RIP: Science Fiction and Horror Films Producer Richard Gordon

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Richard Gordon, producer and executive producer of science fiction and horror films died Tuesday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, reports the LA Times. He was 85.

Gordon's career included such credits as a "Fiend Without a Face" and "The Haunted Strangler,"; he also ecutive-produced movies such as "Corridors of Blood" with Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee, "The Haunted Strangler" with Karloff, "Island of Terror" with Peter Cushing and "Fiend Without a Face" and "First Man Into Space," both with Marshall Thompson. He later produced films such as "The Cat and the Canary," "Horror Hospital" and "Inseminoid."

Roman Polanski Finally Honored by Zurich Film Festival

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Director Roman Polanski attended the 7th Zurich Film Festival to accept the lifetime achievement award that was intended for him two years ago, to honor his outstanding career achievements as a filmmaker. Almost two years to the day, Polanski was arrested on his way to the festival ceremony to receive the award.

The World Premiere of a full-length non fiction film followed the ceremony. In the documentary, Polanski reportedly briefly addressed the sexual assault case, with the bulk of the film dedicated to his childhood in German-occupied Poland, including his escape from the Warsaw ghetto and his early life and career.

RIP: Greek-cypriot film director Michael Cacoyannis

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Greek-cypriot film director Michael Cacoyannis died in Athens on Monday aged 89, his cultural foundation said reports AFP.

Cacoyannis shot to fame with the triple-Oscar winning "Zorba the Greek" in 1964, an adaptation of the Nikos Kazantzakis-penned novel which starred Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates and Irene Pappas among others. He was also know for his film "Electra", based on the Euripides tragedy, which received two awards at Cannes in 1962.

RIP: Leonard Kastle, Writer and Director of "The Honeymoon Killers"

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One-hit writer and director, Leonard Kastle, of his first and only film, "The Honeymoon Killers," reportedly died May 18 at his home in Westerlo, N.Y., after a brief illness, said Tina Sisson, a friend. He was 82.

"The Honeymoon Killers," released in 1970, is described as a "grimly realistic, low-budget, black-and-white crime drama about a lowlife lothario and his overweight nurse lover whose partnership in conning lonely women leads to murder."

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Actress Jane Seymour 'beyond sorry and appalled' for Schwarzenegger comment

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Actress Jane Seymour reportedly said to CNN at the red carpet premiere of her new IFC movie "Love Marriage Wedding" on May 17 that she believed "there will be lots of information coming people's way...I heard about two more [out of wedlock kids] somebody else knows about. I even met someone who knows him well."

Yesterday on "The View" Friday, Seymour regretted her remarks, saying, "I'm so beyond sorry and appalled that I found myself even talking on the subject at all."

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Love Marriage Wedding is directed by Dermot Mulroney and stars Mandy Moore, Kellan Lutz, James Brolin, Jane Seymour, Jessica Szohr, Michael Weston, Sarah Lieving, Joe Chrest. In the film, Mandy Moore is a marriage counselor whose life as a newly wed married to Kellan Lutz is turned upside down when she discovers her parents’ happy marriage is unexpectedly headed for divorce. Determined to reconcile her parents for their 30th anniversary surprise party she stops at nothing plunging from one compromising situation to another.

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RIP: documentary filmmaker Bruce Ricker

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Bruce Ricker — a Cambridge, Massachusetts -based director and producer of documentaries whose best-known film, “The Last of the Blue Devils’’ (1979), is a jazz classic — died of pneumonia Friday in Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge.

He was 68.

Mr. Ricker specialized in documentaries about jazz, popular music, and film history.

Read more in Boston Globe

image via Boston Globe

RIP: Donald Krim, president of’ film distribution company, Kino International

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Donald Krim, a film distributor, president of’ Kino International, a company founded in 1977 and acquired by Mr. Krim in 1978, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 65.

Among the films imported by Kino as a result of Mr. Krim’s festival explorations were Percy Adlon’s “Zuckerbaby” (1985), Mitsuo Yanagimachi’s “Himatsuri” (1986) and Michel Khleifi’s “Wedding in Galilee” (1988). Mr. Krim also helped to introduce the work of such art-house stalwarts as the Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai (“Days of Being Wild,” 1990), the Austrian Michael Haneke (“The Piano Teacher,” 2001) and the Israeli Amos Gitai (“Kadosh,” 1999).

Three Kino releases received Academy Award nominations in the best foreign-language film category: Joseph Cedar’s “Beaufort” (2007), Scandar Copti’s “Ajami” (2009) and Giorgos Lanthimos’s “Dogtooth” (2010).

Read more in the NY Times

RIP: Jackie Cooper, Film and Television Actor

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Jackie Cooper, Emmy-winning director of “M*A*S*H” and other hits, plus known to moviegoers as Perry White, editor of The Daily Planet, in four “Superman” films died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 88.

His agent, Ronnie Leif, said Mr. Cooper died in a hospital after a short illness.

Read more in NY Times

RIP: Yvette Vickers; B-Movie Actress and Playboy Playmate

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Yvette Vickers, an actress best known as the femme fatale in two late 1950s cult horror films, "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and "Attack of the Giant Leeches," was found dead Wednesday at her Benedict Canyon home. She was 82.

The body's mummified state suggests that she could have been dead for close to a year, police said.

Read more in the LA Times

Filmmaker Zhu Rikun Flees Chinese Capital After Cancellation of Film Festival

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After announcing that the 8th Beijing Independent Documentary Film Festival has been cancelled, the festival's artistic director, Zhu Rikun, has reportedly resigned from the festival's foundation, closed his production house, Fanhall Studio, and fled the Chinese capital.

Zhu Rikun has worked on many independent Chinese documentaries including "Karamay" (2010), in which director Xu Xin carries out a forensic examination of a fire that broke out in the far western Chinese province of Xinjiang in 1994. In that tragedy some 323 people (including 288 children) died in the Karamay Friendship Hall after being told to remain in their seats as the fire raged, allowing Chinese government officials in the audience to evacuate first. Zhu also produced the award-winning "Petition" (2009). In that film, director Zhao Liang recorded the stories of a ragtag band of petitioners who traveled to Beijing, seeking the right of appeal supposedly extended to them under China's legal system.

According to Zhu Rikun's friends, he has now returned to his hometown in the south of China, following the time-honored approach of Chinese artists and intellectuals faced with oppression throughout the centuries — in times of trouble it is best to get as far away from the capital as possible.