Jones is a whistleblower in the tradition of Mark Felt, Karen Silkwood and Jeffrey Wigand; and Scott’s film fully earns its place at the table alongside the iconic pictures of Alan J. Pakula, Sidney Lumet and Mike Nichols, not just because “The Report” is similarly grounded in Washington and government, but because Scott perfectly conveys...
- 12/18/2019
- by Michael Mann
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Ridley Scott has committed to direct a film about the tumultuous Gucci family fashion dynasty and the murder of the grandson of founder Guccio Gucci. Lady Gaga is attached to star as Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, who was tried and convicted of orchestrating her ex-husband’s assassination on the steps of his office in 1995. She served 18 years before being let out of jail in 2016.
It is the first project Lady Gaga has attached herself to since her Best Actress nomination in a breakout turn opposite Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born. She won an Oscar for writing the song Shallow, one of a number of hits on the soundtrack. The combination of actress and director is already starting to draw interest but the first stop will be Fox/Disney, where Scott Free has its first look, and where Scott will next direct The Last Duel,...
It is the first project Lady Gaga has attached herself to since her Best Actress nomination in a breakout turn opposite Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born. She won an Oscar for writing the song Shallow, one of a number of hits on the soundtrack. The combination of actress and director is already starting to draw interest but the first stop will be Fox/Disney, where Scott Free has its first look, and where Scott will next direct The Last Duel,...
- 11/1/2019
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Jacques Audiard, whose latest film “The Sisters Brothers” with John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix and Jake Gyllenhaal earned him a best director prize at Venice, will make his TV debut with the Canal Plus hit original spy series “The Bureau.”
The Palme d’Or winning director of “Dheepan” will direct some episodes of the fifth and final season of “The Bureau,” along with the series creator Eric Rochant, Jérôme Salle, Thomas Bidegain, Anna Novion, Samuel Collardey and Mathieu Kassovitz, who is also the star of “The Bureau.”
Audiard, one of France’s most revered filmmakers, also co-wrote the fifth season of “The Bureau” with Bidegain, his writing partner on several films including “The Sisters Brothers,” as well as Cécile Ducrocq, Capucine Rochant, Hippolyte Girardot, Dominique Baumard, Camille de Castelnau, Olivier Dujols, Raphaël Chevènement, with the collaboration of Valentine Milville.
“The Bureau” revolves around a member of a clandestine branch of...
The Palme d’Or winning director of “Dheepan” will direct some episodes of the fifth and final season of “The Bureau,” along with the series creator Eric Rochant, Jérôme Salle, Thomas Bidegain, Anna Novion, Samuel Collardey and Mathieu Kassovitz, who is also the star of “The Bureau.”
Audiard, one of France’s most revered filmmakers, also co-wrote the fifth season of “The Bureau” with Bidegain, his writing partner on several films including “The Sisters Brothers,” as well as Cécile Ducrocq, Capucine Rochant, Hippolyte Girardot, Dominique Baumard, Camille de Castelnau, Olivier Dujols, Raphaël Chevènement, with the collaboration of Valentine Milville.
“The Bureau” revolves around a member of a clandestine branch of...
- 6/7/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Concussion and Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House writer-director Peter Landesman has gone public with his frustration following an email sent to WGA members by WGA West executive director David Young. Young excoriated “a histrionic, biased trade press” after Deadline and Variety revealed that Chris Keyser, the former WGA West president who is WGA-Agency Agreement Negotiating Committee co-chair, is about to take to buyers The State of Affairs, a packaged drama series set up with Wme-affiliated studio Endeavor Content. It’s being shopped just as talks rekindle between Ata and WGA. Young excused Keyser’s move, despite the show creator starring in a WGA-sanctioned video on why the WGA held moral high ground in its fight with the agencies to eradicate interest-conflicted packaging and affiliated production companies.
This is the second time a writer has shared with Deadline their disagreement with WGA leadership...
