Another Toronto Consideration/"Rudderless" Release Is Set/New Oscar Rules

Welcome to Monday.  Reporting this morning from Gran Haven, MI and then on the road later today to Niagra Falls...me and the Mrs. on a belated (36 years on) honeymoon?

ANOTHER TORONTO CONSIDERATION

Something that has gone unsaid thus far in the whole Toronto vs. Telluride brouhaha is that if Toronto actually goes through with the scenario that they have set fourth, those of us that are puzzling out the potential Telluride lineup may be handed a set of clues when Toronto makes its announcement of films.  More importantly, when Toronto announces their actual schedule, the timing of the films that Toronto front loads should give us insight into the potential Telluride field.  Toronto should begin announcing their lineup in about three and a half weeks.

I always look forward to the Toronto announcement as one of the key moments of the summer in terms of trying to puzzle out the T-ride lineup and this year, it seems like it's even more likely to provide us clues. Stay tuned.

RUDDERLESS RELEASE IS SET

Well, you know, if you read this space with any regularity, I have been following, rather obsessively, the progress of William H. Macy's Sundance hit "Rudderless".  I've been privy to a lot of the backstage machinations on the film for more than five years and it's with great pleasure that I can pass on this news.  "Rudderless" will be released in the U.S. on Oct. 17th.  That info comes via a tweet from Macy himself who said yesterday:

"Gentle Folk,
RUDDERLESS opens in theaters Oct 17th. Good lord I'm jacked up about this movie. More later. Macy"

Though I haven't seen this tidbit anywhere in the media...I'm pretty sure that Macy's got his dates right.  No news as to how wide a release the Oct. 17th date will be as yet so I'll keep an eye out on that.  So, I suppose that makes this an "exclusive".  Or, at any rate, an exclusive for those of us who follow Macy on Twitter.

NEW OSCAR RULES

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced some new rules changes for the next edition of the Oscars.  Steve Pond of The Wrap provided this post focusing on some of those changes and what they might mean:

http://www.thewrap.com/oscars-academy-changes-what-do-they-mean-for-the-oscars/

More on Tuesday...

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TFF #40 Films Still Winning/Best of the Week: Ten Bets #1; Anne and Eric Talk Telluride and Toronto; More on the Toronto Ultimatum; What's Up Ken's Sleeve: The Roosevelts; Winter's Adopted

Hello on the last Saturday in June from beautiful Grand Haven, MI.  The boss and I are slinging some art in this lakeside community.

TFF #40 FILMS STILL WINNING

HitFix reported yesterday that the Saturn Awards have been announced and TFF #40 films "Gravity" "Prisoners" and "12 Years a Slave" continue to win plaudits.

"Gravity" won five awards including Best Direction while "12 Years" was names Best Independent Film.  "Prisoners" won recognition for Best Makeup.

Take a look at the entire slate of Saturn Award winners and the HitFix story here:


http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/2014-saturn-awards-winners

BEST OF THE WEEK

TEN BETS #1

Well, I've been teasing it for weeks now and it's finally time to take the plunge.  Here's the first "Ten Bets" list for the 41st Telluride Film Festival.  Here's your disclaimer...if the past is any indicator, only about half of these titles will actually end up on the TFF #41 program in two months.  Last year I my first "Ten Bets" list had six films that ended up playing as apart of TFF #40 ("Nebraska", "The Past", "Aguirre; The Wrath of God", "The Invisible Woman", "Labor Day" and "12 Years a Slave:). That being duly noted, here are your bets:

10) Salt of the Earth (Wenders)
9) Winter Sleep (Ceylan)
8) Red Army (Polsky)
7) Coming Home (Yimou)
6) Foxcatcher (Miller)
5) The Roosevelts (Burns)
4) Leviathan (Zvyagintsev)
3) Birdman (Inarritu)
2) Two Days, One Night (Dardennes)
1) Mr. Turner (Leigh)

Just under the "ten bets": "A Most Violent Year", "National Gallery" and "Queen of the Desert".


