CHATTER AWAY: Overnight Open Thread

The New York Times reports:

William Friedkin, a filmmaker whose gritty, visceral style and fascination with characters on the edge helped make “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist” two of the biggest box-office hits of the 1970s, died on Monday at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 87.

The cause was heart failure and pneumonia, said his wife, Sherry Lansing, the former head of Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. “The French Connection” was released in 1971 and dominated the Academy Awards the next year, winning the Oscar for best picture and earning Mr. Friedkin the best director award.

“The Exorcist,| released in late December 1973, became a phenomenal hit, one of Hollywood’s top-grossing movies to date, with ticket sales of more than $200 million (the equivalent of about $1.3 billion today). It was also the first horror film to be nominated for a best picture Oscar. (It lost to “The Sting.”)

Read the full article.

Breaking News: William Friedkin, the director of the 1970s box-office hits “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” died at 87. https://t.co/zbDcuH6V6J

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 7, 2023