F. X. Feeney

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F.X. Feeney (born September 1, 1953) is an American writer and filmmaker, whose credits include Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004), which he co-produced for director Xan Cassavetes, The Big Brass Ring (1999), which he adapted from an unproduced script by Orson Welles for director George Hickenlooper, and Frankenstein Unbound (1989), which he adapted from a novel by Brian Aldiss, for director Roger Corman.

Between 1983 and 1989, Feeney served as a resident film critic and creative consultant to Z Channel, a pioneering pay-television service based in Los Angeles. "Z" as it was affectionately known to its subscribers, was formed in 1974 and folded in 1989. Feeney's close friend Jerry Harvey, the tragic figure at the center of the Cassavetes film, became Z's chief programmer in 1981, and single-handedly rescued the director's cut of Heaven's Gate, written and directed by Michael Cimino, and screened it in a highly publicized "television premiere" in December, 1982. (This "director's cut" is now the only version available, thanks to Harvey's intervention.) Prior to Z, Feeney had since 1980 been writing about film for L.A. Weekly. Harvey noticed, with approval, an ardent tribute to Warren Oates Feeney had written after the actor's death in 1982. Harvey had been the last person to speak to Oates. After joining Harvey and his team at Z Channel, Feeney consulted and helped promote a number of other premieres of directors cuts and "lost films" on Z -- most notably Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1982), John Ford's Up the River, Karel Reisz's The Loves of Isadora, and Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.

In 2006, Feeney published two book-length essays with Taschen, about film directors Roman Polanski and Michael Mann. Since 2006, Feeney has served as a creative consultant to ClickStar, founded by Morgan Freeman, a movie-download service geared to the promotion and preservation of excellence in film, very much on the Z Channel model.

[edit] References

  • F. X. Feeney at the Internet Movie Database
  • F.X. Feeney articles on LaWeekly.com
  • Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004), directed by Xan Cassavetes. IFC Films.
  • FEENEY, F.X.: Roman Polanski, The Complete Films (2006). TASCHEN BOOKS. Series Editor: Paul Duncan.
  • FEENEY, F.X.: Michael Mann, The Complete Films (2006). TASCHEN BOOKS. Series Editor: Paul Duncan.
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