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Recent Headlines
a la Mod:

Domino is
a "disarmingly
straight-forward"
work that "pushes
us to reexamine our
relationship to images
and their consumption,
not only ethically
but metaphysically"
-Collin Brinkman

De Palma on Domino
"It was not recut.
I was not involved
in the ADR, the
musical recording
sessions, the final
mix or the color
timing of the
final print."

Listen to
Donaggio's full score
for Domino online

De Palma/Lehman
rapport at work
in Snakes

De Palma/Lehman
next novel is Terry

De Palma developing
Catch And Kill,
"a horror movie
based on real things
that have happened
in the news"

Supercut video
of De Palma's films
edited by Carl Rodrigue

Washington Post
review of Keesey book

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Exclusive Passion
Interviews:

Brian De Palma
Karoline Herfurth
Leila Rozario

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AV Club Review
of Dumas book

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Entries by Topic
A note about topics: Some blog posts have more than one topic, in which case only one main topic can be chosen to represent that post. This means that some topics may have been discussed in posts labeled otherwise. For instance, a post that discusses both The Boston Stranglers and The Demolished Man may only be labeled one or the other. Please keep this in mind as you navigate this list.
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Sunday, August 26, 2018
SPANISH ACTOR CRISTIAN GAMERO TALKS 'DOMINO'
COMPLICATED ACTION SCENE, SUCCESSFUL NIGHT SHOOT WITH A LOT OF EXTRAS & VERY FEW TAKES
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/cristiangamero.jpgMari Paz Díaz at Huelva Buenas Noticias posted an interview today with Madrid-based actor Cristian Gamero, who worked for a few days last year filming Brian De Palma's Domino. Since then, Gamero has been working on a Netflix/Telemundo series in Mexico (Luis Miguel: la serie), where he has been gaining some recognition. He talks a bit about Domino in the early part of today's interview:
-Cristian, why did you choose acting?
-When I was a kid, I always locked myself in the room and, for hours, imitated the actors in the movies. I didn't know why, but I enjoyed it very much. Then, when I took my first acting class, I felt it was what I wanted to dedicate my whole life to.

-What have been your first jobs as an actor?
-The first job opportunity was in the series 'The Ministry of Time'. Then I shot two films, 'Domino', the latest film by Brian De Palma, and 'Sin ti', by the Alenda brothers, with Javier Rey and María León. And, last year, I started working in Mexico on the 'Luis Miguel' series of Netflix. And very happy.

- How did it feel working with Brian De Palma?
-It was the best experience of my life. I came across a casting that I did not expect at all. It was an incredible shoot and very special days for me. The action scene I had to do was complicated. We needed a specialist. When we finished, Brian De Palma told us that he was very happy with how the scene turned out, given that he was very worried about the little time he had. It was night and there were a lot of extras, not to mention the difficulty involved. So we had to solve it with few takes. And we got it. Therefore, the director congratulated us.


Posted by Geoff at 10:29 AM CDT
Updated: Sunday, August 26, 2018 10:42 AM CDT
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Saturday, August 25, 2018
GARRY PASTORE RECALLS SMALL ROLE IN 'CARLITO'S WAY'
COPACABANA NIGHTCLUB DANCEFLOOR DRAMA "VERY MEMORABLE" FOR ACTOR
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/dancefloordrama.jpg

Garry Pastore (second from the right in the screenshot above) reminisced yesterday on Instagram about his small role in Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way:
Spring 1993. My mother was in the hospital in grave health. I got a call to get up to the city to meet Brian DePalma, he wanted to see me and Cousin Vin for a scene to be shot at the Copacabana with Pacino and Penn. Well I went and so did Vin and the rest is history. Yeah it was a small scene, but all things considered a very memorable one! “Hey you! Yeah you spaghetti dick!” Amazing performances by Penn and Pacino.

trajectoryfilmsMy late cousin Greg played the guy that dances with Penelope Ann Miller in that scene.

trajectoryfilmsThat’s Greg on the left. He passed away about 15 yrs ago while doing a play at the Kennedy Center.

mafiachroniclesEpic! 🙌🏼

garry_pastore@trajectoryfilms oh damn I didn’t know he passed away. Great guy I remember him well. We were held captive in the Copa together for days. My sincerest condolences my friend


In the credits for the film, Pastore, billed as Garry Blackwood, is listed as a "Copa Wiseguy," as is his cousin, Vincent Pastore. Gregory Misciagno is listed as "Italian at Copa."

