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]
Introducing a new foreign-language auteur to American moviegoers has never been tougher.
So producer Scott Rudin is lending his name to the upcoming Norwegian film Reprise to provide an extra push.
Shocked to discover that Norwegian shorts writer-director Joachim Trier's stylishly hip feature debut, which earned strong reviews at Sundance and New Directors, New Films in 2007, didn't have distribution, Rudin persuaded Miramax to release the story about two fledgling novelists who respond to early literary success in radically different ways. Netflix's Red Envelope is partnering on the release. Here's the full story.
Here's the trailer:
Obviously if Warner Independent Pictures and New Line orphan Picturehouse merge, Picturehouse and its nifty logo will disappear. But if Warners is planning a bicoastal two-headed structure with Polly Cohen on the left coast and Bob Berney on the right, then the people who survive the purge would be part of WIP, and Picturehouse would likely be folded into the Warners universe. This is all speculation until Warners decides what it wants WIP to be: something it has always been a tad vague about.
Whatever happens, they'd end up putting the Picturehouse flicks out through WIP. Here's my reporting on the subject. If there's nothing left of Picturehouse, then I doubt Berney would stay.
Let the summer games begin. The LAT's Ken Turan takes on summer blockbuster syndrome, while The Huffington Post addresses summer superheroes.
The summer starts off with Thursday night's opening of Iron Man, which earned 95% fresh reviews on Rotten Tomatoes so far. The NYT's A.O. Scott calls it "an unusually good superhero picture." The New Yorker's David Denby calls it a "whooshing junk pile." Everybody likes Robert Downey. (Variety reviews the Iron Man viedeogame.)
The movie is expected to open well, between $65 and $100 million, depending on how seriously you take the tracking that shows young women are not interested in seeing the picture--only 19% first choice-- which makes it a "three quadrant" movie for starters. The biggest blockbusters, like Narnia, wind up pulling everybody. Young men under 25 have 95% awareness of Iron Man, 65% definite interest and 35% first choice. Women over 25 are more interested in Downey and Gwenyth Paltrow; they will spread the word that Downey is fun and Paltrow actually has a decent role. So the picture could hold well.
Luckily for Paramount, next weekend's Speed Racer (well-reviewed by Variety) is not pulling strong advance tracking numbers, so that might give Iron Man some room to breathe before they open Indiana Jones on May 22. Here's the weekend forecast from Fantasy Moguls and Variety.
I wasn't sure what to expect from Speed Racer from the advance marketing, so I was pleasantly surprised. First, it's really a little kids' movie, more like Pixar's Cars than anything else. Second, the Wachowskis have a solid story with a strong moral theme to hang their gorgeous stylized pyrotechnics on. I don't particularly care about car racing, but I cared about the characters and the family led by John Goodman and Susan Sarandon at the film's center. Speed Racer Emile Hirsch and gal pal Christina Ricci are fine (utterly sexless couples are a theme of the summer so far). And I was dazzled by the Wachowski's eye candy. You can read the movie as a parable of the filmmakers' experience in Hollywood--they're rooting for creative innocence and pure instinct over the corrupt vagaries of the marketplace.
The other movie opening this weekend that roots for innocent indie filmmaking over the compromises of the star system is Son of Rambow, a hit at Sundance 2007 that was fought over; Paramount Vantage grabbed it for $8 million. But the film was delayed by various rights legalities (having to do with Carolco's Rambo) and finally arrives late on the scene with its momentum lost. (It is a hit in the U.K.) And it follows in the wake of the similar Be Kind Rewind, which died at the boxoffice.
In this delightful and expertly executed 80s-set British comedy from Hammer and Tongs (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), two unlikely schoolmate-collaborators pool their resources to shoot a short and suddenly find themselves hugely popular at school. One soaks up the attention, the other doesn't. Here's Variety's Speed Racer Blockbuster Page, with review, clips, trailers and a cool feature on VFX whiz John Gaeta.
The movie has played 27 fests since its Sundance debut, and Vantage hopes that means it has built up some good WOM. It opens in NY and LA this weekend, moves to 30-35 screens in the top 12 markets May 9, and expands to 70-80 screens in the top 25 markets on May 16. By the 23rd of May it should be on 200 screens in the top 60-65 markets. UPDATE: Rotten Tomatoes reviews so far are at 77%; I'm surprised they aren't even better. The genre seems to confuse people. That is, it's a smart movie set in the 80s about kids that's for adults.
