Michael's Telluride Film Blog : July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Secret Life/More from Toronto/Magic in Telluride?

Good Wednesday to Everyone...

THE SECRET LIFE...

A lot of buzz emerged yesterday surrounding the trailer for Ben Stiller's "The Secret life of Walter Mitty" which I have read isn't so much a remake of the Danny Kaye classic as a re-imagining of the James Thurber story. Reportedly there's a good deal of belief that the film has some under the radar awards potential. Frankly, I don't give it much of a chance of being a selection for the Telluride Fest. It certainly doesn't have any real Telluride signatures, but you never know. "Argo" didn't really either and you know what happened there.

At any rate, here a number of links to posts with the trailer for the film. At last word the studio had taken the trailer down from YouTube so you'll want to go to one of the below to look at it:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty-trailer-is-here/

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/watch-first-trailer-for-ben-stillers-oscar-hopeful-the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-ben-stiller-takes-the-red-one-in-surprising-trailer-for-the-secret-life-of-walter-mitty-20130730

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

The Captain Sails to New York/Another Possibility/Argo Art

Good Tuesday to All…

THE CAPTAIN SAILS TO NEW YORK

Yesterday’s announcement the Paul Greengrass’ “Captain Phillips” starring Tom Hanks will be the opening night film for the New York Film festival all but killed the chances that it will be part of the Telluride lineup. Had it been any other part of NYFF I’d suggest that there was still some possibility that we might see the film over Labor Day. But the opening night position is exclusive so mark it off.

There had been a good deal of increased notice about the Telluride potential for “Captain Phillips” over the last week to 10 days especially in light of mentions in some major film blogs that a Telluride spot was very possible.

Too bad, I say. I would have love to have seen the film and Tom Hanks on Colorado Ave.

Finally, this kind of thing happens every year. There are always trails this blog goes down that turn out to be false leads. Not a surprise, really. When you’re trying to ferret out a secret lineup from the outside…that’s going to occur. This situation is particularly disappointing, though, simply because I wanted it to be true very badly.

Oh well….

Here are a number of yesterday’s stories about the NYFF announcement:

The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/why-tom-hanks-captain-phillips-594925

Hollywood Elsewhere:
http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/07/nyff-phillips-splash/

The Dissolve:
http://thedissolve.com/news/122-paul-greengrass-captain-phillips-will-open-the-new/

The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/paul-greengrass-captain-phillips-to-open-51st-nyff-new-york-film-festival-check-out-new-pics-posters-20130729

The New York Times:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/new-york-film-festival-will-open-with-captain-phillips/

The Wrap:
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/captain-phillips-open-new-york-film-festival-106596

Thompson on Hollywood:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/new-york-film-festival-to-open-with-paul-greengrass-captain-phillips-starring-tom-hanks

MEANWHILE…ANOTHER POSSIBILITY…

David O. Russell’s Abscam based film “American Hustle” is looming out there. No Toronto selection (though Toronto is supposed to announce another wave of films to their lineup today…coverage of it here tomorrow). “American Hustle” stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Christian Bale. New photos of the film emerged yesterday as evidenced above. Here’s the rest of that story from The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-oscar-for-best-haircuts-goes-to-david-o-russells-american-hustle-in-these-first-look-images-20130729

AND A PIECE OF TFF #39

Wired.com reports that you’ll have a shot at a piece of Oscar history as the artwork that was used by the CIA in the real life inspiration for Ben Affleck’s “Argo” will be put to auction.

Take a look at that story here:

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/07/kirby-argo-art-auction/

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More on Wednesday…

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Captain Gets a Poster/Coming Attractions: Cody and Haynes/No News Is???

Good Monday to Everyone…I'll be posting a little later than normal this week as I am on California time!

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS GETS A NEW POSTER

There has continued to be a steady, undiminished drumbeat among some of the film blogging smart set that Paul Green grass’s “Captain Phillips” will be in the Telluride lineup. Actually, some even think that it’s possible that one of the Labor Day weekend tributes will be for Tom Hanks who stars as the eponymous Captain Phillips of the film.

News popped over the weekend that had released a new poster for the film.

