Documentary filmmaker George Butler, best known for his 1977 film Pumping Iron that raised Austrian bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger to Hollywood prominence, died of pneumonia Oct. 21 at home in New Hampshire. He was 78 and his death was confirmed by his son, Desmond Butler, a Washington Post reporter.
Butler directed more than 10 films during his four-decade career. He co-directed Pumping Iron with Robert Fiore.
The son of a British Army officer, he spent his childhood in Somalia and Jamaica.
His final project, Tiger Tiger, is scheduled for next year. The film follows a big cat conservationist into the wilds of India and Bangladesh.
Butler had covered bodybuilding as a journalist in the 1970s, collaborating on a book on the subject before raising funds for the film. The film exponentially raised the profile of Schwarzenegger, who had scored just a few small TV and film roles at the time. The film depicted his training at Gold’s Gym in Venice,...
Butler directed more than 10 films during his four-decade career. He co-directed Pumping Iron with Robert Fiore.
The son of a British Army officer, he spent his childhood in Somalia and Jamaica.
His final project, Tiger Tiger, is scheduled for next year. The film follows a big cat conservationist into the wilds of India and Bangladesh.
Butler had covered bodybuilding as a journalist in the 1970s, collaborating on a book on the subject before raising funds for the film. The film exponentially raised the profile of Schwarzenegger, who had scored just a few small TV and film roles at the time. The film depicted his training at Gold’s Gym in Venice,...
- 10/30/2021
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Tucked away in a New York Times article about Lil Peep, a rapper who died of an accidental overdose at 21 last November, is a surprising parenthetical about the documentary being made about him: “Terrence Malick, a friend of the Womack family, is an executive producer.” The Womacks are the family of Lil Peep, real name Gustav Ahr, whereas Malick is the Oscar-nominated, Palme d’Or–winning director of films like “The Tree of Life” and “Days of Heaven” — not necessarily who you’d expect to be involved with a nonfiction account of a troubled rapper’s life and death.
It makes its own kind of sense, however, considering that Malick’s most recent film is the music-heavy “Song to Song” and he’s made a habit of doing the unexpected throughout his singular career; most recently, he made a commercial for the new Google Pixel 3 phone. No other information about...
It makes its own kind of sense, however, considering that Malick’s most recent film is the music-heavy “Song to Song” and he’s made a habit of doing the unexpected throughout his singular career; most recently, he made a commercial for the new Google Pixel 3 phone. No other information about...
- 10/31/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Terrence Malick makes us believe in magic when we know it doesn't exist. He has created his own legend as an unreachable recluse
He may be the only film-maker working now to whom the word "magical" can be applied, yet in nearly 30 years he has directed just five films. He has a degree in philosophy from Harvard; he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he has published a translation of Heidegger's Vom Wesen des Grundes. He has a reputation as a recluse, whereas in reality he is a charming, amiable fellow happy to talk about a wide range of topics – but not film. He came close once to doing a film of Walker Percy's novel The Moviegoer, and in 1999 he did produce a picture about the great Ethiopian runner, Haile Gebrselassie, called Endurance. Then a year later he produced another documentary, The Endurance, about the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.
He may be the only film-maker working now to whom the word "magical" can be applied, yet in nearly 30 years he has directed just five films. He has a degree in philosophy from Harvard; he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he has published a translation of Heidegger's Vom Wesen des Grundes. He has a reputation as a recluse, whereas in reality he is a charming, amiable fellow happy to talk about a wide range of topics – but not film. He came close once to doing a film of Walker Percy's novel The Moviegoer, and in 1999 he did produce a picture about the great Ethiopian runner, Haile Gebrselassie, called Endurance. Then a year later he produced another documentary, The Endurance, about the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.
- 4/21/2011
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
NEW YORK -- After six years, indie distributor Cowboy Pictures will ride into the sunset, according to the company's president, John Vanco. Vanco will announce his plans in the coming weeks. Cowboy was founded in 1997, under the moniker Cowboy Booking, by Vanco and Noah Cowan. Cowan exited his co-president post last year. The unit released more than 40 films theatrically, including the documentaries The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition and the Oscar-nominated Promises and the rock docus I Am Trying to Break Your Heart and Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. The company also rolled out David Gordon Green's George Washington, James Toback's Harvard Man and Lynne Ramsay's Morvern Callar.
- 10/22/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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