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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Descendants Hopscotch/More Toronto Musings/Venice Becomes Official/Le Havre is BACK!/Herzog at Comic Con

A shout out to Dan Peek, original member of America, gone at 60.  "This is for all the Lonely People..."

DESCENDANTS HOPSCOTCH

Jeff Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere reports last night that Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" has a NEW release date (11/23) and FLAT OUT SAYS IT WILL BE IN TELLURIDE.  Check his story:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2011/07/family_time.php


MORE TORONTO MUSINGS



The Toronto International Film Festival announced the bulk of its gala/special presentation lineup yesterday.  As we have noted, there is almost always a significant overlap between Telluride and Toronto and you can bet that it's very likely that 7-12 films will share the two venues. 

We think after posts yesterday from Ioncinema that you can start lining up at The Palm or The Chuck for "The Artist," "Drive" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin."  That leaves us trying to divine 4-9 films that share Telluride/Toronto presentations.

So among the 50+ films listed by TIFF yesterday, what are the ones that are the most likely to play in Telluride as well?

Add to your calculation that you can expect an average of 2 films to play both Telluride and Venice and that sometimes those films will actually be in all three places (Ex: "Black Swan," "Life During Wartime," and "The Road" were at all 3 festivals). 

So with that set of parameters...my best guesses are: Todd Solondz's "Dark Horse," Steve McQueen's "Shame" and Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's "Chicken with Plums" may try to do the hat trick of all three festivals.

Michael Fassbender shooting "Shame"

Now we're looking at trying to puzzle out the half dozen or so pictures that will share Telluride/Toronto presentations.  My guesses (I'm listing 7): "Albert Nobbs," "Moneyball," "Coriolanus," "The Descendants," "Habemus Papum (We Have a Pope), "Machine Gun Preacher, " and "The Skin I Live In" (or Inhabit).  And as I have said here repeatedly, I think "The Descendants" is a lead pipe cinch...but remember, I also thought that the Jason Reitman/Diablo Cody collaboration "Young Adult" was a 90% likelihood too.  Until yesterday when Pete Hammond at Deadline Hollywood categorically claimed that it would not be at Telluride.

I am bummed.

VENICE ANNOUNCES

The Venice Film Festival has had film titles oozing onto the Internet all week.  They're official announcement comes today.  We're expecting, in addition to the films that I listed in Monday's post that Stephen Soderbergh's "Contagion" will be on the Venetian list someplace.

More thoughts about Venice and the intersection of it with Toronto and Telluride after they make it official.

LE HAVRE IS BACK ON THE LIST...


Cannes fave "Le Havre" has distribution


"Le Havre" from director/writer Aki Kaurismaki was a critical and crowd favorite in May at the Cannes Film Festival.  I immediately starred it as a possible Telluride prospect.  In fact, it has appeared on my "Ten Bets" list this summer frequently, but I had pulled it lately as it hadn't found a distributor.  I had thought that The Weinstein Company or Sony Pictures Classics would jump on it and that would set the table for its screening in the San Juans in September.

So far...not so much...Until today.

Janus Films...the specialty film house that has focused on classic films has picked up the rights for "Le Havre" and I think that means you can also put it back in the mix as a probable film come Labor Day.  Janus has had a long time relationship with TFF and it has played in distribution in terms of contemporary film including TFF #35 (2008) offering "Revanche." 

Eric Lavallee at Ioncinema broke the story and even speculates that "Le Havre" is likely to be at Telluride.  That story is here:
http://networkedblogs.com/kVAS3

WERNER PLAYS IN GEEK WORLD



Numerous sightings this past weekend that Telluride mainstay Werner Herzog showed up unannounced and unexpectedly at Comic Con in San Diego.  That blows my mind.  It would have been interesting to hear Herr Herzog as he made his way through the hall.

The first time I was anywhere near Herzog in Telluride was in 2007 waiting on line for the bus to take us to the patron's brunch.  I was mind-boggled then.  And I can tell you, the people in that line looked very different than the one above.

Awards Daily had the pictures and the story.  You can find it here:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/2011/07/werner-herzog-and-comic-cons-collective-dreams/


More Tomorrow!

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