logo
Letter: Billy Williams obituary

Letter: Billy Williams obituary

The Guardian07-07-2025
The cinematographer Billy Williams made a brief but crucial contribution to The Exorcist (1973), helping to create in Iraq its 11-minute scene-setting prologue. He had worked in the country 18 years earlier, making an oil company documentary about the cultural history of Mesopotamia. His assistants then were now leading figures in the local film industry, and joined up with him to shoot the eerily atmospheric sequence set among excavations.
The film, which had been famously jinxed during its American shoot, now suffered one more piece of bad luck. The director, William Friedkin, and Williams could not find a huge packing case containing a fibre-glass statue of the demon Pazuzu. Without it there could be no film.
Eventually, Pazuzu was tracked down to Singapore, where it had been offloaded after being accidentally left on a plane.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Law and the City Episode 8 Preview: Release Date, Time & Where To Watch
Law and the City Episode 8 Preview: Release Date, Time & Where To Watch

The Review Geek

time2 hours ago

  • The Review Geek

Law and the City Episode 8 Preview: Release Date, Time & Where To Watch

Law and the City An Joo-Hyeong works as a lawyer, and he has the type of personality where he can be brutally honest to other people. He's never had a deep interest or dream of becoming a lawyer to protect the weak or carry out justice though. Joo-hyeong has worked for the same law firm for the past 9 years, and he's recognized at his firm for his work, receiving a record salary for an associate lawyer. However, he soon finds his peaceful world begin to crack… If you've been following this K-drama, you may be curious to find out when the next episode is releasing. Well, wonder no more! Here is everything you need to know about Law and the City Episode 8, including its release date, time and where you can watch this. Where Can I Watch Law and the City? Law and the City will be available to watch on Viki worldwide. For Koreans though, this is a tvN original and will stream on the tvN channel, along with Disney+ in Singapore. It also airs on Saturdays and Sundays at 9.20pm (KST), taking over from the excellent Our Unwritten Seoul. Law and the City Episode 8 Release Date Law and the City episode 8 will release on Sunday 27th July at approximately 3pm (GMT) / 10am (ET). The subtitle team over at Viki usually take a bit longer than other streamers, but their subtitles do generally tend to be of high quality. Expect episode 8 to be roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes long, which is consistent with the time-frame for the rest of the show. How Many Episodes Will Law and the City Have? Like most K-dramas, Law and the City is scheduled to release with 12 episodes, and the usual array of two episodes releasing a week. With that in mind, we've got 4 more episodes to go after this one. Is There A Trailer For Law and the City? There is indeed! You can find a trailer for Law and the City below: What do you hope to see as the series progresses? What's been your favorite moment of Law and the City so far? Let us know in the comments below!

Lindsay Lohan's surprisingly SMALL paycheck for her first Freaky Friday movie is revealed
Lindsay Lohan's surprisingly SMALL paycheck for her first Freaky Friday movie is revealed

Daily Mail​

time6 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Lindsay Lohan's surprisingly SMALL paycheck for her first Freaky Friday movie is revealed

