Top 13 Movies Of 2013

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- Every December, film critics batten down the hatches to practice the one ritual for which they are most qualified — determining the year’s 10 best movies.

In past years, it usually went down like this: there were (maybe) six or seven truly great films that deserved to make the cut without hesitation, while the last remaining three or four were a little harder to determine.

But 2013 was different, and that’s because there were so many great movies to choose from – especially after the Telluride, Toronto and Venice film festivals unspooled what turned out to be an embarrassment of riches. But that was just the tip of the iceberg, and weekend after weekend, the hits just kept on coming.

PHOTOS: MovieMantz Top 13 Of 2013

As a result, 2013 turned out to be a landmark year for film that easily featured the strongest slate since 1999, when cinematic gems like “The Matrix,” “Three Kings,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Fight Club,” “The Insider,” “Being John Malkovich” and Best Picture-winner “American Beauty” graced the big screen.

So unlike past years, where critics were hard-pressed to come up with enough movies to put on their list, this year, they’ll will be faced with an even bigger problem; what to leave off.

Talk about a good problem to have. That’s why, for the first time ever, I’ve taken the unprecedented step of expanding my best-of list from 10 to 13 – in honor, of course, of the great year for film that was 2013. And wouldn’t you know it, I still had a hard time deciding what to leave off. Ah, if only I had this problem every year…

1) “Gravity”: Wow, what a ride! Can you remember the last time a movie made you sit on the edge of your seat and ask yourself “How’d they do that?” over and over again? (OK, maybe it was “The Matrix,” but that was 14 long years ago). Director Alfonso Cuaron (“Children of Men”) changed the game with this breathtaking, pulse-pounding, awe-inspiring masterpiece that absolutely had to be seen on the big screen (and in IMAX 3-D), and Sandra Bullock rose above it all with a career-defining performance that was – dare I say it – out of this world.

2) “Her”: Spike Jonze doesn’t make a lot of movies, but when he does, they’re usually pretty great (witness “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation”). But his latest masterwork was more than just “great”; it’s his crowning achievement. Graced with glorious production values, beautiful cinematography and a haunting musical score (by Arcade Fire), this profound, compelling, wildly imaginative and heartbreaking love story about a lonely man (a never-better Joaquin Phoenix) who falls for his operating system (seductively voiced by Scarlett Johansson) was both a brilliant allegory about artificial intelligence and a cautionary tale about where the smartphone generation might be headed in the not-too-distant future.

3) “12 Years A Slave”: A harrowing movie about slavery that was hard to watch? What did you expect from this cinematic triumph based on Solomon Northup’s autobiography, which depicted the horrors of slavery with the same level of unflinching brutal power that “Schindler’s List” depicted the Holocaust? Director Steve McQueen pulled no punches with this masterpiece about one of humanity’s darkest hours, and Chiwetel Ejiofor gave a grueling performance as a slave whose spirit could not be broken.

4) “Inside Llewyn Davis”: Directors Joel and Ethan Coen and soundtrack producer T-Bone Burnett made beautiful music together when they teamed up for 2000’s southern-set “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, but they’re even more in tune with this exquisite take on the New York folk scene in the early 1960s. Toplined by an incredible breakthrough performance from Oscar Isaac as a gifted troubadour whose talent was no match for his wisdom (or lack thereof), “Inside Llewyn Davis” represented the Coen Brothers at their superb, graceful and darkly comic best.

5) “Blue Jasmine”: Cate Blanchett gave a tour-de-force, Oscar-caliber performance as a self-entitled New York socialite who becomes unhinged when she loses everything, but writer-director Woody Allen’s best film since “Match Point” also featured stellar turns from Sally Hawkins, Bobby Cannavale and (of all people!) Andrew Dice Clay. They effortlessly brought to life one of Allen’s best-ever screenplays, and as a result, “Blue Jasmine” wasn’t just a great Woody Allen movie; it was a great movie, period.

6) “Saving Mr. Banks”: An instant classic about the making of an instant classic that also featured an icon playing an icon, the best film yet from director John Lee Hancock (“The Rookie,” “The Blind Side”) was an elegant, whimsical, enchanting crowd-pleaser about how Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) won the battle to make “Mary Poppins,” even though its uptight author, P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), fought him every step of the way. Thompson was radiant despite playing someone so difficult, while Hanks humanized Disney as a charming businessman who just wanted to make a movie.

