Monday, June 23, 2014

Anne and Eric Talk Telluride and Toronto/Selma as a Player/What's Up Ken's Sleeve?

Welcome to Monday...

I'm back from Kansas City and the National Speech/Debate Tournament.  It was a fun week.

ANNE AND ERIC TALK TELLURIDE AND TORONTO


"Birdman" from antenna3.com

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

SELMA AS A PLAYER


Ava DuVarnay via The Huffington Post

The Hollywood Reporter, among others, over the weekend reported that Ava DuVernay's "Selma" (about the civil rights marches that culminated with the passage of the Voting Rights Act) will be a limited release on Christmas Day.  That puts the film, which hadn't been expected until next year, right in the middle of the awards season and raises the question about whether it is a Telluride possibility.

Arguing against is chances:  it's reportedly still filming which would put it on a really tight deadline to be ready for any of the major fall festivals.

Elements that suggest that it could happen:  Production companies Pathe (which has had a good relationship with T-ride) and Plan B (Brad Pitt's outfit that brought a little thing called "12 Years a Slave to last years fest) suggest it could happen.  Also Christian Colson is one of the producers.  He also produced "Slumdog Millionaire" and "127 Hours".  And finally, Oprah Winfrey herself is a producer and a member of the cast and certainly has had a long relationship with Telluride (the community not the film festival).  Finally, the film is being produced by Paramount which has some play over the years at T-ride including: "Labor Day", "Up in the Air" and "Zodiac".

Stay tuned...

WHAT'S UP KEN'S SLEEVE


Ken Burns via IMDb.com

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 tomorrow...

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