Recuperating Ebert to write occasional movie reviews
Last Updated: Thursday, October 12, 2006 | 2:16 PM ET
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Famed film critic Roger Ebert is slowly getting back to work, with his first review since he underwent surgery this summer set to appear Friday.
"For 40 years, I didn't miss a single deadline, but since July, I have missed every one," he said in a letter published Thursday by his employer, the Chicago Sun-Times, and posted on his website Wednesday.
"An update is in order," Ebert began.
Though Roger Ebert, shown in 2005, has been more interested in reading than watching movies during his recovery, after receiving a DVD screener for The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, 'I knew I wanted to review it.'
(Associated Press)
In addition to revealing details about his ongoing rehabilitation and praising his doctors and medical caretakers, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic said he was disappointed he missed the Telluride and Toronto film festivals this year.
He also said he had been doing more reading during his convalescence than movie-watching.
"Curiously, I found myself more interested in plunging into the depths of classic novels (Persuasion, Great Expectations, The Ambassadors) than watching a lot of DVDs. I prefer to see the new Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood films on the big screen," he said.
However, when a producer for his television movie-review show dropped off a DVD screener for the upcoming film The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, "I knew I wanted to review it," Ebert said.
While he plans to submit an occasional review, "I won't be back to full production until sometime early next year," in time to cover the Academy Awards and the Cannes Film Festival, he added.
"I can't wait to be back in the Sun-Times on a full-time basis and to rejoin Richard Roeper" on Ebert & Roeper, he said.
The 64-year-old reviewer had surgery in mid-June to remove cancer from his jaw area. He was scheduled to leave hospital on July 1 but he suffered a ruptured blood vessel and was forced to undergo emergency surgery.
Prior to the June operation, Ebert had undergone cancer surgery three times: in 2002 and twice in 2003.
A film critic with the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, Ebert became the first arts critic to be honoured with the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975. That same year, he teamed up with rival critic Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune for a movie-review show in 1975.
Siskel died in 1999. Ebert has co-hosted the show with fellow Sun-Times critic Roeper since 2000.
With files from the Associated Press.Share Tools
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