March
13
ShoWest Honors Hunt, Schamus, Lee, Mamet
Tuesday, Universal co-chairmen David Linde and Marc Shmuger piled a bunch of folks into the corporate jet and flew them to Vegas for lunch. Hamlet 2 star Steve Coogan came along with long-time collaborators Focus Features prexy James Schamus and Lust, Caution director Ang Lee, who were given the first-ever ShoWest Freedom of Expression award. (Basically, the National Association of Theater Owners wants to encourage the studios to make NC-17-rated movies and the theaters to show them.)
Lee explained before the lunch that Tang Wei is the only Lust, Caution star who is Chinese; Tony Leung is from Hong Kong, and Taiwanese Lee lives in New York. That's why the government targeted her, banning her from media coverage. "The others don't matter," Lee said. "It's political. It will subside." Here's his interview on Access Hollywood, which covers Lee's relationship with Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger.
Coogan introduced the indie lunch host, Landmark Theaters' Ted Mundorff, saying, "I've been a huge admirer of Ted's ever since I googled him last night." Coogan said that being at the Las Vegas Paris Hotel "really is like being in France. In my hotel last night I was eating a cheeseburger and saying, 'c'est magnifique!"
After a series of clips for such upcoming indie pics as The Duchess (Keira Knightley is coaxed out of her corset) and the geriatric singers doc Young@Heart, which played well at ShoWest on indie night and should do some biz, ThinkFilm's Mark Urman presented actress/director Helen Hunt with the Breakthrough Director of the Year Award for Then She Found Me. While Hunt played down her looks in the pic, which she adapted herself from the novel, she looked stunning onstage in a form-fitting gold dress and teetering heels. "I'm the daughter of a director, and an actress who served at the feet of directors my whole life," said Hunt, who wants to fight for "movies where people talk to each other and feel things sharply and fiercely." Here's the Access Hollywood interview with Hunt.
Also in Vegas was playwright/filmmaker (and poker player) David Mamet, writer-director of SPC's jujitsu pic Redbelt (which has a terrific trailer). Mamet accepted the ShoWest filmmaking award, saying, "We're fortunate that our forefathers insisted on a country where it's nobody's business who expresses what. We don't have censorship or an intellectual elite. What we have is a marketplace of ideas."
I also took pics of Hunt and fellow award recipients Robert Redford and Alan Ball (Towelhead), but the photos sucked; a couple more of my ShoWest atmosphere snaps are on the jump:
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