Director plans Arab-American trilogy with Sienna Miller film (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – "Just Like a Woman," a movie starring Sienna Miller, is the first in Oscar-nominated director Rachid Bouchareb's planned trilogy about the changing relationship between Americans and the Arab world.

The French Algerian director, who has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film three times, told TheWrap that he has finished principal photography on "Just Like a Woman," a road movie set in America.

He plans to make two more American-set films with Arabic sensibilities, including a buddy comedy and a Mexican border drama starring Forest Whitaker. All three will be English language.

"I'm always interested in what happens between the Arabic world and the West," Bouchareb said this week. "I come from North Africa, I lived in Paris and I made North African and Algerian and French movies, and now movies in America. But the stories are universal."

Bouchareb's past work has frequently explored conflicts between Arabs and Europeans. His 2010 film "Outside the Law" ("Hors-la-loi"), which dealt with the Algerian struggle for independence from France after World War II, drew protests when it screened at Cannes last year, but went on to win an Oscar nomination.

The Academy had previously nominated Bouchareb's "Days of Glory" in 2006 and "Dust of Life" in 1995.

Although he maintains a home in Paris, Bouchareb said he will spend most of his time in Los Angeles for the next two years while he makes the three films. The trilogy will be produced by Taghit LLC, an American company founded by Bouchareb and partner Jean Brehat in 1999.

The films:

* "Just like a Woman," stars Miller and Golshifteh Farahani as two women who meet as they journey from Chicago to New Mexico, both escaping broken marriages. Iranian actress Farahani plays an Arab immigrant fleeing her marriage in Chicago, while Miller plays a woman who leaves her cheating husband to pursue a secret passion for belly dancing.

* "Belleville's Cop," with "Outside the Law" star Jamel Debbouze in a comedy about a French-Arabic policeman teamed with an LAPD policewoman. Larry Gross, the co-writer of the classic cop buddy comedy "48 Hrs.," has written the script with Bouchareb.

"It's a comedy like some of the American movies I like so much," Bouchareb said, "with a lot of character and dialogue instead of stunts and action."

* An untitled feature with Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker as a Muslim ex-con dealing with anti-Arab sentiment (and the sheriff's paranoia about terrorists) in a small town along the Arizona/Mexico border.

"It's a story about three characters, but I find it interesting to have the political story of the border in the background," said Bouchareb, who did a number of interviews and met members of the private "Minuteman" militia while researching the film.

Production will begin late next year on "Belleville's Cop" and in 2013 on the final film.

The relationship between Americans and Arabs, Bouchareb said, is notably different than the one between Europeans and the Arab world -- and a big change from what it was in previous years.

"Between America and the Arabic world after Obama, it's more open and more understanding," he said. "It's in progress, and the American reaction to the Arabic revolution in Tunisia and Egypt was very important.

"The questions I'm asking in my movies here in America are 'Where are we?' and 'Where are we going?' and 'Why do we need to have hope in this relationship?'"

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A minute with: Harry Potter director David Yates (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – British director David Yates has spent the last six and half years of his life bringing the wizard world of Harry Potter to the big screen.

The 47 year old has made the final four of the eight films based on the top-selling books by author J.K. Rowling films.

But as the franchise comes to an end with the release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" this week, Yates talked to Reuters about putting a full stop on an epic experience and what he plans to do next.

Q: Why did you sign on to do these movies?

A: "It was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I hadn't read the books and they asked me, 'Would you like to do it?' I was like 'Oh my God, I'd better read a book.' It was so funny and charming and I quickly read the second one. It was a difficult world to walk away from, and once I started, everybody was really great. They asked me to stay and I said yes. And they asked me to stay and I said yes again, and I didn't want to be the bloke who made the two in the middle."

Q: Like the middle child?

A: "Yeah, exactly. And no one takes you that seriously. So I stayed."

Q: Was it a conscious decision to keep the atmosphere of this film rather mature?

A: "One way to keep the whole series fresh is to keep making it grow old with the audience and that's the most important thing for me. (The audience) may have been six or seven or eight and they are 16, 17 and 19 now ... They don't want to be patronized with cute stuff anymore. Also, little kids love to be scared. I loved to be scared when I was little."

Q: What are your next moves, now that you have these big blockbusters under your belt?

A: "I am going to make a small film next -- a very lean, mean, small film with a tiny budget. I don't know what it is yet. With big movies, you get slightly indulged because everything is there. And it is not healthy. You need to step away from that and be challenged again."

