Via the magic of the internet and the ever-vigilant Bionic Disco News Team – here’s a trio of 1970s-related stories from recent days. Read on to learn about a new movie exploring the life of daredevil Evel Knievel, Hilary Clinton visiting Laos and LIFE Magazine‘s Donald Sutherland gallery from 1970.
New Evel Knievel Movie Announced
Evel Knievel’s lifelike self-portrayal in Viva Knievel!, 1977
According to The Hollywood Reporter, actor Channing Tatum has signed on to star in and produce a new film about Evel Knievel. The movie will be based on the 2008 book, Life of Evel, by Stuart Barker. This would be the third shot at a Knievel biopic following a George Hamilton starrer from 1971 and Evel’s own turn in 1977’s Viva Knievel!
Check out the original story here as well as our look at Viva Knievel!
The Hollywood Reporter Quote:
“The red-hot Magic Mike actor is in negotiations to star in and produce a film about ’70s daredevil Evel Knievel for Columbia Pictures. Tatum will produce with his Iron Horse Entertainment partner Reid Carolin, who also will write the screenplay.
Also on board to produce is one of the town’s hottest producing teams in Mike De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who just landed the hotly contested Fifty Shades of Grey producing gig for Universal Pictures and Focus Features.”
Clinton Visits Laos – Vietnam War Legacy
Hilary Clinton in Laos, July, 2012. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stopped off in Laos last week during her Asia tour. It was the first visit by an American Secretary of state in 57 years. While there, Clinton visited a center that provides artificial limbs and met with a young man who was recently injured by a previously unexploded bomb dropped during the Vietnam War. This frightening statistic from the story is sobering: “more than 30 percent of the bombs (dropped during the war) remained unexploded.” Read more at The New York Times.
NY Times Quote:
“After the visit to the center, Mrs. Clinton said it was ‘a painful reminder of the Vietnam War era.’
‘The international community will join us in our efforts to bring this legacy of the Vietnam War to a safe end,’ she said.”
Donald Sutherland, LIFE Magazine, 1970
Kiefer and Donald Sutherland, 1970. Photo: Co Rentmeester—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
LIFE Magazine has posted an online photo gallery of rare pictures entitled “Donald Sutherland: Portraits Of An Actor’s Actor“. The shots catch Sutherland relaxing in California with his wife and children (including toddler, Kiefer Sutherland) in 1970.
LIFE Quote:
“Here, in honor of his long, stellar career, LIFE.com offers a gallery of rare pictures (none of them ran in LIFE magazine) of Sutherland and his family, including son Kiefer, taken by photographer Co Rentmeester in 1970. He and his wife at the time, the Canadian activist and actress Shirley Douglas, divorced not very long after these photos were made. But in their depiction of an already accomplished actor on the cusp of a transformative period in both his career and his personal life, these pictures capture one of the movies’ singular and most versatile talents, off-screen, quite literally letting his hair down.”