Amanda Mackey, the casting director whose 40-year career counted credits like “A League of Their Own,” “The Proposal” and “The Fugitive,” has died. She was 70.
According to multiple media reports, Mackey died in her sleep on Saturday from a type of blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome at NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn.
The 15-time Artios Award winner, bestowed by the Casting Society of America for casting excellence, earned her first credits as a casting assistant in the early ’80s on films such as “The World According to Garp” and worked her way through the ranks of associate and consultant.
In 1985, she served as casting director for the first time on “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins” and “Rocky IV.”
Also Read:
Richard Roat, Veteran Character Actor From ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Friends,’ Dies at 89
Mackey would go on to assemble the players for celebrated films such as “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,...
According to multiple media reports, Mackey died in her sleep on Saturday from a type of blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome at NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn.
The 15-time Artios Award winner, bestowed by the Casting Society of America for casting excellence, earned her first credits as a casting assistant in the early ’80s on films such as “The World According to Garp” and worked her way through the ranks of associate and consultant.
In 1985, she served as casting director for the first time on “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins” and “Rocky IV.”
Also Read:
Richard Roat, Veteran Character Actor From ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Friends,’ Dies at 89
Mackey would go on to assemble the players for celebrated films such as “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,...
- 9/1/2022
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
Amanda Mackey, the award winning casting director behind films such as “A League of Their Own” and “Smokin’ Aces” has died. She was 70.
“We are heartbroken to hear about the passing of Casting Director Amanda Mackey. She was an inspiration to many in our field and everyone at CSA sends our condolences to her family and friends,” the Casting Society said in a statement.
Mackey was recognized by The Casting Society with an Artios Awards for both films. Her other credits include “Bad Moms,” “United 93,” “Ronin” and “The Hunt for Red October.”
She received an Emmy nomination in 2014 for Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special for “The Normal Heart” which she shared with casting partner Cathy Sandrich Gelfond.
Together Sandrich Gelfond and Mackey were among the most highly-regarded and sought-after casting directors in the industry.
Mackey was filmmaker Andy Davis’ go-to casting director. Together they worked...
“We are heartbroken to hear about the passing of Casting Director Amanda Mackey. She was an inspiration to many in our field and everyone at CSA sends our condolences to her family and friends,” the Casting Society said in a statement.
Mackey was recognized by The Casting Society with an Artios Awards for both films. Her other credits include “Bad Moms,” “United 93,” “Ronin” and “The Hunt for Red October.”
She received an Emmy nomination in 2014 for Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special for “The Normal Heart” which she shared with casting partner Cathy Sandrich Gelfond.
Together Sandrich Gelfond and Mackey were among the most highly-regarded and sought-after casting directors in the industry.
Mackey was filmmaker Andy Davis’ go-to casting director. Together they worked...
- 8/31/2022
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Mark Damon’s Dcr Finance Corp. has signed a deal to provide $65 million in financing for a new version of “Sinbad” with production set to begin in early 2020, Variety has learned exclusively.
Dcr, a media financing fund headed by Damon, Adi Cohen and Jordi Rediu, will unveil details to potential buyers at the American Film Market, which opens Nov. 6 in Santa Monica, Calif.
The funds will be mostly spent in Georgia through partners Len Gibson and Wayne Overstreet, of Go Media. The overall budget is expected to be around $120 million. Enrico Ballarin, whose credits include “Star Wars: Episode II” as a unit manager, will executive produce. “Sinbad” will be directed by Francesco Lucente, who also wrote the screenplay.
Dcr announced a deal in August with Atlanta-based Go Media Productions to join a private placement as a lead investor and provide up to $150 million in exchange for the investment being channeled...
Dcr, a media financing fund headed by Damon, Adi Cohen and Jordi Rediu, will unveil details to potential buyers at the American Film Market, which opens Nov. 6 in Santa Monica, Calif.
The funds will be mostly spent in Georgia through partners Len Gibson and Wayne Overstreet, of Go Media. The overall budget is expected to be around $120 million. Enrico Ballarin, whose credits include “Star Wars: Episode II” as a unit manager, will executive produce. “Sinbad” will be directed by Francesco Lucente, who also wrote the screenplay.
Dcr announced a deal in August with Atlanta-based Go Media Productions to join a private placement as a lead investor and provide up to $150 million in exchange for the investment being channeled...
- 10/29/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
In today’s film news roundup, Isabela Merced get cast opposite Jason Momoa, “Starbright” gets financing and Afm announces its speakers.
Casting
Isabela Merced, formerly Isabela Moner, has come on board to portray the daughter of Jason Momoa in his upcoming revenge thriller “Sweet Girl” for Netflix.
Momoa will play a devastated man who vows to bring justice to the people responsible for his wife’s death while protecting his daughter, who is the only family he has left. “Sweet Girl” is written by Gregg Hurwitz, Philip Eisner and Will Staples. Brian Mendoza will direct. Momoa, Brad Peyton and Jeff Fierson are producing for Netflix.
