The Biggest Movies and TV Coming in September

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Theatrical Releases Coming to Streaming

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Streaming Stars, Then and Now

Toronto-born Sidney J. Furie has enjoyed an incredibly distinguished career that has spanned more than five decades. Having dabbled in every genre, Furie has directed films starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Robert Redford, Diana Ross, Michael Caine, Peter O'Toole, Rodney Dangerfield, Barbara Hershey, Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland, Laurence Olivier and countless others.

He directed the first two feature-length fiction films ever made in English Canada, A Dangerous Age (1957) and A Cool Sound from Hell (1959), both independently financed, before emigrating to London in 1960. In 1961 he directed five feature films in a single year, before finally scoring his first box-office success with Wonderful to Be Young! (1961), starring the "British Elvis Presley", Cliff Richard. The critical and commercial success of Furie's 1963 British New Wave film The Leather Boys (1964), a kitchen-sink drama starring Rita Tushingham and Dudley Sutton, delivered him to the attention of high-powered producer Harry Saltzman, who hired him to direct the groundbreaking film The Ipcress File (1965), which won the BAFTA award for Best Picture. Michael Caine became an overnight star because of the film's success. The film also screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Furie then emigrated to Hollywood to direct Marlon Brando in The Appaloosa (1966) and Frank Sinatra in The Naked Runner (1967) for Universal and Warner Brothers, respectively. Paramount Pictures, then under the aegis of the new Gulf+Western management regime, hired Furie in 1967. He would work as a Paramount filmmaker for the next eight years. Beginning in 1968, he directed five films for the studio. His box-office hit Lady Sings the Blues (1972) was nominated for five Academy Awards and was Paramount's second biggest money-maker that year, behind only The Godfather (1972).

In 1981 he directed The Entity (1982), a cult classic that was named by Martin Scorsese as the fourth best horror film ever made, ranking ahead of both The Shining (1980) and Psycho (1960). Furie was assigned to direct Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), but was challenged by substantial last-minute budget cuts and a script he could not change (engineered personally by Christopher Reeve).

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s he returned to his native Canada to helm a series of films, often direct-to-video pictures, ranging from the war drama Going Back (2001) to the Canadian-British co-production Rock My World (2002), a comedy starring Peter O'Toole and Joan Plowright. Other career highlights include The Boys in Company C (1978) (one of the first Vietnam War pictures about combat soldiers, later to provide the basis for Full Metal Jacket (1987)), the underrated action epic Hit! (1973), and the "Iron Eagle" series. He has also maintained dual citizenship between the U.S. and Canada. In 2010, he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Directors Guild of Canada.

Sidney J. Furie in The Ipcress File (1965)

The truth is, whether your film is about the great mythological character you have to do right, or it&#39;s a little movie that nobody ever heard of, you still approach it like it&#39;s the most important thing in the world. But failing goes with the territory. Filmmakers are like gunslingers, and you don&#39;t win every duel.

I don&#39;t actually consider <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/title/tt0082334/?ref_=nmqu_qu">The Entity (1982)</a> to be a horror film--it&#39;s a supernatural suspense movie. Horror is such a huge topic that has slasher films and other horrible crap attached to it and I&#39;m not a fan of that stuff at all. I like something that gets you thinking and &quot;The Entity&quot; was certainly that kind of film. Horror is a convenient word that is often applied but I don&#39;t think horror is a genre at all. Its more of a term.

Quotes

Sidney J. Furie

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