BIRTHDAY GUY: Actor Kevin J. O'Connor was born in Chicago today in 1963. This birthday guy has had memorable roles in such films as "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," "Van Helsing," and "The Mummy."
British filmmaker Neil Marshall exploded onto the screen early last decade with the cult classic "Dog Soldiers" and followed it up with the outright classic "The Descent". A few years after that he tried going bigger budget with the Rhona Mitra and Bob Hoskins-led "Doomsday," a UK-set riff on "Escape from New York" but in this case Scotland was the walled off dangerous land that had to be entered to obtain a macguffin and get out.
Kiefer Sutherland says that one of the great benefits of having been an actor for 30 years is that he can approach everything with cautious optimism. Wherever she was, Natascha McElhone's ears must have been burning, thanks to Kiefer Sutherland, who stars as her devoted husband and the inadvertent president of the United States in the new thriller Designated Survivor .
Great Big Story has shared the tale of how Steven Spielberg and his special effects team brought the iconic T-Rex breakout scene to life in Jurassic Park . Special effects designer Michael Lantieri explained how he formed rings in two cups of water by connecting the cups to guitar strings and plucking the strings for each step of the Tyrannosaurus rex .
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is a Hollywood hunk, box office hit and WWE legend - and now he can add Sexiest Man Alive to his list of achievements. The blockbuster star - who swapped the ring for the big screen with The Mummy Returns back in 2001 - has been given the honour by People Magazine and was quick to give fans his secret.
AMC has closed a co-production deal with BBC Worldwide North America for BBC One's drama series McMafia , set in the international world of organized crime, which stars James Norton . Co-produced by AMC, BBC and Cuba Pictures , in association with Twickenham Studios, McMafia is created and written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter and film director Hossein Amini and James Watkins - who will be directing all eight episodes and is inspired by Misha Glenny's 2008 best-selling book of the same name.
With Friday The 13th 's graphic gore, quickie and punishable-by-death sex and mechanical body count plotting baiting the box-office and birthing the unyielding, blood-spattered slasher sub-genre, the comparatively quaint ghost story was on the way out; 1979's The Amityville Horror and Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining - with their reliance on adult themes and dread as opposed to ultraviolence - serving as the final "big" blockbuster haunted house movies of the era. Nestled among those terrifying titans was director George Bowers modestly budgeted, PG-rated Crown International potboiler The Hearse .
The Addams Family has stood the test of time as one of horror and comedy's most loved kooky collection of deliciously dark characters. From towering Lurch and memorable Uncle Fester to the brilliantly bleak Wednesday, they have remained in the hearts of fans - and the 1991 film was a bona fide hit at the time.
"Basic Instinct" director Paul Verhoeven complained Sunday that Hollywood had stopped making "challenging" movies featuring provocative sex as it clamored to cash in on mainstream audiences. The Dutch filmmaker, famous for a slew of films that shocked audiences with their sex and violence, said studios chasing ratings were now mainly interested in the lucrative "PG-13" market.