When news broke last year of John Hillcoat adapting Blood Meridian, I had expressed some hope for similar treatment bestowed upon Cormac McCarthy’s final novels The Passenger and Stella Maris. This desire was almost entirely quixotic; his swan song is an über-nihilistic encyclopedic thriller, at least one-third of which is a two-person dialogue on the history of math, physics, the Manhattan Project (far more compellingly than Oppenheimer), God’s existence, and wanting to fuck your own brother, with a protagonist rather convincingly written as the smartest person alive. It is really not suggestive of a financeable movie.

No doubt emboldened The Bikeriders, however, Jeff Nichols will give it a shot. Speaking to Awards Watch, the writer-director revealed New Regency will back the effort, whether it’s one film or two (I can take a guess) or even arrives anytime soon; Nichols is also planning to adapt David Grann’s...

Swampland race relations in 'Chloe, Love Is Calling You': Desired by two handsome white men, is Olive Borden black or white? Swampland race relations: Bizarre 'Chloe Love Is Calling You' mixes reactionary ideas & voodoo Whenever I watch a film such as the swampland-set 1934 thriller Chloe, Love Is Calling You (a.k.a. Chloe), I like to think about the reactions of the theater audience when it was first shown. Since Marshall Neilan's movie covers subjects such as race, miscegenation, voodoo, murder, and mayhem, I can imagine some volatile reactions. But then again, this little-known thriller of the occult genre has been rarely seen, even in the post-home video days. The first thing about it that got my attention was the listing of Neilan as Director and Olive Borden as Star. During the silent era, Neilan's name had been long associated with Mary Pickford's most famous vehicles, among them...

Which power couple will be obsessing over in just six months time? The 87th Oscars approach and as long as the movies have been around there have been fabulously wealthy and glamorous movie star couples. Take Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks for instance, the original celebrity power couple. If you must know (I know you are too shy to ask) my favorite films of theirs are His: The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and Hers: Stella Maris (1918) though admittedly I have many more left to see.

Fairbanks & Pickford were married in 1920 when both were superstars, he the original Zorro and she Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and other big hits. He famously gave Pickford "The Star of Bombay," a 182-carat sapphire which was not actually from Bombay but from Sri Lanka. She later bequeathed it to the Smithsonian where it remains. There's your priceless (okay, $½ million in today's dollars) piece of trivia for the day.

Everybody's favorite movie decade: Which ones are the best movies released in the 20th century's second decade? Best Film (Pictured above) Broken Blossoms: Barthelmess and Gish star as ill-fated lovers in D.W. Griffith’s romantic melodrama featuring interethnic love. Check These Out (Pictured below) Cabiria: is considered one of the major landmarks in motion picture history, having inspired the scope and visual grandeur of D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance. Also of note, Pastrone's epic of ancient Rome introduced Maciste, a bulky hero who would be featured in countless movies in the ensuing decades. Best Actor (Pictured below) In the tragic The Italian, George Beban plays an Italian immigrant recently arrived in the United States (Click below for film review). Unfortunately, his American dream quickly becomes a horrendous nightmare of poverty and despair. Best Actress (Pictured below) The movies' super-vamp Theda Bara in A Fool There Was: A little...

What does it mean to be on the A-list? In addition to being a box office draw, which is a must, those within that rareified air can often call the shots creatively on their own movies, command a high salary and even develop their own projects. But while she's primarily remembered now as "America's sweetheart" or "The girl with curls," few actors then or now have had the popularity, power and influence of silent film star Mary Pickford. One of early cinema's hugest box office draws, an innovator in film acting, a founder of a major studio and a pop culture icon whose image still resonates to this day, Nicholas Eliopoulos' "Mary Pickford: Muse Of The Movies" is a loving tribute and expansive look at Pickford's life, loves and career.

The masterstroke of this documentary that sets it apart from your standard clip montage intercut with talking heads and voiceover narration,...