Q: Your first movie was "When I was a Girl", how have you grown as a director since then?

A: "Wow. It nearly killed me making that. It was 16 minutes long and nearly killed me. Because making your first film is your hardest film to ever make. All these muscles start to develop and it's painful. At that time I was much more interested in lenses and cameras and all that gear. You get obsessed with the wrong things. The biggest way I have changed is I care about the things that really matter, which are the story, acting, writing, and mise-en-scene of the story telling. I am less obsessed with dollies now."

Q: What characteristics do you want people to look for in knowing they are watching a Yates film?

A: "You know it's a really hard question to answer because I often get asked that question. But I asked (producer) David Heyman, 'Why did you choose me and why did you keep me for four films?' And he said, 'You're work has humanity in it. You really love the characters and there is a warmth and empathy with the characters and I love that.' So honestly, I have no idea, or when I retire I'll look back and know."

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"Citizen U.S.A." director Pelosi talks immigration (Reuters)

NEW YORK (TheWrap) – Alexandra Pelosi traveled the country interviewing new citizens for her documentary, "Citizen: U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip," and found they all shared one trait.

They included Iraqi refugees in Nebraska, Mexicans who crossed illegally into Arizona, a Kentucky paralympian from Nigeria, and a Buddhist monk in Utah. What did they all had in common?

"We like to make the distinction between immigrants we want and immigrants we don't want," said Pelosi, whose film debuts on HBO on the Fourth of July. "They all share one thing, and that's the work ethic. The taxi driver and the Ph.D.s share the love of America and the work ethic."

Pelosi's husband and co-producer, Michiel Vos, became a citizen after their children were born. They were inspired by the event to travel to naturalization ceremonies in all 50 states, interviewing other recent Americans. They found people who were grateful for things many Americans take for granted: free speech, clean water, police who respond when you call 911, the right to drive, gun ownership.

They tried to avoid the divisive issue of immigration, but it found them at an Arizona protest against the state's law requiring, among other things, that immigrants carry their papers at all times and that police question anyone they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally.

Pelosi, who has no plans to follow her mother, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, into politics, has no solution to the dilemma over who should be granted citizenship. "But a lot of people in Washington don't have the answer either, because you see how broken the system is," she says.

She and Vos talked to TheWrap about what it means to become an American.

Q: One of our freedoms as Americans is the right to complain, and we do it a lot. But your movie stresses the good things about the country. Did you decide it's so overwhelmingly good to be American you wanted to leave out the possible negatives?

Pelosi: The reason I left out the negatives in the movie was because I thought it was really contrarian to make a movie that was all positive about America because documentaries are always about things that are wrong with America. So I thought it was funny to make a movie that had nothing negative about America.

Q: You get such the sense in the movie that this is the most free country in the world. But Michiel, you're from Holland. Holland seems pretty free.

Vos: Not as free as here. We can insult the queen, just like you can insult the president here. But here there is a feeling that is more of a reinvention of yourself or doing things you never thought you would be able to do. Several people in the movie refer to that: "I was always told by my teacher or my peers, you can do this, but not that."

In America there's just one playing field, and it's called the market. You can do anything you want, you can reinvent yourself, you can start over. Nobody's waiting here for you, but the gates at the same time are wide open. They welcome you but they also say, "Well, if you don't want to do it there's a Korean, a Chinese - they're all competing with you."

The movie includes a group of Iraqi guys living in Nebraska. Do you they fit in there?

Pelosi: Yeah, because they watch "Friends." Everyone learns how to assimilate through watching television. Everyone thinks America is going to be like Hollywood, and when they get here they keep watching TV to find out how to be.

Vos: You see America for years on television. I'd seen America through the eyes of "The A-Team." Now I know America is not like "The A-Team." You think you know America before you get here.

Q: People outside this country might look at the Arizona immigration law, for example, and think Americans are intolerant.

Pelosi: I was trying to avoid immigration because that's the issue that's tearing this country apart. I wanted to do a film about citizenship. When I went to the ceremony in Arizona, there were protests out front. That same exact building where they do naturalization ceremonies is the exact building where a judge was determining the fate of the controversial immigration law. I was trying to avoid controversy. I was trying to do a purely celebratory Americana film.

Q: You also show people who are making obvious contributions.

