"When Harry Met Sally" and Movie Magic

"When Harry Met Sally began with a script by Nora Ephron. It became an iconic (there's that word again) date movie / comedy of the late 80's. "I'll have what she's having" transports us to one scene that brought an audience into such fits of laughter that it drowned out...

James Gray - Genius?

"Genius. The word is over-used. And yet occasionally - it is right on the money. In 1994 James Gray made a film called Little Odessa. While attending USC Film School Gray looked up to the following luminaries: Kurosawa, Fellini, Kubrick and Francis Ford Coppola. After Little...

Why Is This Man Smiling?

"Mike Nichols, the director, had a read-thru of Charlie Wilson's War. A read-thru is where the cast sits at a large table and reads the script. And you wanted to be a fly on the wall. The cast is surreal. Tom Hanks, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Roberts. There were...

Elizabeth Hurley In A Hurry

"At an independent production company in Beverly Hills there's an underground garage where the film execs park. I was working on a film. And that afternoon I had an alarm installed on my new car. About 5 pm I'm looking for the installer because he has my car keys. Only I'm...

How Rob Reiner Handles Actors

reel hollywood - insider story Every director has a method or two in their repertoire on handling sometimes 'difficult' actors. John Huston once said "Talk to them about things they don't know. Try to give them an inferiority complex. If the actress is beautiful, screw...