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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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Friday, May 30, 2025
PICTURING A DE PALMA MOVIE THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
SEAN BURNS REVIEWS THE AMBROSE CHAPEL SCREENPLAY BOOK
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/ambrosechapelbook785.jpg

At Boston's North Shore Movies.net, Sean Burns reviews the new Sticking Place Books publication of Brian De Palma's Ambrose Chapel screenplay. Here's the first three paragraphs:
There’s something cruel about Brian De Palma’s output being a strictly literary endeavor as of late. His films are such sumptuous visual experiences, as a critic I find it can sometimes be difficult to convey the intoxicating pleasures of their mellifluous camera movements and exquisitely-timed payoffs. There’s a musicality to De Palma movies and words don’t always do it justice. Alas, a new Brian De Palma film hasn’t opened in area theaters since his 2007 “Redacted,” with 2012’s lurid, underrated “Passion” and 2019’s budgetarily crippled, but not uninteresting “Domino” banished to straight-to-video bargain bins.

Die-hard fans have had to content ourselves with the likes of “Are Snakes Necessary?” The director’s 2020 debut novel (co-written with Susan Lehman) reads like a De Palma movie you’re watching in your head, dense with allusions to classic Hollywood, extravagant, unfilm-ably expensive set-pieces and characters saying that they felt like they were seeing things in slow motion. It was a fun way to pass the time and somewhat frustrating as a substitute for a movie. AMBROSE CHAPEL is even more so. This unproduced screenplay penned by De Palma in the 1990s and recently published by Sticking Place Books is a glimpse of what might have been – the blueprint for a most eccentric thriller.

Hailed as “The Masterpiece That Wasn’t” in an introduction by the estimable film archeologist and Edward Burns superfan James Kenney – a heroic scholar who discovered Peter Bogdanovich’s discarded director’s cut of his final film on eBay – “Ambrose Chapel” was written between 1993’s “Carlito’s Way” and 1996’s “Mission: Impossible,” but finds the filmmaker in the playful, self-referential mode of his 1992’s “Raising Cain.” Kenney smartly cites the screenplay as the missing link between “Cain” and the filmmaker’s 2002 rapturously naughty “Femme Fatale.”


Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CDT
Updated: Saturday, May 31, 2025 12:07 AM CDT
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Monday, May 26, 2025
PODCAST - JAMES KENNEY TALKS ABOUT 'AMBROSE CHAPEL'
COMPARES TONE TO RAISING CAIN & FEMME FATALE
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/ambrosepodcast1.jpg

Available to purchase today from Sticking Place Books, Ambrose Chapel, a screenplay by Brian De Palma features an introduction by James Kenney. Kenney talks about the new book on a new episode of the podcast Movies In Focus. Podcast host Niall Browne describes the episode:
Film scholar and returning guest James Kenney has a knack for uncovering lost and forgotten cinematic treasures. You can listen to episodes 18 and 32 of the Movies In Focus podcast to learn about his headline-making work on Peter Bogdanovich’s Squirrels To The Nuts and the rediscovery of the original version of the Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas film, God’s Daughter.

James now returns to discuss his latest find: Brian De Palma’s ‘lost’ film script, Ambrose Chapel. The now-published screenplay features an introductory essay from James, which examines De Palma’s fascinating and stylish career as a master of suspense.

Written by De Palma in the 1990s between Carlito’s Way and Mission: Impossible, audiences can finally catch sight of De Palma’s ‘screwball noir’. Virtual reality, mind control, and De Palma’s famed voyeurism are the order of the day for this Hitchcock-inspired, Mexico City-set thriller. James digs into the origins of Ambrose Chapel, exploring how it fits within many of De Palma’s signature themes.

The conversation takes a broader look at De Palma’s legendary career, tracing his evolution as a filmmaker and examining how Ambrose Chapel fits into the director’s cinematic legacy – ultimately offering a look at one of Hollywood’s most misunderstood auteurs.


