Sebastián Lelio dies at 52; Tinto Brass dies at 93 — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Sebastián Lelio died Friday in Santiago at 52; A Fantastic Woman won Chile’s only Oscar in the category now called Best International Feature Film.link ›
- Tinto Brass died at 93; Salon Kitty brought him international prominence in 1976, while Bob Guccione’s takeover of Caligula cost him creative control.link ›
- Pierce Brosnan endorsed rumored Bond contender Callum Turner and called Denis Villeneuve’s planned direction “magnificent” and “visceral.”link ›
- Dustin Hoffman says Mike Nichols ordered Katharine Ross to slap him harder for 27 takes on a scene cut from The Graduate.link ›
- Rosamund Pike will star and produce Feed, in which an influencer-promising supplement sends her tween gymnast daughter into a monstrous transformation.link ›
- Daisy Ridley stars in Get Rid of It, a cross-country pregnancy horror scheduled to shoot in January 2027.link ›
- Cynthia Erivo will play Afeni Shakur in the Snoop Dogg biopic now shooting in California for an August 2027 release.link ›
- David Robert Mitchell’s The End of Oak Street grossed $121 million against an $80 million–$92 million production budget before reaching HBO Max Nov. 13.link ›
Sebastián Lelio’s death at 52 in Santiago is the week’s defining loss. The director of A Fantastic Woman gave Chile its only Oscar in the category now called Best International Feature Film and won three Berlin awards, including Best Feature Film and Screenplay. Two projects, Chilean Poet and Voyagers, remained active; now they lack the filmmaker at their center. That is the cruel irony: prestige had canonized him before his working life was over. Tinto Brass’s death at 93 adds the counterpoint: after Bob Guccione stripped creative control from Caligula, the commercial exploitation still got branded as its director’s art. Dustin Hoffman’s disclosures about Mike Nichols’s sadism on The Graduate expose the uglier bargain: a director can injure a performer while making a seven-Oscar-nominated film.
The stories behind this week
Tinto Brass, Director of Erotic Epics ‘Caligula’ and ‘Salon Kitty,’ Dies at 93Brass’s death closes a chapter on a filmmaker who redefined erotic cinema with artistic ambition, yet faced commercial exploitation—most notably in 'Caligula'—where creative control was stripped, altering the film’s legacy and underscoring the tension between art and pornography in mainstream distribution.
Sebastián Lelio Dies: Oscar-Winning ‘A Fantastic Woman’ Filmmaker Who Also Made ‘The Wonder’ & ‘The Wave’ Was 52Chile’s only Oscar win in the category now called Best International Feature Film came from the work of a director who died at 52. Two projects described as active—Chilean Poet, based on Alejandro Zambra’s novel, and Voyagers with Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones—also remain without the filmmaker who was making or developing them.
Brosnan backs Turner for Bond role, praises Villeneuve directionWith Brosnan—a former Bond—publicly backing Turner and lauding Villeneuve’s involvement, the franchise gains early momentum and credibility ahead of casting. The convergence of respected talent in front of and behind the camera raises audience expectations and could influence fan reception before production officially begins.
Dustin Hoffman says filming The Graduate was ‘a terrible experience’ due to Mike Nichols’ ‘sadism’Readers and film historians gain a more complicated account of the seven-Oscar-nominated film when Hoffman’s memoir arrives on 10 November. His first-person account shifts attention from Nichols’s Best Director win to the injuries Hoffman sustained and the insecurity he felt while playing Ben Braddock.
Rosamund Pike Stars, Produces 'Feed' Body HorrorPike's move from star to producer through Primitive Streak places her alongside Magnolia, Spooky Pictures, ZQ and Agile Films as sales open next week at American Film Market. With ZQ Entertainment already having financed the script's development, buyers are being offered a package with cast, director, writer and production backing attached rather than an unfunded screenplay.
Daisy Ridley Stars in Road-Trip Horror 'Get Rid of It'Upgrade, CAA Media Finance and Range Select will take a fully assembled package—cast, director, writer, producer and a January 2027 shooting start—to the American Film Market. For sales buyers, that means the launch presents an actionable project rather than an early-stage concept, while Harper’s possibly nonhuman pregnancy gives the road-trip horror a specific hook.
Cynthia Erivo Plays Afeni Shakur in Snoop BiopicThe casting of Cynthia Erivo—a Tony and Emmy winner with an established dramatic range—adds significant artistic weight to a biopic centered on one of hip-hop’s most iconic figures. Her portrayal of Afeni Shakur, a politically active mother whose influence shaped Tupac’s legacy, elevates the film’s potential to explore intergenerational impact within Black cultural and activist lineages, not just music history.
‘The End of Oak Street’ Sets HBO Max Streaming Release DateFor HBO Max, Nov. 13 brings the Anne Hathaway- and Ewan McGregor-starring movie to streaming after it grossed $121 million in theaters against an $80 million-$92 million production budget. That creates a second release platform for a film that already had an Aug. 14 theatrical window, broadening when viewers can access it.
Why it matters: The concrete loss is immediate: Chilean Poet and Voyagers remain without a director, and Chile loses the filmmaker behind its only Oscar in Best International Feature Film.
Ask SkimNews
