Nora and I will be going to an early Saturday screening, as most prime-time evening slots are pre-sold-out, according to online ticket sites MovieTickets.com (which reports that Sex and the City is now ranked number 19 10 on its list of top pre-sale films of all time) and Fandango, which states that as of Thursday morning, "the movie represents 92% of Fandango’s daily ticket sales, the highest daily percentage for any film so far this summer."
In anticipation of a big-titted hit, DreamWorks has clinched a first-look deal for Sex and the City's writer-director-producer, Michael Patrick King, writes Variety.
A little Botox goes a long way in “Sex and the City,” but a little decent writing would have gone even further. A dumpy big-screen makeover of that much-adored small-screen delight, the movie was written and directed by Michael Patrick King, one of the guiding lights and bright wits of the original series, based on Candace Bushnell’s newspaper columns and subsequent book. Once again, Sarah Jessica Parker has stepped into the dizzyingly high heels of Carrie Bradshaw, that postmodern Lorelei Lee — a hardly working New York writer with a passion for men and Manolos — but this time she’s taken a terrible tumble.
While in New York Magazine, David Edelstein gives Sex and the City thumbs up:
Has there ever been a TV series more polarizing than Sex and the City? It polarized me: First it drove me crazy (like itching powder), now I’m madly in love with it. It’s hard to feel halfway about these women and their unabashed materialism, overprivilege, and self-indulgence, their overdependence on and objectification of men. But what a hoot it is to see babes, for once, doing the objectifying—and talking dirty and sleeping around and measuring their fantasies against the sobering truth of male emotional insufficiency. If the core friendship of Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte is the biggest fantasy of all—they complement one another perfectly; they’re never too competitive—it’s a moving design for living: existential haute couture.
And at The Huffington Post, Us Magazine critic Thelma Adams blogs that the movie is no longer in tune with the times: "Sex and the City jumps the shark."
According to Us and People Magazine, Entertainment Tonight jumped the gun on reporting that Angelina Jolie has given birth to twins in the south of France, where she recently promoted two upcoming films, Kung Fu Panda and Clint Eastwood's Changeling.
This morning, I was scanning pregnancy photos and reading about the names Jolie had given her children. My first reaction was that given that she's carrying twins and was working the red carpet ropes like a pro just last week, it was early to be giving birth. What gives? In the rush to be first, are people just making this shit up?
1. Paolo Sorrentino's Il divo (Italy): concise, focused, accessible, fascinating and entertaining despite arcane Italian political setting, this portrait of Giulio Andreotti won the jury prize. I can't wait to see Sorrentino's next. (Il divo has no stateside distributor.)
2. Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York (USA): utterly disciplined, Kaufman did what he set out to do, brilliantly, with humor. (Still for sale in North America; Sidney Kimmel may not make back his $20 million.)
3. Steve McQueen's Hunger (UK): this masterful directorial debut deservedly won the Camera d'Or and pushes Michael Fassbender toward stardom. (IFC will distribute.)
4. Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir (Israel): authentic and emotional, this hybrid docu-drama shows that there's a future beyond Persepolis for stylized animation in service of powerful story-telling. (SPC will release.)
5. James Gray's Two Lovers (USA): this director-on-the-rise is back on track and elicits one of Joaquin Phoenix's best perfs. (If 2929 Entertainment doesn't get the deal it's seeking, its own distrib Magnolia will release.)
6. Clint Eastwood's Changeling (USA): the only potential best picture Oscar contender at Cannes this year (among many likely foreign film candidates); Angelina Jolie should land a nom. (Universal will likely take it on the fall fest circuit.)
7. Kim Jee-Woon's The Good, The Bad and the Weird (Korea): this stunning Oriental Western homage to Eastwood and Leone boasts high-speed action like you've never seen before: think Stagecoach meets Jackie Chan meets The Road Warrior. This broad action comedy could be hugely commercial.
8. Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (USA): thanks to Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz's entertaining hijinks, this is Allen's best film since 1997's Deconstructing Harry. With Harvey at her back, Cruz is on her way to a supporting Oscar nod.
9. James Toback's Tyson (USA): this psychologically intimate interview with an iconic figure who is not all that he seems is not just for fight fans. (SPC will release.)
10. Atom Egoyan's Adoration (Canada): yet again, brainy auteur Egoyan explores the faulty fiction of family, history and memory. (SPC picked it up before Cannes.)
11. Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? (USA): as expected, this edgy Hollywood comedy showcasing Robert DeNiro's best role in ages (channeling writer-producer Art Linson) played better in Cannes, where it should have debuted all along. (2929's own Magnolia will most likely distribute.)
Mainstream commercial triumphs:
Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (USA): Spielberg and Co. took the gamble that the movie would score at Cannes and sure enough, it did.
John Stevenson and Mark Osborne's Kung Fu Panda (USA): DreamWorks and Paramount launched yet another global animation juggernaut out of the Cannes fest, which loves Jolie and Jack Black.
Noble Failure?
Steven Soderbergh's Che (Spain): there's a potential masterpiece buried within this sprawling, unfinished bio-epic (in which Benicio del Toro delivers a subtle, non-showy performance which was rightly rewarded with the best actor Prix). Whether Soderbergh will try to find it is another question. At this point HBO would be best suited to handle the film at its current four-hour, 18-minute length.
Pollack's cancer was inoperable because it riddled his entire body and the original site was never found.
Trained as an actor, Pollack enjoyed an unusually long and prolific career as a producer and director distinguished by his uncanny knack for delivering high quality, commercial films in just about any genre, often with notoriously demanding stars, from Barbra Streisand (The Way We Were) to Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie). He also made several films with Robert Redford (The Electric Horseman) and Harrison Ford (Sabrina). Always hard on himself, Pollack never assumed that he had scored a hit; he was in despair in the editing room before audiences fell in love with his Oscar-winning Out of Africa. And the same was true of the challengingly difficult Tootsie, in which he played one of many memorable supporting roles. Pollack also enjoyed acting in other directors' films, such as Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, and most recently, Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton.
Crafting quality studio entertainment is a lot harder than it looks: at the end of his long career, Pollack boasts a number of films likely to be remembered as classics. And he is respected, admired and personally revered as one of the more gifted, capable and generous talents to come through Hollywood. He certainly has a place in my own pantheon of all-time Hollywood greats.
Pollack told The New York Times in 1982:
"Stars are like thoroughbreds," he said. "Yes, it's a little more dangerous with them. They are more temperamental. You have to be careful because you can be thrown. But when they do what they do best -- whatever it is that's made them a star -- it's really exciting."
..."if you have a career like mine, which is so identified with Hollywood, with big studios and stars, you wonder if maybe you shouldn't go off and do what the world thinks of as more personal films with lesser-known people. But I think I've fooled everybody. I've made personal films all along. I just made them in another form."
Pollack Classics:
The Way We Were
Tootsie
Out of Africa
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Three Days of the Condor
The Yakuza
The day after the Cannes fest jury failed to award the Israeli animated doc Waltz with Bashir a prize (Todd McCarthy's story on the winners, including Entre les Murs, is here) Sony Pictures Classics closed a deal for North and Latin American rights. After declaring that they might go home empty-handed, the distrib has also chased down three other films, including the Dardenne brothers' The Silence of Lorna, Bent Hamer's O'Horten and are expected to close James Toback's Tyson soon. Here's Variety's Waltz with Bashir Review.
The UK's Daily Mail columnist Liz Jones is shocked, shocked by all the sordid goings on in Cannes, with raunchy older men and much younger models reveling at yacht parties galore. Of course she goes out of her way to track down all this stuff, of which she heartily disapproves. If she had ignored all of it, on the other hand, and watched some good movies instead, it wouldn't have made such gossipy, salacious, entertaining copy. Tropicana girls are not news. But the Mike Tyson quote is money.
My second foray to the Hotel du Cap in Cap d'Antibes caught What Just Happened? writer-producer Art Linson and director Barry Levinson at the end of a long day of international press in advance of their closing night screening on Sunday. They were far more chipper than they were at Sundance, and wished they had brought the pic to Cannes in the first place, as they had originally planned. "We got ahead of ourselves," says Linson.
We walked from the beach cabanas where they had done the interviews over to the Eden Roc, the Du Cap's seaside restaurant, to talk over a drink until Linson got a call from Robert DeNiro up in the main hotel lobby (that's DeNiro on the phone, below, asking where he is).
It's been exactly a year since they shot the finale of their movie in Cannes, and here they are back again, in the festival. "It's life imitating art imitating life or something," says Linson, who wrote the screenplay based on his book about a hard-pressed Hollywood producer.
