Saturday, August 17, 2013

Best of the Week/Blue InternationalTrailer/Foxcatcher Fire Dims

Good Saturday to You...only one more Saturday separates us from the 40th Telluride Film Festival!

As is the custom...here are the best posts from the past week...followed by the news that Cannes Palme d'Or winner "Blue is the Warmest Color" has an international trailer that popped up yesterday.

BEST OF THE WEEK


TEN (+) BETS


This week's Ten (+) Bets:

1) Nebraska
2) Labor Day
3) The Invisible Woman
4) Inside Llewyn Davis
5) All is Lost
6) The Unknown Known
7) Gravity
8) The Past
9) The Immigrant
10) The Story of Children and Film
11) 12 Years a Slave
12) Blue is the Warmest Color
13) The Lunchbox
14) Daughter of the Dawn
15) Enough Said



Just below the "Ten Bets"; "Life Itself", "Philomena", "Aguirre; The Wrath of God", "Quay d'Orsay", "Heli", "Only Lovers Left Alive", "Child's Pose","You Are Here", "LeWeekend" and "Gloria".


INVITATION




We're official...This year's Michael's Telluride Film Blog "guide to the Ride' is set for 5pm Thursday, Aug. 29th at The River Club in Telluride at 550 Depot St. in Telluride.  Come and join me for a brief discussion of what we might expect for the weekend as well as a glass (or two) of beverage and a nosh as well.  It'll be fun and YOU ARE INVITED...

ANOTHER INVITATION



Also, don't forget that you're also invited to take part in the Second "People's Telluride"...I'm asking you to rank the films that you see on a 0-5 scale and email those to me at the end of the fest.  As I did last year, I will crunch the numbers and we'll see what our collective view was.

I'll also be doing this with a select group of industry pros who have been kind enough to agree to rate the films they see as well.

Should be fun and informative...


SCREENCRAFT.ORG AND ME



I can tell everyone now.  In addition to posts here on the Blog I will be writing a series of reports from Telluride during the Festival for Screencraft.org. (http://www.screencraft.org/) Screencraft.org is an organization devoted to the development of screenwriters and getting their work in front of the right people.  My thanks to John Rhodes who really put this together.  Hope I can do them a good job.

Additionally, John has started the cross-pollination process.  Check out this post on Screencraft.org.
http://www.screencraft.org/blog/telluride-film-festival-2013-lineup-dates/


HERZOG'S LATEST FILM



I don't think you'll be seeing Werner Herzog's latest project in Telluride in two weeks...which normally would be an insane statement as Herzog's latest is almost always on display in T-ride.  Not this, however.  Herzog has directed and anti-texting and driving short film for a collection of phone entities.  Take a look at the story via AdAge.com:
http://adage.com/article/creativity-pick-of-the-day/werner-herzog-s-anti-texting-driving-documentary/243583/?qwr=FullSite

Thew film is entitled "From One Second to the Next" and you can view it at the above address.

THE FIFTH ESTATE NEEDS A LAWYER




The Hollywood Reporter posted last week that Dreamworks was girding up for legal challenges arising from the Wikileaks/Julian Assange picture "The Fifth Estate".  The film was directed by Bill Condon and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Bruhl and Laura Linney.  I still am holding onto a thin read of hope that the film could still pop up at Telluride.

Here's the link to the THR story:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dreamworks-prepares-fight-wikileaks-fifth-595743


THE WISH LIST...



We're two weeks away from the opening of the 40th Telluride Film Festival and as I now comes the time to categorize the films that are/could be/might have been T-ride selections.

