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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The British Are Coming Part Two/Werner Interview on the Queen/TWC Slate Nixes Two/Bailey and "The Policy" Interview/Speaking of Toronto

A good Tuesday to everyone...


THE BRITISH ARE COMING PART TWO

Yesterday I began my annual recap of European Production companies that have had some history of films that make the T-ride program form year to year.  I started with the Brits with a look at BBC Films, The British Film Institute and The UK Film Council.  Today, we close the British review by taking a peak at Film4 and See-Saw Films.

FILM4



Film4 has been a fairly constant presence at Telluride over the past few years and often when they are represented, they're represented with multiple titles:

2006: Deep Water
2007: When Did You Last See Your Father, Brick Lane
2008: Happy-Go-Lucky, Hunger, Slumdog Millionaire
2009: No film
2010: Another Year, Never Let Me Go
2011: Shame
2012: No film
2013: Under the Skin, 12 Years a Slave, Starred Up

This year, Film4 is associated with many titles that have the potential to play at TFF #41 including the all but certain Mike Leigh film "Mr. Turner".

Also in the Film4 basket:

"Slow West", "Suffragette", "Jimmy's Hall" and "Carol".  

There seem to be some questions about whether either "Suffragette" and "Carol" will be ready for a festival play.  "Jimmy's Hall" screened at Cannes, so it's clearly ready and "Slow West" has been listed on IMDb in post-production since December...so you'd think it should be ready.

Film4's IMDb page:


SEE-SAW FILMS



See-Saw has only been producing since 2009 but in that short time they have been a part of a few films that have made an impact at Telluride.  The first film they were associated with that made a splash at The SHOW was "The King's Speech" in 2010.  They were also involved with:

"Shame" in 2011 and 
"Tracks" in 2013.

In 2014, See-Saw has involvement with two Michael Fassbender starring vehicles: Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" and John Maclean's "Slow West" (see above).  Macbeth also stars Marion Cotillard and is listed as being in post-production by IMDb as of April.  Could See-Saw be part of a Fassbender double play?  Possibly.  

Of the two, my guess is that "Slow West" might be the more likely play and that's based on nothing more than conjecture.  Note this, however:  Fassbender seemed to have a really great time in Telluride last year and he is an executive producer on the film.

And on a late note...it appears that Macbeth isn't ready to roll.  See the Thompson on Hollywood story below.

See-Saw's IMDb page:


TWC SLATE NIXES TWO


Benedict Cumberbatch in "The Imitation Game"


Anne Thompson reported yesterday that The Weinstein Company has settles on release dates for a number of their films going into the fall.  Among information to be gleaned are that both Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" and Saul Dibb's "Suite Francaise" are likely out of the running for 2014 and that means that they're unlikely for Telluride.

Looking at the release sked that Thompson includes in the story, it appears that TWC has three films positioned for the fall film fest/awards run:  "The Imitation Game" which most think is on the Telluride program due to its classification last week by the Toronto film fest as a "Canadian" premiere.  Additionally, Theodore Melfi's "St.Vincent" starring Bill Murray is set for late October and Tin Burton's "Big Eyes" starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz is set for Christmas Day.

Interestingly, Ned Benson's "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them" (the combination version of what was originally the two films subtitled "Him" and "Her" is set for a Sept. 19th release.  Had it not played Toronto last year, I might be thinking about it as a Telluride possibility.  Perhaps I shouldn't dismiss that possibility completely out of hand.

The complete Thompson post is here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/weinstein-co-awards-plans-come-into-focus-what-are-their-oscar-frontrunners-20140728


WERNER INTERVIEW ON THE QUEEN



James Rocchi recently interviewed auteur Werner Herzog and The Playlist excerpted that back a week or two ago.  In that post, The Playlist focuses on the upcoming "Queen of the Desert" starring Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, James Franco and Damian Lewis.  As I am at about 95% certainty that it will play at Telluride in a month, I have linked that post here:


http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/werner-herzog-talks-queen-of-the-desert-makes-ominous-prediction-about-nicole-kidmans-performance-20140714


CAMERON BAILEY AND "THE POLICY" INTERVIEW



Steve Zeitchik of the Los Angeles Times sat down with Toronto International Film Festival Artistic Director Cameron Bailey recently to talk about the new Toronto premiere/screening policy.  That interview went up yesterday.  I have included the link here:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-tiff-2014-toronto-schedule-premieres-change-telluride-20140727-story.html#page=1

AND SPEAKING OF TORONTO...

TIFF has clarified their intent about announcing additional films over the next few weeks.  As previously reported, Vanguard and Masters sections will be announced today and additional Galas and Special Presentations are set to be announced in two weeks on Aug. 12.  Organizers are also saying that they will have the schedule available on Aug. 19th.

It seems to me that the announcements on both of those dates will bring even more deductive information about the prospective Telluride lineup.

For those interested, I will attempt to post the Vanguard and Masters section announcement a little later today with some analysis where and if warranted.


More later...probably today!

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2

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