The new cut in Cannes is just "refined in many ways," says Levinson, who had never been at the fest before and marveled at Linson's command of French. Linson has a French country house, which helps. Linson had been at the fest with Car Wash, many years before.
"At Sundance, a movie about acting or script or story," says Levinson, "becomes a story about distribution. We got all these wonderful actors to work for free because they loved the project. I know when a comedy is working, because people laugh. It was about five distributors with no stake in the movie asking why they should put up $40 million."
Finally, the movie will be released by someone, whether financeer 2929 Entertainment's own distrib Magnolia Pics or someone else, in October, with ex-New Line Cinema marketing head Russell Schwartz handling the marketing campaign. He already came up with the ad line: "In Hollywood everyone can hear you scream." The decision will be made in four weeks.
For his part Linson will stick to producing indie movies like this or Sean Penn's Into the Wild, whether he's welcome in Sundance or not. "I have no choice," Linson says. "The studios are not designed to do anything but repeat themselves. The corporations don't like to be in a business they can't predict."
At the Adoration dinner-party on the roof of the Palais Thursday night, Sony Pictures Classics execs were huddling in the corner talking deals. But producer Robert Lantos and Cinetic Media's John Sloss were relaxed and enjoying the balmy moonlit evening.
They had approached SPC before the fest and showed them the latest opus from brainy Canadian helmer Atom Egoyan, whose work ranges from the high of Sweet Hereafter to the low of the muddled Armenian history lesson Ararat. SPC snapped up this smart, thoughtful, intense drama about a teenager trying to make sense of the death of his parents through provocative fictional theater pieces and chats on the Internet. This way Adoration came to Cannes with an experienced distributor behind it and no anxiety about having to sell.
There's something to be said for this old-fashioned approach. Pick the distrib who best suits your movie and nail down an exclusive sale in advance of a big fest. Harvey Weinstein denies that he was in that position on Steven Soderbergh's Che. French sales co. Wild Bunch is trying to unload North American rights to the four-hour, 18 minute biopic.
The word on the Croisette is that jury prexy Sean Penn will somehow coax his politically-aware jury into making a statement by awarding the Palme d'Or to Che. The movie is so flawed that I find this scenario implausible, but it would certainly make a statement. I could see Benicio del Toro deservedly winning an actor prize. On the other hand, Toni Servillo, the star of two strong Italian entries here, Il Divo and Gomorra, may beat him out.
At Thursday night's AMFAR Cinema Against AIDS benefit in Mougins Harvey Weinstein made a passionate plea to the jurors in the house to award the fest's big prize to Che. But will he put his money where his mouth is and acquire the film? He may well be the only willing stateside buyer, no matter how enthusiastic some of the film's critical supporters.
Here's a clip from Il Divo, which I enjoyed thoroughly. (Here's Variety's rave review.) Even though the movie is a densely-packed exploration of the intricacies of corrupt Italian politics, it managed to be an accessible, entertaining and perceptive portrait of controversial political enigma Giulo Andreotti. Steven Soderbergh could learn from Paolo Sorrentino.
But after saying they might leave town empty-handed (like many of their rivals), SPC moved in on a few titles after sampling more movies at the fest than ever before--they combed through the stuff that was available in the fest and market--and went on a late-fest buying spree, bidding on James Toback's Tyson and closing North American deals on Norwegian director Bent Hamer's O'Horten and the Dardenne brothers' The Silence of Lorna.
What was left of the Cannes contingent finally saw Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, long after the distribs who attended an early buyer's screening had been spreading bad word all week. The job of buyers is to assess commerciality. Not just artistic achievement. I went to see the movie Friday night and kept waiting for the supposed incoherent indecipherable parts to kick in. The movie was clear as a bell and well-executed. No problem. High-end sophisticated art-house crowds will eat this up.
Charlie Kaufman's genius has always been a crafty blend of ingenious surprise, unexpected whimsy and genuine heartfelt human emotion.
If this movie was played as straight drama it might have a problem. But this is far more clever than that. Synecdoche has a mother-lode of humor and comedy running through it. Sure, Philip Seymour Hoffman's character is sad, bereft, lonely, plagued by Job-like maladies, deluded, obsessed with achieving artistic cred etc., but Kaufman is also laughing at him, his crazy German-speaking tattooed daughter, his problems with women, and his insanely ambitious out-sized theatre installation. The actors, especially Hoffman (below, after the press conference on Friday with co-star Tom Noonan and producer Spike Jonze), are all excellent. (Not enough of Catherine Keener, sadly.)
I had no trouble following this at all. And I might add I seemed to be the only person in the Palais laughing my head off. UPDATE: Apparently, the NYT's A.O. Scott was too. Here's his elegant Cannes wrap-up.
Synecdoche is much like Memento or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Being John Malkovich--the very thing that makes people want to see it a second time will make it worth debating and discussing. SPC's Michael Barker told me that years ago he bought a movie at Cannes after he witnessed the LAT's Kenneth Turan and me having a big debate over it. The French pic The Dreamlife of Angels turned out to be a huge hit in France and a small hit in the U.S. A movie that gets people arguing always has a chance. (Here's SPC's Michael Barker at Wild Bunch's offices with the other hardest-working man in Cannes: IFC's Jonathan Sehring.)
While some have suggested that I should cut Soderbergh some slack on Che, I will argue that as hard as he worked on the pic over many years, he did not figure out the appropriate, disciplined shape the movie should have. By contrast, equally ambitious but thought-out is Synecdoche, which is not at all self-indulgent. Audacious and bold, Kaufman wrote carefully and well and delivered something brilliantly executed as his first directing gig. Soderbergh may have a bit of John Sayles-itis. You don't have to do it all yourself. Let some professionals help you.
I had to miss Quentin Tarantino's Master Class because it was opposite yet another panel about the new distribution future that I moderated at the American Pavilion. But the night before at the Hotel du Cap, Tarantino, Marina Zenovich (Polanski: Wanted and Desired), Tim Robbins and I had a blast talking about Sam Fuller (Robbins tapped Tarantino for his doc on Fuller which has yet to be cleared for DVD, though Robbins is working on it), how hard it is to set up movies if you don't have Harvey Weinstein as your benefactor (Robbins is in town trying to push a few things through) and how if you find a great editor like Sally Menke, you stick with her for life.
Tarantino is wrapping up writing his magnum WWII opus Inglorious Bastards. Hopefully he will learn from Soderbergh and not make it too long--he got away with releasing both Kill Bill I and II but not the double feature with Robert Rodriguez, Grindhouse--unless it goes to HBO. I could also see Che go out in long cable form. Time's Richard Corliss calls both Soderbergh and Tarantino Warrior Auteurs. Agreed: listening to Tarantino talk is almost as much fun as watching his movies.
Director Roman Polanski is a frequent visitor to Cannes: he famously walked out of the Chacun Son Cinema press conference last year in a huff when a journalist asked a question that he didn't like. But he's staying in Paris this year, even though he has a doc about him here, partly because he hasn't seen Marina Zenovich's doc on the justice that he did or did not receive in the U.S. before his exile, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.
The director has given Polanski, who lives in Paris, many opportunities to see the film about his 1977 rape trial. But he told her that he'd rather that Zenovich do the talking in Cannes and be the spokesperson for the film. He just may not be ready to deal with revisiting his painful ordeal.
"The process of editing was intense," said director Steven Soderbergh. "The further you get into it, you need context. That's why you need two movies."
Soderbergh visited Cuba five times but never met Che Guevara cohort Fidel Castro: "I was told, 'Pedro may call you.' He has a reputation for calling at 2 am and saying 'Come over. Let's talk.' I also heard that he likes to stop the film and talk about it when it moves him to. This film he may not survive."
Soderbergh admired Water Salles' The Motorcycle Diaries, starring Gael Garcia Bernal as the young Ernesto Guevara: "Walter's movie is really an Act One. With these, now it's a trilogy."
He defended his film's friendly approach to the iconic and polarizing revolutionary: "I've read the anti-Che literature out there. I get the arguments. I feel there's no amount of barbarity I could put on the screen that would satisfy them."
The shoot was rough and tumble:
"On the set I told the actors that I'm not going to be able to take care of you. I'm just trying to get this movie shot on schedule. And they formed a support group to survive it.
It sounds like he wants to use Smello-vision: "I wish we could transit the smell to the screen. There was a smell on the set."
IFC Films has acquired yet another film in Cannes, Steve McQueen's "Hunger" which opened the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard. Produced by Laura Hastings-Smith and Robin Gutchan, "Hunger" is a Blast! Films production for Film4, made with Northern Ireland Screen, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and the Wales Creative IP Fund.