New York indie vets Ted Hope and Christine Vachon, long-time collaborators and friends, have launched a new Plum TV show, Very Independent Producers, reports Filmmaker Magazine.
Actor-writer-director Tom McCarthy (who played the ambitious young reporter on The Wire), took some time after his last film, The Station Agent, to travel in the Mideast with the film--sponsored by the U.S. State Dept. Inspired by some of the people he met in Beirut and Oman, he started writing a script with two main characters, a closed-down professor and a Syrian illegal alien who plays African drums. "I leave time for writing to develop organically," McCarthy says. "I start with characters first, who I haven't seen before."
Needless to say the quiet immigration drama The Visitor, which is ripped from headlines but is far from a strident message movie, is an actors' piece. Indies Participant and Groundswell funded the film.
From the start McCarthy wanted character actor Richard Jenkins (the father in Six Feet Under and North Country) to disappear into the role of average American Walter Vale, "instead of finding a glamorous movie star and saying, 'I want you to be really average,'" says McCarthy. "He's everyman. He has the right spirit. He has such range as an actor, from intense dramas to broad comedy. A lot of people recognize him but can't always place him."
During his time in the Middle East, McCarthy discovered Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass in the films Satin Rouge, Syrian Bride and Paradise Now. He did an all-out casting search for Tarek the drummer and his Senegalese wife. Now living in Los Angeles, Haaz Sleiman is Lebanese and had an "openness and vulnerability and generosity that rang true," says McCarthy. He also felt that actress Danai Gurira was right as his guarded and angry wife.
The four actors rehearsed for two weeks to "fine tune the script and settle into the skin of the characters," says McCarthy.
The audience begins to root for Walter to open up over the course of the movie. We like him, and get caught up in the lives of the two emigres who are living in his vacant New York apartment. Abbass plays Tarek's mother who arrives on the scene after her son is arrested and placed in detention. She and Walter start a romance of sorts, although gratifying the viewer is not what McCarthy is after here.
When Walter exploded at in a key scene near the end of the shoot, a key grip came up to McCarthy and said, "Now I get it."
"I try to give the audience an emotional reality," says McCarthy, "so that everyone can realize there's a lot of truth to that. I wonder if there is a place for movies like this?" Overture, which picked up the film in Toronto last fall--sending a message of interest in quality smart-films for adults-- will soon find out.
Here's Patrick Goldstein's piece from Toronto. And Mike Jones interviews Jenkins and McCarthy at AFI Dallas.
And here's an exclusive clip from the film, a scene in a detention center between Walter and Tarek:
There's plenty to see in theaters this weekend.
While it's ingeniously improvised by likable actors at a real poker tournament, The Grand is not as funny as the last mock doc by writer-director Zak Penn, The Incident at Loch Ness. The wily Werner Herzog is the funniest thing in both movies.
My recent Judd Apatow poll shows Pineapple Express leading in want-to-see over his three other comedies, including this weekend's well-advertised opener, Drillbit Taylor. Pineapple Express's director, the usually darkly dramatic David Gordon Green, has in release Snow Angels, which played at Sundance 2007. It's well worth seeing before it disappears. So is Gus Van Sant's brilliant, stark Cannes entry Paranoid Park.
The moody period noir thriller Married Life is marred by miscasting: the estimable Chris Cooper and Pierce Brosnan are both in love with the 20-something femme fatale Rachel McAdams. Excellent actors all. But yucky. I preferred AMC's similar but more stylish Mad Men.
Among the Oscar-season holdovers, Oscar-winner The Counterfeiters and animation nominee Persepolis are hanging in with great WOM. I caught The Band's Visit last weekend, a small gem which was ineligible as Israel's Oscar entry because its Egyptians and Israelis communicate in English.
And of course, the delightful The Bank Job is showing legs.
[Photos: Snow Angels, Paranoid Park, The Counterfeiters, Persepolis]
This Wired story is worth reading just for the inspired art of Harvey Weinstein as Darth Vader, right. Reportedly, he's been up to his old scissor-happy tricks with the Star Wars doc comedy Fanboys.