Here are my categories:

Films (in no particular order) that I'm fairly confident will play.  This claim is based on any number of factors...not the least of which has been a claim from some quarters, in print or publicly stated, by film bloggers, reporters etc.:

“Inside Llewyn Davis”
“Labor Day”
“All is Lost”
“Gravity”
“The Past”
“The Immigrant”
“Nebraska”
“The Invisible Woman”
“The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld”
“Life Itself”
“Daughter of the Dawn”

Films that I feel have at least a 50/50 chance to play Telluride:

“12 Years a Slave”
“Blue is the Warmest Color”
“Heli”
“Gloria”
“Child’s Pose”
“Philomena”
“The Lunchbox”
“Only Lovers Left Alive’
“Enough Said”
“You Are Here”
“Quay d’ Orsay”
“The Selfish Giant”
“Aguirre: The Wrath of God”

Possible films that I feel have a less than 30% chance...but wouldn't be a complete surprise:

“August: Osage County”
“The Counselor”
“The Fifth Estate”
“The Dallas Buyers Club”
“Foxcatcher”
“Eleanor Rigby: His/Hers”
“A Most Wanted Man”
“Night Moves”
“Parkland”
“The Railway Man”
“The Rover”
“T.S. Spivet’
“The Zero Theorem”
"Unforgiven:
"The Wind Rises"
"Le Weekend"

Films that look unlikely to play Telluride for any number of reasons...

“American Hustle”
“Out of the Furnace”
“Her”
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
“The Book Thief”
“Oldboy”
“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”
“Rush”
“The Monuments Men”
“The Wolf of Wall Street”
“Captain Phillips”
“Grand Budapest Hotel”
“Knight of Cups”
“Saving Mr. Banks”
“The Hobbit/Smaug”
“Grace of Monaco”
“Diana”

In a perfect world...these films would play in order of preference but regardless of likelihood:

1) "Inside Llewyn Davis"
2) "12 Years a Slave"
3) "The Monuments Men"
4) "Gravity"
5) "The Dallas Buyers Club"
6) "The Counselor"
7) "All is Lost"
8) "Labor Day"
9) "The Past"
10) "Nebraska"
11) "Foxcatcher"
12) "The Fifth Estate"
13) "American Hustle"
14) "Her"
15) "Out of the Furnace"
16) "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"
17) "Captain Phillips"
18) "August: Osage County"
19) "The Wolf of Wall Street"
20) "Blue is the Warmest Color"/"The Zero Theorem" (tie)

A couple of observations...

It looks to me like a terrific fall film slate...a lot of quality films to choose from.  Also, assuming that I'm anywhere close to right...this year's Telluride lineup is going to be incredible.



PEEPS THAT COULD ATTEND THE SHOW

 


So, if the Ten (+) Bets are correct...who might be in town for this year's fest?  The list is enticing. First, Think directors: Payne, Farhadi, Cuaron, The Coen Brothers, Reitman, Fiennes, Gray, McQueen, Holofcener and Chandor among others.

Then you have to think about the talent:  



Bruce Dern, Oscar Issac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Felicity Jones, Robert Redford, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Berenice Bejo, Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Of course not all of these people will attend...but some of them will and isn't that tantalizing?


WELLS' TAKE



Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere had his own take on the Toronto announcement yesterday in a very Telluride specific way. Wells continued with a theme he began with back a few weeks ago.

Check his blog post here: http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/08/confirmed-no-lost-davis-or-nebraska-at-toronto/

The upshot of this is that "Inside Llewyn Davis", "All is Lost" and "Nebraska" continue to look strong for Telluride inclusion.

NEW TO MTFB..."BLUE" HAS INTERNATIONAL TRAILER



The Cannes winner has an international trailer that dropped yesterday.  You can access it via any of the following posts from Awards Daily, Rope of Silicon and The Playlist:




I'm still fairly bullish on our chances to see this film in Telluride in a week and a half.


FOXCATCHER FIRE DIMS



This week has seen a flurry of activity and speculation about Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher".  We found out this week (officially) that Sony Pictures Classics has now got the distribution for the film and I (among others) thought that increased its chances of playing Telluride.

Now comes news via an anonymous comment to yesterday's blog post and Kris Tapley's (InContention/HitFix) twitter thread about the film that it's just not ready.  Tapley had a respondent who claims that the film is still far too long and unfinished and references a test screening from a couple of weeks ago.

If that's true..."Foxcatcher" goes back to the lower end of Telluride possibilities...not completely impossible, but incredibly unlikely.

Which is too bad because I am immensely intrigued by this project.  I think Miller is a real talent and I am embarrassingly anxious to see Steve Carell in a real departure for him.


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

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2.

More on Monday...Have a great weekend!

No comments: