Scorsese to Direct Sinatra Biopic

Influential director made 'Bonnie and Clyde,' 'Little Big Man'

(AP) - Director Arthur Penn, a myth-maker and myth-breaker who in such classics as Bonnie and Clyde and Little Big Man refashioned movie and American history and sealed a generation's affinity for outsiders, died last night, a day after his 88th birthday. Daughter Molly Penn said her father (no relation to actor Sean) died at his home in Manhattan of congestive heart failure. More»

Dakota Fanning-Kristen Stewart vehicle divides critics

(NEWSER) - Critics praise the performances in The Runaways, about Joan Jett's seminal '70s band, but whether the flick succeeds is up for debate. Some takes:

• "Say what you will about the Runaways," Peter Travers writes in Rolling Stone , but "they never played it safe. The movie does." He wants more out of the verboten relationship between Dakota Fanning's Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart's Jett. Still, "Fanning scores a knockout."

If famed Packers coach's quotes don't do it, De Niro surely will

(NEWSER) - The upcoming movie starring Robert De Niro as Vince Lombardi will undoubtedly be the “greatest sports movie ever,” Julian Sancton writes. The famed Green Bay Packers coach was an inexhaustible source of quotable remarks, and a top-notch sports flick must have at least one memorable line, he writes in Vanity Fair . If Lombardi's wisdom somehow fails to do the trick, the film still has De Niro, star of the best sports movie ever, Raging Bull. Some Lombardi quotes: More»

Robert F. Kennedy film in the works at New Regency

(NEWSER) - If shelling out $10 to see a biopic about Robert F. Kennedy doesn’t thoroughly excite you, perhaps this will change your mind: RFK will be played by none other than Matt Damon. Well, make that might be played. Deadline reports the deal is done and Damon is attached—but the actor wants to see the script before confirming the project is a go. More»

Even Hollywood can make movies for the non-'lily-livered:' Nile Gardiner

(NEWSER) - "Hollywood may well be a bastion of liberalism, but it does continue to occasionally produce major films that advance conservative principles," Nile Gardiner writes in the Telegraph . His best of the aughts:

1. Master and Commander, 2003: The Peter Weir flick starring Russell Crowe is "an epic tale of heroism and love for country in the face of incredible odds, and a glowing tribute to the grit and determination that forged the British Empire."
2. Black Hawk Down, 2001: Critics may have called it an "anti-war film," but Gardiner doesn't buy it. Instead, it's "an extraordinarily powerful and deeply patriotic tribute to the heroism and bravery of the US military."