Sony Pictures Classics has made a low-ball modest bid on James Toback's well-reviewed doc Tyson, a probing look at the ex-heavyweight champion. The bid is for all rights and I just left Toback on the Croisette asking to be left to talk with Michael Barker, "his prospective distributor." Toback was hoping to close one of several offers before he left town.
"A folly." "A mess." "Great." These words came from critics coming out of Steven Soderbergh's four-hour 18 minute Spanish-language Che Wednesday night. At the end there was slight applause; no boos. My own description: noble failure. Click here to read Todd McCarthy's review.
The global press corps jammed into the Debussy for the 6:30 PM screening. After two hours and nine minutes of The Argentine of the double feature, the press tucked into tasteless white-bread sandwiches in brown paper bags labeled "Che" and started dissecting part one. If you left the hall, you couldn't come back-- some took off. (After all, there was a major soccer match under way.) But many stayed for part two--which was even less dramatic.
Benecio del Toro gives a great performance, but Soderbergh's roving HD camera keeps its distance as Che trains guerillas in the jungle, leads his troops through various skirmishes and the takeover of Santa Clara, talks to TV interviewers and gives moving speeches at the U.N. The movie is well made and watchable. I was utterly inside it. I wasn't bored with the the first half, which offers plenty of narrative cut-backs and diversity; some periods are shot in black and white, some in color. There are ideas and dialogue galore.
But the second--which is also two hours and nine minutes--becomes a focused cinema verite account of Che's doomed adventures in Bolivia, the point of which becomes clear and inevitable. As my pal Larry Gross put it, the film is about "process." Soderbergh isn't interested in the things that compel moviegoers to engage with characters: drama, psychology, motivation. He doesn't dwell on the relationship between Che and Castro. He doesn't tell you how "Ernesto" turned into "Che." He doesn't share the inside of Che's relationship with the woman who becomes his second wife. He doesn't let you see the iconic photo being taken. He withholds the takeover of Havana.
Soderbergh didn't think he could finish the film in time for Cannes. Why don't these guys ever learn? Remember Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, Wong Kar Wai's 2046, Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny, and Edward Norton-starrer Down in the Valley? DON'T TAKE AN UNFINISHED MOVIE TO CANNES!!!! Wait. Give the film the time you need.
The good news: there is plenty of fine material here to be edited into one releasable long dramatic feature and hopefully French producer/sales co. Wild Bunch, which paid for 75 % of the $61 million film, and Telecinco, which came up with 25%, will give the filmmaker the time he needs to find this promising film's final form.
One thing is likely: it will not be released stateside as it was seen here. And it will not sell overnight--unless a distrib promises to help Soderbergh to find his movie. It seems that Peter Rice of Fox Searchlight, Daniel Battsek of Miramax and James Schamus of Focus knew that they didn't need to see Che before they left town.
UPDATE: I saw Harvey Weinstein after the screening at the Hotel du Cap; he says he neither placed a bid nor saw the movie in advance; he loved it and supports Soderbergh. Whether he will go after it is a matter on which he was not willing to comment.
Henri Behar, at the Fortissino party, is the New York-based moderator for most of the American press conferences. I'll never forget the time years ago that he snuck me through the back of the Palais, through winding corridors, and out onto the stage of the Lumiere for an impossible-to-get-into press screening. He drives a moped through Cannes. On the other hand, Sony Pictures Classics's Tom Bernard, here at the Carlton Terrace with co-prexy Michael Barker, rides a bike to meetings.
Kyle and Clint Eastwood at the Changeling after-party at the Martinez Palme d'Or.
Brett Ratner on the Croisette. He came to Cannes to support his pal James Toback and Tyson.
Two Lovers producer Donna Gigliotti at the Carlton Beach, and director James Gray with his family.
Cannes Fest topper Thierry Fremaux at the top of the Palais red carpet steps waiting for the Two Lovers gang to arrive.
Wong Kar Wai brought Ashes of Time Redux to Cannes.
John Woo showed 8 1/2 minutes of Red Cliff footage.
At Cannes, stateside distribs have been viewing back-to-back movies in the fest and market as well as checking out advance footage on view from foreign sellers. “We’re seeing movies from 8:30 AM to 11 PM every day,” said Sony Pictures Classics co-prexy Tom Bernard, who arrived at the fest with two films already in hand, Atom Egoyan’s Adoration and Wong Kar Wai’s Ashes of Time Redux. “We also have a lot of meetings and scripts to read in the room.”
But buyers are proceeding with caution, with Fest Opener Fernando Meirelles’ tepidly received Blindness, which sold 42 territories at last year’s Cannes market, as a cautionary omen, and the awareness that even Oscar contenders that look like winners can wind up loss leaders.
In addition to Steven Soderbergh’s anticipated $61 million two-parter Che, which screens Wednesday night (Wild Bunch was seeking about $8 million for North American rights), buyers at Cannes are bidding on James Gray’s $12-million Two Lovers, which has generated great reviews and buzz for Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, and scribe Charlie Kaufman’s feature directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, which cost $20 million and failed to score a sale out of an early buyers' screening. The irony may be that 2929’s pricey $20-million What Just Happened?, which didn't sell at Sundance, may get a new lease on life if it plays well here, and sell for a fraction of its original asking price. Several specialty distribs are lying in wait. Magnolia may wind up releasing both Two Lovers and What Just Happened? if it doesn't get the offers it is seeking.
Clint Eastwood's Changeling screened well Tuesday, although the press conference was slightly muted, partly because so many of the world press had already interviewed Angelina Jolie for Kung Fu Panda. Here's Todd McCarthy's review, which hit the web within minutes of the end of the press screening, because Todd saw the film in L.A. and prepared the review in advance. And here's Kenneth Turan's LAT feature. Here's a collection of reviews.
UPDATE: And my red carpet commentary with IFC's Matt Singer:
It was wall-to-wall critics at the official black tie dinner at the Palme d'Or, with round tables and name cards; each table was named after one of Eastwood's movies. Rebounding from his last Cannes experience with the nastily reviewed The Da Vinci Code, producer Brian Grazer, who had the sense to send the Changeling script based on a real 1928 story to Eastwood, admitted that there were several points-of-view on the film's title. Basically, when Changeling was translated into French as "L'Echange," many folks liked The Exchange better. Eastwood was noncommital at the press conference. But Grazer thinks it will stay Changeling in the U.S.
Universal brass Ron Meyer, David Linde, James Schamus and Donna Langley joined a bevy of les meilleurs critiques du monde. Eastwood sat with wife Dina Ruiz, fest topper Thierry Fremaux, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who feels strongly that movies should be allowed to run at whatever their best length, whether it's Changeling or The Assassination of Jesse James, which he insists made no sense when it was cut down.
Eastwood's long-time editor Joel Cox said Eastwood has one of his great roles in his next, Gran Torino, as a curmudgeonly Korean War veteran who gets to know his neighbors. "One last time," added Eastwood, who says he's easing out of acting roles, and certainly won't play Dirty Harry again, despite rumors to the contrary. "Dirty Harry would not be in the police department at my age," he said at the press conference earlier in the day. Eastwood admitted that "The Man with No Name" was a marketing ploy when he was a no name himself, he said. "It all worked out."
Mystic River stars Tim Robbins and Sean Penn showed their support, while Zhang Ziyi was pushing a charity effort on behalf of China’s earthquake victims. Also on hand were Eastwood's kids Kyle and Alison, who's waiting on a script for a new movie. A chip off the old block.
[Posted by Shalini Dore]The only Indian film in the Cannes official selection is 43 years old. "It makes me feel good," Dev Anand, producer-star of Guide said drawing out the last word. "It gave me a positive feeling that Cannes gave it a stamp of approval that 'Guide' is good."
A restored version of the 1965 pic played in Cannes Classics on Tuesday night. Although he said he rarely looks back at his films, which go back to 1946's "Hum ek hain" (We Are One), Anand said, "This is a moment, this is Cannes, this is a festival. I'm looking forward to it."
The 85-year-old Anand, who said this was his first trip to Cannes, made no apologies for Bollywood's song-and-dance routines. "When you define Indian film you have to have songs and dance. Who doesn't want song, who doesn't need poetry?" he added getting lyrical.
Guide was made in English ("The English version followed the book," Anand said. "The Hindi version was my creation.") a few months earlier, scripted by Pearl S. Buck and directed by Ted Danielewski but was a disappointment.
While his brother Goldie, who directed Guide, has as he said, "passed on," Goldie's son, Vibhu, attended the presser. "Guide was long before my time, but I got it all out of (my father), when it was made, how it was made, Vibhu Anand said. "He was not after the acclaim but the content ... which is why it's still recognized."
