"Rudderless" About to Sail/Sapphires' O'Dowd/Cannes Hopes/70,000

Good Monday everyone.

"RUDDERLESS' ABOUT TO SET SAIL

I've been writing about William H. Macy's directing debut "Rudderless" in this space for a long time.  It's co-writer and co-producer, Casey Twenter is a friend of this blog and we've kept up a correspondence over the past several years.  I think that he'd agree that the process of trying to get the film before cameras has been twisty-turny and has had its share of ups and downs.  But now...now, it looks like it's all really happening as there were a flurry of stories about the film in terms of casting and shooting news.

First, the casting news.  We have known for awhile that Macy was going to direct and star and that his real life wife, Felicity Huffman was going to appear in the film as well.  Multiple stories (linked below) confirmed additional casting this week: Laurence Fishburne, Anton Yelchin, Billy Crudup and Selena Gomez.

Further, reports have it that filming will begin in and around Oklahoma City later this month.  This has been confirmed by Mr. Twenter.

I'm particularly struck by the casting of Fishburne and Crudup...who I joked with Casey, ought to be revealed at some point in the film as being Russell Hammond, the character that he played in Cameron Crowe's indelible "Almost Famous"

And, though it kind of pains me to admit this, the Selena Gomez casting virtually guarantees a high visibility factor for this film as regards the Hollywood press and gossip machine.  Gomez has so much heat currently because of her appearance in "Spring Breakers".

Check the numerous reports:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/selena-gomez-billy-crudup-anton-432019

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/billy-crudup-anton-yelchin-selena-gomez-laurence-fishburne-are-rudderless-for-william-h-macy-20130401

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/selena-gomez-anton-yelchin-join-william-h-macy-directorial-debut-83406

http://upandcomers.net/2013/04/01/selena-gomez-and-anton-yelchin-to-star-in-william-h-macys-rudderless/

http://www.flickdaily.com/news/four-join-william-h-macy%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98rudderless%E2%80%99/

SAPPHIRES O'DOWD

Yet another look at Chris O'Dowd and the TFF #39 crowd-pleaser "The Sapphires" :

http://www.rte.ie/ten/2013/0402/odowdc.html

CANNES HOPES

Guy Lodge posts the 10 films he'd like to see at the Cannes Film Festival...as you might expect, the list includes some films that could be in the Telluride mix:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/10-films-were-most-hoping-to-see-at-the-cannes-film-festival

70,000

The blog rolled past its 70,000 view last night sometime...which is small beans to the people who make a living online...but still amazes me.

More on Monday.