Wells Looks at His Crystal Ball/European Producers: The British/New Looks for "Suffragette"/Toronto Note

Good Wednesday All...

WELLS LOOKS AT HIS CRYSTAL BALL

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere posted his best guess at Telluride last night.  Wells is a long time Telluride attendee. That along with his status as an industry insider means that we should take a hard look at what he has to say in terms'

Wells lists six films as "All but Locks" for Telluride:

Todd Haynes "Carol", Paolo Sorrentino's "Youth", James Vanderbilt's "Truth", Laszlo Nemes' "Son of Saul", Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette",  and John Crowley's "Brooklyn".

Of these films I'd agree with "Carol" and "Son of Saul".  I feel that "Suffragette", "Truth" and "Youth" are probable/possible but not locks and "Brooklyn" is very, very unlikely as it played at Sundance.

Wells then suggests Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight" may forgo Telluride for Toronto.  You might remember that I suggested a few days back that it was one of about half dozen films about which there are rumors that it could be the Toronto opener. (BTW...see note about Toronto below)

His next list is called "Logical Spitballs" and includes five films:

Jay Roach's "Trumbo", Scott Cooper's "Black Mass", Brian Hegeland's "Legend", Luca Guadagnino's "A Bigger Splash" and Barry Levinson's "Rock the Kasbah"

I'd quibble with the last three and agree that both "Trumbo" and "Black Mass" are logical and two films that I would genuinely be excited to play at the festival.  You might recall that "Black Mass" is one of four Warners films that could make a Telluride play.  The other WB films mentioned by Wells are Jeff Nichol's "Midnight Special" and David Gordon Green's "Our Brand is Crisis".  Unmentioned by Wells from my WB list is Ron Howard's "In the Heart of the Sea"

Wells also includes one film that he calls a  "Bizarro" possibility, Baltasar Kormakur's "Everest" and a list of seven films he calls "Wishy-Wishies" that includes Alejandro Inarritu's "The Revenant" and Danny Boyle's "Steve Jobs".

Take a look at the entire post here:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2015/07/telluride-likelies-spitballs-wishies/



EUROPEAN PRODUCERS: THE BRITISH

The first (and as it turns out only) Brit Production house to look at for Telluride clues is Film4 which has this recent track record with Telluride:

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

2014: Mr. Turner

Film4 has been associated with 12 films in the past eight years at Telluride, an average of 1.5 films/year.

In 2015, the most likely Film4 associated films that could make Telluride include:

Todd Haynes' "Carol"

Paolo Sorrentino's "Youth"

Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette"

Yorgos Lanthimos' "The Lobster"

Andrea Arnold's "American Honey"

Ben Wheatley's "High Rise"

Lenny Abrahamson's "Room"

As regular readers know, I'm very high on the chances for "Carol" and "Youth" and moderately serious about expecting "Suffragette".  "The Lobster" is certainly a possibility.  

"American Honey" might be higher in my estimation if I knew that the film was ready but I have doubts as Entertainment Weekly was reporting that star Shia LeBeouf was injured on set on June 24th.  Normally, the fact that the director is Andrea Arnold ("Fish Tank" TFF 2009) would have made me think that, were it prepped, it might well be a serious Telluride contender.

I'd be somewhat surprised should "High Rise" or "Room" make a Telluride appearance.

Other British production houses just don't seem to have been involved in much that seems Telluride-likely.  See Saw Films is involved with Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" but BBC Films, the UK Film Council and The British Film Institute all seem mostly uninvolved in films that feel, to me at least, to be likely Telluride products.

Tomorrow, I'll begin looking at some French production houses that could have films in the mix for Telluride.

NEW LOOKS FOR "SUFFRAGETTE"

New posters dropped yesterday for Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette".  They're very impressive as you can see from the sample above.  I have linked the post from Rope of Silicon that includes all of the new posters that dropped yesterday for the film.


http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/new-suffragette-poster-art-featuring-mulligan-streep-and-carter/


TORONTO NOTE

I confirmed yesterday that Toronto doesn't begin announcing their lineup until July 28.  I had been working on the assumption (stupid me) that they would announce on July 21, one day earlier and in a Tuesday as they have for some time.  What I didn't count on was that Toronto, like Telluride, bumped back to a later calendar start date because of where Labor Day falls.  Consequently, their announcement calendar also follows the bump in dates.  So July 28th it is for TIFF.

That'll do for today...check back again tomorrow for more...

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