Dev Anand's next movie, "Charge Sheet," starts shooting in July in Scotland. Pic's centered around police corruption. "I'm excited; if you're not excited don't do the project, don't photograph it. For God's sake don't do it."
It is not the slightest bit unusual for a Cannes gala premiere to get a standing ovation, and Two Lovers did--with the glowing Gwenyth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw and James Gray on hand accepting kudos--if anything, when a movie doesn't get applause it's an issue. But Two Lovers played well not only for the black tie crowd at the Lumiere but for the U.S. buyers who haven't been rocked by anything so far and have been looking bedraggled (by constant rain) and gloomy.
Daniel Battsek of Miramax, Peter Rice of Fox Searchlight, Eamonn Bowles of Magnolia, Michael Barker and Tom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics, Howard Cohen and Eric D'Arbeloff of Roadside Attractions, and Nick Meyer of Paramount Vantage were all there. The movie is a small relationship drama, not a genre film. It's specific to its New York borough locale. It features a vulnerable, touching performance by Joaquin Phoenix as an unhappy young man who is in love with a good girl beloved by his family (Shaw) and a bad girl (Paltrow) who dangles escape from his limited prospects.
CAA's Micah Green was fielding inquiries last night at the soggy after-party on the Chopard beach. He was prepared to stay up all night, or wait and take his time to see what develops. I will keep you posted.
UPDATE: Word is, the buyers are waiting to see what the reviews are. And the filmmakers are complaining to the festival about the way the press screenings were handled, shuttling the media with white press badges into the tiny Bazin while the rest of the press went to the Debussy. There was huge applause in the Debussy, none in the Bazin (which may be the nature of the room). Also, the film screened half an hour late for press.
The press lunch at the Martinez Palme d'Or was rushed and fun. (Everyone was running off to see Indy 4.) Here's Mike Jones' video of our roundtable with Woody Allen on one of the few sunny days here.
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and UTA's decision to screen their Charlie Kaufman movie, Synecdoche, New York, early at the fest was a throw of the dice. First, the movie is one of the few hot tickets for sale in the U.S. at Cannes, but was given what is considered a "lucky" Friday slot at the fest, which has delivered for such films as Roman Polanski's The Pianist and Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction in the past. But it's far too late, apparently, for the top-execs at the U.S distrib companies with which SKE is hoping to close a sale during the fest.
So SKE and UTA decided to invite all the top buyers to an early Saturday market screening, well before all the critics and press would pass judgement. If there was ever a movie perfect for Cannes it is this one, which is, according to those who have read the script and seen it, ambitious, arty and brilliant, if not entirely accessible. This is the kind of movie a fest like Cannes is supposed to help. Cannes gave the film a valentine, a present. And by screening the movie ahead of time, the sellers betrayed their anxiety about making a quick sale. If they had the goods, the sellers would hang tough and force the buyers to just stick around and wait. (The buyers were thrilled they got an early look.) SKE and UTA were afraid to lose the decision-makers, and didn't want to screen the movie simultaneously back in the states.
What's the hurry? SKE wants to get its money back and a bidding war is the best way to achieve that.
Once upon a time--or am I dreaming?--the goal used to be to find the ideal distrib, passionately willing to put their expertise on the line to give a film the best possible chance of reaching audiences.
That's not what these expensive movies looking to recoup at fests are looking for. And they should be.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had its world premiere at Cannes at 1 PM May 18; the press anxiously streamed into the Lumiere early, afraid they would be shut out--and many were. Spielberg insisted on holding off so he could show the movie to the world's press all at once, which created additional pressure. Here's Tim Gray in video and in print.
But unlike The Da Vinci Code two years ago, the Cannes press were psyched to see it, whooping and whistling before the screening started. The movie unspooled without the usual Cannes logo. The first hour plays like gangbusters and is really fun. Harrison Ford has Indy down, even as a grizzled "gramps" dealing affectionately with Shia LaBeouf as a 50s greaser with a pompadour.
The answer to the question of whether Indy and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) spawned a son is answered pretty early on and is just what you'd expect. As a femme viewer, I'd have liked more of the bicker-banter from the first installment. And the movie goes pretty much where you expect it to go--the ending is bombastic and pixilated, even if most of the fast-moving stunts are as live as Spielberg could make them. The film is directed with expert, Spielbergian precision and panache. All of the cast were fine, but I particularly enjoyed Ford and his fearsome nemesis, Cate Blanchett as a Elsa Klench Rosa Klebb-style Russian Colonel.
UPDATE: Many press left the movie early so that they could get into the press conference, where Spielberg said he was happy to come back to Cannes for the first time since E.T. in 1982, and that E.T. and Indy were the only films the fans kept asking him to do sequels to. He was the last one in, he admitted, after George Lucas and Harrison Ford, but only after the last script came in and made him see the movie that could be.
Indy 4 movie will do blockbuster boxoffice, and whatever critical brickbats are still to come, the media clapped and was polite at the press conference, which I live-streamed with a qik phone and should be somewhere on variety.com/cannes:
After mounting a full day of press on the 7th floor of the Carlton, Paramount threw a small press cocktail party at the Cote for Indy 4 and brought the "talent" through to meet and greet. (There will be no press at the official dinner Sunday night.) Shia LaBeouf was in no mood to share, having given non-stop round table interviews all day, up since 6 AM, he said. He did Access Hollywood on a boat, but hadn't had a chance to experience his first Cannes, really. His work wasn't over either: he was steeling himself for the Vanity Fair dinner.
Paramount took full advantage of this turbo-junket opportunity. Harrison Ford did Access Hollywood on the beach. And they got E.T., Extra and GMA, too. Karen Allen said she'd been inside rooms all day, too, except for a little walk around. Her last Cannes was for The Glass Menagerie in 1987. Here's some video.
Producer Kathleen Kennedy explained why Spielberg wanted to do all the press before they had seen the film. He really wants to try to preserve the experience for the audience, so they don't know everything before they see the movie, like it was on the first three Raiders pics. "If you learn everything, no one can get surprised anymore," said Kennedy. "You can't discover this movie until we let them discover it."
Later I took a break by going to see Technicolor's stunning digital restoration of Max Ophuls' Lola Montes as he originally intended it to be seen. His cut was restored in 1968, but Technicolor used modern technology and the help of Marcel Ophuls to bring it back to vivid, rich, saturated life. It was a delicious escape from all the Cannes madness.
On the way out the door it was pouring rain so I looked like a bedraggled mess by the time I arrived at the Weinsteins' Vicky Cristina Barcelona party on the soggy 3.14 plage, as Woody Allen and Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall and Bono huddled in a corner banquette. Harvey was in good spirits; this movie might catch the zeigeist right, as it delivers a light divertissement during dark times.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Friday numbers were softer than many expected given the robust performance of the first installment, which scored $23 million on its first day. Numbers will likely go up Saturday, the pattern for family pics--which also tend to have longer b.o.legs. Prince Caspian scored a modest 69% on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's Variety's Saturday numbers.
The good news: of the Narnia books, Prince Caspian is not one of the most satisfying. The best installment, for my money, is the one coming up next: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It has a dragon, and an ocean voyage to the end of the world.
We were supposed to get a photo, interview and video clip and rush back in time to get it into the paper and post onlne: But Moore came to the Carlton too late. We talked to the film's co-financier/distribs--Overture's Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett, and Paramount Vantage's Nick Meyer and Amy Israel--until Moore came. As soon as we split, the filmmaker was thronged by the press.
Both Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and Bono turned up in Cannes to support Sean Penn's The Third Wave.
The Cannes Croisette features a string of hotels, from the Majestic, pres de la Palais, to the Martinez at the other end. The trick is to find the various constantly changing plages that go with the hotels. Wednesday night we were searching for the 3.14 plage, then Friday it was the Plage de Palmes, all the way out by the marina. Bobby Rock, Stephen Raphael and I had to climb over a wet fence to get to the Toronto Film Fest party without having to go the long way around. I have an annual Cannes ritual: asking Toronto cinephile Noah Cowan what the fest theme is. His answer: "Prison films and the aftermath of war." Hunger, Waltz with Bashir, Blindness...hmmm.
I greeted my hosts, Fest honchos Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey. I met Col Needham, the founder of IMDB, who was attending his first Cannes, as excited a schoolboy. As I left for the Woody Allen movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I greeted Ira Deutchman of Emerging Pictures and director Whit Stillman, who enjoys writing while in Cannes. "I made a picture in Barcelona!" he yelled after me.
