Film

With a sly wink to one of television’s biggest blunders, late night TV host Conan O’Brien will return this summer to host The Tonight Show on Atlanta’s own Turner Classic Movies. Beginning July 1, the current TBS Conan host will expand his Turner Broadcasting resume with an additional gig at TCM, introducing and providing insight for Carson on TCM, a month-long look at classic Johnny Carson interviews from his long-running stint as Tonight Show host. The interviews, many of which aired just once on NBC, will span from Carson’s 1973 chat with Tony Curtis to the late-night host’s final interview with Elizabeth Taylor in 1992.

His middle initial, "R," may as well stand for “Renaissance Man.” After leading the Dawgs in receptions last season, Christian Conley decided to lead his campus in the production of a Star Wars fan film, titled Retribution. And according to his Twitter bio, he’s also a lover of Christ and aspiring writer. Plus, he can carry a tune quite better than most. I think the only thing this guy doesn’t do is wear jorts. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be caught in those,” he said when we talked about the surprise response to his film.

Thanks to a pair of Facebook fan surveys and a few long overdue arm wrestling bouts with Midtown parking purveyors, the Fox Theatre’s 2013 Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival could be the Atlanta landmark’s most ambitious movie series in years. When discounted advance tickets go on sale Friday morning at 10 via the Fox’s website, movie fans will see a more stream-lined line up: Friday nights will be devoted to action flicks, Saturday offerings will be date night and family friendly with Sundays reserved for revered classic films.

As the worst moments of his life played out on screen in the final minutes of Bridegroom inside a theater at Landmark Midtown Arts Cinema Thursday night, outside in the hall, Shane Bitney Crone took a moment to recharge. Leaning against a lobby wall, the documentary’s producer and star allowed himself a breather, his cellphone charging in the outlet below him as audience members wept in the next room. When you’re communicating with 18,985 Twitter followers and more than four million people have watched your YouTube video and continue to post heartfelt comments hourly, you need a fully charged phone.

Just like the Beatlemania craze it chronicles, fans across the globe can’t seem to get enough of Atlanta documentary filmmaker Ryan White’s Good ‘Ol Freda. After its Atlanta premiere last March (the same week the film had its world premiere at SXSW in Austin), the doc chronicling the Beatles’ loyal but unsung secretary Freda Kelly, has become a favorite on the festival circuit.

There’s a reason the 1968 Steve McQueen car chase classic Bullitt is flickering on the screen in the Need for Speed scenes shot at the Swan Drive-In in Blue Ridge last summer. The high-octane thrill ride in theaters today from first-time director and former stuntman Scott Waugh and starring Breaking Bad two-time Emmy winner Aaron Paul and rapper/actor Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi is a breath-snatching homage to McQueen’s 60s and 70s racing flicks.

Hamm and Paxton, along with Oscar winner Alan Arkin and Lake Bell are in the area shooting Arm, a Disney drama about a sports agents who "stages an unconventional recruitment strategy to get talented cricket players to play Major League Baseball," according the to film's entry on IMDB.com.

Halloween won’t officially be over in Atlanta this year until thousands of zombie fans get to pick the brains of some of their favorite Walking Dead stars at the city’s inaugural Walker Stalker Con.