Pelosi: Everyone talks about immigrants taking jobs, but there are a lot of jobs that America needs. Engineers. We still go recruiting Ph.D.s from other countries to cure cancer. We don't have a cure for cancer. We have a lot of people that have jobs here but no one's cured cancer. We bring in people that have ideas from other countries.

Vos: Newsweek had foreign-born Americans who are giving jobs, like Sergey Brin at Google.

Pelosi: My husband is a Dutch television correspondent. He's not taking any job away from an American. Because I don't really think there are any Americans that can speak Dutch and explain American politics to a Dutch audience.

"Citizen U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip" premieres at 9 p.m. Monday on HBO. A companion book will be released Thursday.

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"Citizen U.S.A." director Alexandra Pelosi speaks (Reuters)

NEW YORK (TheWrap) – Alexandra Pelosi traveled the country interviewing new citizens for her documentary, "Citizen: U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip," and found they all shared one trait.

They included Iraqi refugees in Nebraska, Mexicans who crossed illegally into Arizona, a Kentucky paralympian from Nigeria, and a Buddhist monk in Utah. What did they all had in common?

"We like to make the distinction between immigrants we want and immigrants we don't want," said Pelosi, whose film debuts on HBO on the Fourth of July. "They all share one thing, and that's the work ethic. The taxi driver and the Ph.D.s share the love of America and the work ethic."

Pelosi's husband and co-producer, Michiel Vos, became a citizen after their children were born. They were inspired by the event to travel to naturalization ceremonies in all 50 states, interviewing other recent Americans. They found people who were grateful for things many Americans take for granted: free speech, clean water, police who respond when you call 911, the right to drive, gun ownership.

They tried to avoid the divisive issue of immigration, but it found them at an Arizona protest against the state's law requiring, among other things, that immigrants carry their papers at all times and that police question anyone they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally.

Pelosi, who has no plans to follow her mother, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, into politics, has no solution to the dilemma over who should be granted citizenship. "But a lot of people in Washington don't have the answer wither, because you see how broken the system is," she says.

She and Vos talked to TheWrap about what it means to become an American.

Q: One of our freedoms as Americans is the right to complain, and we do it a lot. But your movie stresses the good things about the country. Did you decide it's so overwhelmingly good to be American you wanted to leave out the possible negatives?

Pelosi: The reason I left out the negatives in the movie was because I thought it was really contrarian to make a movie that was all positive about America because documentaries are always about things that are wrong with America. So I thought it was funny to make a movie that had nothing negative about America.

Q: You get such the sense in the movie that this is the most free country in the world. But Michiel, you're from Holland. Holland seems pretty free.

Vos: Not as free as here. We can insult the queen, just like you can insult the president here. But here there is a feeling that is more of a reinvention of yourself or doing things you never thought you would be able to do. Several people in the movie refer to that: "I was always told by my teacher or my peers, you can do this, but not that."

In America there's just one playing field, and it's called the market. You can do anything you want, you can reinvent yourself, you can start over. Nobody's waiting here for you, but the gates at the same time are wide open. They welcome you but they also say, "Well, if you don't want to do it there's a Korean, a Chinese - they're all competing with you."

The movie includes a group of Iraqi guys living in Nebraska. Do you they fit in there?

Pelosi: Yeah, because they watch "Friends." Everyone learns how to assimilate through watching television. Everyone thinks America is going to be like Hollywood, and when they get here they keep watching TV to find out how to be.

Vos: You see America for years on television. I'd seen America through the eyes of "The A-Team." Now I know America is not like "The A-Team." You think you know America before you get here.

Q: People outside this country might look at the Arizona immigration law, for example, and think Americans are intolerant.

Pelosi: I was trying to avoid immigration because that's the issue that's tearing this country apart. I wanted to do a film about citizenship. When I went to the ceremony in Arizona, there were protests out front. That same exact building where they do naturalization ceremonies is the exact building where a judge was determining the fate of the controversial immigration law. I was trying to avoid controversy. I was trying to do a purely celebratory Americana film.

Q: You also show people who are making obvious contributions.

Pelosi: Everyone talks about immigrants taking jobs, but there are a lot of jobs that America needs. Engineers. We still go recruiting Ph.D.s from other countries to cure cancer. We don't have a cure for cancer. We have a lot of people that have jobs here but no one's cured cancer. We bring in people that have ideas from other countries.

Vos: Newsweek had foreign-born Americans who are giving jobs, like Sergey Brin at Google.

