The host of AMC's Cinemania talks about the show, his celebrity status, the future of Tivo and his secret life as an adult film star.

Q: You were on AMC's last movie show, The Movie Club. Did the Cinemania opportunity come out of that experience?

A: It actually had absolutely nothing to do with that. In fact, to be honest with you, I'm not sure if AMC even remembers I was on that show. I had hosted shows in the past, and I told my peeps, my representatives, that if I'm going to host anything in the future it has to be something that I'm enthusiastic about -- not just Celebrity Fit Cook-Off. But they said there was a movie show in development at AMC, and I am a movie buff, so I said definitely.

Q: Cinemania is all about knowing the minutiae of movies. Are you a big trivia buff?

A: Heck yeah. I kick ass. And I try to work that in a little bit. But the thing I have to remember is, I'm talking with the people who made the movie. They already know the answers to these, so they're not really impressed. So when I go, "It must have been really interesting working with the second AD Jack Salinger who also was the special effects coordinator on a little movie that came out in 1982," they're like, "Yeah, Jack's cool, he's a real nice guy." And I'm like, "Aren't you impressed that I knew that?" "No not really." They just figure some producer told me, I just want to raise my hand and go, "NO! NO! I really do love your movie! I really am a dork!"

Continue reading "Q&A - Cinemania Host Regan Burns" »

There was a time when pageants gave out screen tests instead of scholarships. Hollywood loves beautiful women. But what do beautiful women think about Hollywood? We asked three current title holders to single out their favorite big screen beauties then looked to see if each crowned queen (or her cause) seemed destined for major screen time.

Name and Title: Riyo Mori, Miss Universe 2007

Focus of Platform: HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and research

Films We Think Further the Cause: Philadelphia

On Screen Counterpart: Miss Universe 1953 Christiane Martel had a role in the harem of the Oriental Western Yankee Pasha (1954).

Favorite Hollywood Beauties

Audrey Hepburn: "We watched her movies in English class when I was in Japan: Breakfast at Tiffany's, My Fair Lady and Roman Holiday."

Catherine Zeta-Jones: "My mom is a huge fan of her and we used to watch her movies together... I used to try to copy her smile."  

Jennifer Lopez: "I just met her. I didn't tell her who I was. I was just, 'Um, oh hello, I'm from Japan'."

Continue reading "Miss Universe, Miss Teen USA and Miss USA on Big Screen Beauty" »

Screenwriters know films from the inside out. Sometimes they know how to improve a script; sometimes they spot the raw material that works best. We've asked three writers to share their insights on just such matters.

Name: Vince Gilligan

Resume: Home Fries, Hancock, Breaking Bad

Due for a Remake: "I always thought the movie They Live would have been so much better. It's got a great title and is based on a classic sci-fi short story where a guy gets a pair of sunglasses -- as soon as he puts them on, he can see the world as it truly is, and he realizes our entire civilization has been taken over by aliens. I always thought that was such a great idea, and John Carpenter is such a talented director, but They Live could have been a better movie."

Dream Adaptation: "I had an idea the other day for a sequel to the movie Westworld that I think would be a very cool way to go, but I can't give it away, otherwise someone else might borrow it. It's not one of my favorite movies, but it suddenly dawned on me -- that kind of culture as sport for rich, lazy bored people is ripe for re-inventing."

Favorite Director-Screenwriter Duo: "Budd Boettiger and Burt Kennedy. They made these Westerns in the mid-to-late fifties mostly starring Randolph Scott that were just little gems. They were made for almost no money, and at that point in Scott's career, he was not the big star he had been 20 years before. The Tall T is the best of the bunch. Wonderful, underrated movies that are character pieces that are exciting and tense."

Continue reading "What Needs a Rewrite According to the Scribes of Breaking Bad and Lost Highway" »

Whether you're dancing with a martini shaker, writing etiquette books about otters or penning award-winning songs, chances are you have interesting taste in films. Here are three bonus interviews from our regular 3x3 feature. See what genre-hopping emerges when worlds collide.