Lindsay Lohan has gone from being one of the biggest stars on the planet to acting mostly in low-budget films. But the 39-year-old actress is now clawing her way back to the top via her upcoming reunion with Jamie Lee Curtis for Freakier Friday, a sequel to the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday. Along with the many changes in Lohan's career have come major fluctuations in the film star's salary and net worth. Throughout her career, Lohan has maxed out at earning several million dollars per film, which makes her salary on her first version of Freaky Friday stand out. Although her breakout hit was Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday helped coronate her as a teen idol and cemented her status as a major force in Hollywood. The film, which was directed by Mark Waters, ended up being a massive hit, grossing over $160 million against a budget of $26 million. But Lohan was paid shockingly little for the film compared to what she would later earn — just $550,000, according to Celebrity Net Worth. That would still be a blessing of a payday for any 16- or 17-year-old, but the rising star would soon eclipse it multiple times over. Her next role was in 2004's Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen, for which she reportedly earned nearly double for a $1 million payout. She maintained that salary for Mean Girls, which she starred in later that year. The film became one of her signature roles and is now a heavily quoted cultural icon. Lindsay seemingly could do no wrong for the next few years as she attracted multimillion-dollar salaries. Her sequel Herbie: Fully Loaded was savaged by critics, but it still performed well at the box office, while her turn toward arthouse cinema with a supporting part in Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion earned stellar reviews and a respectable gross against a tiny budget. Those successes set up Lohan for her biggest payday ever: a reported $7.5 million that she earned for 2006's Just My Luck. Her luck ran out with that rom-com, which costarred a young Chris Pine. The film bombed with critics and audiences alike, and it grossed only $38 million against a budget of $28 million, of which Lohan's salary accounted for a significant chunk. Although it made more money than its production costs, Just My Luck likely made little if any profit when factoring in advertising and other promotional costs. Things went downhill from there. Her next lead role wasn't until 2007's Georgia Rule, which she starred in with Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman, but the film underperformed. That year she starred in the preposterous horror thriller I Know Who Killed Me, which bombed at the box office, and the TV movie Labor Pains. Lohans career then shifted into a period in which she largely appeared in cameo roles as herself or in small supporting parts. Her lead role in the controversial Paul Schrader thriller The Canyons in 2013 helped her regain some critical interest, but she failed to capitalize on it with strong roles. Lohan also didn't star in any films between 2015 and 2019. More recently, she has tried to reinvent herself with the forgettable and poorly reviewed Netflix rom-coms Falling For Christmas (2022), Irish Wish (2024) and Our Little Secret (2024). That year she starred in the preposterous horror thriller I Know Who Killed Me, which bombed at the box office. It launched a period in which she primarily had cameos in films as herself or took on small supporting roles Her lead role in the controversial Paul Schrader thriller The Canyons in 2013 helped her regain some critical interest, but she failed to capitalize on it with strong roles. Lohan also didn't star in any films between 2015 and 2019 More recently, she has tried to reinvent herself with poorly reviewed Netflix rom-coms. They were likely lucrative, though, as she was also credited as an EP; seen in April in Las Vegas Now Lohan is moving back to the top as she stars in the upcoming sequel Freakier Friday with Jamie Lee Curtis (pictured) However, she also served as an executive producer on those streaming films, meaning she likely made a significantly larger salary than if she was just acting. Last year, Lohan had a cameo role in the musical remake of Mean Girls, which reportedly earned her $500,000 for a small commitment, a sign that her bankability may be on the upswing. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Lindsay made an impressive $28 million from her film roles. However, much of those earnings was squandered on over-the-top expenses, including a reported $40,000 spent on tanning, as well as a mansion that cost her $8,000 per month and a shockingly expensive storage locker that cost $144,000. The party girl also allegedly ran up an eye-popping $46,000 tab at LA's Chateau Marmont. According to Business Insider, the IRS ended up seizing control of her bank account in 2012 after she ended up owing $233,000 in back taxes. Her finances appear to have stabilized in recent years, and Lindsay is now reportedly worth around $2 million. That's a respectable amount for a successful working actor in Hollywood, though far from what she might have been worth if her run of success hadn't run out or if her expenses hadn't caught up with her. It's not clear how much Lohan is making for Freakier Friday, but she is also an EP on the project, suggesting it will be a solid payday. The Disney sequel will be released in theaters on August 8, 2025.

EXCLUSIVE Benedict Cumberbatch has slammed the 'grossly wasteful' film industry after his 'horrific' experience on set
EXCLUSIVE Benedict Cumberbatch has slammed the 'grossly wasteful' film industry after his 'horrific' experience on set

Daily Mail​

time11 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE Benedict Cumberbatch has slammed the 'grossly wasteful' film industry after his 'horrific' experience on set

Benedict Cumberbatch has slammed the film industry for being 'grossly wasteful' for the amount actors are fed on set and said the experience of overeating while filming is 'horrific'. The London-born film star, 49, recounted on the Ruthie's Table 4 podcast how during the shooting of his Marvel hit, Doctor Strange, he was forced to eat five meals a day. The Sherlock actor said: 'You have someone who can prescribe you what you're eating and they can cook for you. 'We had a fantastic chef on the last Doctor Strange film, but it's this amazing facility to go, 'Right he needs to be on this many calories a day. He needs to have five meals. 'He needs to have a couple of boiled eggs between those five meals or some kind of high protein snack, cheese and crackers or almond butter and crackers. Crackers. Lots of crackers'. Appearing on the Ruthie's Table 4 YouTube channel, the Henry Sugar actor added: 'For me the exercise is great and the end result is that you feel strong and you feel confident. 'You hold yourself better, you have stamina through the exercise and the food that makes you last through the gig.' The father-of-three filmed the Marvel hit in 2016, a year after secretly marrying his wife Sophie Hunter and amid his career defining role as Sherlock in the BBC series which ran from 2010 to 2017. Continuing on the overeating on set, Benedict confessed: 'But it is horrific. I don't like it personally, I think it's horrific, eating beyond your appetite. 'It's just like, what am I doing? I could feed a family with the amount I'm eating. 'It just slowly, slowly, you have to meet people where they are on these issues in filmmaking. 'But it's a grossly wasteful industry. So let me think about set builds that aren't recycled. 'Think about transport, think about food, think about housing, but also light and energy.' Ruthie's Table 4 invites a range of notable guests to take a seat at the River Cafe with co-founder Ruth Rogers. his season features conversations with people including Sir Elton John, Bono, Guillermo Del Toro, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, and Sir Ian McKellen.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store