New York, NY – June 5, 2013 – Kino Classics is proud to announce the DVD release ofWild Bill: Hollywood Maverick, an award-winning documentary about the acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker William A. Wellman, the director of such classic films as Wings, The Public Enemy, A Star is Born, The Ox-Bow Incident, and many others. This documentary explores the life and times of this prolific American filmmaker, as well as examining the social fabric of an emerging popular culture that he was helping to construct.
Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick, executive produced and created by William A. Wellman, Jr., and written and directed by Todd Robinson, will become available on DVD from Kino Classics on June 25th, with a SRP of $19.95.
Nicknamed “Wild Bill”, Wellman was a daring fighter pilot during World War I. He entered the film industry in its early years, initially as an actor before turning to directing, where he would find his true calling. His breakthrough film was Wings (1927), a thrilling war picture about WWI fighter pilots that was deeply rooted in his own personal experiences, and would become the first film to win the Best Picture award at the first Academy Awards® in 1929.
Over the course of 35 years (and 76 films), Wellman would go on to create such classics of Hollywood’s golden age as The Public Enemy (1931), A Star is Born (1937),Nothing Sacred (1937), Beau Geste (1939), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), Yellow Sky (1948), and The High and the Mighty (1954). Refusing to be cowed by the brutality of the Hollywood studio system, William Wellman fought to present his vision on screen. He was a remarkably versatile director whose films spanned many different genres, producing an impressive body of work that endures to this day.
Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick features 28 interviews with those who knew and worked with Wellman, and those who have been influenced by his tremendous cinematic legacy, including such icons from Hollywood’s past and present as Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Gregory Peck, Sidney Poitier, Robert Mitchum, Martin Scorsese, Nancy Reagan, Robert Stack, Richard Widmark, Jane Wyman, and many more.
For more information on Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick, or to request a press screener for review, please contact Matt Barry at mbarry@kinolorber.com.