Miss the line for the jammed Palais press screenings and you lose. You basically have to shove your way in; I got a good seat. It's a good Woody Allen. He's back in comic form, except for a dunderheaded narration. Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem steal the movie from the two callow American girls summering in Spain (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson). Here's Todd McCarthy's positive review. The press seemed to like it as we milled around our press boxes talking amongst ourselves.
Had a lovely dinner at Le Cave and scurried to find a taxi for yet another run at a beach party, this time a fair distance away down the coast. ICM's Jeff Berg and Cannes fest topper Thierry Fremaux (above) hung around for more than an hour waiting for James Toback and Tyson (below). He turned up well after 1:30 AM and said he was "intimidated" by all the cameras on the red carpet. Hard to imagine. He's a powerful guy with a Maori tattoo on his head. The movie played well; here's Todd's upbeat review.
What will happen with James Toback's Michael Tyson doc? It will be seen. It must. It's too revelatory, too dramatic, too juicy not to be widely viewed. It screens Friday night. Here's my talk with Toback.
Here's Variety's review of Steve McQueen's Hunger, which I saw Thursday night. This is a talented new filmmaker, hugely gifted, visual and daring. The story of an IRA hunger strike in a Belfast prison is rough to sit through. McQueen throws everything in your face. But he does it with style. And Michael Fassbender--who appears to come close to really starving himself-- is a new star. He's going to play Heathcliff in a new version of Wuthering Heights. I doubt that anyone in the states will pick Hunger up. This is about discovering new talent. There was a rousing ovation from the press; Brit McQueen may be a strong candidate for the Camera d'Or, the prize for first-time filmmakers. Here's Stephen Schaefer.
After the movie, I repaired to the Kung Fu Panda party at the Carlton Pier, which included yummy Asian food served with chopsticks and a greeting from DreamWorks executrix Stacey Snider. I talked online shop with the LAT's Sheigh Crabtree-- whose cinematographer husband Matt Uhry shot a film, Mexico's Los Bastardos, in Un Certaiin Regard-- and ran into Paramount PR chief Michael Vollman hanging out with my own Variety gang.
Next door on the beach was the Focus International plage party, hosted by Andrew Karpen and Jason Resnick, complete with a pounding disco beat and a real beach. The Blindness gang was on hand, from Miramax topper Daniel Battsek to Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal. The yachts twinkled under a fine moon in the harbor, and the sand felt cold under your feet.
Posted by Peter Debruge:
While Anne preps her next dispatch from Cannes, I thought I might give a shout out to this year's Student Academy Award winners. The list is alphabetical, as final rankings won't be announced until June 7 (unlike the Oscars, the student categories are given gold, silver and bronze honors). I've added links so you can see the trailers, official sites or, in some cases, the full shorts where available (Simulacra, for example, seems to complement Pixar's upcoming Wall-E). Click through for the goods.
Kung Fu Panda star Jack Black woke up this morning knowing he had to cavort on the Carlton pier with 40 overstuffed pandas. Mike Jones did the honors with his Nikon Coolpix.
At the jury press conference, Sean Penn was mercurial and testy: over-the-top on his shove-it-down-your-throat political agendas, and yet an uncompromising artist, the sort of filmmaker that Cannes embraces. He's an idealist who cares deeply about his work and likes to champion the work of others. But he's not one to hide his feelings. Everything shows. So clearly, it was a long day for him.
First the photo call, the press conference, then the black tie ceremonie de overture, which is a long red carpet affair, where folks in their seats in the Lumiere get to watch the likes of Eva Longoria Parker, Penelope Cruz, Aishwariya Rai, Dennis Hopper, Blindness stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Gael Garcia Bernal, and the skeletal Faye Dunaway twist for the photographers.
Jury member Sergio Castellitto looked familiar: I had just seen him in The Chronicles of Narnia sequel, in which he chews into the role of Prince Caspian's nemesis, King Miraz. (BTW: this one is much better than the first, which I found bland and unbelievable, because the kids were so young. Prince Caspian will do gangbuster biz; the kids are older, the villains are nasty, the Narnia animals and characters are cool and there's more action. My fave scene is the opener, when Caspian speeds through a forest at night on horseback.)
The ritual of the jury lining up in a row on the Palais steps and greeting Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux at the top is always fun. Cannes feted Penn with vet folk singer Richie Havens, who did a foot-stomping rendition of Freedom, which even the cool French gala crowd clapped along with, led by Penn. "We will do our best," Penn told the crowd. "We will be sending home love letters to some of these films."
I slipped out before the film started and lined up at the Salle Bazin to see animator/director Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir, an odd Israeli documentary that is gorgeously and effectively animated. Like the stylized Persepolis, the animation makes palatable scenes that would otherwise be horrific: hallucinatory flashbacks of Israeli soldiers on various campaigns in Lebanon, all leading to one long repressed memory of witnessing a 1982 massacre by Christian militia of Palestinians. The filmmaker makes a journey back into his mind by interviewing people who might remember what he has suppressed. Very strong film. Some of the animated characters' POV have a vidgame feel. Early distrib response is cautious. They'll check reviews and see where it goes.
Miramax's outdoor Blindness party at the Carlton Plage-where Europeans were following Sean Penn's lead and smoking like chimneys--featured a white fogbank entryway. That's where I snapped Danny Glover. I did not see Miramax topper Daniel Battsek, but did spot SPC's Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, the NYT's Tony Scott, the LAT's John Horn, Fernando Meirelles and Gael Garcia Bernal, PR men Jeff Hill and Mark Pogachefsky, Focus Features' Jason Resnick and The Toronto FF's Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey.
At the opening day jury press conference, Sean Penn made a pitch for the first-ever jury prexy’s choice screening of the tsunami doc “The Third Wave;” called George W. Bush’s politics “evil,” and said, “film is about art, and art is about love. The brain has a purpose in connecting with the heart. When someone works without a brain or a heart they kill thousands of people around the world.” Admitting that he was “not comfortable in a group of people like this,” Penn asked one journo, “can you get me a drink?” For her part, actress Alexandra Maria Lara was “a little bit shaky”; Natalie Portman felt “big pressure”; and when helmer-scribe Marjane Satrapi lit up a cigarette, Penn and French actress Jeanne Balibar gratefully did the same. They still have 22 movies to go.
[photo above by AFP/Getty Images]
Truth is, one year I had a white badge. It was a lovely fluke--someone above me on the food chain had just left the publication, and his replacement was too new to know any better. I got the badge. I earned it, damn it. But it's not going to happen again any time soon.
This year, all's right with the world because I got back my pink badge with a yellow dot, the status I had been accorded for years--until last May, when I had just started at Variety. I was happy to be at Cannes, but suddenly I was demoted to a plain pink badge and no cassier, or press box. The Horror! Here's A.O. Scott's musings on Cannes badges. And The Circuit has rounded up a selection of stories on the subject.
The Hotel Carlton has more billboards crammed onto it than ever. Various studios are based there, including Paramount/DreamWorks, which is mounting several Kung Fu Panda events tomorrow--Jack Black and 40 Kung Fu Pandas will pose for photos on the Carlton Pier-- and then Paramount runs Indiana Jones over the weekend.
Sean Penn, this year's jury president, is staying at the Carlton, attended by two press agents, ID-PR's Kelly Bush and Mara Buxbaum, with whom he was hanging in the deserted Carlton lobby Tuesday night--I went over to say hello, not having talked to him since I visited the set of Oliver Stone's U-Turn for Premiere--and two burly security guards, with whom he had lunch today before assembling his first jury meeting. He's sporting an interesting pompadour, which I would show you except that I chickened out on trying to grab his picture. It's Sean Penn!
Penn is on a civic crusade. Not only did he persuade fest topper Thierry Fremaux to show the tsunami doc The Third Wave at Cannes, which is about ordinary citizens making a difference after a disaster, but he was inspired by the film to try and reach other young people who might want to volunteer to help others in need. (Cinetic Media's John Sloss is selling The Third Wave at Cannes.)
Invited to attend Coachella, Penn took the stage to ask for volunteers to ride three biodiesel buses with him on the Dirty Hands Caravan from the music fest over 1800 miles to New Orleans. The Monday after Coachella, 150 kids (all over 18) went on the tour with a tour manager and a cause wrangler making eclectic civic stops along the way. (Penn's agency CAA helped to make it all happen.) The kids talked to anti-Iraq War activist Cindy Sheehan, met a 12-year-old leukemia survivor, went on an AIDS walk in Tucson, and cleaned up parks in Texas. What warms the cockles of Penn's heart is that at the end, after they saw the devastation in the 9th ward of New Orleans, 12 kids elected to stay behind and help.
