Rex Sikes' Movie Beat

Rod Lurie wrote and directed the widely praised Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominated political thriller “The Contender,” starring Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Gary Oldman and Christian Slater. The film was also honored by the Broadcast Film Critics with the first-ever Alan J. Pakula Award.  His latest film, “Straw Dogs,” is a remake of the 1971 classic, starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, and Alexander Skarsgard, and was released in September, 2011. Lurie’s other most recent projects include “Nothing But the Truth,” starring Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda, and Matt Dillon, “Resurrecting the Champ,” which starred Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Hartnett, the ABC drama “Commander in Chief,” a show centered on the first female President of the United States starring Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland which he created and executive produced, the military prison thriller “The Last Castle,“ which starred Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo and co-star Brian Goodman, who was part of the cast of “Line of F