Name: Lynn Ahrens

Profession: Lyricist, librettist

Oscar Nominations: Best Original Song and Best Music for Anastasia

Other Awards Won: Tony, Emmy, Drama Desk, Olivier

Upcoming Gig: Schoolhouse Rock Returns!

Three Favorite Oscar-nominated Pictures That Didn't Win

1. Beauty and the Beast: "You suspend disbelief and float blissfully off into a world of imagination, whimsy and delight, without an ounce of cynicism. A perfect meeting of story, song and animation; it's what made me want to try and write a movie musical."

2. The Remains of the Day: "Its quiet magnificence lies in the way it portrays two repressed souls, yearning toward one another and never quite managing to connect -- a heartbreaking tone poem of suppressed love and lost opportunities, set against a political backdrop."

3. Little Miss Sunshine: "Because it makes me laugh out loud. Because I care so much about these characters. And because it's such a sublime family portrait of love in the midst of dysfunction. We should all be so lucky."

Continue reading "A Lyricist, a Dancer and a Kiddie Lit Author Pick Favorite Flicks" »

Laughter might be the best medicine but crying will help you cope. We asked three standup comics -- experts at tickling the funny bone -- to pick the movies that most touched their hearts. After all, isn't comedy just tragedy plus timing?

Comic: Jane Condon, Last Comic Standing

Website: janecondon.com

Memorable Movie Moment: "Just once in your life, see a movie in Times Square. Everyone talks to the screen. Best place I could have seen Star Wars. Everyone was yelling, 'Yeah! Yoda!' At first, I was appalled. By the end, I'm pumping my fists and screaming, "Yeah!! Yoda!!!"

Favorite Sad Movies

1. Casablanca: "Ingrid Bergman! Don't get on the plane with Laszlo! Rick really loves you!"

2. Titanic: "The Irish, my people, have to ride in steerage. They never even make it to the lifeboats."

3. Love Story: "I'm a blue-collar girl and I dated a guy from Harvard. So I really identified...except for the ending."

Continue reading "What's the Saddest Movie Ever? Or When Do Comics Hide Their Tears?" »

Oscar's animated feature category only dates back to 2001, but it's an art form that traces back to the turn of the century. Who better to suggest what to watch than people with their own easel experience?  We asked three artists at DC Comics to tell us their top three animated features.

Name: Rick Veitch

Current project: Army@Love from Vertigo

Has worked on: Brat Pack, The Maximortal, Can't Get No, The One, Swamp Thing, Greyshirt, Supreme, Rare Bit Fiends, 1963

Favorite comics: New Gods, All Star Superman

Top Three Animated Features:

1. The Incredibles: "A superhero film done right. It's really a character film about three-dimensional folks who just happen to have superpowers. There's plenty of fireworks and eye-candy but it doesn't overwhelm the story. There's not a frame out of place."

2. The Iron Giant: "The Jack Kirby influence: Brad Bird caught that sense of gigantism and heavy movement that Kirby brought to his monster comics."

3. Monsters, Inc.: "Actually, almost all the Pixar films are on my favorite-list! Each one is funny, scary, poignant, character driven. And gorgeous too."

Continue reading "What's the Greatest Animated Film? Three Artists from DC Comics Know Best" »

Robert Patrick is an actor's actor. He works hard, he takes nothing for granted and he holds no delusions about the majority of his films' posterity. He famously once said of his work, "I've been acting for 16 years. I've done 55 movies and, in all seriousness, there's maybe five that are good and the rest are crap." Despite his self-deprecation, Patrick has held some of the most iconic roles in Hollywood history. He's played father to both Elvis and Johnny Cash, he's searched for the truth with Gillian Anderson's Scully, he's owed money to America's favorite HBO crime family, and of course, he's worn the uniform of the most recognizable, stone cold killer cop this side of Cyberdyne. We got the skinny on which five were worth their salt...