7) “The Wolf Of Wall Street”: Yes, the story of ‘80s greed, debauchery and corruption has been done before. The same goes for the stylish, voiceover-saturated, adrenaline-fueled pace that director Martin Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker perfected with “Goodfellas” and “Casino.” But put them together, and the result was this wild, crazy, hilarious and totally outrageous three-hour sprint down Wall Street that featured the Oscar-winning filmmakers and five-time Scorsese collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio firing on all cylinders (and then some). DiCaprio gave the performance of his career as a fast-talking, morally bankrupt stockbroker whose love of sex, drugs, rock’n’roll and money-money-money made Gordon Gekko look like a wimp.

8) “All Is Lost”: After spending the better part of the last two decades as something of an elder statesman for independent film, Robert Redford sailed away with a career-defining performance as a lone man struggling to survive on a sinking yacht in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Writer-director J.C. Chandor’s spare, nearly dialogue-free one-man show was as much a tale about man versus nature as it was about man versus himself. Think “Gravity” on a boat, but without all the bells and whistles.

9) “Blue Is The Warmest Color”: If a coming-of-age romance could ever be described as “epic,” it would be this intimate, sweeping, emotionally gripping love story masterfully directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. Despite being best-known for the sexually explicit love scenes that bordered on pornography and led to the film being slapped with a dreaded NC-17 rating, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux gave daring, committed, soul-bearing performances as the star-crossed lovers who grew up, grew together and grew apart over the course of 10 heartbreaking years.

10) “Enough Said”: The fifth feature from writer-director Nicole Holofcener (“Lovely and Amazing,” “Friends with Money”) was a mature, hilarious and heartfelt romantic comedy for grown-ups that featured four-time Emmy Award-winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus doing something she’s never done before: she carried a movie, and she was so good as a single mother faced with empty nest syndrome that it felt like we were watching the TV legend’s talents unfold for the very first time. She also had irresistible chemistry with the late, great James Gandolfini, who left behind a revelatory performance as a lovable and vulnerable romantic leading man.

11) “The Conjuring”: Much better than it had any right to be, this superbly-crafted and genuinely terrifying summer offering about real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (effectively played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) was a pleasant surprise – that is, if you can call being scared out of your wits “pleasant.” After cutting his teeth with the horror hits “Saw” and “Insidious,” director James Wan put a fresh spin on old scare tactics, resulting in the best fun-scary movie to hit the big screen since 1982’s “Poltergeist.”

12) “Captain Phillips”: Tom Hanks epitomized grace under pressure as Richard Phillips, the commander of a U.S. cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in this visceral, riveting and very intense fact-based drama directed by Paul Greengrass (“The Bourne Ultimatum,” “United 93”). On a structural level, the movie played out like “Zero Dark Thirty” on a boat, but it displayed intelligence, sophistication and depth for its balanced depiction of wildly different cultures and for making the pirates resonate as more than just one-dimensional bad guys.

13) “Lone Survivor”: Peter Berg – who previously directed commercial entertainment fare like “Friday Night Lights,” “The Rundown” and “Battleship” – upped his game to join the ranks of master-class filmmakers like Kathryn Bigelow and Paul Greengrass with this brutal, intense and superbly-crafted powerhouse about an ill-fated 2005 military mission in Afghanistan. The outstanding ensemble cast included Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, Emile Hirsch and Taylor Kitsch as grossly outnumbered Navy SEALs caught behind enemy lines, where they were forced to endure non-stop combat scenes so visceral and gripping that they left you shell-shocked.

Honorable Mentions: “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Europa Report,” “Out of the Furnace,” “Frances Ha,” “Short Term 12,” “Prisoners,” “Before Midnight,” “The Way, Way Back,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “Rush,” “Fruitvale Station,” “20 Feet from Stardom,” “The Spectacular Now,” “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “Nebraska”

-- Scott Mantz

Nelson Mandela dead at 95

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC 
Nelson Mandela, the revered South African anti-apartheid icon who spent 27 years in prison, led his country to democracy and became its first black president, died Thursday at home. He was 95.