I agree with everything the LAT's Patrick Goldstein writes here. It's a shame that the corporate culture at Warners didn't understand that by giving someone like Mark Gill or Bob Berney true autonomy, they might succeed. They couldn't grasp that concept. And that's why they got out. I will be curious to see what ex-Picturehouse exec Bob Berney puts together.
[Bob Berney and Film Independent's Dawn Hudson at the Indie Spirit Awards]
I told you Twilight was a vampire trilogy. Summit is still negotiating a deal to film the next two installments of the Twilight series, which may be filmed back to back, Pirates-style. That's cocky. The first one isn't out until December. But they have every reason to believe that they've lucked into an enormous franchise. They probably wish they'd nailed down all three books in the first place.
One sure sign of a movie that distribs are chasing after is when they tell you why they are not interested. The Israeli animated movie Waltz with Bashir is earning good advance buzz, and Cinemascopian has the first trailer. It's too much like Persepolis, it's an imitation of a hit, etc. is what some buyers are trying to tell me. Pish-posh. I'll check it out Wednesday night. Here's a bit on director Ari Folman.
Hollywood Wiretap makes a fuss about LAT Scriptland columnist Jay Fernandez going to THR. They wooed him a year ago after an exodus of reporters--but weren't willing to give him enough money at the time. He wasn't on staff at the LAT though, and eventually, it helps to have a paying gig and benefits.
I saw it coming. Ever since Paramount announced that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would not screen for anyone before its May 18 unveiling at Cannes (in advance of its worldwide launch May 22), I felt that Spielberg and Co. might be setting themselves up. The anticipation of this film is too great, the pressure for information is wrecking havoc on the internet. As the NYT reports, several exhibitor screenings have added to the din surrounding this film. So far the PR strategy has been to dole out interviews to press who have not yet seen it; Vanity Fair, EW, the LAT and others have played ball.
And at Cannes, select press are being invited to do interviews before the official press screening at 1 PM on May 18. This will add more pressure to the press conference that day. UPDATE: Paramount is also not throwing a party, instead sticking to a small exclusive film dinner. That's not winning them any popularity contests.
Sony learned the hard way the power of a roomful of 4000 critics waiting to find a movie wanting at Cannes with the Da Vinci Code. Moviegoers ignored their complaints and made the film a worldwide blockbuster. But the filmmakers had hoped to score a prestige win at Cannes. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer left Cannes with their egos badly bruised.
Spielberg, who is staying in one of the big yachts in the harbor, may be hoping to return to the site of his early career triumphs with Sugarland Express and E.T., which was such a huge smash at Cannes that it burnished Spielberg's profile as a star director with a special place in filmgoers' hearts. Indiana Jones is a favorite franchise returning after 18 years. It may fulfill all that is hoped for; it will certainly score a huge global opening. That's not the issue. It will be fascinating to see if Cannes gives back to Spielberg what he may be hoping to get from it.
If the audience skews older, as I suspect it will, I wonder if Paramount might not have lured more of the key younger demo by waiting to open the film after they get out of school. It's early summer days yet.
[Posted by Jeff Sneider]
UK-based sales company Velvet Octopus will be selling a sequel to Richard Kelly's 2001 cult hit Donnie Darko at next week's Cannes Film Festival.
Titled S. Darko, pic is set seven years after the original Jake Gyllenhaal-starrer and will follow Donnie's sister Samantha (Daveigh Chase) as she is plagued by bizarre visions while on a roadtrip to L.A. with her best friend Corey (Briana Evigan, star of Step Up 2: The Streets). Other cast members include Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick and War of the Worlds' Justin Chatwin. Although neither Jake nor sister Maggie Gyllenhaal will return, there is no word yet on Frank the Bunny.
Chris Fisher will direct the $10 million film, with which Kelly is not officially involved.
Fox has already snapped up North American rights to the sequel, which starts shooting May 18.
Iron Man and Speed Racer will duke it out for the top spot this weekend as advance ticket sales for Indiana Jones 4, Narnia 2 and Sex and the City heat up. (Sex and the City's tracking is fascinating; its awareness and want-to-see are strong with women and off the charts terrible for men, especially those under 25: 3 % definite interest! Which makes this a two and a half quadrant movie targeted at women and gay men. Here's Peter Bart on the subject of chick flicks.)
The LAT analyzes Speed Racer's presumed boxoffice weakness: why does this movie have to be number one and be a blockbuster? Why can't it just open? Family movies tend to last longer in the marketplace. Just asking. It didn't land good reviews: 36% on the Tomatometer (Rotten). It looks like I like Speed Racer better than most, along with Richard Corliss, who says it's the future of movies. UPDATE: Some critics just didn't get the movie at all. It's for kids! Salon's Stephanie Zacharek writes:
"Andy and Larry Wachowski's "Speed Racer" is so bereft of intelligence, style and excitement that I can't figure out who in the world it's supposed to appeal to: baby boomers nostalgic for the old Japanamation cartoon on which it's based? Parents who want to cultivate ADD in their kids?"
Fantasy Moguls has its own take on on why Speed Racer may struggle this weekend. Steve Mason calls it the "death slot." The second weekend of the summer is where you don't want to be.
In 8 of the past 10 years, the movie that signaled the start of Hollywood’s most lucrative season went on to win the next weekend. This weekend on the release schedule has included full-on disasters, like 2006’s Poseidon, medieval action film A Knight’s Tale in 2001and 2000’s horrific laugher Battlefield Earth.
Speed Racer will not be a disaster. This may be remembered as a disappointment domestically, but, especially with the presence of Asian music superstar Rain, the film will perform well overseas, particularly in Japan, South Korea and China where he has a huge following.
Fandango Five – Ticket Sales (as of 5/9/08 10:00 a.m. PT)
Movie Fandango User Rating % Fandango Sales
Iron Man “Must Go” 33%
Speed Racer “Go” 32%
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull “Must Go” 11%
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian “Go” 7%
Sex and the City “Go” 6%
Fandango Weekly Poll (as of 5/9/08 10:00 a.m. PT)
Iron Man's now playing everywhere. Among previous comic book/graphic novel movies listed below, which one is your favorite?
One of my USC students tipped me to something I didn't register on: because of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, actor/writer Jason Segel is now writing a Muppet movie. Segal worked with Henson's Creature Shop on Sarah Marshall's Dracula puppet rock opera. Segel pitched the Hensons his Muppet movie idea, and he's now writing a script.
I won't be posting as I travel to France over the weekend. I'll arrive at my rooms behind the Carlton Hotel Sunday night, ready to bank some early stories for Wednesday's first of ten Variety show dailies. Once in Cannes I will blog like mad, tracking the buzz on the North American acquisitions, and trying to see as many movies as possible. Which won't be as many as I'd like. It gets crazed. Adrenaline kicks in and you go from dawn til the wee hours. It's supposed to be rainy next week. I will pack my umbrella.
Summit Entertainment is doing cartwheels. That's because they're already in production on a movie, Twilight, based on the first book in a trilogy vampire saga by book phenom Stephenie Meyer.
The 34-year-old Mormon author just landed a takeout in Time Magazine calling her the new queen of fantasy with the head: The Next J.K. Rowling? The article praises Meyer's books for being about the "erotics of abstinence." She "rewrites stock horror plots as love stories."
She's basically the young adult Anne Rice, because Twilight is a romantic 17-year-old Romeo and Juliet with vampires and humans. Rising star Kristen Stewart (discovered by Jon Favreau in Zathura, Panic Room) plays a girl who falls for a handsome guy (Robert Pattinson, of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) who turns out to be a vampire. But he's a good vampire who has renounced sucking human blood. He and his mother coven feed on animals. His virtue--his psychological struggle against his lust for blood--makes him interesting. The movie, directed by thirteen's Catherine Hardwicke, is due December 12.
Vampires have fed Hollywood since its infancy, from Bram Stoker's Dracula and Nosferatu to Rice's Interview with a Vampire, Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Underworld series. But this series has femme appeal.
When Summit slapped a teaser trailer up on MySpace on Monday at 11 AM, it pulled 1 million views in 36 hours and has now passed 2 million. The teaser will premiere on E.T. Friday, and will run in front of family-friendly Speed Racer (maybe that will boost its ticket sales). "I would have been happy with 500,000," says Summit chief Rob Friedman, who scooped up the rights to Twilight when it had sold 10,000 copies just after he started Summit's new production/distrib arm. Paramount had the option and let it go. Since then the first three Twilight books have sold over 6 million copies in the U.S. "I knew the book had a fan base but it's always good to see it's bigger than you think," says Friedman, who has a potential franchise on his hands. This is what any new company lusts after.