Continue reading "Auto Focus: Robert Patrick's Personal Best" »

Ennio Morricone. John Williams. Danny Elfman. The impact of composers on cinema is the subject of college theses and film retrospectives. But what about the reverse? How have movies influenced musicians? Inspired them? Even effectively documented them? AMC asked three major indie bands those three very questions. No one, as it turns out, cited The Big Chill.

The Band: Ween

The Artist: Guitarist Mickey Melchionda a.k.a. Dean Ween

Film Appearances: It's Pat

Their Music in Movies: Beautiful Girls, Road Trip, Dude, Where's My Car?

Movies in Their Music: The song "Buenas Tardes Amigo" was inspired by spaghetti Westerns and is on a CD (Chocolate & Cheese) dedicated to actor John Candy.

Favorite Concert Film: Live at Pompeii. ("Pink Floyd at their best.")

Recommended Soundtrack: The Man With the Golden Arm. ("Every time Frankie gets the craving that creepy music comes on, almost like when the shark is on the prowl in Jaws.)

Fun Fact: A Ween song was used as the wedding song for David Duchovny and Tea Leoni.

Continue reading "3X3: Ween, Carbon Leaf, and Magnetic Fields on Movie Music" »

Money can't buy love? Tell that to these professional matchmakers who have devoted themselves to bringing soulmates together. It's not as cheap as posting on Craigslist, but their success rate is exponentially higher, and there's little to no chance your blind date turns out to be a serial killer. In honor of Valentine's Day, we asked these experts to pick the three most romantic movies of all time. Some are predictable, some are original, and some are just plain embarrassing.

Name: Samantha Daniels

Title and Organization: Founder and President, Samantha's Table Matchmaking

Best Celeb Couple: Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell

Recommended First Date: "I only set people up for drinks, where you can sit down and focus on each other at a table. It's less pressure, you're only committing for an hour or an hour and a half at a time, and then if you're hitting it off, you can go out another time."

Website: www.Relationshipchatter.tv

The Most Romantic Movies:

1. Titanic (1997): "I just thought Titanic was so romantic because these people met at a really difficult time and they were two people from totally different backgrounds, and they found each other and had this moment and then he died -- and she was sort of carrying that love for him through her whole life."

2. An Affair to Remember (1957): "It was supposed to be that if they were meant to be they'd see each other at the Empire State Building but fate intervened, but then fate intervened again to bring them together. I think it was all kind of about fate."

3. One Fine Day (1996): "The movie was just in the course of one day, but you kind of felt like they were going to be together forever just because of their chemistry."

Continue reading "Makeout Movies: Matchmakers Pick Top Romantic Movies " »

"It's an honor just to be nominated." So the saying goes. And while that is true, which film (or actor) takes home the Oscar still sparks heated debates every year. Heck, the Crash over Brokeback Mountain win still enrages some people! With the 80th annual Academy Awards just weeks away, we asked three Oscar-nominated professionals which films they thought should have snagged the little gold man but didn't.

Name: Lynn Redgrave

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role for Georgy Girl (1966); Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Gods and Monsters (1998)

Other Awards Won: Golden Globe and New York Film Critics for Georgy Girl; Golden Globe, Independent Spirit Award, London Film Critics Circle for Gods and Monsters

Current Gig: Starring in MCC Theater's GRACE at the Lucille Lortel Theatre through March 8.

Website: redgrave.com

Three Oscar-Nominated Pictures That Should've Won:

1. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951): "An absolute classic that lives on and on, filmed in a claustrophobic style that allows us into Blanche's soul, yearning for all she has lost. Haunting, brilliant, unforgettable."

2. Shane (1953): "I have seen this film again and again since it first came out and I cry every time! Its simplicity of storytelling is dazzling."

3. Apocalypse Now (1979): "It was filmed only a few years after the withdrawal of American troops from that nightmare of a war in Vietnam. If it could have come out during the war, surely it could have changed history and ended that debacle way sooner. But then again...do we ever learn?"

Continue reading "3X3: Oscar Nominees Choose the Films That Should Have Won" »