Best of the Week/New Mickey at TFF #40?

Good Saturday from Little Rock, AR.  I'll be in Birmingham tonight! (for the National Speech Tournament).

BEST OF THE WEEK

Take a look at the best stories I covered this week...

PARTY IN L.A....CLUES?

Last night in Los Angeles The Telluride Film Festival through a fairly discreet invitation only party designed to tease this year's 40th rendition of the festival.  The Hollywood Reporters' Scott Feinberg was there and filed a substantial story very early this morning.  You can find that linked here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/telluride-film-festival-organizers-tease-566526

Highlights of Scott's post include:

The presence of some Hollywood heavyweights to the tune of Alexander Payne, James Gray and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner.  What does their presence mean?

Count on "Nebraska" at TFF #40.  Gray's appearance reinforces my belief that "The Immigrant" will SHOW.  The Matt Weiner thing is really curious.  He's got a film that he's written, directed and produced entitled "You Are Here" starring Owen Wilson and Zach Galifinakis.  It has no announced distributor or release date but IMDb lists it as being in post-production.  Makes you wonder.

Maybe Weiner is just a big fan of the festival...

Here are the IMDb links for:

"Nebraska": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1821549/?ref_=sr_1

"The Immigrant": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1951181/?ref_=sr_1

"You Are Here": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1545754/

(P.S.  the cast of "You Are There" includes frequent Telluride guest Peter Bogdonavich...which is more ammo for the theory that the film plays).

Also attending the party, "The King's Speech scribe David Seidler and sometime SHOW guest, the irrepressible Norman Lloyd.

Feinberg also reveals that, as I have suspected, George Clooney was an instrumental factor in"Argo's" appearance at TFF #39 and we shouldn't be surprised if Mr. Clooney comes back...maybe not this year...but soon.

FORTE AND SQUIBB AND NEBRASKA

You probably should get used to this.  Will Forte and June Squibb in a post from HitFix/YouTube talking about Alexander Payne's "Nebraska".  Stuff like this is likely to be appearing on this blog a good deal over the next  10 weeks or so as "Nebraska" is almost certainly going to be on the SHOW's 40th playlist.  (it may actually be the #1 "Bet" when my first "ten Bets" list goes up in a couple of weeks).  Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrLvenIMW4k&feature=youtube_gdata&utm_source

DALLAS BUYERS DATE

I have mentioned Jean-Marc Vallee's "Dallas Buyers Club" starring Matthew McConnaughey as a Telluride potential film for a while now.  We got word yesterday from The Playlist that the film has settled into a Dec. 6th release date which puts it in prime time awards wise and also well within the Telluride time frame.  Here's the link to the Playlist post:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/will-this-finally-be-matthew-mcconaugheys-oscar-year-the-dallas-buyers-club-nabs-awards-season-date-20130607

By the by...I think McConnaughey seems like a very strong Best Actor candidate with this.

MC CONNAUGHEY TALKS "DALLAS' AND MORE

Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood provides this video interview with actor Matthew McConnaughey whose "Dallas Buyers Club" has a shot at being a part of the Telluride lineup.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/matthew-mcconaughey-talks-magic-mike#


THE CONGRESS GETS DISTRIBUTION

Ari Folman's "The Congress" which played last month as a part of the non-competition portion of the Cannes Film Festival has secured North American distribution. Drafthouse and Films We Like have collaborated to attain those rights.  This may actually be a good sign to those who are hoping that Folman's long awaited follow up to his critically successful "Waltz with Bashir" (which appeared at TFF #35) might be a part of this year's Telluride lineup.  Drafthouse was represented at Telluride last year with Josh Oppenheimer's "The Act of Killing".

Drafthouse and FWL also have nabbed the rights to Cannes selection "Borgman" which may put it in play as a TFF#40 possibility as well.  ComingSoon.net has the acquisition story here:

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=105215

KATE'S PLANS

I speculated last week that Jason Reitman's new film "Labor Day" has a solid chance to make an appearance at Telluride this year.  I also conjectured that a Kate Winslet tribute in conjunction with the film made some sense.  However, the day after that post came news that Ms. Winslet has developed a medical condition which might alter that scenario...she's preggers.  The Hollywood Reporter story is linked here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kate-winslet-husband-ned-rocknroll-562710

Does the Winslet pregnancy rule out a tribute?  Of course it doesn't but it does add a new wrinkle into the calculation about the possibility of a tribute for the Oscar winner.


NEW MICKEY AT TFF #40

Annecy Animation has not been a stranger to the Telluride Film Festival (thank you Serge Bromberg) and if it continues for #40 expect to see this animated short in Telluride over Labor Day weekend...entitled "Get a Horse".  HitFix has the story here:

http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/disney-animation-shocks-and-delights-annecy-crowd-with-innovative-new-mickey-mouse-cartoon

This is where "Paperman" came from last year...so...

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Have a good weekend.