So this weekend I will be catching up with new openers The Grand (on screener DVD) and Drillbit Taylor (at a screening).
Otherwise, I will be watching my cache of DVDs and saved TiVo stuff, including HBO's John Adams. (I love it, the marriage especially; it's too dark, but it feels real to me.)
If I were going to a theater I would also see Horton Hears a Who! which actually scored good reviews. Here's the Variety weekend forecast. Tyler Perry anyone? Well, I have yet to check him out, something I hate to admit. It's about time I did.
During his annual state of the industry ShoWest address, MPAA chairman Dan Glickman raved about what a great year 2007 was, with 5 % growth in both the domestic and worldwide boxoffice, both all-time highs.
In 2002, there were about 450 movies total released in the U.S., he said, and some 600 titles released in 2007. "All of that growth is independent film," he said. This was a good thing for the industry, he said.
Is that true?
Sure, the studios can ram their movies through the clutter of noise with big ad spends and buy themselves some theater time. But the sector of the market that got killed in 2007 was neither the micro nor big-budget pics but the movies in the $15-million to $70-million range, the ones in the middle, the ones that can't afford the big-studio four-quadrant campaigns. That's where many outside investors have been putting their money. And that's where, going forward, more constriction and consolidation is going to continue.
The market can't sustain all these distributors, all with release slates big enough to justify their existence. The studio subsidiaries are adapting to the over-crowded, competitive market by making more commercial, accessible, bigger-budget movies with stars--and are thus competing for smaller slices of the boxoffice pie with the other distribs in the same universe: Lionsgate, Yari Film Group, MGM, The Weinstein Co., and now, newcomers Summit and Overture.
Some fallout in the indie sector has already begun. Warner Bros. is paring back New Line Cinema and folding it as a label into the parent company; the co's new mandate is still to be delineated. Picturehouse and Warner Independent are likely to forge some kind of merger, yielding one specialty label where there once were two.
Industry observers speculate about the fate of real estate mogul-turned-filmmaking entrepreneur Bob Yari, who was perhaps cursed by two early hits (Crash and The Illusionist) and is now finding heavy sledding, and MGM and two of its key suppliers, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, which will withdraw from the release pact at year's end, and has pared back on production, and Weinstein Co., which is still seeking some breakout hits.
In the meantime, Overture and Summit are jumping into choppier waters than they may have anticipated when they finalized their financing and business plans. (For more on this, see this week's column.)
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:
Continue reading "ShoWest Honors Hunt, Schamus, Lee, Mamet" »
New Line's Bob Shaye represents a dying breed in Hollywood, writes the LAT's Patrick Goldstein.
[Photo courtesy LATimes]
Always entertaining, Morgan Spurlock talks about the hazards of documentary filmmaking with Mike Jones at SXSW:
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment is undergoing an expected restructuring, reports Tatiana Siegel:
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment is slashing its slate in half from 5-6 films per year to 2-3. As a result, the company has pink-slipped six Los Angeles-based employees, effective immediately. SKE prexy Jim Tauber, president of production William Horberg and president of Kimmel Distribution Bingham Ray will remain with the company.
All over the film industry, folks who grew up with New Line as a constant are mourning the end of the indie studio. Many who worked there, many who didn't, and many who have projects there and don't yet know their fate, are saying good-bye in their own way. The end of a studio--even if it will continue on in some form--is like a death. Here's my way of saying good-bye, in column form.
Please feel free to make your own comments about what was great--or not--about New Line, and your own experiences with it.
Never one to resist a challenge, maverick filmmaker and headline-grabber Uwe Boll is taking on Steven Spielberg with his next release, Postal, opening the film against Indy 4 on May 23.
Overture finally nabbed its second Sundance pic, Christine Jeff's Sunshine Cleaning, starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, a good month after the fest's conclusion. (The new distrib acquired Henry Poole is Here during the fest.) The plan is to release the relationship dramedy at year's end.