Harvey Weinstein, long a passionate Democratic supporter, is using his muscle in the party, reports CNN.com, to help his pal Hillary Clinton. With friends like this you don't need enemies.
Let the record show that I am a passionate Democrat who wants the party to win against Bush John McCain in November, and I will vote for the winner of the Democratic nomination, whether it's Clinton, Obama or Gore...I paste the video below, which is rife with profane language and is for ADULTS ONLY--because I can't help myself.
This makes me crazy. Premiere.com is letting go of their marquee critic, Glenn Kenny, the one guy who drives some traffic. But it's a sign that even Premiere.com isn't making a go of it. They probably think that they can get cheaper younger talent to do what Kenny does so well. They'll probably pick up Real Guys to take his place. It's all about short video bites now. Lucid, knowledgeable, erudite? Who needs that shit anymore? Here's his farewell post.
UPDATE: Hachette U.S. Publishing CEO Jack Kliger has presided over the demise of many magazines and I don't think I will ever forgive him for so mishandling Premiere and its bonafide, established, globally recognized movie brand. He could have started a movie portal if he had seen the light--but Hachette was thrilled they had dodged the dot.com bullet and refused to invest real money online.
All they had to do was publish Premiere properly and keep it alive on the internet. Look at UK movie mag Empire. It's going strong, and has taken over the global space Premiere and its nine editions around the world used to have. Look at the Premiere website. It's lame. How can it compete with all the lively entertaining professional stuff out there? Real media ventures are plowing real money into their sites and seeing real returns. Look at New York Magazine, and Conde Nast Portfolio, which is sending my old Premiere colleague Fred Schruers to Cannes.
Trying their very hardest to make Brideshead Revisited look livelier than its 26-year-old PBS counterpart, Miramax has assembled a pulse-quickening trailer for the latest adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel, this one starring Matthew Goode in the Jeremy Irons part. Hold on to your teacups!
Apple has the trailer in all its hi-def glory, but YouTube makes it easy to watch here:
Warner Bros. does not care about the specialty business and has no time for it, basically. The Draconian studio is shutting down not one specialty arm but two, both Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse, with the notion that New Line Cinema can handle whatever specialty needs the studio has. New Line chief Toby Emmerich will be given something to do going forward. More updates as I have them. Here's Variety.
UPDATE: Picturehouse prexy Bob Berney, who learned late yesterday that Warners would be shuttering both specialty arms, is taking his team to Cannes as planned, and will release all three of his upcoming films, including Mongol, Kitt Kittredge: An American Girl and The Women, which opens in September. Then Picturehouse will call it quits. This gives his 43 employees some time to look for work. Berney will use his time in Cannes to look for investors, partners, and check out the pics on view there. He will resurface.
WIP's Polly Cohen, meanwhile, whose 31 staffers are also being cut by parent Warners, is rumored to be heading away from is likely to stay at the studio with a production deal. Warners basically dropped her into the deep end without a boat or a paddle. They don't get the specialty business, never did, never will.
Alan Horn and Barry Meyer were the last studio execs to mount a specialty label, and gave the reins of the specialty arm to Jeff Robinov, a capable production exec who clashed with Mark Gill, even when he was successful. Clearly, Gill was not able to function well within the WB bureaucracy. But getting autonomy is often a factor in whether these divisions sink or swim. They need to be able to ride the wave of the swiftly changing indie marketplace, and it takes years for any exec to learn how to do that.
Fox, Universal, Disney and Sony have all been in this market for a long time. They understand how to function with their specialty arms. Paramount and Warners have never been entirely comfortable with it. As successful as John Lesher was at choosing good movies, is Vantage making money? Warners may have realized that at best the specialty world is a breakeven business, and that what they know how to do is to make branded global tentpole entertainment.
Indiewire has reactions. The press release is on the jump:
Variety blogger Anne Thompson is your trusted source for film industry news. She tracks Hollywood, Indiewood, awards season and film festivals for this daily blog.
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in Baz Lurhmann's highly-anticpated drama, 'Australia.' ; Nicole Kidman; trailer; Baz Lurhman; australia; movie; Drama; Hugh Jackman; variety; Death Race Movie Trailer; Michael Cera and Kat Dennings star in the teen comedy, 'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.' ; video trailers; Michael Cera; Kat Dennings; Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist trailer; College Movie Trailer; Daniel Radcliffe stars in Warner Bros. and author J.K. Rowling's final chapter of the 'Harry Potter' franchise. ; 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' trailer; new; trailers; video; variety; Josh Brolin stars as George W. Bush in director Oliver Stone's portrayal of the controversial President. ; W trailer; trailers; Oliver Stone; bush; Josh Brolin; 'W' trailer; video; variety; Christian Bale plays 'John Connor' in Warner Bros.' fourth installment of the 'Terminator' series. ; Variety Video; Christian Bale; 'Terminator: Salvation' teaser trailer; Based on the memoir by Danny Wallace, Jim Carrey stars as a man who must say 'Yes' to everything for one year. ; Zooey Deschanel; Jim Carrey; trailers; variety; 'Yes Man' trailer; Warner Bros. brings one of the most popular graphic novels of all time to the bigscreen. ; Watchmen movie trailer teaser; 'The Watchmen' trailer; video; variety; BETWEEN THE LINES explores the Vietnam War through the prism of the surfing sub-culture.; Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott star as two "Role Models" in the new comedy from Universal. ; trailers; Paul Rudd; Sean William Scott; video; variety; 'Role Models' movie trailer; Tom Cruise stars in the upcoming WWII thriller about the assassination of Adolf Hitler. ; World War II; katie holmes; Hitler; trailer; valkyrie; Tom Cruise; video; variety; Daniel Craig stars as James Bond in Sony's highly anticipated sequel to 'Casino Royale' ; Daniel Craig; trailer; 'Quantum of Solace' trailer; free download; James Bond; variety; embed; Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo play two con man attempting to swindle an eccentric heiress in 'The Brothers Bloom.'; Adrien Brody; 'The Brothers Bloom' trailer; video; variety; Mark Wahlberg and Twentieth Century Fox bring the gritty videogame hero to the bigscreen. ; Mark Wahlberg; New Trailer; Download; 'Max Payne' trailer; variety; Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson star in comic mastermind Frank Miller's directorial debut. ; Rainn Wilson stars as an out-of-work '80's drummer who's called upon for a last-minute gig. (Fox); Fox; comedy; christina applegate; 'The Rocker' trailer; video; variety; Rainn Wilson; The Coen Bros.' follow up to 'No Country' is a quirky drama starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney. (Warning: graphic language); George Clooney; Joel and Ethan Cohen; trailer; Brad Pitt; Burn After Reading; John Malkovich; video; variety; Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe star in Ridley Scott's adaptation of the CIA thriller. ; trailers; Leonardo DiCaprio; 'Body of Lies' trailer; variety; Ridley Scott; Russell Crowe; Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connolly star in Twentieth Century Fox's remake of the sci-fi classic.; december 12th; Fox; 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' trailer; Remake; jennifer connolly; movie trailers; variety; keanu reeves; Director Guy Ritchie returns another British gangster film. This time starring '300' stud Guy Ritchie. ; Gerard Butler; madonna; Guy Ritchie; trailers; 'RocknRolla' trailer; Anne Hathaway plays a drug-addict sibling who returns for her sisters wedding in the Jonathan Demme drama. ; movie; 'Rachel Getting Married' trailer; Jonathan Demme; trailers; Anne Hathaway; 'City of God' director Fernando Meirelles directs Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo in the adaptation of José Saramago's epidemic novel.; trailers; Mark Ruffalo; 'Blindness' trailer; video; Variety review; Julianne Moore; Based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzerald, Brad Pitt stars as a man who ages in reverse in David Fincher's chronological drama. ; trailer download; angelina jolie; Warner Bros.; 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' trailer; Brad Pitt; David Fincher; movie trailers; variety; 'Disturbia' director D.J. Caruso reunites with Shia LaBeouf in this political assassination thriller. ; 'Eagle Eye' trailer; Shia LaBeouf; movie trailers; video; variety; Bill Murray and Tim Robbins star in this fantasy/drama about a illuminous city that slowly begins to fade. ; free; Bill Murray; 'City of Ember' trailer; movie trailers; Tim Robbins; variety; embed; Saw V Teaser Trailer; Vin Diesel returns to the action-genre in Fox's futuristic thriller, 'Babylon A.D.'; August 2008; Fox; Vin Diesel; 'Babylon A.D.' trailer; video; variety; Woody Allen is back behind the camera with Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardhem and Scarlett Johansson topping this Spanish romance. ; Scarlett Johansson; Javier