Roger Ebert Home

Rene Auberjonois

Reviews

Certain Women (2016)
Walker (1987)
Images (1974)

Blog Posts

Ebert Club

#310 September 5, 2017

Matt writes: Werner Herzog celebrates his 75th birthday today, and we are pleased to announce that the latest Roger Ebert book will focus exclusively on the late critic's work about the revered filmmaker. Herzog by Ebert is being released this month by the University of Chicago Press. It contains Ebert's reviews of 15 Herzog films (along with two documentaries about the director), as well as six Great Movies essays, six interviews and an essential, rarely read conversation between the two men at Facet's Multimedia in 1979. Make sure to click here for a sneak peek at its comprehensive content.

TV/Streaming

The Captains: The Shat talks Trek

"The Captains" is available on Netflix, EpixHD.com, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu and DVD. It will screen on HBO Canada March 21.

Stardate 65630.8 (1 March 2012)

What made "Star Trek" the most "durable and profitable franchise" in entertainment history? In his documentary, writer-director-producer William Shatner makes a convincing argument that it was "The Captains" -- they set the tone and they brought the theatricality and Shakespearean linguistic grace to TV.

"The Captains," appeared in October, 2011, in Canada, had one-night screenings here and there across North America, and helped launch EpixHD.com. That all seems in keeping with Shatner's impressive role as a new-media barnstormer. No, he's not making political speeches, but he's on Google+ and Facebook, and he's traveling around North America promoting and preserving what may be his most lasting legacy, his role as Captain James T. Kirk. He's even returned to Broadway in a one-man show covering his career before, during and beyond "Star Trek." (Yes, "returned.")

In Hollywood, people joke about the William Shatner School of Acting. He's corny. He's melodramatic. And he has a sizable ego. But he's really not a bad actor. We forget that before "Star Trek," Shatner seemed destined to become a fine stage actor. He first made the trip to Broadway from his native Canada in 1956 with a small part in "Tamburlaine the Great" in 1956. The production had two Tony nominations. He scored the starring role in "The World of Suzie Wong," which ran for two years. Both he and the female lead won Theatre World Awards for their work. In 1962, he was one of the main performers in "A Shot in the Dark," for which Walter Matthau won a featured actor Tony. All that momentum got sidetracked when he went Hollywood.