You can find a related story for the poster release here from FirstShowing:
https://twitter.com/firstshowing/status/360881247758712833/photo/1

“Captain Phillips” IMDb page is here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535109/?ref_=sr_1

COMING ATTRACTIONS: CODY AND HAYNES

I haven’t done it for some time, but I do like to occasionally highlight film projects that are in their nascent stages that have what appears to me to be at least some Telluride potential for a year or two done the line. To that end, I noted over the weekend the news of first pictures from Diablo Cody’s (Juno) directorial debut “Paradise”. Here are a number of links to those pictures:

Thompson on Hollywood:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/first-look-diablo-codys-directorial-debut-paradise-starring-julianne-hough

Rope of Silicon:
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/diablo-cody-movie-paradise-lamb-of-god/

USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/07/23/paradise-julianne-hough-diablo-cody/2518259/

The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/first-images-of-julianne-hough-octavia-spencer-russell-brand-in-diablo-codys-directorial-debut-paradise-20130726

Also emerging this weekend from The Playlist was a story that Todd Haynes (I’m Not There) is, perhaps on the brink of a new feature film project: “Act of God” and that the casting news was that Christian Bale, who has a couple of credits working with Haynes, is quite possibly lining up to play the lead in the film. The project is fresh enough that it isn’t even listed at this point on Haynes IMDb Page.

Here’s the link to the story from The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/christian-bale-may-reteam-with-todd-haynes-for-political-drama-act-of-god-20130726

NO NEWS IS…

Well, part of Big theory #2 didn’t pan out at all. If you were reading last week, you know that I floated a theory that the Telluride Film festival was going to announce this year’s Guest Director (which is way past the usual time frame for announcing) during the week last week in a bit of “counter-programming” while the Toronto and Venice Fests were announcing the bulk of their lineups (though Toronto will announce more titles and Venice could as well).

If you noticed, no announcement from Telluride…so…you know…poop.

On the other hand, the second part of the theory is still alive and well and that is that TFF #40 has kept the identity of this year’s Guest Director under wraps because it is someone very, very BIG.

A couple of readers of the blog over the past few days have suggested Francis Ford Coppola as a possibility. I’d say that’s certainly in the ballpark. Coppola was feted at the first TFF as one of the three original tributes. He’d certainly fill the bill in terms of being someone BIG. No doubt, his programming choices would be incredibly interesting.

Personally, I still have a different vibe. No real reason. I certainly have no inside dope on this topic but I continue to think that this year’s GD might come from either music or politics. Like I said last week, I have some very crazy ideas…

If you have some crazy idea about the Guest Director…drop me a comment/email and share that.

But, as of this moment, we still don’t know and we’re staring right into the maw of August…very, very odd.

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More on Tuesday...

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Best of the Week-Venice/Toronto

Good Saturday to You...

I'm done with debate camp and flying to California for the next week but I'll still be posting!

BEST OF THE WEEK

Here's a sample of the best material from his week's very busy MTFB:

TEN BETS #5

Here are this week's "Ten Bets" for Telluride:

1) Nebraska
2) The Invisible Woman
3) The Immigrant
4) The Past
5) Inside Llewyn Davis
6) Labor Day
7) The Unknown Known
8) The Story of Children and Film
9) Blue is the Warmest Color
10) The Lunchbox

Lurking just below these "Ten Bets": "Aguirre: The Wrath of God", All is Lost", "Captain Phillips", "12 Years a Slave", "Like Father Like Son", "Life Itself", "Quay d'Orsay", "Philomena", "Heli", "Only Lovers Left Alive", "The Good Lie".

VENICE ANNOUNCES

The Venice Film Festival announced its lineup this morning. As always (and as they did last year) there's always the possibility that they could add to that lineup as time goes on.

At any rate, here's the lineup:

Venice Film Festival Lineup

In Competition:

The Rooftops

L’intrepido

Miss Violence

Tracks

Via Castellana Bandiera

Tom at the Farm

Child of God

Philomena

La Jalousie

The Zero Theorem

Ana Arabia

Under the Skin

Joe

The Police Officer’s Wife

Parkland

Kaze Tachinu

The Unknown Known

Sacro Gra

Stray Dogs

Out of Competition:

Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Gravity

Moebius

Locke

Unforgiven

Wolf Creek 2

Home from Home

Gondola

The Canyons

Che Strano Chiamarsi Federico Scola Racconta Fellini

Walesa: Man of Hope

And a couple of documentaries to notice from that portion of Venice’s program:

The Armstrong Lie

At Berkeley

Here’s my take. As noted, Venice and Telluride usually share 3-4 titles. From this morning’s announcement the most likely this year (at least from my perspective) are:

The Armstrong Lie

Philomena

The Unknown Known

The Zero Theorem

Gravity

Parkland

Still in the wind now after TIFF and Venice announcements: "Captain Phillips", "Saving Mr. Banks", "The Wolf of Wall Street", , "The Monuments Men", "The Counselor", "Grace of Monaco", "Diana", "Out of the Furnace"and "Foxcatcher".