In a span of four years from 1989 to 1993, Pastore (then known as Garry Blackwood) appeared in movies by De Palma, Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing), Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas), and Robert De Niro (A Bronx Tale). Currently appearing on HBO's series The Deuce, Pastore will also be seen next year alongside Pacino and De Niro in Scorsese's The Irishman.


Posted by Geoff at 11:36 AM CDT
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Wednesday, August 22, 2018
GUTIERREZ' NEW FILM TAKES MORE VISUAL APPROACH
'ELIZABETH HARVEST' USES TOOLS OF HITCHCOCK, DE PALMA, KUBRICK, & LESS DIALOGUE
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/elizabethharvest2.jpgSebastian Gutierrez's Elizabeth Harvest was released a couple of weeks ago, and is described by MovieMaker's Grant Vance as a "trippy, colorful genre mashup." Gutierrez tells Vance that he set out to make a movie that would be more visually-oriented and less dialogue-driven than his previous films:
Grant Vance, MovieMaker Magazine: One of my Favorite aspects of Elizabeth Harvest was your handle of the atmosphere and tone. How do you develop and maintain that atmospheric tone as a writer and director when dealing with something so genre-oriented?

Sebastian Gutierrez: The last four movies that I directed were so small I hardly have a set. I had actors, and I had to rely on dialogue. I made very character-driven films. So it became really important for me that the next movie I made, even if I didn’t have a big budget, would have camera moves, and sound and music put together. The story of Elizabeth Harvest was written with that in mind. The script has a lot less dialogue than stuff that I usually write.

I wanted to use tools that people like Hitchcock and De Palma and Kubrick use; have the camera to creep down corridors. Really creating that claustrophobic feel of being trapped inside a house was something the director of photography and I shot listed for very specifically. A lot of it is about a house that is set up for Elizabeth to look around and lose herself in. It was very important that we used the colors that we were concentrating on to make it all feel like a dream inside her mind that she’s moving through.

MM: Could you elaborate on the specifics? For instance, were your canted angles, vibrant colors and off-kilter framing all conceived within the script writing process?

SG: The color coding came about early on. Elizabeth Harvest is written so that every 20 minutes something switches in the story. This is opposed to a traditional three act structure. It’s basically a Russian doll structure of story inside a story inside a story. There’s a lot of time stuck in the past and I wanted it to feel less like a logical leap that you had to take and more like a visceral thing that you felt.

We decided that these very saturated colors—red, blue, green, and yellow—would represent different things in each of those scenes from the past. Not really what everyone represents exactly, but they were then parallel with the present day scene that had to do with that emotion with cyan and amber. It was a really good way for the actors and the director of photography and the production designer and myself to find our way through the story. Not to mention that it’s fun to play with really bold saturated colors.

MM: Can you touch on the idea of interloping different genres within Elizabeth Harvest? Jumping naturally from arthouse sci-fi to classic horror.

SG: From the very beginning I wanted to not make a horror movie. I love horror movies, I just didn’t want to only make a horror movie. The horror in Elizabeth Harvest is something much closer to European horror from the 60s and 70s. I’ve been making movies in this country for awhile, but i’m Venezuelan. My sensibilities have always been as a foreign filmmaker; very highly stylized and visual. That sort of Euro-horror that goes from the very cheap and clunky to the very arthouse sort of poetic horror like Eyes Without a Face are things that I’ve always really loved. The Blue Beard story is the bones of the story. It’s a very classic gothic love story, but this movie happens to be science fiction. I needed that to deal with [Elizabeth] differently than [her parallel] in the original Blue Beard story.

The notion of mixing genres is simply that it’s very hard to do a movie that’s just one genre in the post-modern world. The hard part is grabbing things from different genres and understanding that there’s a portion of the audience that won’t like you subverting those rules. There’s a version of this movie that’s straight up horror—which isn’t a bad notion—but it’s much less interested in developing how these characters ended up here. Everyone knows exactly what happens in this story. When someone says “Go everywhere except the one room!” I wanted to get that out of the way immediatly.

MM: Does the Blue Beard influence mingle with an other direct story references? I was sensing a sadistic God complex in Henry viewing Elizabeth as his Eve, in a sense.

SG: There’s a sub genre of mad scientist movies that I love that are usually less concerned with the mad scientist setting out to be god. They’re more interested in the mad scientists doing the wrong thing for love. It’s like Hitchcock would say: “I’m not interested in who done it. I’m interested in what done it.”

MM: I really enjoyed the utilization of split screen; an editing technique with a post-modern sensibility. From a directorial standpoint what are the advantages of using this editing style?

SG: One was for practical purposes, since the audience has already seen this. The second suspenseful one came out of wanting to take a crack at that and have fun with it. Split screens are something that I’ve always wanted to do. Brian De Palma is an absolute master at them, especially in the great, great greta, film Sisters. People like John Frankenheimer. Filmmakers used them awhile back in the 60s and 70s and then people kind of stopped.

Both of those split screen scenes in the movie were in the script, but they’re different once you’re shooting them. Your mind doesn’t work that way. The funny thing with split screen is that you can’t see everything at the same time, so you’re making connections to be able to leap from one thing to another. It’s a bit of a trap to make it make perfect sense. And that’s what I like it about it. It works on a purely visceral level and it can really add suspense. It’s a stylized if you marry it to the right kind of music. You can feel that giddiness. That’s my favorite thing in Spielberg movies, when you’re smiling because it’s a very “movie” moment. But mostly it’s a trick that you’re playing to your brain as you’re watching the thing, and if it works you’re really dragging out the suspense.


Posted by Geoff at 11:41 PM CDT
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
SOROYA SECCI TALKS ABOUT SMALL ROLE IN 'DOMINO'
ERIC SCHWAB CHOSE HER TO PLAY THE TICKET-TAKER, FROM AMONG MANY EXTRAS
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/sorayasecci.jpgSoraya Secci, an actress from Cagliari, tells LinkOristano's Marcello Atzeni that she plays a small role in the climactic bullfight sequence of Brian De Palma's Domino (which this Italian article states will be released to theaters between this September and October). Eric Schwab, who has worked with De Palma for decades, was the second unit director on Domino.

Last September, for a scene at the entrance of the bullfight arena (the bulk of the bullfight arena sequence had already been shot in Almería), Schwab filmed at ExMà (EXhibiting and Moving Arts) in Cagliari. "The finale," Secci tells Atzeni, "envisaged a ticket-taker at the entrance of the bullring. Schwab believed it was a suitable role for a woman. He examined the curriculum of the extras, and among the many he chose me. I was called to do a test and he was happy with it."

Secci delves a bit more into what her role invloves, but without giving away too much: "The film ends at the entrance of the bullfight, where I have a discussion with a man who, despite having no ticket, wants at all costs to enter to see the show. I am firm, as it is logical to deny him entry. At this point.." Atzeni presses her on that last point, and Secci smiles, "I can not add the details."

Secci talks enthusiastically to Atzeni about working on this scene: "I'm still in disbelief I got this role, albeit small. I was already happy to make the appearance, let alone now! It was a very important experience. I had never filmed a scene until then, without having tried it before and for a long time. The test, as mentioned, went very well, then the final part was shot. I found myself at ease in a set so big for me, with experienced and famous actors. Everything has been encouraging and enlightening: really anything can happen. I had fun and felt enriched."


Posted by Geoff at 11:59 PM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, April 10, 2019 1:39 PM CDT
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
JANE LEVY WATCHED 'DE PALMA', DISCUSSES 'CARRIE'
SISSY SPACEK'S PERFORMANCE "IS JUST SO RADICAL AND WEIRD AND SCARY"
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/janelevygq.jpgJane Levy, currently appearing on Hulu's Stephen King-based anthology series Castle Rock, was interviewed a few days ago by GQ's Tom Philip. The conversation eventually turns to Carrie:
Would you call yourself a King fan? Have you read a lot of his stuff?

No, actually I had only read Carrie, and then I've also read his semi-memoir book, On Writing.

Oh, man, that's such a good book.

Isn't it? I loved reading that. He's also just really an endearing person. Interesting, good, smart obviously, extremely talented... Have you read a lot of his books? Are you a Stephen King fan?

I guess so. I guess I've read maybe like a dozen or so, here and there?

A dozen or so's a lot.

He's had, like, nearly a hundred!

That's true. I haven't read much Stephen King, but since working on this project I've learned a lot about him and I think he's a really cool guy and I'll obviously read more.

How about the movies, then? Did you have the shit scared out of you by Carrie when you were little or anything like that?

I read the book and that actually scared the shit out of me more when I was in high school. I guess I wouldn't say I was scared by the movie, but titillated might be more the word. And Sissy Spacek, like you said, a legend, is one of my favorite actresses of all time and her performance in that movie is just so radical and weird and scary. Did you see the Brian De Palma documentary, De Palma? There's a part about casting her.

No, actually. I must.

There's some story, I forget the exact details, that they already had another choice for Carrie. Sissy Spacek knew De Palma through friends, and was like begging him, "You have to just see me for this part." And he was like, "Okay, sure." But it was some sort of courtesy. He already had cast the part in his mind, but then Sissy read and he was like, "Whelp! Never mind! Nobody else could ever play this part. Here you go."

I'm also a big fan of The Shining, the movie, even though we all know that Stephen King has said that he's not that big of a fan of that one... I loved the It adaptation that came out last year. I thought that the movie wasn't scary, but I'm excited that they're making the second half. The one I want to see right now is Pet Sematary.

Oh that's going to fuck you up. Are there any other King adaptations you'd want to do? It seems like the universe is open to cross-casting, with Skarsgård and Spacek involved in Castle Rock.

Actually, I read a pilot by his son, Joe Hill, that I loved. I love the idea of the book that they wrote together about women. Isn't it called Sleeping Beauties?

Wasn't that with Owen King, his other son?

I guess I'm interested in all the King men.

You used the phrase "final girl" earlier, and I'm wondering how you feel about the terms like "final girl" and "scream queen." A lot of people would describe you in films like Don't Breathe as that. Do you feel tropes, or even the phrasing like that, is dated? Or are you cool with it?

I have a lot of thoughts about it. I wouldn't really know if I could compile a perfect answer for that, but actually I do think that there is something very cool about the final girl. Of course, I think that women have been exploited and women's sexuality has been exploited in horror films since the beginning, and that's a lot of what horror films are about. There's a lot that you could point out in horror films that is misogynistic and totally just like, male fantasy violence against women.

But at the same time I think that horror films have given female characters a platform that normal mainstream movies haven't necessarily, in certain ways. I think that women can be action heroes in horror films in ways that are not common in action films. That's cool! And a lot of times women in horror are presented with their worst fear and they step up to the plate.

So, I kind of like the term! I think that there's something, I don't know, culty and old school about it. I don't feel it's disrespectful. Horror fans show up for you. It's been kind of flattering in a funny way to have these strangers consider me, that I'm accepted into this world. It's so not what I expected out of my life, but I feel like I have this badge of honor.


Posted by Geoff at 10:31 PM CDT
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Saturday, August 11, 2018
WEEKEND TWEET - CHARLES DURNING IN 'SISTERS'
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/tweetsistersdurning.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 11:48 PM CDT
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Friday, August 10, 2018
RICHARD H. KLINE DIES AT 91
CINEMATOGRAPHER ON 'THE FURY' & 'THE BOSTON STRANGLER' ENJOYED VARIETY IN HIS WORK
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/richardhkline.jpgRichard H. Kline, cinematographer on Brian De Palma's The Fury, died of natural causes Tuesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 91.

Kline was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Josh Logan's Camelot (1967), a musical starring Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Harris. For the wedding scene, Kline decided to use only candlelight. It was a challenge for Kline, even after having to prove to nervous producers that the candlelight would read on film.

Kline worked on several films with Richard Fleischer, beginning with The Boston Strangler (1968), which became influential for its use of split-screen. Kline worked with Fleischer on four more films: Soylent Green (1973), The Don Is Dead (1973), Mr. Majestyk (1974) and Mandingo (1975).

Kline was nominated for a second Oscar for his work on the 1976 remake of King Kong. Other credits (among many) include Karel Reisz' Who'll Stop the Rain (1978), Jim McBride's remake of Breathless (1983), Robert Wise's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat.

Kline chose Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist to show to the crew of Body Heat. (Kasdan had asked everyone to choose one film to screen, in order to establish common ground among the crew.)

"I believe in variety," Kline once explained to students at the American Film Institute. "I think there are some brilliantly photographed films, but there’s a sameness. Each scene may be a work of art, but you start seeing it repeated over and over and over again. I find that Bertolucci is a master at variation, a variety of looks within a single film. I try to do that in my work as well."

In 2013, Kline rewatched The Fury in preparation for a Film Factory interview, which was used as a supplement on several European DVD/Blu-ray editions of the film. Here's a brief excerpt from that interview:

This is the only time that I've worked with Brian De Palma, and it was a great pleasure, I must say. And we started filming in Chicago, which is a great visual city. It's a unique city. And we have a variety of looks.

The Fury, to me, looking back now 35 years, whatever it was, in re-running it to prepare for this interview, I’m going to put it at probably one of the best pictures I’ve ever made, technically—you’re never aware of the technique. With the reality, the freshness of it. Seeing it again, it reminded me of how good it is. It really… De Palma did a terrific job of directing it, without a doubt.

When I was first asked to do the film, I was in Mexico doing a film with a very fine director, also-- Karel Reisz-- and my agent called me to tell me that Brian De Palma would like me to do a film with him when I complete the film I was doing in Mexico. And I asked Karel Reisz, I said, I don't know De Palma, I know of him, what do you think? 'He's a very talented director,' he said, 'take it, take it, take it.' And that came from, I think, one of the most gifted directors ever. And a wonderful person.

So I arrived maybe a month later, when I finished the picture in Mexico, and met De Palma in his office. And every wall was loaded with the sketches-- his... like a comic book, in a way, he would do it. He had pre-designed the whole picture. And I said, well, this is going to be a breeze, you've got everything lined up. And he said, 'Oh, yeah." Anyway, I was impressed with him. And then when we started the picture, he would say, 'Here's the shot." Well, it was easy to do with the camera, you know, we would put the camera in the position that would capture the sketch, and I would light it.

And I said, 'Something is bothering me here.' And I brought Brian to the side, and I said, 'Brian, you're not rehearsing anything before we film.' And it's a way of working-- I haven't worked this way before. I've always found something interesting comes from a rehearsal. And, it either comes from the actor, it comes from seeing the actors doing it, that you see-- things happen that you just can't put on paper all the time. Because first of all, the script-- I was working from a script that was all white pages. As we're filming, there's adjustments made in the script. Dialogue, whatever it is, a lot of things. And the pages come in different colors-- they start with blue, and then yellow, then gold and whatnot. I said, 'I've never worked on a picture that had all white pages.'

And he listened and everything, he was attentive. And I talked him into rehearsing. And he bought it. And he found value in rehearsing that deviated from the sketches. And I think after a week, we didn't see the sketches anymore. He was at rehearsal, we would... I do it with almost every director who doesn't want to work that way, talk them into it-- I've been very lucky that way. We would have the crew doing the scene, during the development of the scene, we'd get everybody off the set, and we'd have coffee, read the paper, whatever it was, so no interruptions or disturbances, so the actors can be themselves and not worry about somebody watching them. And he found that to be very valuable. And we did get very good things, and that's the way we operated.

But he would sit there-- he was... Brian would be, while I'm lighting and whatever, my part, he would sit there, thinking things, always deep in thought. And I respected that of him, I only consulted him when I had to, and, you know, give an opinion, whatever, or we'd joke about something, whatever.


Posted by Geoff at 8:25 AM CDT
Updated: Sunday, August 12, 2018 8:42 AM CDT
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Tuesday, August 7, 2018
'SNAKE EYES' TURNS 20
DE PALMA & KOEPP'S 3RD STRAIGHT COLLAB OPENED ON THIS DAY IN 1998
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/snakeeyespanel1.jpg

https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/snakeeyespanel2.jpg

https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/snakeeyespanel3.jpg

https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/snakeeyespanel4.jpg


Joe Reid, Decider
‘Snake Eyes’ Is the Forgotten “Nicolas Cage Is a Lunatic” Film

Posted by Geoff at 10:32 PM CDT
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Sunday, August 5, 2018
GERRIT GRAHAM DEBATES VIETNAM ON '69 TV PILOT
WFLD CHICAGO'S 'JERRY G & COMPANY' PILOT INCLUDES CLIP FROM DE PALMA'S 'GREETINGS'
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/gerritgreetingsjerryg.jpg

Last week, Rick Thomas posted to YouTube a pilot episode of WFLD-TV's Jerry G & Company. The episode, taped in Chicago on July 26, 1969, featured Gerrit Graham as a guest, with a clip (not featuring Graham) from Brian De Palma's Greetings. The segment begins at about the 33-minute mark, with host Jerry G saying, " I may be wrong, but this may be the first war in the history of this country, or any other, that is opposed by a significant vocal segment of the population, perhaps a war opposed by a majority-- and I say, perhaps..." Jerry G. introduces Graham by first presenting a clip of Robert De Niro from the end of Greetings, as a shorthand way to say that Graham is involved in this new film that shows America's youth opposing the war in Vietnam. Briefly discussing the film, Graham says, "Well, the director and the producer had a screenplay, scenario, and they knew more or less what they wanted out of the film. But we, the actors, wrote the script, if you like-- we improvised it. We made up the dialogue."

Jerry G. then introduces Loren Smith, a Northwestern University Law School Graduate (who would go on in later years to become a federal judge). Jerry G. reads a quote from Smith that states his position on the Vietnam war: "A hawk: a not-totally extinct bird." Graham tells Jerry G. that he is not by nature a political person. Even so, later on in the segment, Graham cannot help but passionately speak up when Smith states that "part of the solution has to be to tell the communist world that we will use force to gain political objectives"...

Gerrit Graham: Now you see, that's just where I disagree, and I just don't buy it. I don't suppose there's any political rhyme or reason to it-- as a matter of fact, I'm sure there isn't. But it just seems to me that the United States has taken upon itself an obligation which most of the world's peoples would just as soon they hadn't taken upon themselves. And I just... there doesn't seem, to me, to be any need for the United States to impose its political ethos on a country which up to that point was not a capitalist bastion.

Loren: What?

Gerrit: Which is what they're trying to make it into.

Loren: I don't think we're trying to do that...


Posted by Geoff at 11:59 PM CDT
Updated: Monday, August 6, 2018 12:40 AM CDT
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Friday, August 3, 2018
JOE LYNCH PREPS w/CREW SCREENING OF 'BLOW OUT'
REMAKE OF 'POINT BLANK' FOR NETFLIX, BUT NOT THE BOORMAN FILM-- THE CAVAYE FROM 2010
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Posted by Geoff at 8:06 AM CDT
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