ANNE AND ERIC TALK TELLURIDE AND TORONTO

Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood and Eric Kohn of IndieWire (who is Anne's new podcast partner) posted their second edition of  "ScreenTalk".  In it they spend a reasonable amount of time talking about the Toronto ultimatum about North American premieres, which is a direct shot across Telluride's bow. They also talk a bot about Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Birdman", which I'm very excited about and which will almost certainly be on the first 2014 TFF "Ten Bets" list (coming Friday).   The discussion of Toronto/Telluride situation and "Birdman" starts at about the 16 minute mark.  You'll find the entire podcast here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/screen-talk-episode-2-boyhood-jersey-boys-telluride-vs-toronto-clash-more

MORE ON THE TORONTO ULTIMATUM

You've seen me writing about this quite a bit these past few months,  The Toronto International Film Fests demand that they will absolutely not program any film on their first four day weekend that isn't a world or North American premiere.  They've laid down that marker in an effort to prevent a repeat of the "12 Years a Slave" (and others) screenings that occurred in Telluride prior to screening at Toronto.

Well, yesterday the Toronto Star published a lengthy piece about the ultimatum.  What I found intriguing are the comments from Sony Pictures Classics co-president Tom Bernard in which he states that he thinks Toronto has made a mistake.

That implies (at least to me) a couple of things.  First, even though Bernard declines to talk about SPC's plans and hopes for the fall fest season, you have to think that it's a pretty big signal that SPC is going to play Telluride like they always have and that actually moved the needle on where I placed "Foxcatcher" on the initial "Ten Bets" list above.  I also think that the subtext is there to support the notion that Bernard thinks that other distributors are likely to follow suit.

Of course, the TIFF peeps are all upbeat in the article...but I think they sound just a little too chirpy.

I don't know...look at it and see for yourself:


http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2014/06/26/tiff_vs_telluride_tussle_turns_movie_premieres_into_a_battle_of_wills_peter_howell_column.html

WHAT'S UP KEN'S SLEEVE

Long time Telluride Film mainstay Ken Burns has "The Roosevelts" up his sleeve.  It's a seven hour documentary about the famed American family focusing on Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor.  PBS is set to begin the series on Sept. 14th and it's that 9/14 date that makes me think that there's a good chance that Telluride patrons will be able to see at least some of the doc on Labor Day weekend.  Burns has often premiered parts of his current projects in the TFF forum and this wouldn't be a surprise.  Catch up on some details of this enterprise from The Poughkeepsee Journal (of all places) here:

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2014/06/12/ken-burns-roosevelt-library/10376967/

The article includes video of Burns talking about the project.

MORE ROOSEVELT/BURNS INFO

Yesterday I reported that Ken Burns latest project, "The Roosevelts" was a seven hour documentary.  That's wrong.  It's a seven PART, 14 hour doc about Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor.  That's according to the National Endowment for the Arts press release/story that came out yesterday afternoon.  I have linked it here:

http://www.neh.gov/events/2014/09/14/the-roosevelts-intimate-history

Despite the length of the project, I still think we're likely to see some portions of the project available for viewing in the San Juans over Labor Day weekend.


WINTER'S ADOPTED

"Winter Sleep" poster via IMDb.com

Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Cannes Palme d'Or winner has just been picked up for U.S. distribution by Adopt Films.  The acquisition probably increases the Telluride profile of the three hour plus film that won the Palme and was a critical darling last month.  Adopt has a rather short pedigree but it does include "Bethlehem" which played T-ride last year and "Barbara" which was a part of the 2012 TFF lineup.

I had been thinking that this might be one of those years where the Palme winner didn't make the Telluride lineup.  The Palme presence at Telluride is about 50/50.  Over the past 11 years T-ride has programmed these Palme winners: "Elephant" (Van Sant) '03, "The Child" (Dardennes Bros.) '05, "4 Months, Three Weeks, Two Days" (Mungiu) '07, "The White Ribbon" (Haneke) '09, "Amour" (Haneke) '12 and "Blue is the Warmest Color" (Kechechie) '13.But during that same span Palme winners "Fahrenheit 9/11", "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", "The Class", "Uncle Boonmee" and "The Tree of Life" did not play Telluride.

Ultimately, the news that Adopt Films has the U.S. distribution probably nudges "Winter Sleep" into the "more than 50% chance of playing Telluride" camp.  But just barely.