Makes you wonder where or if any or all of these will land. My bet right now is that New York gets "Wolf of Wall Street". I've also been hearing that "Out of the Furnace" may forgo the festival scene entirely. The "no fest" strategy could also be true for any of the films listed above, though there does seem to be some belief that "Captain Phillips" might well play in the San Juans.

Should be interesting over the next 5 weeks as we try to figure this out.

Here are some links to this morning's Venice coverage:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/venice-international-film-festival-line-up/

http://networkedblogs.com/Nvj08

https://www.thewrap.com/awards/column-post/venice-film-festival-lineup-includes-terry-gilliam-james-franco-lindsay-lohan-offerings-

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/venice-film-festival-lineup-announced-592893

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/new-films-from-terry-gilliam-hayao-miyazaki-david-gordon-green-jonathan-glazer-top-70th-venice-film-festival-line-up-20130725

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/venice-film-festival-lineup-unveiled

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/venice-lineup-features-new-films-from-gilliam-franco-morris-miyazaki-and-many-more

TORONTO ANNOUNCES (SOME OF ) ITS LINEUP

The Toronto International Film Festival announced about a fourth of its lineup this morning. The Toronto lineup is always vast, usually over 300 titles in all after they're all announced. As I have noted, the average overlap between Telluride and Toronto is about 70%. Meaning that, in an average year, 70% of the Telluride lineup will go on to play later at Toronto. So as a general rule, most of the films announced this morning are still "in play" as far as Telluride is concerned. Another note is that Toronto's designation of "World Premiere" or North American Premiere" rarely is reflective of whether or not we might find that film at Telluride.

All that being said, here's the lineup of films that Toronto announced this morning (via IndieWire):

GALAS

American Dreams in China (NAP)

The Art of the Steal (WP)

August: Osage County (WP)

Cold Eyes (NAP)

The Fifth Estate (WP/Opener)

The Grand Seduction (WP)

Kill Your Darlings (IP)

Life of Crime (WP/Closer)

The Love Punch (WP)

The Lunchbox (NAP)

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (WP)

Parkland (NAP)

The Railway Man (WP)

The Right Kind of Wrong (WP)

Rush (IP)

Shuddh Desi Romance (CP)

Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (WP)

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS:

12 Years a Slave (WP)

All is by my Side (WP)

Attila Marcel (WP)

Bad Words (WP)

Blue is the Warmest Color (NAP)

Burning Bush (NAP)

Can a Song Save Your Life (WP)

Cannibal (WP)

Dallas Buyers Club (WP)

Devil’s Knot (WP)

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby His and Hers (?)

Dom Hemingway (WP)

Don Jon (CP)

The Double (WP)

Enough Said (WP)

Exit Marrakech (IP)

Felony (WP)

For Those Who Can Tell No Tales (WP)

Gloria (NAP)

Going Away II (WP)

Gravity (NAP)

The Great Beauty (NAP)

Half of a Yellow Sun (WP)

Hateship Loveship (WP)

Ida (WP)

L’intrepido (NAP)

The Invisible Woman (WP)

Joe (NAP)

Labor Day (WP)

Like Father Like Son (NAP)

Man of Tai Chi (NAP)

Mary Queen of Scots (NAP)

Night Moves (NAP)

Omar (NAP)

One Chance (WP)

Only Lovers Left Alive (NAP)

The Past (NAP)

Philomena (NAP)

Pioneer (IP)

Prisoners (WP)

Quay d’Orsay (WP)

Real (NAP)

Starred Up (WP)

Third Person (WP)

Those Happy Years (WP)

Tracks (NAP)

Under the Skin (NAP)

Violette (WP)

Visitors (WP)

Walesa: Man of Hope (NAP)

We Are the Best (NAP)

Le Weekend (WP)

You Are Here (WP)

Young and Beautiful (NAP)

(WP) = World Premiere

(IP) = International Premiere

(NAP) = North American Premiere
(CP) = Canadian Premiere
(?) = No premiere information given

Notes:

With the exception of "The Fifth Estate" (because its Toronto's opening night film) the rest of these films still have Telluride potential and I'm still NOT going to completely write it off because of the Laura Linney/Telluride connection...but it is very unlikely now.

