Oskar Schindler: Last News

One of the saddest and brutal films of all time is set to be aired on TV this weekend and be available for streaming.

Pondering Will Smith’s recent triumph at a local Cinemark and Donald Trump’s post-conviction surge, I got to thinking about “movie-think.”

Jack Dunn Celina Biniaz, who at 93 is the youngest of the 1,200 people saved by Oskar Schindler in 1944, slowly walked her way to the podium as the ballroom fell still. In her presence, the audience of about 265 people who gathered Monday on the USC campus were eager to watch living history unfold on stage, no doubt with memories of friends and family lost during World War II on their minds. The audience at included 30 Holocaust survivors.

Mel Gibson was angling to star in “Schindler’s List.” According to the Hollywood Reporter, the “Mad Max” actor “was interested” in playing Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party who saved more than 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust. “Mel Gibson’s name came up,” Creative Artists Agency founder Michael Ovitz told the trade. “He was interested.

Robin Williams called him every week to cheer him up while he was filming his 1993 Holocaust movie, “Schindler’s List.”Spielberg’s friendship with Williams stretched back to “Hook,” the 1991 flick that Spielberg directed and featured Williams as an adult Peter Pan.Spielberg opened up about “Schindler’s List,” and several other topics, in a wide-ranging interview in the Hollywood Reporter to talk about the 30th anniversary of the movie, which was filmed in Krakow, Poland, in 1993.The movie, which won seven Oscars at the 66th Academy Awards in 1994 — including Best Picture and Best Director (for Spielberg) — told the story of German industrialist Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories.“Robin knew how hard it was for me on the movie, and once a week, every Friday, he’d call me on the phone and do comedy for me,” Spielberg said.“Whether it was after 10 minutes or 20 minutes, when he heard me give the biggest laugh, he’d hang up on me.”Neeson also remembered Williams’ Friday phone calls to Spielberg.“Steven would tell us afterward the sorts of things Robin would say,” Neeson recalled. “Once he started a riff of ‘I’m not a Nazi, I’m a nutsy,’ all this sort of s – – t.”Williams, the comedically brilliant “Mork & Mindy” star and Oscar-winning actor (“Good Will Hunting”), died by suicide in 2014 at the age of 63.Spielberg said that shooting “Schindler’s List” took its toll on him, emotionally.“The hard days were beyond my imagination and the easy days were never easy,” he told THR.

K.J. Yossman “Silk” screenwriter Peter Moffat is adapting Jonathan Freedland’s non-fiction novel “The Escape Artist,” which tells the true story of two Jews who escaped from Auschwitz. Margery Bone’s Bonafide Films has secured the rights to Freedland’s novel, which is set to be made into a high-end limited series. Bonafide, who have a development and distribution deal with BBC Studios, recently produced Nicôle Lecky’s BAFTA-winning “Mood.” “The Escape Artist” centers around nineteen-year-old Rudolf Vrba, a Slovakian Jew who manages to escape Auschwitz alongside fellow internee Fred Wetzler, and warn the world about what was happening. Their actions saved the lives of at least 200,000 Jews who were facing immediate deportation from Budapest to the world’s most notorious death camp.

Peter Moffat is forging a TV adaptation of UK journalist Jonathan Freedland’s The Escape Artist with Mood production outfit Bonafide Films.

Naman Ramachandran Emile Hirsch (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) and Inbar Levi (“Fauda”) lead the cast of WWII-set drama “Bau, Artist at War,” which is now in production. The film is based on the true story of Joseph and Rebecca Bau whose wedding in the Plaszow concentration camp was depicted in Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.” It follows Joseph’s journey as an artist and prisoner in the Plaszow camp and his fight for justice years later. Using his skills to forge IDs, Joseph manages to stay alive while helping hundreds of prisoners escape from the camp, with his creativity and humor providing hope in a place of hopelessness. Rebecca, also a Resistance worker, serves as a spy in Kommandant Goeth’s (Josh Blacker) office. After the liquidation of the Plaszow camp, Rebecca is sent to Auschwitz, while Joseph is sent to Oskar Schindler’s (Edward Foy) factory in Brunnlitz.

Steven Spielberg has said the final scene in Schindler’s List, where holocaust survivors visit the grave of Oskar Schindler, was a late addition to the pic and was his way of making sure audiences knew the film’s story was based on real-life facts.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 18th Zurich Film Festival (Sept. 22-Oct. 2) will present its Golden Icon Award to the British actor Ben Kingsley on Sept. 29. Kingsley will present the European premiere of his latest movie “Dalíland,” in which he portrays the Spanish painter Salvador Dalí. In addition, Kingsley will speak about his career in a ZFF Masters. Kingsley has played several iconographic roles in film history: He was the title character in “Gandhi,” Oskar Schindler’s bookkeeper, and has worked with such leading director as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott and Isabel Coixet. “Sir Ben Kingsley is an outstanding and highly versatile character actor who is not only completely absorbed in his roles, but is also able to imbue his characters with a rare human depth,” Christian Jungen, ZFF artistic director, said.

Clayton Davis Irish-born actor Liam Neeson is celebrating his 70th birthday, and with it, over five decades of memorable and outstanding performances in film and television.A classically trained theater actor, he made his way through the early days of his career with minor roles in critically acclaimed films such as “The Mission” (1986) and “Husbands and Wives” (1992). But his big break came when he took on the role of Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s best picture winner “Schindler’s List” (1993).

The woman who drew up Oskar Schindler’s lists and helped save hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust in World War II has died aged 107.