Here are a couple of posts about the Adopt acquisition:

Thompson on Hollywood:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/adopt-films-grabs-us-rights-to-palme-dor-winner-winter-sleep

The Dissolve:

http://thedissolve.com/news/2544-palme-dor-winner-winter-sleep-secures-stateside-di/

"Winter Sleep" IMDb page:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2758880/?ref_=nv_sr_1

More on Monday.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Ten Bets/Variety Looks at the Possible Oscar Field/More on the Toronto Ultimatum

Good Friday to All...


TEN BETS #1

Well, I've been teasing it for weeks now and it's finally time to take the plunge.  Here's the first "Ten Bets" list for the 41st Telluride Film Festival.  Here's your disclaimer...if the past is any indicator, only about half of these titles will actually end up on the TFF #41 program in two months.  Last year I my first "Ten Bets" list had six films that ended up playing as apart of TFF #40 ("Nebraska", "The Past", "Aguirre; The Wrath of God", "The Invisible Woman", "Labor Day" and "12 Years a Slave:). That being duly noted, here are your bets:

10) Salt of the Earth (Wenders)
9) Winter Sleep (Ceylan)
8) Red Army (Polsky)
7) Coming Home (Yimou)
6) Foxcatcher (Miller)
5) The Roosevelts (Burns)
4) Leviathan (Zvyagintsev)
3) Birdman (Inarritu)
2) Two Days, One Night (Dardennes)
1) Mr. Turner (Leigh)

Just under the "ten bets": "A Most Violent Year", "National Gallery" and "Queen of the Desert".

Of course, this could all be wrong.


VARIETY LOOKS AT THE OSCAR FIELD (and I make a few comments)

Variety posted an article yesterday looking at over 40 potential Oscar contenders.  I took a stroll through them all.  Of the films it listed, there are a number (as you might expect) of Telluride possibles including: "Birdman", "Foxcatcher", "A Most Violent Year", "The Imitation Game", "Mr. Turner" and "Men, Women and Children" although I personally still expect that the latter will skip T-ride and go directly to Toronto.

Check out the entire gallery of more than 40 films here:

http://variety.com/gallery/2014-oscars-this-years-potential-contenders/#!41/other-contenders/


MORE ON THE TORONTO ULTIMATUM

You've seen me writing about this quite a bit these past few months,  The Toronto International Film Fests demand that they will absolutely not program any film on their first four day weekend that isn't a world or North American premiere.  They've laid down that marker in an effort to prevent a repeat of the "12 Years a Slave" (and others) screenings that occurred in Telluride prior to screening at Toronto.

Well, yesterday the Toronto Star published a lengthy piece about the ultimatum.  What I found intriguing are the comments from Sony Pictures Classics co-president Tom Bernard in which he states that he thinks Toronto has made a mistake.

That implies (at least to me) a couple of things.  First, even though Bernard declines to talk about SPC's plans and hopes for the fall fest season, you have to think that it's a pretty big signal that SPC is going to play Telluride like they always have and that actually moved the needle on where I placed "Foxcatcher" on the initial "Ten Bets" list above.  I also think that the subtext is there to support the notion that Bernard thinks that other distributors are likely to follow suit.

Of course, the TIFF peeps are all upbeat in the article...but I think they sound just a little too chirpy.

I don't know...look at it and see for yourself:


http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2014/06/26/tiff_vs_telluride_tussle_turns_movie_premieres_into_a_battle_of_wills_peter_howell_column.html


More tomorrow from Grand Haven, Michigan...

Follow/Like Michael's Telluride Film Blog on Facebook/Twitter (@Gort2)

Chandor and Miller Talk Past and Future/Sound and Fury About "Fury"/Sarah Polley's New Story to Tell

Good Thursday World...

From Kansas City, MO.  On to Chicago today.

CHANDOR AND MILLER TALK THE PAST AND FUTURE

J.C. Chandor via The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter talked recently to director/writers J.C. Chandor and Bennett Miller.  THR spoke with Chandor about last year's critical favorite (and one of my favorite films from TFF #41) "All is Lost".  THR also spoke to him about his upcoming "A Most Violent Year" starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain.  I'm in hopes that "Year" follows "Lost" to Telluride.  The post also features a few notes from Bennett Miller vis-a-vis "Foxcatcher".  Take a look at the post here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/all-is-lost-director-jc-714964


SOUND AND FURY ABOUT "FURY"