Films that intrigue me that are on Toronto's list in terms of Telluride potential:

"12 Years a Slave". Listed as a Toronto World Premiere meaning no Venice showing and that actually makes it MORE likely to make the trip to Telluride.

also...

I'm a little surprised to see "August: Osage County" on Toronto's list. I had all but considered it a non-fest film almost all the way...maybe New York. Now, it may have some Telluride life after all.

A few other "Galas" intrigue me: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom", "The Lunchbox", "Parkland", "The Railway Man" and "Rush". Of these, I still feel that "The Lunchbox" is the best T-ride bet.

Among the "Special Presentations" that still breathe the fumes of Telluride potential:

The aforementioned "12 Years a Slave"

"Attila Marcel"

"Blue is the Warmest Color"

"Burning Bush"

"Dallas Buyers Club"

"Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby"

"Gloria"

"Gravity"

"The Great Beauty"

"The Invisible Woman"

"Labor Day"

"Like Father Like Son"

"Night Moves"

"Only Lovers Left Alive"

"The Past"

"Philomena"

"Prisoners"

"Quay d'Orsay"

"Under the Skin"

"Le Weekend"

"You Are Here"

"Young and Beautiful"

On my "Ten Bets" NOT announced this morning:

"Nebraska", "Life Itself", "Daughter of the Dawn", "The Unknown Known", "The Story of Children and Film", "The Immigrant" and "Aguirre:The Wrath of God".

Notable Films not in TIFF's announcement:

Keep in mind that Toronto still has a ton of titles to announce.

Here's is complete analysis of Toronto's announcement from

HitFix/InContention:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/the-fifth-estate-12-years-a-slave-august-osage-county-and-more-set-for-2013-toronto-film-festival

and IndieWire:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/tiff-list-2013-a-list-of-all-the-announced-films-at-the-toronto-international-film-festival?page=1#articleHeaderPanel

DEADLINE TALKS TORONTO/TELLURIDE

Pete Hammond at Deadline.com posted his Toronto analysis piece yesterday and it includes almost as much about his suspicions about Telluride as it does about Toronto.

Hammond seems pretty confident about "Inside Llewyn Davis", "Nebraska" and "All is Lost". Other films that he suggests have Telluride potential after reading the post-Toronto announcement tea leaves are:

"The Immigrant", "Labor Day" and "12 Years a Slave". If you've been following this space for the past few months you know that I have all of these on my Telluride radar (and I'd be really pumped if they were all to pan out). One film that Hammond also mentions that absolutly has NOT been on my T-ride screen is "The Good Lie" directed Philippe Falardeau and starring Reese Witherspoon and Corey Stoll. Hammond says he's heard "rumblings" about this recently wrapped film.

Check his entire post here:
http://www.deadline.com/2013/07/tiff-what-toronto-film-fest-lineup-signals-for-oscar-race-analysis/

VIEWS OF ZERO

In honor of the expected announcement that Terry Gilliam's "The Zero Theorem" will play at Venice I have attached some pics that emerged last weekend during Comic Con form the film:

The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/first-official-images-arrive-for-terry-gilliams-the-zero-theorem-starring-christoph-waltz-20130718

Thompson on Hollywood:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/terry-gilliams-the-zero-theorem-comic-con-first-look

Collider:

http://collider.com/the-zero-theorem-images/

I'm still holding onto some hope that "The Zero Theorem" plays in Telluride.

TAPLEY'S MUSINGS

Well, if you've never really thought that this blog was a particularly good informant regarding the Telluride lineup then there's good news for you. Kris Tapley at HitFix/inContention posted his annual stab at what be in line for Telluride yesterday. You can find that post here:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/spitballing-possibilities-for-the-40th-annual-telluride-film-festival

And it should get you revved up big time. Among the interesting thoughts:

He's pretty high on the notion that we'll see The Coen Brothers "Inside Llewyn Davis", Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" and Jason Reitman's "Labor Day". "Nebraska" and "Labor Day" have been ensconced on my "Ten Bets" list all summer. This last few days has put some real shine on the notion that "Inside Llewyn Davis" is a serious consideration for T-ride. Between Jeff Wells blurb at Hollywood Elsewhere over the weekend and now Tapley's comment that he has "a pretty good feeling we can anticipate the Coen Brothers first-ever Telluride appearance" the signs are pointing to that as a reality and that, my friends would be sweet. Fair warning, the Coens in Telluride could cause me to become a blithering idiot...well more of a blithering idiot than normal.

I can say it, after this post from Mr. Tapley, "Llewyn" will be on Friday's "Ten Bets"

He also seems fairly comfortable about Ralph Fiennes "The Invisible Woman" which I reported on a few weeks ago when the Daily Mail in England reported that it would be making the trip. The other large shoe he drops is the potential (and he seems to have some confidence here) that "Captain Phillips" starring Tom Hanks has a real shot at T-ride. That film is directed by Paul Greengrass. That's also a stunner if it comes to pass.

Taplay also intrigues as he drops the nugget that the " Warner Brothers teams on "Gravity" and "Prisoners" are making the pilgrimage..." suggesting that there is a possibility that one or both films might make a play at Telluride, "Prisoners seems a little more likely to me as Tapley reminds us that director Denis Villeneuve played Telluride back in 2010 with "Incendies"...though I'd really love it if "Gravity" opened Venice and then "sneaked" a day or two late at Telluride.

Other films that he thinks are possibles but about which he doesn't seem as confident are: "12 Years a Slave""The Past", "The Lunchbox", "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Like Father Like Son", "Child's Pose", "Gloria", "Philomena", "Life Itself" and "The Immigrant". There's also a glancing mention that "All is Lost" could make the trip to the San Juans.

No mention, though, of "The Counselor", "Dallas Buyers Club", "The Fifth Estate", "Foxcatcher", "The Zero Theorem", "Rush", "The Monuments Men", "American Hustle", Mandela"Long Walk to Freedom" or "The Wolf of Wall Street". Seems about right, although I'm going to hold out hope for "Fifth Estate", "Counselor", "Foxcatcher" and "Dallas Buyer's Club".

Tapley also puts in a request for Herzog's "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" restoration...I'm high on its chances.

He, like me is more than dubious about our chances to "August: Osage County".

He also suggests a number of Tribute possibilities: The Coens, Bruce Dern, Judi Dench, Tom Hanks, Robert Redford and/or Kate Winslet. Tapley also suggests the possibility (as he did on Twitter over the weekend) that Roger Ebert might be posthumously awarded a Special Medallion. That wouldn't surprise me a bit.

Take a look at the whole post...it'll make you breathe hard. And, I really hope he's right.

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Have a great weekend and maybe we'll see some of you in Cali this coming week...

Friday, July 26, 2013

Ten Bets #5/Venice Re-Post/Multiple Photos/Enough Said/Invitation/

Good Friday Everyone...

TEN BETS #5

What a crazed week this has been with the first wave of announcements for Toronto and the main announcement for Venice. That news has dominated the film world this week (much as Comic Con news the week before). With those announcements, we can at least pretend that there are clues about the Telluride Film Festival. We're also armed with Telluride-y analysis from Kris Tapley (HitFix/InContention), Jeff Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere) and Pete Hammond (Deadline). That leads me to this week's new "Ten Bets" list. Let's review last week's list:

1) Nebraska
2) The Invisible Woman
3) The Unknown Known
4) The Story of Children and Film
5) The Past
6) The Immigrant
7) Daughter of the Dawn
8) Labor Day
9) Blue is the Warmest Color
10) Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Here are this week's "Ten Bets" for Telluride:

1) Nebraska
2) The Invisible Woman
3) The Immigrant
4) The Past
5) Inside Llewyn Davis
6) Labor Day
7) The Unknown Known
8) The Story of Children and Film
9) Blue is the Warmest Color
10) The Lunchbox

Lurking just below these "Ten Bets": "Aguirre: The Wrath of God", All is Lost", "Captain Phillips", "12 Years a Slave", "Like Father Like Son", "Life Itself", "Quay d'Orsay", "Philomena", "Heli", "Only Lovers Left Alive", "The Good Lie".

VENICE RE-POST

Here's another look at what I wrote yesterday in light of the Venice Film Festival lineup announcement:

In Competition:

The Rooftops

L’intrepido

Miss Violence

Tracks

Via Castellana Bandiera

Tom at the Farm

Child of God

Philomena

La Jalousie

The Zero Theorem

Ana Arabia

Under the Skin

Joe

The Police Officer’s Wife

Parkland

Kaze Tachinu

The Unknown Known

Sacro Gra

Stray Dogs

Out of Competition:

Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Gravity

Moebius

Locke

Unforgiven

Wolf Creek 2

Home from Home

Gondola

The Canyons

Che Strano Chiamarsi Federico Scola Racconta Fellini

Walesa: Man of Hope

And a couple of documentaries to notice from that portion of Venice’s program:

The Armstrong Lie

At Berkeley

Here’s my take. As noted, Venice and Telluride usually share 3-4 titles. From this morning’s announcement the most likely this year (at least from my perspective) are:

The Armstrong Lie

Philomena

The Unknown Known

The Zero Theorem

Gravity

Parkland

MULTIPLE PHOTOS

With the announcement of so much fall festival news, there has been a flood of new images from a number of films that have Telluride potential. Here's a look at some of those that emerged this week:

Dallas Buyers Club:

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him/Her

Dom Hemingway

The Invisible Woman

Life of Crime

Prisoners

The Railway Man

You Are Here

*********************************************************************************************************************

ENOUGH SAID

The Los Angeles Times reports that Fox Searchlight has set the release date for "Enough Said" for Sept. 20th. The film stars the late James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and as directed by Nicole Holofcener was announced earlier this week as a selection of the Toronto International Film Festival. The Times story does drop the hint that "the film is also considered a likely selection as a sneak preview for the Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend."

Check "Enough said" out at IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2390361/?ref_=ttco_co_tt

Here's the link to the story in the L.A. Times:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-enough-said-among-gandolfinis-final-films-gets-a-sept-date-20130725,0,6354151.story

INVITATION

I've been holding back on this for a little bit because I/we weren't sure (and we really still aren't exactly sure) how we would configure it this year because of the added day for the festival but, nonetheless and after careful consideration, I can INVITE YOU to "The 3rd annual Guide to the Ride/Flow of the SHOW". We will be doing our meet and greet for Telluride Film Festival fans who take an interest in this blog.

Details are still to be worked out, though it is likely to be Thursday, Aug. 29th...the first day of the fest rather than on Friday. Plans are to hold it at The River Club once again and I expect refreshments to be provided.

I'll pass on more as the weekend's organizational structure becomes clearer over the next few weeks.

Hope you can come. We've had some fun and good conversation over the past couple of years and I'm pleased our hosts, Mitzi and Larry Mallard and The River Club have offered again.

Follow/Like Michael's Telluride Film Blog on Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2.

More tomorrow...

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Venice Announces

VENICE ANNOUNCES

The Venice Film Festival announced its lineup this morning. As always (and as they did last year) there's always the possibility that they could add to that lineup as time goes on.

At any rate, here's the lineup:

Venice Film Festival Lineup

In Competition:

The Rooftops

L’intrepido

Miss Violence

Tracks

Via Castellana Bandiera

Tom at the Farm

Child of God

Philomena

La Jalousie

The Zero Theorem

Ana Arabia

Under the Skin

Joe

The Police Officer’s Wife

Parkland

Kaze Tachinu

The Unknown Known

Sacro Gra

Stray Dogs

Out of Competition:

Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Gravity

Moebius

Locke

Unforgiven

Wolf Creek 2

Home from Home

Gondola

The Canyons

Che Strano Chiamarsi Federico Scola Racconta Fellini

Walesa: Man of Hope

And a couple of documentaries to notice from that portion of Venice’s program:

The Armstrong Lie

At Berkeley

Here’s my take. As noted, Venice and Telluride usually share 3-4 titles. From this morning’s announcement the most likely this year (at least from my perspective) are:

The Armstrong Lie

Philomena

The Unknown Known

The Zero Theorem

Gravity

Parkland

Venice Looming/Armstrong Lie

Good Thursday Everyone...

VENICE LOOMING

The Venice Film Festival is set to announce their lineup today so just as I did on Tuesday, there will be a double post today. I'll be posting some thoughts about want the Venice lineup might mean for Telluride's program a little later today. Meanwhile, here's an analysis of the films that ave doubled up between Telluride and Venice over the past 8 years:

Films in the last seven years that have played at both Telluride and Venice.

2012: "At Any Price", "Stories We Tell", "The Iceman", "Superstar"
2011: "Shame", "A Dangerous Method", "Crazy Horse", "Diana Vreelend: The Eye Has to Travel"
2010: "A Letter to Elia", "Black Swan"
2009: "Terra Madre", "Life During Wartime", "My Son My Son What Have Ye Done", "The Road"
2008:
2007: "I'm Not There", "Redacted"
2006: "Infamous", "The U.S. vs. John Lennon"
2005: "Brokeback Mountain", "Edmond", "Everything is Illuminated"

The last seven years have seen 21 films play in both Telluride and Venice so you could reasonably expect 3 films will share the two festivals. The trick is trying to figure out which three.

We already know that Alfonso Curaon's "Gravity" is Venice's opening film. Terry Gilliam has let slip that his "The Zero Theorem" will play in competition. We have seen/heard strong indications that "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (His and Hers)" is a likely selection. Venice usually programs about 60ish films with 20 or so in competition and the rest relegated to other categories.

From Toronto's announcement on Tuesday we know some notable films listed as "World Premieres" translates to: "They won't be playing Venice":

"12 Years a Slave", "August: Osage County", "The Fifth Estate", "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom", "The Railway Man", "Dallas Buyers Club", "The Devil's Knot", "Dom Hemingway", "The Invisible Woman", "Labor Day", "Prisoners", "Le Weekend", and "You Are Here".

Let's see what happens later this morning. I WILL POST AGAIN LATER TODAY with Venice news.

THE ARMSTRONG LIE

News yesterday that Sony Pictures Classics has picked up the Alex Gibney directed documentary about the unraveling of Lance Armstrong's career. That immediately brought suggestions from some quarters that the film was an instant possibility to play Telluride.

That sounds about right to me too. Frank Marshall is one of the films producers and he has a close relationship with the fest as does SPC...so it is a real possibility.

Here's the story from a couple of sources:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/alex-gibneys-lance-armstrong-doc-592419

http://movies.broadwayworld.com/article/Sony-Pictures-Classics-to-Release-Documentary-THE-ARMSTRONG-LIE-20130724

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More later today...

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Toronto Yesterday/Deadline Looks at Toronto and talks about Telluride/Views of Zero

Good Wednesday All...

We're between Toronto and Venice Film Fest announcements...heady stuff this week.

I've re-posted yesterday's Toronto announcement. I've added some more analysis.

TORONTO ANNOUNCES (SOME OF ) ITS LINEUP

GALAS

American Dreams in China (NAP)

The Art of the Steal (WP)

August: Osage County (WP)

Cold Eyes (NAP)

The Fifth Estate (WP/Opener)

The Grand Seduction (WP)

Kill Your Darlings (IP)

Life of Crime (WP/Closer)

The Love Punch (WP)

The Lunchbox (NAP)

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (WP)

Parkland (NAP)

The Railway Man (WP)

The Right Kind of Wrong (WP)

Rush (IP)

Shuddh Desi Romance (CP)

Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (WP)

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS:

12 Years a Slave (WP)

All is by my Side (WP)

Attila Marcel (WP)

Bad Words (WP)

Blue is the Warmest Color (NAP)

Burning Bush (NAP)

Can a Song Save Your Life (WP)

Cannibal (WP)

Dallas Buyers Club (WP)

Devil’s Knot (WP)

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby His and Hers (?)

Dom Hemingway (WP)

Don Jon (CP)

The Double (WP)

Enough Said (WP)

Exit Marrakech (IP)

Felony (WP)

For Those Who Can Tell No Tales (WP)

Gloria (NAP)

Going Away II (WP)

Gravity (NAP)

The Great Beauty (NAP)

Half of a Yellow Sun (WP)

Hateship Loveship (WP)

Ida (WP)

L’intrepido (NAP)

The Invisible Woman (WP)

Joe (NAP)

Labor Day (WP)

Like Father Like Son (NAP)

Man of Tai Chi (NAP)

Mary Queen of Scots (NAP)

Night Moves (NAP)

Omar (NAP)

One Chance (WP)

Only Lovers Left Alive (NAP)

The Past (NAP)

Philomena (NAP)

Pioneer (IP)

Prisoners (WP)

Quay d’Orsay (WP)

Real (NAP)

Starred Up (WP)

Third Person (WP)

Those Happy Years (WP)

Tracks (NAP)

Under the Skin (NAP)

Violette (WP)

Visitors (WP)

Walesa: Man of Hope (NAP)

We Are the Best (NAP)

Le Weekend (WP)

You Are Here (WP)

Young and Beautiful (NAP)

(WP) = World Premiere

(IP) = International Premiere

(NAP) = North American Premiere
(CP) = Canadian Premiere
(?) = No premiere information listed

Notes:

Films that intrigue me that are on Toronto's list in terms of Telluride potential:

"12 Years a Slave". Listed as a Toronto World Premiere meaning no Venice showing and that actually makes it MORE likely to make the trip to Telluride.

also...