Pelosi: My husband is a Dutch television correspondent. He's not taking any job away from an American. Because I don't really think there are any Americans that can speak Dutch and explain American politics to a Dutch audience.

"Citizen U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip" premieres at 9 p.m. Monday on HBO. A companion book will be released Thursday.

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Kate Bosworth to star in third film for director (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Kate Bosworth is set to star in writer/director Kat Coiro's "Untitled Italy Project," playing a married woman who embarks on an affair with a 19-year-old on the island of Ischia, Italy.

Iddo Goldberg has been cast as the main character's tightly-wound husband.

It will be Bosworth's third project with Coiro, whose "Life Happens," about three women living in Los Angeles, will have its world premiere Saturday at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The two also previously collaborated on a FunnyorDie.com short film "Idiots."

The new feature, which will shoot in Ischia and Naples, Italy as well as Los Angeles, will be produced by Lauren Bratman, Bosworth and Coiro. 1821 Pictures is providing the financing.

"This is my third film now with Kate Bosworth. I'm beyond thrilled to be able to go off to Italy with her and have her play a complicated married woman who falls for a younger man," Coiro said.

Bosworth was most recently seen in "Another Happy Day" as well as the indie "Little Birds." She will next appear on screen in the thriller "Straw Dogs."

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

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Fired "Spider-Man" director Taymor claims royalties (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Julie Taymor, the ousted director of Broadway's troubled "Spider-Man" musical, is seeking an estimated $300,000 in unpaid royalties from producers, the union representing her said on Thursday.

The union filed an arbitration claim on behalf of Taymor, who was replaced on the $70 million show -- the most expensive in Broadway history -- in March while it was still in previews.

Her ouster followed repeated delays to the official opening, scathing reviews, and several accidents involving the show's high-wire stunts.

"Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark", with music by Bono and The Edge, closed for three weeks in April for a major revamp by a new director. Its official opening is now set for June 14.

Despite the bad publicity, the show is making more than $1 million at the box office every week and frequently places among the top three attractions on Broadway.

"Taymor has given nine years of her life to this project," Laura Penn, executive director of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the union filing the claim, said in a statement.

"The producer has absolutely no right, legally and ethically, to withhold royalties that are due to her," the statement said.

Penn told Reuters that Taymor received only her original director's fee of $125,000 about five years ago, but has not received any of the royalties owed to her since preview tickets went on sale last November.

Taymor, the creative force behind the successful stage adaptation of Disney's "The Lion King," is still credited as the show's "original director," and should therefore continue to receive director royalties even after her exit from the production, the union said.

Producers declined comment on the claim.

The arbitration filing is restricted to Taymor's work as a director, Penn said. She also has a separate contract as an author of the show.

Taymor's spokeswoman, Mara Buxbaum, said Taymor was "certainly aware and cooperative with the claim,".

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jill Serjeant)

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Film director Ang Lee lauds son for Hangover II (AFP)

TAIPEI (AFP) – Oscar-winning Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee described his son as "a serious actor" following his performance in the hit Hollywood movie "The Hangover Part II", local media reported Thursday.

Mason Lee plays alongside Bradley Cooper in the sequel, which follows four men on an alcohol-soaked odyssey through Bangkok, bagging nearly $186 million in two weeks in the United States despite sometimes harsh reviews.

"His performance is quite good, he is a very serious actor," Lee told reporters after watching the movie in Taipei, according to the Apple Daily newspaper.

But Lee said he had not thought about casting his son because the young man "should do whatever he wishes", he was quoted by the China Times as saying.

Lee is currently in Taiwan shooting his first 3D film "Life of Pi" about an Indian boy adrift on a lifeboat in the Pacific with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a tiger.

The filmmaker, who is based in New York, was hailed as the "glory of Taiwan" after becoming the first Asian to win a best director Oscar for his gay cowboy drama "Brokeback Mountain" in 2007.

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Eminem boxing movie lures "Training Day" director (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Eminem's first movie since "8 Mile" is one step closer to happening.

"Southpaw," a boxing movie in which Eminem would play a welterweight champ who punches his way back to glory after a tragedy, now looks to be zeroing on "Training Day" director Antoine Fuqua to take the helm.

Fuqua, who is currently shooting a biopic in China centering on concubine Yang Guifei, is in talks to board the pugilist picture, which is hoping for a fall start.