Sunshine Cleaning entered the fest as one of several highly anticipated movies with stars attached that were expected to make a big sale. It didn't happen, though, partly because the filmmakers behind the film, Big Beach, which had financed Little Miss Sunshine, were hoping to make back their $7-million investment in a quick sale. Other distribs were worried that Sunshine Cleaning was too similar to that film. (Both star Alan Arkin in a cranky grandfather role.) But Overture, which is beefing up its 2008 and 2009 release slates, was keen on the relationship pic, which should appeal to women, and may change the title.
I quite liked this film, which nabbed mixed fest reviews. Jeffs is a fine director who managed to tease both comedy and tragedy out of this story.
Here's EW's Q & A with Blunt, who is terrific in the film as Adam's sister and business partner.
The Indie Spirits started out sunny---as the gaggle of execs, filmmakers, agents, writers and actors happily networked outside the Santa Monica beach tent-- but the skies turned grey and threatening as the show commenced around 2 PM Saturday. The rain drummed on the tent roof but let up by the time the show was over and folks headed towards the IFC Shutters party. I did not catch up with Brad and Angelina, who gamely participated in the event, even though Jolie was heading toward losing best actress to Juno's Ellen Page.
"Greetings indie weirdos," said host Rainn Wilson at the start of the Spirits show, citing the inclusion of a nominee like Juno that grossed more than $150 million and a host of others "so obscure you never heard of, like every other film here." He unveiled the source of all the energy for the first-ever green Spirits from behind a curtain: Ed Begley Jr. on a bicycle. "Keep peddling," ordered Wilson, as the lights dimmed.
Fox Searchlight had a great day, winning six awards: best picture, actress and best first screenplay for Juno, best screenplay and actor for The Savages and best foreign film for Once. Juno scripter Diablo Cody, resplendent in a low-cut red dress, thanked manager "Mason Novick who introduced me to Jason Reitman, who introduced me to Ellen Page, who introduced me to this mother-fucker," as she brandished her award. (At the IFC Shutters party later, Cody said that as soon as she got word that Galliano wanted to do her Oscar gown, she said "done!")
The Savages writer Tamara Jenkins thanked Searchlight for making her first and second films. "Hopefully they'll make my third if I ever write it," she said. Her husband, Sideways writer Jim Taylor, "has one of these at home. We can do bicep curls."
A radiantly pregnant Cate Blanchett won best supporting actress for Weinstein Co's I'm Not There, paying tribute to her co-star Heath Ledger. Director Todd Haynes, casting director Laura Rosenthal and the entire cast of I'm Not There won the first ever Robert Altman Award. Ledger, who had directed a number of music videos, was planning to direct his first film, Queen's Gambit, Haynes said. "I've no doubt he would have made an astounding director," he said. "I treasure the time we shared on this film."
Julian Schnabel was uncharacteristically gracious accepting the win for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and thanked his producer. "Without Jon Kilik, I don't want to make a movie," he said. Diving Bell cinematographer Janusz Kaminski won cinematography, and told the crowd he had refused to work for just $3,000 a week. Thank you, he said to producer Kathy Kennedy.
Several studio folks who don't usually venture into Spirit land showed up this year, including producers Walter Parkes and Laurence Mark, who won Best First Feature for screenwriter-turned-director Scott Frank's The Lookout. Frank developed the movie for 12 years at three studios and with as many directors, Frank said, until Spyglass stepped up to write the check for the movie, and Miramax agreed to distribute. Frank was happy he finally made the film with the actors he wanted and the ending he wanted, he said. At a studio that wouldn't have been possible, and the movie would have cost twice as much.
As usual the day before the Academy Awards there was much pre-Oscar talk, as many of us have doubts about some categories. David Ansen of Newsweek summed up the Marion Cotillard beating Julie Christie argument succinctly: "She's self-destructive, she sings and she's wearing makeup." We agreed that anyone who thinks they know who's going to win supporting actress is crazy. Ansen also believes that Tilda Swinton could win on the basis that Michael Clayton has to win something. It's a valid theory.
At the IFC party at Shutters, which was funneled downstairs in the noisy basement this year, John Waters was hanging with Todd Haynes and Christine Vachon in an outdoor smoking corner. "If you win at the Spirits you always lose at the Oscars," he reminded.
