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For more than 30 years, John Kiesewetter has been the source for information about all things in local media — comings and goings, local people appearing on the big or small screen, special programs, and much more. Contact John at johnkiese@yahoo.com.

Movie Update: George Clooney, 'Suburbicon,' 'Sacred Deer' and 'Gotti'

Catching up to lots of movie news today…

GEORGE CLOONEY: George Clooney's next screen adventure, "Suburbicon," premieres Oct. 27. Clooney directed the dark comedy starring Matt Damon, Julianne Moore and Karimah Westbrook as suburban residents in 1959.

Credit Pete Souza / White House Photo
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White House Photo
George Clooney

Clooney and longtime collaborator Grant Heslov rewrote an old script by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen) about the strange events in what looks to be an idyllic new suburb.

Reviews have been mixed. Some of the strongest praise came from Variety:

"It's a movie that reels the audience in and keeps it hooked: with smart little kicks of surprise, with a sidelong but still highly charged social theme (the perilous cataclysm of integration), and, of course, with the squalid bad behavior of ordinary people who think that they can wriggle out of their unhappiness through furtive, cut-rate schemes. 'Suburbicon' is probably too much of a compact, no-frills genre exercise to have much traction at awards time, but it's enough of a plucky, well-made lark to find an audience."

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AFI HONOR: Clooney, a two-time Oscar winner, will be the 46th recipient of the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award next year.

"George Clooney is America's leading man. Director, producer, writer, and actor — a modern-day screen icon who combines the glamour of a time gone by with a ferocious passion for ensuring art's impact echoes beyond the screen," says Howard Stringer, AFI board chair.

Previous AFI Life Achievement winners range from George Lucas, Sean Connery, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Mel Brooks, Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton to Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart, Gene Kelly, Gregory Peck, Sidney Poitier, Elizabeth Taylor and Jack Nicholson.

Clooney, 56, has been honored with the Golden Globes Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2015; the American Cinematheque Award in 2006; and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences during the Prime-Time Emmy Awards in 2010.

The 1979 Augusta Independent High School graduate grew up in Fort Mitchell, Mason and Augusta. He won a best supporting actor Academy Award for "Syriana" in 2005, and a best picture Oscar as a producer on "Argo" in 2012, and Golden Globes for best film actor in "O Brother, Where Are Thou?" in 2001 and "The Descendants" in 2012. Twice he was nominated for Emmy Awards while starring on NBC's "ER" from 1994 to 1999.

The June 7 ceremony will be telecast from Los Angeles by Turner Broadcasting's TNT.

Credit A24
"The Killing Of A Sacred Deer" poster.

KILLING OF A SACRED DEER: A "What Is Wrong With Me?" websitehas been created to promote "The Killing Of A Sacred Deer," the award-winning psychological thriller filmed here in 2016. It opens Nov. 3.

Colin Farrell plays a cardiac surgeon whose relationship with a sinister teen (Irish actor Barry Keoghan) has a disastrous impact on his wife (Nicole Kidman) and their two children. Alicia Silverstoneplays the teen's mother.

"The Killing Of A Sacred Deer" was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who won the Academy Award in February for best original screenplay for "The Lobster."

At the Cannes Film Festival in May, Lanthimos and writer Efthymis Filippou shared the best screenplay award with Lynne Ramsay for "You Were Never Really Here."Kidman also was given a "Special 70th Anniversary Prize" at Cannes.

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GOTTI: John Travolta's "The Life and Death of John Gotti," also shot here last year, is scheduled for release Dec. 15 as simply "Gotti."

Credit John Kiesewetter
Director Kevin Connolly at a 2016 Cincinnati press conference.

Travolta stars as John Gotti Sr., the flamboyant head of the Gambino crime family and one of the most famous mobsters of the last 50 years. The cast includes Travolta's wife Kelly Preston, Stacy Keach, Spencer Lofranco, William DeMeo and Leo Rossi.

Greater Cincinnati were used to portray New York City in the 1970s and '80s.

"There are parts of the Cincinnati that can pass for New York. Even if we went to the real location in New York, it doesn't look the same. It was easier than I thought," , director Kevin Connolly told reporters last year.

"Our Fourth of July scene was on 14th Street and Vine. We put a bunch of people there, and fireworks and barbecue, and you wouldn't know it wasn't in New York."

"Gotti" also was filmed in Finneytown, Indian Hill, Northside, the Butler County Jail in Hamilton and other places in Greater Cincinnati.

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THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN: No premiere date has been released for director David Lowery's "The Old Man And The Gun," shot here last spring with Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Elisabeth Moss, Danny Glover, Sissy Spacek, Keith Carradine and singer Tom Waits.

Based on a true story, Redford plays a 1960s and '70s bank robber who broke out of prison 18 times being pursued by a detective (Affleck).

John Kiesewetter, who has covered television and media for more than 35 years, has been working for Cincinnati Public Radio and WVXU-FM since 2015.