DreamWorks picked up the project in December when another boxing movie, "The Fighter," was burning up the box office and awards season buzz. It was written by "Sons of Anarchy" creator Kirk Sutter.

Eminem played himself in 2002's autobiographical "8 Mile," and won an Oscar for co-writing the theme song.

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Houston opera conductor named new music director (AP)

HOUSTON – Houston Grand Opera conductor Patrick Summers has been named the organization's artistic and music director in a shuffle of top management after the departure of general director Anthony Freud.

The opera's board also named chief operating officer Perryn Leech as managing director. Freud resigned to lead the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Summers has conducted more than 45 operas in his 13 years with the Houston Grand Opera. He also is principal guest conductor of the San Francisco Opera and appears with the Metropolitan Opera in New York and other leading companies.

Leech joined the Houston Grand Opera as chief operating officer in 2010, after a 27-year career in production at theaters and opera companies that include the English National Opera and the Welsh National Opera.

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Director lauds Christian Bale for China film work (AP)

HONG KONG – The director of the Chinese war epic "Nanjing Heroes" was impressed by Christian Bale's professionalism and willingness to forego Hollywood comforts on the film shoot.

Bale arrived in Nanjing alone Feb. 2 and insisted on the same accommodations as the director and crew, director Zhang Yimou was quoted as saying in a statement by his production company. Bale also attended an extra's birthday party, "playing around with everyone, playing hard, without the pretense of a big star at all."

The Oscar winner for "The Fighter" and star of "The Dark Knight" portrays an American priest in the World War II movie. He finished filming recently and returned to England, the statement sent to The Associated Press said.

"An A-list Hollywood actor traveling alone to an alien country and an alien set, working and living for several months with several hundred foreigners he doesn't know well — that is very incredible and very impressive to me," Zhang was quoted as saying.

The director best known in the West for "Raise the Red Lantern" and "To Live" called Bale a generous performer.

"When I asked him for a certain kind of performance, he gave me three approaches. When I asked for three approaches, he gave me five," he said. "He always wanted to give me more, so I have a wider range of choices. His professionalism often touched me. He is a great role model for Chinese actors."

The film is an adaptation of a Chinese-language novel by contemporary writer Yan Geling about 13 sex workers in Nanjing who volunteered to replace university students as escorts for invading Japanese soldiers. In the novel, the American priest leads a church that shelters prostitutes and young female students during the invasion.

One of China's best-known modern directors, Zhang's recent releases include "A Simple Noodle Story," an adaptation of the Coen brothers' 1984 movie "Blood Simple," and "Under the Hawthorn Tree," a love story set in China's decade-long ultra-leftist Cultural Revolution.

"Nanjing Heroes," a $90 million production, is scheduled to finish shooting in June and will be released in China on Dec. 16.

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Christopher Nolan Snubbed! Does the Academy Hate the 'Inception' Director?

He has directed some of the most critically acclaimed, visually arresting movies of our time and has been celebrated by his colleagues, but this morning Christopher Nolan's name was a notable snub on the list of Best Director Oscar nominees.

Nolan -- a three-time Directors Guild of America nominee for 'Memento,' 'The Dark Knight' and 'Inception' -- has yet to be recognized in the director category by the Academy. Sure, his movies often score nominations galore; 'Inception,' for example, is up for eight awards this year, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. But for some reason, the Academy continues to ignore him as a directing contender. Now our friend from Moviefone, Sharon Knolle, dives deeper.

Could it be because his inventive movies are typically also enormous blockbusters? Doubtful. Enormous box-office success didn't prevent Steven Spielberg from joining the nominees' circle early in his career (for 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind,' 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' and 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,' all popcorn flicks). And it certainly hasn't hurt two-time-winner James Cameron.

The Academy does have something of a history of snubbing commercial directors. After all, despite his early nominations, it took Spielberg until 1993's 'Schindler's List' to actually win a directing Oscar, and wildly popular director Alfred Hitchcock never won an award in the category. However, it's still surprising that Nolan got the shaft with 'Inception.' It's not like he hasn't been racking up the kudos for the Leonardo DiCaprio film. First came a Golden Globe nomination, then one from Directors Guild of America; back home, the London-born Nolan also reeled in his first BAFTA nomination for Achievement in Direction. Yet no love from the Academy.