Bardhem; 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' trailer; Penelope Cruz; Woody Allen; spain; Movie Trailer; Dennis Quaid stars in the real-life story of Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman trophy. ; Dennis Quaid; Heisman Trophy; Ernie Davis; 'The Express' trailer; video; variety; Twilight trailer 2; A scene from Alex Gibney's upcoming documentary, 'Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson' ; 'Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson' scene; trailer; variety; Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck and more top this star-studded romantic comedy from Warner Bros.; He's Just Not That Into You; trailer; Ben Affleck; Jennifer Aniston; Justin Long; Drew Barrymore; variety; Righteous Kill - Movie Trailer; A young girl tries to navigate her way through the dubious (and sexual) temptations of Los Angeles. ; sexual crowd in los angeles; 'Garden Party' trailer; young girl; video; variety; Sean William Scott and John C. Reilly star as two co-workers vying for the same promotion. ; comedy; 'The Promotion' trailer; Sean William Scott; John C. Reilly; video; variety; Mulder and Scully return to the bigscreen this Summer in FOX and creator Chris Carter's 'X-Files: I Want to Believe.'; trailer; Fox; Mulder; Scully; Chris Carter; David Duchovney; Gillian Anderson; variety; X-Files: I Want to Believe; Seth Rogen and James Franco star in the Judd Apatow produced stoner comedy, 'Pineapple Express.'; James Franco; 'Pineapple Express' trailer; comedy; Judd Apatow; stoners; Seth Rogen; variety; stoner; Lucasfilm is back with another 'Star Wars' movie. This time, however, the jedi's are animated. ; Film; jedi; trailer; lucasfilm; Star Wars: Clone Wars; animated movie; George Lucas; variety; Heath Ledger stars as the Joker in Christopher Nolan's highly-anticipated sequel to 'Batman Begins.'; Kiefer Sutherland stars as an ex-cop who begins to investigate the evil force that has penetrated his home. ; Kiefer Sutherland; Mirrors; trailers; 'Mirrors' trailer; horror; video; variety; Real-life teens star in one of the most talked about documentaries of the year. ; documentary; trailer; American Teen; variety; sundance; Fox's intergalactic comedy highlights the antics of astronaut chimps with all the “wrong stuff.”; ' Fox; 'Space Chimps; trailer; animation; video; variety; Jack Black and Ben Stiller topline this jungle comedy about a group of Hollywood actors getting caught in the action.; Matthew McConaughey; comedy; Robert Downey Jr.; Ben Stiller; Tom Cruise; movie; Tropic Thunder; Jack Black; Meg Ryan and Annette Bening star in the remake of George Cukor's 1939 film.; Bette Midler; eva mendes; 'The Women' trailer; Meg Ryan; video; variety; Diane Keaton; Marvel Comics returns to the bigscreen with the second installment of the action/fantasy thriller. ; The Golden Army; Marvel Comics; Hellboy 2; movie; sequel; Selma Blair; Three women are stalked by a killer with a grudge that extends back to the girls' childhoods.; Sony Picturehouse; trailer; Thriller; amusement; horror; variety; Pixar's latest entry tells the story of a loveable yet mischievous robot named 'Wall-E'; Will Smith plays a superhero with some not-so-super habits in Sony's big-budget 'Hancock.'; Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy star in this action-apprentice tale of justice. ; Morgan Freeman; Thriller; James McAvoy; angelina jolie; action; movie; wanted; Twilight - Movie Trailer; Physicist Bruce Banner takes flight in order to understand -- and hopefully cure -- the condition that turns him into a monster.; Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep star in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit musical. ; Will Smith plays a superhero with some not-so-super habits in Sony's big-budget 'Hancock.'; Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly star as two step-brothers who must find their way to brotherly love. ; sony; comedy; 'Step Brothers' trailer; John C. Reilly; will ferrell; video; variety; Heath Ledger stars as the Joker in Christopher Nolan's highly-anticipated sequel to 'Batman Begins.'; The newest trailer for the Ed Norton-starrer 'Incredible Hulk.'; America's favorite gal pals jump to the bigscreen this summer. ; Jack Black voices a 600-pound martial arts whiz in the Dreamworks animated film, 'Kung Fu Panda.'; Brendan Fraser and co. are back at again in 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'; Made of Honor Movie Trailer; Based on the classic 1960's Japanese animated series chronicling the aspirations of a young race car driver as he attempts to obtain glory, with the help of his family and the Mach 5.; Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Movie Trailer; The Forbidden Kingdom - Movie Trailer; Get Smart: Movie Trailer; Story about six MIT students who were trained to become experts in card counting and subsequently took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.; Dreamworks Animations presents Kung Fu Panda.; Single business woman who dreams of having a baby discovers she is infertile and hires a working class woman to be her unlikely surrogate.; A team of people work to prevent a disaster threatening the future of the human race.; Two sisters Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman) and Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson) contend for the affection of King Henry VIII (Eric Bana) ; Jack Black destroys every tape in his friend's video store. In order to satisfy the store's most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films.; The attempted assassination of the president is told from five different perspectives.; A genetic anomaly allows a David Rice (
Hayden Christensen) to teleport himself anywhere.; Once moving into the Spiderwick Estate Jared and Simon Grace find themselves in an alternate world.; A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.; Amir (Khalid Abdalla) has spent years in California and returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan.; Back home in Texas after fighting in Iraq, a soldier refuses to return to battle despite the government mandate requiring him to do so.; An attorney known as the "fixer" in his law firm, comes across the biggest case of his career that could produce disastrous results for those involved; George Clooney; sydney pollack; Michael Clayton; John Rambo (Stallone) assembles a group of mercenaries and leads them up the Salween River to a Burmese village where a group of Christian aid workers allegedly went missing.; Trailer to Iron Man Video Game; Trailer from video game; "Margot at the Wedding" is a circus of family neuroses and bad behavior that perhaps a therapist could make sense of better than Noah Baumbach can. ; Nicole Kidman; Margot at the wedding; jennifer jason leigh; vareity review; movie review; variety; review; A young man from the South Bronx dreams of making it as a rapper, until a run-in with local thugs forces him to hide in Puerto Rico with the father he never knew.; You have to believe it to see it.; The last man on earth is not alone.; The rebellion begins. ; Variety presents a special screening of "The Darjeeling Limited" with Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola and Adrien Brody.; A CIA analyst questions his assignment after witnessing an unorthodox interrogation at a secret detention facility outside the US.; A freak storm unleashes a species of blood-thirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole-up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.; A scorching blast of tense genre filmmaking shot through with rich veins of melancholy, down-home philosophy and dark, dark humor, "No Country for Old Men" reps a superior match of source material and filmmaking talent.; Tommy Lee Jones; movie review; variety; Variety review; No Country for Old Men; Directors: Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Tilly Mandelbrot...; Trailer from video game; Robert Ford, who's idolized Jesse James since childhood, tries hard to join the reforming gang of the Missouri outlaw, but gradually becomes resentful of the bandit leader. ; Brad Pitt; Casey Affleck; the Assassination of Jesse James; Variety Screening Q&A with director Sidney Lumet.; Before the Devil Knows You're Dead; Sidney Lumet; Philip Seymour Hoffman; movies; The search for true love begins outside the box. A delusional young guy strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet.; ryan gosling; trailer; Patricia Clarkson; movies; Craig Gillepsie; Lars and the Real Girl; Survivors of the Raccoon City catastrophe travel across the Nevada desert, hoping to make it to Alaska. Alice (Jovovich) joins the caravan and their fight against the evil Umbrella Corp.; Director: Sean Penn
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Hal Holbrook, Vince Vaughn; THERE WILL BE BLOOD chronicles one Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who transforms himself from a silver miner into a self-made oil tycoon. ; There Will Be Blood; Here's an exclusive look at Joel and Ethan Coen's trailer for their Cannes hit "No Country for Old Men," starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and uber villain Javier Bardem.
; trailer; movies; No Country for Old Men; Tomy Lee Jones; Ethan Coen; Josh Brolin; Javier Bardem; Joel Coen; Directors: Nadia Conners & Leila Conners Petersen
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sylvia Earle Ph.D., Mikhail Gorbachev...;
Won't it be amusing if after Warners cuts back New Line Cinema, the label scores a raft of hits? Sex and the City, which appeals largely to women, is expected to score off the charts this weekend for a movie with virtually no allure for men. UPDATE: It may gross $20 million on its opening day, reports Pamela McClintock. 
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