Merced starred as the lead in Paramount’s “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” which grossed more than $60 million domestically. Production of the “Sweet Girl” will take place in Pittsburgh.
Merced, who recently changed her name from Isabela Moner to honor her late Peruvian grandmother,...
Casting
Isabela Merced, formerly Isabela Moner, has come on board to portray the daughter of Jason Momoa in his upcoming revenge thriller “Sweet Girl” for Netflix.
Momoa will play a devastated man who vows to bring justice to the people responsible for his wife’s death while protecting his daughter, who is the only family he has left. “Sweet Girl” is written by Gregg Hurwitz, Philip Eisner and Will Staples. Brian Mendoza will direct. Momoa, Brad Peyton and Jeff Fierson are producing for Netflix.
Merced starred as the lead in Paramount’s “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” which grossed more than $60 million domestically. Production of the “Sweet Girl” will take place in Pittsburgh.
Merced, who recently changed her name from Isabela Moner to honor her late Peruvian grandmother,...
- 10/22/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Director worked on more than 80 pictures in prolific career.
Swiss-born cinematographer Carlo Varini, best known for The Chorus, The Big Blue and Subway, has died in a house fire.
The 67-year-old cinematographer, who shot more than 80 pictures throughout his career, started out as a calibrator at the Schwarz-Film laboratory in Berne.
After cinema studies at the Zurich University of Arts he became a news cameraman, moving into fiction as the assistant cameraman of celebrated Italian cinematographer Renato Berta.
He branched out on his own in the early 1980s to work with Luc Besson on his early features The Last Combat, Subway and The Big Blue. He was nominated for a Cesar for the latter two.
More recently, he gained recognition for his work on Christophe Barratier’s The Choir for which he was nominated for Camerimage’s Golden Frog alongside Dominique Gentil.
He was due to work on Canadian director Francesco Lucente’s upcoming feature Starbright.
According...
Swiss-born cinematographer Carlo Varini, best known for The Chorus, The Big Blue and Subway, has died in a house fire.
The 67-year-old cinematographer, who shot more than 80 pictures throughout his career, started out as a calibrator at the Schwarz-Film laboratory in Berne.
After cinema studies at the Zurich University of Arts he became a news cameraman, moving into fiction as the assistant cameraman of celebrated Italian cinematographer Renato Berta.
He branched out on his own in the early 1980s to work with Luc Besson on his early features The Last Combat, Subway and The Big Blue. He was nominated for a Cesar for the latter two.
More recently, he gained recognition for his work on Christophe Barratier’s The Choir for which he was nominated for Camerimage’s Golden Frog alongside Dominique Gentil.
He was due to work on Canadian director Francesco Lucente’s upcoming feature Starbright.
According...
- 5/22/2014
- ScreenDaily
Sarah Bolger has been cast in the lead role for the new 3D fantasy “Starbright”. The Dublin born actress will star alongside actor James Earl Jones, who played Darth Vader in “Star Wars”. In “Starbright” the 19-year-old plays an orphan called Pamela who escapes into a fantasy world of fairy tales to hide the pain of a tough childhood. Bolger was a recipient of the best actress award at the 2010 Irish Film and Television Awards for her role as Mary Tudor in “The Tudors”. Her other acting credits include “In America” (2002) and “The Spiderwick Chronicles” (2008). She is currently filming Mary Harron's gothic film “The Moth Diaries” in Monreal. The German-us co-production is being produced by Michel Morales’ Munich-based Aviv Pictures, Us based Lucente Filmed Entertainment, and Michel Shane and Anthony Romano’s Hand Picked Films (Us). Directed by Francesco Lucente, filming is expected to begin in early 2011....
- 11/2/2010
- IrishCentral
Irish actress Sarah Bolger has been cast lead role in Francesco Lucente's 3D fantasy 'Starbright'. Bolger, whose credits include an Ifta winning performance in 'The Tudors' and starring roles in 'Operation Stormbreaker', 'The Spiderwick Chronicles' and Jim Sheridan's 'In America', is currently filming the Irish co-produced film 'The Moth Diaries' in Montreal. The actress is due to begin filming scenes for 'Starbright' also on location in Canada in early 2011. 'Starbright's Canadian writer/director Francesco Lucente's previous credits include the 2007 drama 'Badland'.
- 11/1/2010
- IFTN
J. F. Lawton's "Jackson" will serve as opening-night film of the 10th annual Lake Arrowhead Film Festival, to be held at the Lake Arrowhead Resort & Spa from April 2-5. Barry Primus and Charlie Robinson, who star in the film as two bums whose lives are affected by a $20 bill, will attend the opening.
The lineup also includes such features as Francesco Lucente's "Badland," LeVar Burton's "Reach for Me," Duane Crichton's "Saving God" and Charles Evered's "Adopt a Sailor" and such short films as Chris Jones' "Gone Fishing" and Peter Beigen's "Ceremonies of the Horsemen."
