Lee Remick: Last News

I am not sure the world asked for yet another take on 20th Century Fox’s Omen franchise, the constantly regurgitated series with Damien (who made the numbers 666 iconic) and company. Since the 1976 original, when Damien first appeared in the movie with Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, we have had Damien: Omen II, The Final Conflict, Omen IV: The Awakening (in which a girl becomes the antichrist for the first time), the 2006 remake The Omen, and even a 2016 Damien TV series. Of course, like all these horror franchises, it is inevitable someone would come up with the idea for an origin story, and that is what we now have with The First Omen, which is, of course, not the first, just the latest. But, set in 1971, it does attempt to take us right to the doorstep of the actual first,the Richard Donner-directed 1976 starter.

No dart gun, or First Omen, or Monkey Man will put Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire to sleep this weekend. The pic, after an unexpected $80 million Easter weekend start, will continue to rumble with a 55%-60% second-weekend drop to between $32M-$36M. Through four days, the Adam Wingard-directed Monsterverse title stands at $87.7M, fueled by 57% of K-12 schools out Monday and another 14% colleges. Expect more cash today as, per Comscore, there are 28% of K-12 school out, and 5% universities.

It’s easy to feel a bit smug early on in Days of Wine and Roses, as we know so much more – or at least have so much greater vocabularies – when it comes to things like toxic relationships and the role of abstinence in maintaining sobriety and all the other tenets of Bill W that have passed into common parlance and popular culture since Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick starred in the 1962 feature film version. Would the musical’s lovestruck alcoholics Kirstin Arnensen (Kelli O’Hara) and Joe Clay (Brian D’Arcy James) stood readier for battle if they’d seen so much as a single episode of Celebrity Rehab?

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Fresh off an early workshop of “The Light in the Piazza,” the actress Kelli O’Hara had a passing thought: What if there was an ambitious musical adaptation of “Days of Wine and Roses,” the 1962 addiction drama that starred Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick? It could give her a chance to reunite with “Piazza” composer Adam Guettel and with the actor Brian D’Arcy James, with whom she had starred in the short-lived Broadway musical “The Sweet Smell of Success.” Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “I just thought: What an awesome acting challenge and rich, artful experience [it could be],” O’Hara said in a conversation with James on Variety‘s theater podcast, “Stagecraft.” “Adam was intrigued by the idea and without me knowing, he went off and got the rights to it!” It took 21 years of on-and-off work, but “Days of Wine and Roses” finally had its world premiere at Off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater last year and has just begun performances on Broadway. Both performers said they relish the opportunity to return to songs that can be challenging both for singers and for audiences.

Rejoice exhibition, because some wide releases are keeping their dates on the theatrical film schedule next year, despite it being wrecked by the actors strike. Disney had April 5 on hold and that’s being designated to 20th Century Studios’ psychological thriller The First Omen, the prequel to the classic 1976 horror film. 

Judith James, a film, TV and Broadway producer who was Richard Dreyfuss’ producing partner for many years and worked on such projects as Quiz Show, Mr. Holland’s Opus and Eleanor: In Her Own Words, has died of cancer in Santa Barbara, CA. She was 86.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Emmys have been here before. In 1980, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (back then, they were two separate unions negotiating a joint contract with the studios but are now the combined SAG-AFTRA) went on strike for three months. That year’s Emmy telecast happened to fall right in the middle of it. Actors boycotted the ceremony, but for some reason, the TV Academy went ahead with the Emmy telecast anyway. Famously, only one out of 52 nominees attended: Powers Boothe, who said when accepting his trophy for playing cult leader Jim Jones: “This is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest.”

A new musical adaptation of the classic 1962 film Days of Wine and Roses will make its world premiere Off Broadway this May in an Atlantic Theater Company production starring Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James in the roles made famous by Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick.

EXCLUSIVE: Following her breakout role in the Apple TV+ series Servant, Nell Tiger Free has found her first leading role in a major studio film. Sources tell Deadline that she is set to star in 20th Century’s First Omen, a prequel to the classic horror franchise The Omen. Arkasha Stevenson will make her feature directing debut on the pic and will also handle the rewrite alongside writing partner Tim Smith. Smith is set to executive produce, with Phantom Four producing.

EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Studios is in development on The First Omen, a prequel to the original 1976 Fox movie The Omen, with Legion and Briarpatch episodic director Arkasha Stevenson making her feature directorial debut.

EXCLUSIVE: Producer Sam Okun and his Sam Okun Productions banner have optioned worldwide film and TV remake and sequel rights to a pair of classic films directed and produced by three-time Oscar nominee Otto Preminger: 1959’s Anatomy of a Murder and 1962’s Advise & Consent.

J. Kim Murphy Julian Fowles, a film and television producer who worked at KCET and Esparza/Katz Productions, died in a hospital in Miami, Flor. on Saturday while recovering from a stroke.

she asked a laughably-serious “M.A.S.H.” actor Elliott Gould, just after reminding him that the “M.A.S.H.” television series which he didn’t appear in went on to make “a fortune.”“You’ve done some brilliant pictures. You’ve done some stinkers,” she said to Gene Hackman.“You know what your problem is? You’re really too pretty,” she asked a wide-eyed Lee Remick.A clip of her best moments was shared by Twitter user @JFrankensteiner and has now garnered more than 7 million views and about 144,000 likes from the now-adoring internet masses.