23° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
Walter Hill

Tale from the Crypt: Deadline

Tale from the Crypt: Deadline

Country: USA
Year: 1991
Duration: 30'


Charlie MacKenzie is an out-of-work reporter who’s trying to regain control over his life. One night, in a bar, he meets a beautiful woman who seems to turn his life around. His boss tells him he’s willing to give him his job back if Charlie can come up with a thrilling murder story. Finally the man finds what he’s been looking for: as he eats dinner in a Greek restaurant one evening he discovers that the owner has strangled his girlfriend. When shown the corpse, he realizes that the woman is still alive. Faced with a choice, Charlie will have to decide whether destiny needs a fatal nudge.

Biography

film director

Walter Hill

Walter Hill (Long Beach, California, 1942) studied art and later enrolled at Michigan University, where he discovered his passion for cinema. He avoided the draft during the Vietnam war, moved to Los Angeles and entered the world of cinema as assistant director. He worked on the set of Bullit (Peter Yates, 1968) and The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison, 1968) and in 1971 met Sam Peckinpah, for whom he wrote the screenplay for the film The Getaway (1972). After writing the screenplay for The MacKintosh Man ( John Huston, 1973), Hill debuted as director in 1976 with Hard Times, a story about clandestine boxing matches during the Great Depression. He next wrote the screenplay for The Drowning Pool (Stuart Rosenberg, 1975) and went on to direct his second movie, the detective film The Driver (1978). Walter Hill won international fame with his next film, The Warriors (1979), which mixes classic and modern cinema, horror films and musicals, westerns and thrillers. His success was confirmed by his next movie, Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979), which Hill produced and, along with David Giler (his present collaborator), was also non-accredited screenwriter. In 1980 Hill tried his hand at westerns for the first time and directed The Long Riders, followed two years later by the greatest success of his career, the action film 48 Hrs., which made Eddie Murphy a star, and in 1984 the rock fairy tale Streets of Fire. Over the next few years Hill experimented different genres - comedies, Brewster's Millions (1985); musicals, Crossroads (1986); modern westerns, Extreme Prejudice (1987); noir films, Johnny Handsome (1989) - along with more commercial productions like Red Heat (1988) and the sequel Another 48 Hrs. (1990), without the same box office and critical success he had enjoyed during the 1970s and '80s. After the violent film Trespass (1992), Hill returned to directing westerns with Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) and writing screenplays for John Milius, Wild Bill (1995) and Last Man Standing (1996), based on a story by Kurosawa. In 2002 he directed Undisputed, which takes place in a California prison and is inspired by Mike Tyson's vicissitudes, and in 2004 he directed the pilot film of a western series on HBO entitled Deadwood. Hill is now on location in Canada shooting his next western, Daughters of Joy.

FILMOGRAFIA

Walter Hill (Long Beach, California, 1942) studied art and later enrolled at Michigan University, where he discovered his passion for cinema. He avoided the draft during the Vietnam war, moved to Los Angeles and entered the world of cinema as assistant director. He worked on the set of Bullit (Peter Yates, 1968) and The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison, 1968) and in 1971 met Sam Peckinpah, for whom he wrote the screenplay for the film The Getaway (1972). After writing the screenplay for The MacKintosh Man ( John Huston, 1973), Hill debuted as director in 1976 with Hard Times, a story about clandestine boxing matches during the Great Depression. He next wrote the screenplay for The Drowning Pool (Stuart Rosenberg, 1975) and went on to direct his second movie, the detective film The Driver (1978). Walter Hill won international fame with his next film, The Warriors (1979), which mixes classic and modern cinema, horror films and musicals, westerns and thrillers. His success was confirmed by his next movie, Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979), which Hill produced and, along with David Giler (his present collaborator), was also non-accredited screenwriter. In 1980 Hill tried his hand at westerns for the first time and directed The Long Riders, followed two years later by the greatest success of his career, the action film 48 Hrs., which made Eddie Murphy a star, and in 1984 the rock fairy tale Streets of Fire. Over the next few years Hill experimented different genres - comedies, Brewster's Millions (1985); musicals, Crossroads (1986); modern westerns, Extreme Prejudice (1987); noir films, Johnny Handsome (1989) - along with more commercial productions like Red Heat (1988) and the sequel Another 48 Hrs. (1990), without the same box office and critical success he had enjoyed during the 1970s and '80s. After the violent film Trespass (1992), Hill returned to directing westerns with Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) and writing screenplays for John Milius, Wild Bill (1995) and Last Man Standing (1996), based on a story by Kurosawa. In 2002 he directed Undisputed, which takes place in a California prison and is inspired by Mike Tyson's vicissitudes, and in 2004 he directed the pilot film of a western series on HBO entitled Deadwood. Hill is now on location in Canada shooting his next western, Daughters of Joy.

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