Cinematographer Wally Pfister will present an award to fellow cinematographers Vilmos Zsigmond and the late Lazslo Kovacs, which Zsigmond will accept on their behlf. The two filmmakers are the subject of James Chressanthis' documentary "No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos."
At the fest's Friday night gala, Jim Thebaut will receive the...
The lineup also includes such features as Francesco Lucente's "Badland," LeVar Burton's "Reach for Me," Duane Crichton's "Saving God" and Charles Evered's "Adopt a Sailor" and such short films as Chris Jones' "Gone Fishing" and Peter Beigen's "Ceremonies of the Horsemen."
Cinematographer Wally Pfister will present an award to fellow cinematographers Vilmos Zsigmond and the late Lazslo Kovacs, which Zsigmond will accept on their behlf. The two filmmakers are the subject of James Chressanthis' documentary "No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos."
At the fest's Friday night gala, Jim Thebaut will receive the...
- 3/11/2009
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Badland Corp.
The latest arrival in this fall's seemingly endless barrage of Iraq War-themed films, Badland is an achingly self-important portrait of a returning Marine reservist who commits an unspeakable act in the name of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Written and directed by Francesco Lucente with a heavy heart and a heavier hand, this overlong, over-the-top dirge is being pushed -- with pushed being the operative word -- as an awards-season contender.
Precious few are likely to see it that way, if they see it at all.
England's Jamie Draven is the damaged goods in question -- a once-idealistic Gulf War veteran who has recently returned from a tour of Afghanistan and Iraq, a jittery shadow of his former self.
Jerry's crying jags and nosebleeds elicit little sympathy from his bullying wife (Vinessa Shaw), who's sick and tired of their dead-end trailer park existence, while his three young children become an increasing burden to him.
Then one day, unsurprisingly, he snaps, going on a cold-blooded shooting spree that leaves his wife and two of those kids dead.
With his surviving daughter (Grace Fulton) in tow, Jerry goes on the lam and starts over in a new town on the U.S.-Canadian border, taking a job in a diner run by the sympathetic Oli (Chandra West), who's unaware of his horrific deed, despite all those news reports.
It's only a matter of time before Jerry's past finally catches up with him, and at a painfully protracted 160 minutes, Badland has oodles to spare.
When the picture gets around to its calculated socko ending, the viewer has long been pummeled into a state of numbness.
Each time Draven's character so much as quivers an eyebrow, Carlo Varini's camera, when it's not paying obvious stylistic homage to Terrence Malick's Badlands, moves in close for the kill, prompting the Budapest Symphony Orchestra to swell accordingly as a mournful choir of operatic voices similarly rises to the occasion.
Before it all comes to a crashing end, Lucente tosses a Bruce Springsteen tune into the overwrought mix -- no, not Badlands, but the more recent "Devils & Dust."
Too bad he never took a cue from that war-themed song's powerfully understated eloquence.
The latest arrival in this fall's seemingly endless barrage of Iraq War-themed films, Badland is an achingly self-important portrait of a returning Marine reservist who commits an unspeakable act in the name of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Written and directed by Francesco Lucente with a heavy heart and a heavier hand, this overlong, over-the-top dirge is being pushed -- with pushed being the operative word -- as an awards-season contender.
Precious few are likely to see it that way, if they see it at all.
England's Jamie Draven is the damaged goods in question -- a once-idealistic Gulf War veteran who has recently returned from a tour of Afghanistan and Iraq, a jittery shadow of his former self.
Jerry's crying jags and nosebleeds elicit little sympathy from his bullying wife (Vinessa Shaw), who's sick and tired of their dead-end trailer park existence, while his three young children become an increasing burden to him.
Then one day, unsurprisingly, he snaps, going on a cold-blooded shooting spree that leaves his wife and two of those kids dead.
With his surviving daughter (Grace Fulton) in tow, Jerry goes on the lam and starts over in a new town on the U.S.-Canadian border, taking a job in a diner run by the sympathetic Oli (Chandra West), who's unaware of his horrific deed, despite all those news reports.
It's only a matter of time before Jerry's past finally catches up with him, and at a painfully protracted 160 minutes, Badland has oodles to spare.
When the picture gets around to its calculated socko ending, the viewer has long been pummeled into a state of numbness.
Each time Draven's character so much as quivers an eyebrow, Carlo Varini's camera, when it's not paying obvious stylistic homage to Terrence Malick's Badlands, moves in close for the kill, prompting the Budapest Symphony Orchestra to swell accordingly as a mournful choir of operatic voices similarly rises to the occasion.
Before it all comes to a crashing end, Lucente tosses a Bruce Springsteen tune into the overwrought mix -- no, not Badlands, but the more recent "Devils & Dust."
Too bad he never took a cue from that war-themed song's powerfully understated eloquence.
- 11/30/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.