The 'Dark Knight' slight moved Nolan's brother Jonathan (who co-wrote 'Memento' with him) to respond with an e-mail to fans: "Any nominations for a comic book movie is a thing of beauty no matter how you slice it, and that takes the sting out a bit. Besides, I've been to the big show before, and, like any of these things, it's a little disappointing. Did you know it's not even an open bar once the show starts? At least this time I would have remembered to bring a little cash so I could buy myself a drink after losing."

So, what will it take for Nolan to be recognized by the Academy for his directing skills? Does he need to make a movie about Facebook, World War II or blue aliens to stand a chance? Or does he simply have to hang in there for 20 or 30 more years until the Academy finally decides it's his time? Or could it be that the Academy just confused Nolan's 'Inception' with one of the many popular Internet memes relating to the movie?

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'Restrepo' Director Tim Hetherington Killed in Libya

Oscar-nominated director Tim Hetherington died Wednesday in the midst of heavy fighting in Libya, The Washington Post reports.

Hetherington, 40, was in the war-torn country with Pulitzer Prize-nominated American photojournalist Chris Hondros, 41, and were killed when fighting broke out between Moammar Gaddafi's forces and rebels in the city of Misrata. Two other photojournalists were also hurt during the attack.

British-born Hetherington rose to fame when 'Restrepo,' his documentary chronicling the deployment of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, was nominated for an Academy Award earlier this year. He was most recently based in Brooklyn, New York.

On Tuesday the director took to Twitter to update his followers on the situation in Libya. "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata," he wrote. "Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."
According to CNN, Hetherington also served as a contributing photographer for 'Vanity Fair.' The magazine issued a statement from the director's family.

"It is with great sadness we learned that our son and brother, photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington, was killed today in Misrata, Libya, by a rocket-propelled grenade," the statement said. "Tim will be remembered for his amazing images and his Academy Award-nominated documentary 'Restrepo.' "

The statement continued, "Tim was in Libya to continue his ongoing multimedia project to highlight humanitarian issues during time of war and conflict. He will be forever missed."Filed under: Movie News - Celebrity Deaths
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Director Spike Jonze Trying to Reconnect with Michelle Williams

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Director Sidney Lumet Dead at 86

Sidney Lumet, director of Hollywood classics '12 Angry Men' (1957), 'Serpico' (1973), 'Dog Day Afternoon' (1975) and 'Network' (1976) passed away on Saturday, the New York Times reports, at his home in Manhattan. The four-time Oscar nominee, who died of lymphoma, was 86.

The Philadelphia native was a child actor on Broadway and radio, after which he worked as a TV director for CBS in the 1950's. He helmed televised productions of dramatic plays by Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill, before becoming a prolific, acclaimed director of more than 40 feature films.

Lumet was given an honorary Academy Award in 2005; about the statue, Lumet later said, "I wanted one, damn it, and I felt I deserved one." In presenting the award, Al Pacino reflected on the honoree: "A Sidney Lumet movie has a signature, a stamp of individuality, a point of view....I'm forever grateful, along with all the other actors and writers who have benefited from Sidney's genius."

Over the course of his career, Lumet directed the Oscar-winning performances of Ingrid Bergman (1974's 'Murder on the Orient Express') and Faye Dunaway ('Network'). Paul Newman, nominated for his performance in Lumet's 'The Verdict,' once said, "He just had an incredible eye for the truth."
Married four times (his wives included actress Rita Gam, socialite Gloria Vanderbilt and author Gail Jones), Lumet is survived by his fourth wife, Mary Gimbel, two daughters, a stepson and stepdaughter, nine grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Friends and admirers in the industry reacted to Lumet's death, and celebrated his legacy, on Twitter.

"RIP Sidney Lumet," Jon Favreau tweeted. "I played Juror 6 in 12 Angry Men on stage in Chicago for a year. We studied his film. He was a great director."

Roger Ebert wrote, "Oh, no. Dear Sidney Lumet, RIP." He later added, "His clarity is startling, his wisdom is deep."

Joan Collins said, "Sad that the great director Sidney Lumet passed away- he leaves a fabulous film legacy."

Paul Fieg (co-creator of cult hit series 'Freaks and Geeks') tweeted, "RIP Sidney Lumet - made some of the best movies ever. Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Serpico. A true master. Thanks for being so amazing."

Greg Mottola (director of 'Superbad') told his Twitter followers, "Very, very sad to hear that Sidney Lumet has passed away. I took a class with him at film school. A great teacher, a great artist."

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