[Photos from top: Juno winners Ellen Page, Diablo Cody and producer Lianne Halfon; Juno director Jason Reitman and Fox Searchlight prexy Peter Rice; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly producer Jon Kilik and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski; The Lookout's Laurence Mark and Scott Frank; SKE's Bingham Ray and Newsweek's David Ansen; John Waters and David Alan Grier.]
The complete list of the winners and more photos are on the jump:
Continue reading "Juno, Savages, Diving Bell Are Big 2008 Spirit Award Winners" »
The 23rd annual Independent Spirit Awards are coming up this Saturday--my fave event of the year. It all takes place inside a billowing white tent on the usually sunny Santa Monica Beach. It's a more relaxed and fun celebration of all things indie--the real action takes place outside the tent near the honeywagons, as folks grab a cig when the proceedings get dull.
Juno is expected to lead the wins, natch, but The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and I'm Not There could grab some prizes too. Rainn Wilson does the hosting honors for the first time. (Last year it was a profane Sarah Silverman; my fave is always frequent MC John Waters.) Dawn Hudson, exec director of Film Independent, has named Javier Bardem the Spirit's honorary chair this year (No Country for Old Men was too expensive to be eligible).
My favorite part of the show is always New York lyricist Jack Lechner's spoof lyrics of the main nominees, performed by various stars--Rosario Dawson was memorable last year. Saturday, David Alan Grier will sing Lechner's only song this year, a spoof of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
This year's scheduled presenters are:
Alan Arkin, Jason Bateman, Kate Beckinsale, Maria Bello, Cate Blanchett, Zach Braff, Maggie Cheung, Patricia Clarkson, Bryan Cranston, Shareeka Epps, Jon Hamm, Josh Hartnett, Felicity Huffman, Allison Janney, Lisa Kudrow, Eva Mendes, Ellen Page, Dennis Quaid, Ryan Reynolds, Keri Russell, Meg Ryan, Julian Schnabel, Kerry Washington, John Waters, Forest Whitaker, Tom Wilkinson, Steve Zahn and more to be announced…
And the nominees and special award recipients expected to attend include:
Christian Bale, Jeffrey Blitz, John Carney, Zoe Cassavetes, Don Cheadle, Diablo Cody, David Cress, Julie Delpy, Andrew Eaton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Pascale Ferran, Scott Frank, Marcus Carl Franklin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dede Gardner, Richard Gere, John Goldwyn, Mark Gordon, David Gordon Green, Bruce Greenwood, Lianne Halfon, Ronald Harwood, Todd Haynes, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tamara Jenkins, Angelina Jolie, Irfan Kahn, Janusz Kaminski, Tony Kaye, Kathleen Kennedy, Jon Kilik, Sidney Kimmel, Dan Klores, Frank Langella, Ang Lee, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kasi Lemmons, Tony Leung, John Malkovich, Laurence Mark, Kelly Masterson, Sienna Miller, Mason Novick, Cristian Mungiu, John Orloff, Ellen Page, Vincent Paronnaud, Walter Parkes, Parker Posey, Rodrigo Prieto, Jason Reitman, Marjane Satrapi, James Schamus, Julian Schnabel, Chris Smith, Russell Smith, James D. Stern, Marisa Tomei, Christine Vachon, Gus Van Sant, Jason Wehling, Tang Wei, Mike White, Ben Whishaw, Richard Wright, Steve Zahn, and Craig Zobel.
The show airs live beginning at 2:00 pm PST on IFC (Independent Film Channel). Live, exclusive red carpet footage will precede the show streaming live on IFC.com beginning at 11:30am PT, with an edited re-broadcast later that evening on AMC at 10pm EST/PST.
You know something's wrong in Hollywood when movies with stars can't get a theater opening. Edward Burns took his latest relationship pic Purple Violets exclusively to iTunes, and Madonna is threatening to do something similar with her badly reviewed Berlin flick Filth & Wisdom. That would be an interesting test of the power of the Internet, if Madonna used her marketing machine to sell her film online.
This weekend, Ebert & Roeper critics Tony Scott and Richard Roeper did a segment about movies with marquee names that have gone direct to DVD. Scott recommended the Michele Pfeiffer/Paul Rudd romance I Could Never Be Your Woman, while Roeper thought Jennifer Lopez was strong in Gregory Nava's The Border. And here's a review of a 2001 unreleased Alan Rudolph movie finally hitting video stores.
Nowadays a minimal theatrical release is just a short-cut to the video store. With the current indie-finance glut, there are more movies seeking alternative distribution than ever, judging by how few got picked up at Sundance. Here's my column on alternative distribution on the Internet.
Many small-scale success stories are out there, as filmmakers and online distributors such as B-Side, IFC, Withoutabox, Cinequest, iTunes, Amazon and Netflix experiment with economic models. It's only a matter of time before we have more breakouts to show the way. Check out the online break-through flicks Head Trauma, Blood Car and Four Eyed Monsters (pictured) as well as the hockey doc In the Crease.
As part of the ramp-up to the Indie Spirit Awards on February 23, here's an interview with Laura Rosenthal, casting director of I'm Not There.
Adam Dawtrey tells the real story behind the delay of Paramount Vantage's 2007 Sundance pickup, Son of Rambow.
I've never read Paste magazine, but nonetheless they're already publishing their third Annual Art Powerhouse 100, which "celebrates those who make the independent film industry possible." The list is pretty predictable. It would make more sense to do this a tad earlier, when the list might have some influence on the awards season. It now seems somewhat after the fact.
PASTE Magazine’s 3rd Annual Art House Powerhouse 100
Our Favorite Actors
Viggo Mortensen
Laura Linney
Forest Whitaker
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Naomi Watts
Cate Blanchett
Evan Rachel Wood
Natalie Portman
Don Cheadle
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Juliette Binoche
Daniel Day-Lewis
Josh Brolin
Christian Bale
Cillian Murphy
Parker Posey
Jack Black
Ryan Gosling
Nicole Kidman
Javier Bardem
Jake Gyllenhaal
Johnny Depp
Ellen Page
Casey Affleck
Emile Hirsch
Paul Dano
Jason Schwartzman
More Paste favorites on the jump:
The Weinstein Co. has acquired another Woody Allen film--despite the meager returns so far on Cassandra's Dreams. (Here's Variety's story.) No Country for Old Men Oscar nominee Javier Bardem talks about his role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona here.
UPDATE: There's much Internet debate on the pic's title, which does seem like a mouthful.
The full release is on the jump.
Jonathan Dana, who has run indie companies (Atlantic Releasing and Triton) and produced movies as well as repping and selling and consulting, emailed me a smart theory about the surfeit of Sundance acquisition titles this year, many of which remain unsold at fest's end. Here it is:
The so-called "dumb-money" has started to hit the screens.The indie market now is split into three basic sections. At the top are the studio specialty divisions and their functional equivalents. They have done pretty well for the most part, it turns out, driven in most cases by experienced hands, sophisticated in co-production, and with enough checks and balances to keep themselves on track, yet with enough independence to take some chances (with distribution assured) and deep enough pockets to shrug off the misses.
At the "bottom" are the "out-of-left-field" indies, always ready to surprise with new talent and enough passion to deliver 1000 newbies a year into the festival vortex. These are always longshots, and I think the batting average for these films has remained steady...occasionally one breaks through, like grass through concrete. No one expects more, and everyone relishes the surprise success of a "Once" or similar classic Sundance miracle. Kind of like the old days. And in the middle are the bigger indies made on spec, without distribution in advance.
There are several subcategories of these middle-ground pictures, and many are made by careful professionals looking to make their films with a minimum of interference and yet with a careful eye on the various sectors of the market that can lead to success, both critically and commercially. But into this arena has recently poured the oft-mentioned deluge of new money, generated from a variety of sources in amounts sufficient to slosh around loosely, connecting itself often to legitimately hungry agencies or producers, often well-meaning, but with a bias towards "getting the deal done" with fewer check and balances than the traditional route, and with standards different, perhaps lesser, than for the others playing in this pricier end of the pool.
Still in Park City, Winter Miller, Variety's new New York-based indie reporter, has broken the following Sundance news:
In a deal negotiated very early this morning, the film "Baghead," directed and produced by brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, sold North American rights for mid to high six figures to Sony Pictures Classics. The sales rep was Josh Braun of Submarine Entertainment. "Baghead" is a comedy about four actor-writers desperate to launch their careers who spend a weekend brainstorming a script, a process derailed by their mutual attraction--or lack thereof. The Duplass brothers' 2006 "The Puffy Chair" (Sundance 2005) was distribbed by Red Envelope Entertainment and Roadside Attractions.