A few other "Galas" intrigue me: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom", "The Lunchbox", "Parkland", "The Railway Man" and "Rush". Of these, I still feel that "The Lunchbox" is the best T-ride bet.

Among the "Special Presentations" that still breathe the fumes of Telluride potential:

The aforementioned "12 Years a Slave"

"Attila Marcel"

"Blue is the Warmest Color"

"Burning Bush"

"Dallas Buyers Club"

"Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby"

"Gloria"

"Gravity"

"The Great Beauty"

"The Invisible Woman"

"Labor Day"

"Like Father Like Son"

"Night Moves"

"Only Lovers Left Alive"

"The Past"

"Philomena"

"Prisoners"

"Quay d'Orsay"

"Under the Skin"

"Le Weekend"

"You Are Here"

"Young and Beautiful"

On my "Ten Bets" NOT announced this morning:

"Nebraska", "Life Itself", "Daughter of the Dawn", "The Unknown Known", "The Story of Children and Film", "The Immigrant" and "Aguirre:The Wrath of God".

Also, another quirk...of the "World Premieres" you can expect about 6-7 to actually show up in Telluride first.

Notable Films not in TIFF's announcement:

"Inside Llewyn Davis", "Captain Phillips", "Saving Mr. Banks", "The Wolf of Wall Street", "All is Lost", "The Monuments Men", "The Counselor", "Grace of Monaco", "Diana", "Out of the Furnace""The Zero Theorem", The Immigrant", "The Congress" and "Foxcatcher".

"Llewyn", "All is Lost", "The Immigrant" and "The Congress" all played Cannes and their exclusion today by the TIFF announcement lends some credence to the notion that they could play T-ride.

Some films that may have a greater Telluride chance because of their inclusion today are: "The Lunchbox", "Le Weekend", "Quay d"Orsay", "Attila Marcel" and "Gloria".

Notable films listed by Toronto as "World Premieres" that translates to: "Won't be playing Venice":
"12 Years a Slave", "August: Osage County", "The Fifth Estate", "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom", "The Railway Man", "Dallas Buyers Club", "The Devil's Knot", "Dom Hemingway", "The Invisible Woman", "Labor Day", "Prisoners", "Le Weekend", and "You Are Here".

Keep in mind that Toronto still has a ton of titles to announce and traditionally anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of the crossover titles between Telluride and Toronto come from such categories as Docs, Masters and Contemporary World Cinema.

Here's is complete analysis of Toronto's announcement from

HitFix/InContention:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/the-fifth-estate-12-years-a-slave-august-osage-county-and-more-set-for-2013-toronto-film-festival

and IndieWire:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/tiff-list-2013-a-list-of-all-the-announced-films-at-the-toronto-international-film-festival?page=1#articleHeaderPanel

Tomorrow comes the announcement from Venice as to its lineup and that may tell us a little more.

DEADLINE TALKS TORONTO/TELLURIDE

Pete Hammond at Deadline.com posted his Toronto analysis piece yesterday and it includes almost as much about his suspicions about Telluride as it does about Toronto.

Hammond seems pretty confident about "Inside Llewyn Davis", "Nebraska" and "All is Lost". Other films that he suggests have Telluride potential after reading the post-Toronto announcement tea leaves are:

"The Immigrant", "Labor Day" and "12 Years a Slave". If you've been following this space for the past few months you know that I have all of these on my Telluride radar (and I'd be really pumped if they were all to pan out). One film that Hammond also mentions that absolutly has NOT been on my T-ride screen is "The Good Lie" directed Philippe Falardeau and starring Reese Witherspoon and Corey Stoll. Hammond says he's heard "rumblings" about this recently wrapped film.

Check his entire post here:
http://www.deadline.com/2013/07/tiff-what-toronto-film-fest-lineup-signals-for-oscar-race-analysis/

VIEWS OF ZERO

In honor of the expected announcement that Terry Gilliam's "The Zero Theorem" will play at Venice I have attached some pics that emerged last weekend during Comic Con form the film:

The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/first-official-images-arrive-for-terry-gilliams-the-zero-theorem-starring-christoph-waltz-20130718

Thompson on Hollywood:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/terry-gilliams-the-zero-theorem-comic-con-first-look

Collider:

http://collider.com/the-zero-theorem-images/

I'm still holding onto some hope that "The Zero Theorem" plays in Telluride.

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More tomorrow...