Official trailer for "Fury" via joblo.com and YouTube

Brad Pitt's World War II tank drama has both a new poster and a new trailer.  The film is set for a November release and it's not completely outside the realm of possibility for it to play T-ride.  I can actually see the possibility of it playing along with Angelina Jolie's "Unbroken" at TFF #41.  You can look at a couple of stories about the latest "Fury" P.R. barrage here:

HitFix:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/brad-pitt-and-shia-labeouf-are-dogs-of-war-in-tense-first-trailer-for-fury

The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-first-trailer-poster-for-brad-pitt-wwii-drama-fury-co-starring-shia-labeouf-logan-lerman-more-20140625


SARAH POLLEY HAS A NEW STORY TO TELL

Sarah Polley via The Hollywood Reporter

Sarah Polley made a big splash at Telluride a couple of years back with her documentary "Stories to Tell".  Now the actress turned director has her next project lined up.  The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Polley has secured the rights to John Green's ("The Fault in Our Stars" guy) "Looking for Alaska".  Might we see that in Telluride at a future fest?  I wouldn't rule it out.  Check the THR post here:

  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sarah-polley-adapt-john-greens-714911


FINALLY...

This last note...2014's first "Ten Bets" for Telluride is coming tomorrow...

Follow/Like Michael's Telluride Film Blog on Facebook and Twitter (@Gort2)

The Good Lie Comes to Life/Coens and More Semi-Coens News/Late News: Goodbye Eli Wallach

Good Wednesday Everyone...

The Mrs. and I head east today...for a long, long art extravaganza.  We'll be in Grand Haven, MI. for their Art Fest this weekend and then in Great Barrington, MA. on the July 4th weekend for The Berkshires Art Festival.  If you're Telluride Film Fans and are in the area...come by and see us at The Flying Shoes Studio Booth at either festival.  Say "Hi!"...buy some of Kristy's art.  It's good stuff.  Here's a reminder:

THE GOOD LIE COMES TO LIFE

"The Good Lie" trailer from joblo.com via YouTube

Last year, toward the end of summer, we got word that Reese Witherspoon's "The Good Lie" was in the can.  There was some fleeting speculation that it might be a possible Telluride film, but that was clearly never in the cards.  Now, in the last 24 hours, we've seen the release of a trailer along with some discussion of Witherspoon's Oscar prospects from the film.

The film is described (via IMDb) as a story in which:

"A Sudanese refugee is taken in by a straight-talking American woman in their new home in the United States."



Is it a likely play at T-ride.  Probably not, but you can't rule it out completely either.  It's release date was recently moved from a non-Telluride friendly Sept. 10th to a much more T-ride friendly (and award friendly and Venice and Toronto friendly) Oct. 3.  Additionally, it's under the Warner Brothers banner and they've tun a couple of pretty good years in a row at Telluride with "Argo", "Gravity" and "Prisoners".  Frankly, Witherspoon's other big film for this fall, "Wild" (from Fox Searchlight) might be the likelier Telluride play.

I have linked to a couple of posts about the film and the trailer release here:

Variety:

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/reese-witherspoon-the-good-lie-trailer-1201239103/

IndieWire:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/watch-keep-your-eye-on-oscar-contenders-beginning-with-trailer-for-the-good-lie-starring-reese-witherspoon-20140624

Thompson on Hollywood:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/reese-witherspoon-looks-towards-oscar-gold-with-wild-the-good-lie-trailer


COENS NEWS AND MORE SEMI-COENS NEWS

George Clooney in "O Brother, Where Art Thou" (from fineartamerica.com)

Lots of new and surprising casting news out yesterday for the Coen Brothers next enterprise' "Hail Caesar.  It had been previously announced that George Clooney and Josh Brolin would star in the film about a Hollywood "fixer".  Yesterday the interweb lit up with news of the casting of Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes (who I finally caught in "The Grand Budapest Hotel" this past weekend and it lived up to lofty expectations).

I have linked three different stories about the casting:

Variety:

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/channing-tatum-in-talks-to-join-the-coens-hail-caesar-exclusive-1201245179/

The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/channing-tatum-tilda-swinton-ralph-714566?utm_expid=19303748-46.c16wOsTPSwa4UOZ_HM0mmw.0

Rope of Silicon:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/channing-tatum-ralph-fiennes-tilda-swinton-join-coens-hail-caesar/


Meanwhile, in other Coens-related news, The Playlist reported yesterday that frequent Coens Brothers cast member John Turturro reportedly wants to make a feature based on the character he played for the brothers in their classic "The Big Lebowski".  Turturro reportedly has a story in mind and would write, direct and star... if he can get the "go-ahead" from Joel and Ethan.  I'd go see that.