Upcoming on NPR's All Things Considered this afternoon, Kim Masters' interview with SPC's Tom Bernard on what's wrong with Sundance. And here's a story about SPC recruiting a college class to scout movies for them at Sundance. UPDATE: Here's Manohla Dargis's upbeat NYT Sundance wrap; she raves about Sugar, Ballast and Momma's Man.
The Weinstein Co. snapped up international rights to the documentary Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which played like gangbusters yesterday. Marina Zenovich examines what really happened back in 1977 when Polanski was convicted of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Weinstein Co. paid six figures. Submarine and Cinetic are repping the pic. Domestic rights are still in play. SPC iswas in the hunt, but dropped out when the acquisition got too pricey. Several cos are still chasing the pic, but the price is climbing and folks don't want to overpay.
UPDATE: The TWC team, Zenovich and the sellers were in a car finishing their negotiations as the screening was going on; they signed the deal right before it ended, as Zenovich rushed back in to do her Q & A.
Many of us press folks are getting inundated with this kind of email:
Subject: REMINDER - Outfest Queer Brunch, Sunday January 20 Hi all, Just reminding you about the 12th annual Outfest Queer Brunch this Sunday in Sundance at 11am[location]presented by here! Networks. Attending the brunch will be a wide range of stars attending Sundance, including Paris Hilton, Sharon Stone, Winona Ryder, Quentin Tarantino, Kirsten Dunst, Sean (P. Diddy) Combs, Dennis Quaid, Ginnifer Goodwin, Ellen Page, Hugh Dancy, Wes Bentley, Nick Cannon, and many others.
One colleague forwarded this one with the comment: "this is simply impossible, unthinkable, a kind of celebrity version of thermonuclear warfare...."
The WSJ says this year's Park City fest will be more of same.
My pre-Sundance column, plus Mike Jones checks out three from last year.
[Photo of Sundance opener In Bruges; Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell]
Juno is going to explode at the boxoffice this weekend, en route to a slew of Oscar noms. Dade Hayes looks at this fall's specialty contenders.
Fandango Five – Ticket Sales (as of 1/11/08 9:00 a.m. PT):
Movie Fandango UserRating % Fandango Sales4%Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert “Go” 41%
The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie “Go” 6%
Juno “Must Go” 5%
The Bucket List “Go” 4%
27 Dresses “Go”
Fandango Weekly Poll (as of 1/11/08 9:00 a.m. PT)
The New York-based monster movie Cloverfield opens Jan. 18. Which city is your favorite venue for a monster or disaster movie?
New York 55%
London 15%
Tokyo 12%
Los Angeles 11%
San Francisco 7%
Harvey Weinstein told the NYT he may finalize an interim deal with the WGA as soon as Thursday. He recently cast Kate Winslet in the role vacated by Nicole Kidman in Stephen Daldry's The Reader. Another film hoping to return to pre-production status is the Rob Marshall musical Nine.
When Picturehouse was launched at Cannes 2005, HBO topper Chris Albrecht and HBO Films prexy Colin Callendar joined New Line co-chairman Michael Lynne to make the announcement that they were partnering on specialty label Picturehouse, to be headed by Bob Berney. At Cannes this year, it was clear that Callendar, at least, had already cooled on the enterprise.
Now it looks like HBO Films is no longer interested in being in the theatrical releasing business. That's because it doesn't really make financial sense to take on the risk of financing P & A and distribution on movies in the current risky boxoffice climate. And with Albrecht gone, Picturehouse lost its key HBO supporter.
Lynne and Berney understand the vagaries of film distribution. Callendar and HBO Films do not--but then, they don't have to. After Rocket Science, which played well at Sundance last year, proved yet another b.o. failure, HBO was ready to get out.
But HBO is letting Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's follow-up to Half-Nelson, Sugar, go to Sundance--where it will only get a theatrical release if some outside distributor is willing to pay as much as it cost to make. Again, this is not a question of how well Picturehouse would release the movie, but the financing structure--and the issue of how nasty theatrical indie releasing really is these days.
Here's Variety's story.