This is the second time a writer has shared with Deadline their disagreement with WGA leadership...
- 6/3/2019
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Presidential pardon power has always been political. But few presidents have wielded it to reward heroes of a political base like Donald Trump, who has pardoned the ranchers who set off the Malheur Occupation, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Dick Cheney’s henchman Scooter Libby. Today, the pardon power hangs over the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as he racks up convictions for men like former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Trump has even boasted on Twitter that he could pardon himself. Here, a look back at controversial presidential pardons,...
- 1/31/2019
- by Andrea Marks and Tim Dickinson
- Rollingstone.com
Five years ago when Oscar-nominated documentarian Charles Ferguson (“Inside Job”) started deeply researching the 1972 Watergate break-in, he was chasing a documentary thriller that would be fun to watch. A & E and History were on board. But as the political climate dramatically transformed, he wound up with a more sober narrative, which debuted at the fall festivals ahead of an October theatrical run of the four-hour version. On television, the series airs in six one-hour episodes playing over three nights, starting November 2 as part of “History 100,” a History Channel documentary series comprised of 100 films focused on compelling historical events of the last 100 years.
When A&E commissioned “Watergate,” everyone expected Hillary Clinton was going to be president. “We had no idea how timely it would be,” said A&E chief Molly Thompson. “That’s the way things played out. Watching a cut of the film feels like watching the nightly news.
When A&E commissioned “Watergate,” everyone expected Hillary Clinton was going to be president. “We had no idea how timely it would be,” said A&E chief Molly Thompson. “That’s the way things played out. Watching a cut of the film feels like watching the nightly news.
- 11/3/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Five years ago when Oscar-nominated documentarian Charles Ferguson (“Inside Job”) started deeply researching the 1972 Watergate break-in, he was chasing a documentary thriller that would be fun to watch. A & E and History were on board. But as the political climate dramatically transformed, he wound up with a more sober narrative, which debuted at the fall festivals ahead of an October theatrical run of the four-hour version. On television, the series airs in six one-hour episodes playing over three nights, starting November 2 as part of “History 100,” a History Channel documentary series comprised of 100 films focused on compelling historical events of the last 100 years.
When A&E commissioned “Watergate,” everyone expected Hillary Clinton was going to be president. “We had no idea how timely it would be,” said A&E chief Molly Thompson. “That’s the way things played out. Watching a cut of the film feels like watching the nightly news.
When A&E commissioned “Watergate,” everyone expected Hillary Clinton was going to be president. “We had no idea how timely it would be,” said A&E chief Molly Thompson. “That’s the way things played out. Watching a cut of the film feels like watching the nightly news.
- 11/3/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Streaming services have opened the door for multilingual series like worldwide Netflix hit “Narcos,” but dramas in English still dominate TV’s Golden Age, travel the most widely and draw the biggest distribution deals. International companies are scrambling for a piece of the action — including, perhaps surprisingly, producers in France, despite the country’s perceived snobbery about other languages.
Federation Entertainment, the 5-year-old firm behind Netflix’s first French show, “Marseille,” and Canal Plus spy show “The Bureau,” is the latest French player to step into the competitive U.S. market, with nearly a dozen English-language projects in the pipeline. Unlike outfits such as Gaumont or EuropaCorp, Federation is one of the few sizable, fully independent TV outfits left in France, and not only has opened an office in L.A. but is also developing projects with Paramount TV and other American companies.
Even so, breaking into the U.S.
Federation Entertainment, the 5-year-old firm behind Netflix’s first French show, “Marseille,” and Canal Plus spy show “The Bureau,” is the latest French player to step into the competitive U.S. market, with nearly a dozen English-language projects in the pipeline. Unlike outfits such as Gaumont or EuropaCorp, Federation is one of the few sizable, fully independent TV outfits left in France, and not only has opened an office in L.A. but is also developing projects with Paramount TV and other American companies.
Even so, breaking into the U.S.
- 7/19/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
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