John Turturro as Jesus Quintana in "The Big Lebowski" (from getthebigpicture.net)

The Playlist story is here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/john-turturro-wants-to-direct-jesus-centric-big-lebowski-spinoff-next-year-if-the-coens-give-him-permission-20140624

LATE NEWS: GOODBYE ELI WALLACH

Eli Wallach from spaghettiwesterns.com.ar

Eli Wallach, a terrific character actor who had a six decade career in film and on stage has died.  He was 98.  Wallach starred in innumerable films including: "The Magnificent Seven", "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "The Misfits" among others.  His range was extraordinary.

His lengthy IMDb.com entry is here:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0908919/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


More from the road tomorrow...

Follow/Like Michael's Telluride Film Blog on Facebook and Twitter (@Gort2)

Winter's Adopted/More Roosevelt-Burns Info/McQueen's Casting Call

It's Tuesday!

WINTER'S ADOPTED

"Winter Sleep" poster via IMDb.com

Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Cannes Palme d'Or winner has just been picked up for U.S. distribution by Adopt Films.  The acquisition probably increases the Telluride profile of the three hour plus film that won the Palme and was a critical darling last month.  Adopt has a rather short pedigree but it does include "Bethlehem" which played T-ride last year and "Barbara" which was a part of the 2012 TFF lineup.

I had been thinking that this might be one of those years where the Palme winner didn't make the Telluride lineup.  The Palme presence at Telluride is about 50/50.  Over the past 11 years T-ride has programmed these Palme winners: "Elephant" (Van Sant) '03, "The Child" (Dardennes Bros.) '05, "4 Months, Three Weeks, Two Days" (Mungiu) '07, "The White Ribbon" (Haneke) '09, "Amour" (Haneke) '12 and "Blue is the Warmest Color" (Kechechie) '13.But during that same span Palme winners "Fahrenheit 9/11", "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", "The Class", "Uncle Boonmee" and "The Tree of Life" did not play Telluride.

Ultimately, the news that Adopt Films has the U.S. distribution probably nudges "Winter Sleep" into the "more than 50% chance of playing Telluride" camp.  But just barely.

Here are a couple of posts about the Adopt acquisition:

Thompson on Hollywood:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/adopt-films-grabs-us-rights-to-palme-dor-winner-winter-sleep

The Dissolve:

http://thedissolve.com/news/2544-palme-dor-winner-winter-sleep-secures-stateside-di/

"Winter Sleep" IMDb page:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2758880/?ref_=nv_sr_1


MORE ROOSEVELT/BURNS INFO

Ken Burns (photo via IMDb.com)

Yesterday I reported that Ken Burns latest project, "The Roosevelts" was a seven hour documentary.  That's wrong.  It's a seven PART, 14 hour doc about Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor.  That's according to the National Endowment for the Arts press release/story that came out yesterday afternoon.  I have linked it here:

http://www.neh.gov/events/2014/09/14/the-roosevelts-intimate-history

Despite the length of the project, I still think we're likely to see some portions of the project available for viewing in the San Juans over Labor Day weekend.

MC QUEEN'S CASTING CALL

Photo of Steve McQueen via Shadow and Act

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the work of British film director Steve McQueen.  Further, all three of his feature films have played the Telluride fest : "Hunger", "shame" and "12 Years a Slave".  McQueen is now prepping a project for HBO...which doesn't necessarily mean that we won't see some of it at a future Telluride.  T-ride has shown a willingness to play television projects (i.e. "Red Riding" trilogy, "Carlos").  So it shouldn't be discounted.

Nonetheless, McQueen has apparently set out to cast a newcomer as I saw this casting call announcement/story yesterday from IndieWire blog Shadow and Act:


http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/casting-call-for-lead-role-in-steve-mcqueens-hbo-project

Also noted in the story is the participation of "The King's Speech" producers Ian Canning and Emile Sherman...makes you think a bit...


More tomorrow...

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