Posted by Geoff at 10:50 PM CDT
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Tuesday, May 13, 2025
AMBROSE CHAPEL - HARCOVER & PAPERBACK OUT MAY 26th
ORDER ON THE DAY DIRECT FROM STICKING PLACE BOOKS FOR DISCOUNT
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/ambrosechapelbook4.jpg


Posted by Geoff at 11:14 PM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, May 14, 2025 12:12 AM CDT
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Tuesday, May 6, 2025
COVER ART REVEALED FOR 'AMBROSE CHAPEL' - COMING MAY 26
JAMES KENNEY TWEETED IMAGE AND SPECIFIC DATE TONIGHT, FROM STICKING PLACE BOOKS
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/ambrosechapelbook7.jpg
Earlier this evening, James Kenney tweeted the image above and the following text:
Brian De Palma's AMBROSE CHAPEL gleefully blends thriller tropes with farce, virtuoso set pieces, and a meta-awareness of cinematic history.
Mind control.
Repressed trauma.
Virtual reality.
Political manipulation.
Gendered power dynamics.

May 26th.


The Ambrose Chapel screenplay will be published by Sticking Place Books.

Posted by Geoff at 11:07 PM CDT
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Monday, April 28, 2025
ART & EXCERPTS FROM 'AMBROSE CHAPEL' SCREENPLAY BOOK
COMING IN MAY FROM STICKING PLACE BOOKS
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/ambrosechapelbook455.jpg

Sticking Place Books tweeted the image above yesterday, with the following caption:
From Brian De Palma's screenplay, coming soon: "The problem with hypnotic programming is that it always leaks out into the subconscious. There’s no way to absolutely contain it. That’s why she’s having all these mixed-up nightmares. You may have a Sleeping Beauty on your hands."

A few days earlier, SPB tweeted an image of a page from the upcoming book, an authorized edition of Brian De Palma's screenplay for Ambrose Chapel:

Previously:
De Palma's Ambrose Chapel screenplay to be published in May, by Sticking Place Books

James Kenney posts more Ambrose Chapel screenplay book teasers


Posted by Geoff at 11:29 PM CDT
Updated: Monday, April 28, 2025 11:31 PM CDT
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Sunday, April 13, 2025
MORE 'AMBROSE CHAPEL' SCREENPLAY TEASERS VIA JAMES KENNEY
BOOK TO BE PUBLISHED BY STICKING PLACE BOOKS IN MAY
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/ambrosechapelbook1.jpg

Earlier today, James Kenney tweeted:
"Each of us is a great mystery writer. Every night we create our stories. The dream is a mystery that only the dreamer can solve. And yet, in the solution lies knowledge that the dreamer may not wish to have."
Brian De Palma's unproduced screenplay AMBROSE CHAPEL.

Coming in May


Kenney, who worked with De Palma to get this book together for Sticking Place Books, added that "we're publishing the screenplay. He [De Palma] had it, we had to clean it up a bit (spelling errors and b/c of hasty revisions made while chasing financing, the script took place in Mexico City and Paris at the same time(!)) This is his authorized version with a lengthy intro by me."

On Friday, Kenney tweeted another teaser for the upcoming book:

Previously:
De Palma's Ambrose Chapel screenplay to be published in May, by Sticking Place Books


Posted by Geoff at 11:50 PM CDT
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Wednesday, April 9, 2025
DE PALMA'S 'AMBROSE CHAPEL' SCREENPLAY TO BE PUBLISHED IN MAY
STICKING PLACE BOOKS - AUTHORIZED EDITION THAT JAMES KENNEY WORKED ON WITH DE PALMA
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/ambrosechapelbook.jpg

James Kenney, the fan who saved the only copy of Peter Bogdanovich's final film, Squirrels To The Nuts and got it back to him years later, tweeted today about the upcoming publication of an authorized edition of Brian De Palma's unproduced screenplay from 1994, Ambrose Chapel. It will be published in May by Sticking Place Books.

Early this morning, Kenney tweeted:

In the mood for an old-school Brian De Palma thriller?

Written between CARLITO'S WAY & MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE.

Brian De Palma’s wildest vision: AMBROSE CHAPEL

Coming in May from Sticking Place books.


About two hours later, Kenney tweeted:
From my intro to Brian De Palma's unproduced 1994 screenplay AMBROSE CHAPEL: "The set pieces are pure De Palma...A sequence involving a misused TV remote...escalates into a revenge fantasia that feels like Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45 restaged by Jacques Tati"

Coming in May from SPB.


Responding to comments on the tweet, Kenney added that "it's being published next month in an authorized version I worked on with BDP, with my intro. It'll be out in mere weeks!"

Posted by Geoff at 10:08 PM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, April 9, 2025 10:15 PM CDT
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