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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