"He is now resting," said South African President Jacob Zuma. "He is now at peace."

"Our nation has lost his greatest son," he continued. "Our people have lost their father."

A state funeral will be held, and Zuma called for mourners to conduct themselves with "the dignity and respect" that Mandela personified.

Nelson Mandela, the revered South African anti-apartheid icon who spent 27 years in prison, led his country to democracy and became its first black president, died Thursday at home. He was 95.

"He is now resting," said South African President Jacob Zuma. "He is now at peace."

"Our nation has lost his greatest son," he continued. "Our people have lost their father."

A state funeral will be held, and Zuma called for mourners to conduct themselves with "the dignity and respect" that Mandela personified.

"Wherever we are in the country, wherever we are in the world, let us reaffirm his vision of a society… in which none is exploited, oppressed or dispossessed by another," he said as tributes began pouring in from across the world.

He inspired a generation of activists, left celebrities and world leaders star-struck, won the Nobel Peace Prize and raised millions for humanitarian causes.

Though he was in power for only five years, Mandela was a figure of enormous moral influence the world over – a symbol of revolution, resistance and triumph over racial segregation.

South Africa is still bedeviled by challenges, from class inequality to political corruption to AIDS. And with Mandela’s death, it has lost a beacon of optimism.

In his jailhouse memoirs, Mandela wrote that even after spending so many years in a Spartan cell on Robben Island – with one visitor a year and one letter every six months – he still had faith in human nature.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion,” he wrote in “Long Walk to Freedom.”

“People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” 

Mandela retired from public life in 2004 with the half-joking directive, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you,” and had largely stepped out of the spotlight, spending much of his time with family in his childhood village.

In his later years, Mandela was known to his countrymen simply as Madiba, the name of his tribe and a mark of great honor. But when he was born on July 18, 1918, he was named Rolihlahla, which translated roughly – and prophetically – to “troublemaker.”

His health had been fragile in recent years. He had spent almost three months in a hospital in Pretoria after being admitted in June for a recurring lung infection. He was released on Sept. 1.

Mandela was nine when his father died, and he was sent from his rural village to the provincial capital to be raised by a fellow chief. The first member of his family to get a formal education, he went to boarding school and then enrolled in South Africa’s elite Fort Hare University, where his activism unfurled with a student boycott.

As a young law scholar, he joined the resurgent African National Congress just a few years before the National Party – controlled by the Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch and French settlers – came to power on a platform of apartheid, in which the government enforced racial segregation and stripped non-whites of economic and political power.

As an ANC leader, Mandela advocated peaceful resistance against government discrimination and oppression – until 1961, when he launched a military wing called Spear of the Nation and a campaign of sabotage.

The next year, he was arrested and soon hit with treason charges. At the opening of his trial in 1964, he said his adoption of armed struggle was a last resort born of bloody crackdowns by the government.

“Fifty years of non-violence had brought the African people nothing but more and more repressive legislation and fewer and few rights,” he said from the dock.

He was sentenced to life in prison and sent to Robben Island. As inmate No. 466/64, he slept on the floor of a six-foot-wide cell, did hard labor in a quarry, organized fellow prisoners – and earned a law degree by correspondence.

“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

As the years past his incarceration drew ever more attention, with intensifying cries for his release as a global anti-apartheid movement gained traction. Songs were dedicated to him and 600 million people watched the Free Mandela concert at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1988.

In 1985, he turned down the government’s offer to free him if he renounced armed struggle against apartheid. It wasn’t until South African President P.W. Botha had a stroke and was replaced by F.W. de Klerk in 1989 that the stage was set for his release.

After a ban on the ANC was repealed, a whiter-haired Mandela walked out prison before a jubilant crowd and told a rally in Cape Town that the fight was far from over.

Philip Littleton / AFP - Getty Images, file

Springbok captain Francois Pienaar receives the Rugby World Cup from South African President Nelson Mandela at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on June 24, 1995.

“Our struggle has reached a decisive moment,” he said. “We have waited too long for our freedom. We can no longer wait.”

Over the next two years, Mandela proved himself a formidable negotiator as he pushed South Africa toward its first multiracial elections amid tension and violence. He and de Klerk were honored with the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

When the elections were held in April 1994, the ex-prisoner became the next president and embarked on a mission of racial reconciliation, government rebuilding and economic rehabilitation.

A year into his tenure, with racial tensions threatening to explode into civil war, Mandela orchestrated an iconic, unifying moment: He donned the green jersey of the Springboks rugby team – beloved by whites, despised by blacks – to present the World Cup trophy to the team captain while the stunned crowd erupted in cheers of “Nelson! Nelson!”

He chose to serve only one five-year term – during which he divorced his second wife, Winnie, a controversial activist, and married his third, Graca, the widow of the late president of Mozambique.

After leaving politics, he concentrated on his philanthropic foundation. He began speaking out on AIDS, which had ravaged his country and which some critics said he had not made a priority as president.

When he officially announced he was leaving public life in 2004, it signaled he was slowing down, but he still made his presence known. For his 89th birthday, he launched a “council of elders,” statesmen and women from around the world who would promote peace. For his 90th, he celebrated at a star-studded concert in London’s Hyde Park.

As he noted in 2003, “If there is anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.”

In April, de Klerk was asked on the BBC if he feared that Mandela’s eventual death would expose fissures in South Africa that his grandfatherly presence had kept knitted together.

Friends and family gather at Nelson Mandela's side

Former president's friends and loved ones gather at his house in South Africa, with the 95 year-old described as 'on his death-bed' 

By Aislinn Laing, Joannesburg

Nelson Mandela’s family and friends were gathering at his house last night, just days after his eldest daughter said the revered former South African statesman was “on his deathbed”.

Two of Mr Mandela’s granddaughters and Bantu Holomisa, a close family friend, were among those seen entering the house in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton, along with military personnel responsible for the former president’s health.

With little explanation for the large contingent, there were rumours that the 95-year-old’s ailing health had once again taken a turn for the worse.

One family friend said he had been told Mr Mandela’s condition had “deteriorated quite a bit”, but could not give further details. “Things are quite gloomy,” he added.

Mac Maharaj, President Jacob Zuma’s spokesman, said he was seeking an update from Mr Mandela’s doctors “because of the rumours journalists are coming up with”. 

The development came as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the London premiere of the Mandela biopic Long Walk to Freedom, in which South Africa’s first black, democratic president is played by British actor Idris Elba.

Mr Mandela’s daughter Zindzi, who also attended the screening at the Odeon in Leicester Square, told journalists her father was “fine” but “frail”.

“My father is fine. He’s 95 years old and he is pretty frail. We are hoping to see more of him,” she said.

She revealed that Mr Mandela has seen some clips of the film, which is adapted from his autobiography of the same name and stars Elba as the former South African president.

Earlier this week, Mr Mandela’s eldest daughter Makaziwe described him as fighting from his “deathbed,” but still being “very strong” and “very courageous”.

“Even when there are moments when you can see he’s struggling, but the fighting spirit is still there with him,” she told the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Mr Mandela has been receiving round-the-clock intensive care from 22 military and other doctors since September, when he was discharged from a three-month hospital stay for a lung infection.

 

Zucker plans massive change at CNN

By Mike Allen and Alex Weprin

After almost a year of tinkering, CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker has concluded that a news channel cannot subsist on news alone.

So he is planning much broader changes for the network—including a prime-time shakeup that’s likely to make CNN traditionalists cringe.

Once, CNN’s vanilla coverage was a point of pride. Now, the boss boasts about the ratings for his unscripted series, and documentaries like the Sea World-slamming film Blackfish.Zucker, in his first one-on-one interview since taking control of CNN last January, told Capital he wants news coverage “that is just not being so obvious.”

“We're all regurgitating the same information. I want people to say, ‘You know what? That was interesting. I hadn't thought of that,’” Zucker said. “The goal for the next six months, is that we need more shows and less newscasts.”“We're all regurgitating the same information. I want people to say, ‘You know what? That was interesting. I hadn't thought of that,’” Zucker said. “The goal for the next six months, is that we need more shows and less newscasts.”“We're all regurgitating the same information. I want people to say, ‘You know what? That was interesting. I hadn't thought of that,’” Zucker said. “The goal for the next six months, is that we need more shows and less newscasts.”

Instead, he wants more of “an attitude and a take”:

Zucker—“rhymes with hooker,” he likes to say—also expanded on comments he has made about breaking CNN out of a mindset created by historic rivalries with MSNBC and Fox. He wants the network to attract “viewers who are watching places like Discovery and History and Nat Geo and A&E.”

“People who traditionally just watch the cable news networks [are] a great audience,” he said. “I'm not trying to alienate that audience. But the overall cable news audience has not grown in the last 12 years, OK? So, all we're doing is trading [audience] share. … We also want to broaden what people can expect from CNN.”

The 48-year-old Zucker initially faced internal resistance to his experiments beyond the realm of hard news, but he now has an irrefutable retort: The No. 1 show on CNN is now “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” a travel-adventure show featuring the bad-boy celebrity chef. Zucker said that inside CNN, his formula has finally been accepted “because people have seen the results.”

Zucker is ramping up changes across the massive organization, some subtle and some extreme.

More series and films untethered to the news and produced by outside production companies will get runs in primetime: “Yes, there will be more and, yes, they will not just be on Sundays…," he said. "I think it will expand past just the weekends, and so there's a little piece of news for you… This is a primetime play. It's too expensive to confine it to weekends.”

Among the prime-time possibilities he is considering at CNN: half-hour shows, perhaps including one for Bill Weir, recently hired from ABC.

“Honestly, there is not a piece of paper that has the lineup on it right now,” he said.

HLN–the former Headline News–will be “rethought, reimagined, and rebranded” to get away from the wall-to-wall courthouse coverage that earned HLN massive viewership during big events like the Jodi Arias and George Zimmerman trials. HLN “really just had a great year from an audience standpoint,” he said, but: "it's not as strong a business proposition, and it's not really what advertisers are looking for. If we wanted to be in the court business, Time Warner would have kept Court TV.” 

He tapped veteran TV executive Albie Hecht to lead the changes at HLN.

“His mandate is to figure out the white space for yet another cable news network in a world where headlines are ubiquitous on whatever mobile device you choose to use,” Zucker said.

Zucker said he is in the middle of “reinvigorating” CNN International with more news and more news programs, to replace sponsored content.

Zucker leads each day’s 9 a.m. editorial call – a duty his predecessor, Jim Walton, delegated. After an embarrassing on-air mistake the day of the Boston Marathon bombing, Zucker has made a point of preaching caution over speed in the channel's breaking-news reporting.

WITH A SMALL OFFICE IN CNN'S FIFTH-FLOOR newsroom, Zucker is far removed from the executive suites on the upper levels of the Time Warner Center. The room is small and sparse for an office of someone at his level. Except for a “CNN Miami” hat—a token from his childhood in South Florida—and some stacks of papers, a few trinkets and a gift bag filled with CNN swag, the room is mostly empty.

But there are 11 TV screens lining the walls of his office. One of them used to be tuned to CNBC but has since gotten the boot, replaced by CNN.com. It's a small sign of his increasing mandate to focus on digital news.

For months, he has been working on combining “our legacy television newsroom and our digital newsroom.”

“This weekend, we had more people learn about [Fast & Furious actor] Paul Walker's death from our mobile products than from our desktop products, which was the first time that something like that had happened,” Zucker said.

For now, the cable channel brings in the money. But increasing resources and mindshare are going to other platforms.

“Television is still our bread and butter today, but digital will continue to be more important every day going forward,” he said. “The majority of our time is still spent on television, but much more—an increasing amount every day—is spent on digital.”

To that end, Zucker said, CNN is developing “a suite of new products” that will provide dual-screen experiences for cable subscribers.

“There's a reorientation of the organization that we're in the process of: understanding the importance going forward of digital and, in particular, mobile and video,” he said. “Are the revenues there, the way we want them today to be? No. But are they growing? Yes.”

New hires—including Brian Stelter from The New York Times, hired last month to cover media and host CNN’s weekly “Reliable Sources”—are being brought in for roles that “are as much digital as they are television,” Zucker said.

“We’re in the video game already,” he said. “So shifting video to a different screen is much easier for us than an organization that is a legacy print organization.”

“In five years,” Zucker continued, “mobile video consumption with three little red letters called CNN is what the future looks like. I think that there are three incredible brands in the news and information space. I think ESPN owns sports, I think the Weather Channel owns weather, and I want CNN to own news and information in the global digital video space."

Paul Walker Death: Officials Looking Into Drag Racing Possibility

Variety Staff

Investigators are looking into a phone tip suggested that drag racing may have been involved in the crash that killed “Fast and Furious” actor Paul Walker, according to CNN.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Cohen told the news network that the tip said another car may have been at the scene of the accident where the 2005 Porsche Carrera GT driven by Walker’s racing team partner, Roger Rodas, slammed into a light pole.

Tire marks on the asphalt nearby indicated a car was doing doughnut spins, the sergeant said, although there is as yet no indication they were related to the crash. The Associated Press has reported that this area “is known to attract street racers,” but the Los Angeles Times reported that witnesses only saw “a single speeding car” at the scene.

Cohen told CNN that investigators are also looking at the possibility that another car veered in front of the Porsche and caused the collision.

Autopsies are scheduled for Tuesday, according to the L.A. County coroner’s office, and investigators are still waiting for dental X-rays to help make official identifications.

Keanu Reeves: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Part 3 Still In The Works

by Jolie Lash

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- CaptionSan Dimas’ Wyld Stallyns may not be riding again anytime soon – but there’s still hope, according to Keanu Reeves.

While the actor confirmed there is a script for “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Part 3,” it presently is too costly of an endeavor to shoot.

“It needs to be adapted because right now, it would cost $400 million to make,” Keanu toldAccess Hollywood guest correspondent Tim Vincent in Japan, where the actor was promoting his new film, “47 Ronin.”

While Bill and Ted previously brought various historical figures to their high school stage – like Genghis Khan and Napoleon — it sounds like the third installment would have an intergalactic flavor.

“There’s a rift in the universe and there’s all sorts of creatures,” Keanu said of things in the script that are currently making it cost prohibitive to make.

But they are still making an effort to reunite Keanu’s Ted with Alex Winter’s Bill.

“That would be surreal,” Keanu said of his feelings on a third installment. “The script is funny and there’s a story to tell there, so there are efforts being made to try and continue that journey.”

Keanu’s current film, “47 Ronin” opens in theaters on Christmas day.

-- Jolie Lash

Copyright 2013 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.

Country singer shot dead in Nashville bar

Anita Wadhwani, The Tennessean

Nashville police on Sunday said they are still investigating a fatal shooting in the early hours of Saturday morning that left a country singer deadinside a downtown Nashville bar.

Wayne Mills, 44, was shot by Pit and Barrel bar owner Chris Ferrell, police said. Ferrell told police he shot Mills in self-defense following an argument over Mills smoking in the bar. Mills later died atVanderbilt University Medical Center.

"We're investigating Chris Ferrell's claims of self-defense," said Kris Mumford, a police spokeswoman. Ferrell is not in custody and there have been no arrests, she said.

Mills toured with the Wayne Mills Band, which often performed on the college circuit. The music was "outlaw/southern rock flavored," according to the band's website. Early in their careers, country music stars Jamey Johnson and Blake Shelton andAmerican Idol winner Taylor Hicks had all opened for the band.

On Sunday, Blake Shelton tweeted: "Extremely sad to hear about the death of my old friend Wayne Mills."

Reached by phone, band manager J.R. Smith was overcome with emotion. "I just can't speak about it right now," he said.

Pit and Barrel owner Ferrell could not be reached for comment.

In an odd twist, Pit and Barrel was to have been featured on tonight's episode of Bar Rescue on cable network Spike TV. The series features struggling bars and nightclubs that are given makeovers by a nightclub expert. The network has decided to pull the episode, running a rerun of a previous show instead, according to spokeswoman Shana Tepper.

On Saturday, police initially issued a report to news media misidentifying the shooting victim. Police first identified the victim as a Nashville songwriter with the same last name, Clayton Mills, but later retracted that, saying two witnesses named the wrong Mills as the victim.

Both Ferrell and Mills have prior arrest records. Ferrell was arrested twice for driving on a suspended license. Both charges were dismissed. Wayne Mills had prior convictions for driving under the influence and for reckless endangerment.

Mills leaves behind a wife and young son. His manager has established a Wayne Mills Family Fund for them. A benefit concert is also being planned, according to the band's Facebook page.