Monday, August 10, 2015

Building a Mystery / "Steve Jobs" T.V. Spot / "The Revenant" Fnally Finished Shooting? / Toronto News Tomorrow? / MTFB in Other Places

Welcome back from what I hope was a fantastic weekend...



BUILDING A MYSTERY


Concept poster via Indiegogo


A couple of weeks back (July 27 MTFB post) I wrote that I had come across a tantalizing tease from Showbiz411 about the outside shot that Warren Beatty might chose to unveil his long gestating, untitled Howard Hughes film at one of the upcoming fall festivals.

That really would shake up the buzz surrounding the fests but it's also, I suspect, incredibly unlikely. Then, this weekend Showbiz411 tweeted this on Friday and then I re-tweeted it:

"A very surprising film is headed to Telluride and Toronto, and it’s not Warren Beatty’s but does involve a late director-producer."

Which led me to spend a significant amount of time on Saturday and Sunday trying to puzzle out what it might be.

My best guess-and I do mean guess...some version of Orson Welles final, unfinished film "The Other Side of the Wind". That film was the subject of a crowd funding effort to raise the money for final editing into releasable form.  The funding goal fell short with just over $400,000 raised of a million dollar goal. Backers that were/are behind the push to finish the film included Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Frank Marshall and Bret Ratner.

The organizers of the Indiegogo campaign to raise funds have pledged to finish the film despite falling short of the goal.

Admittedly, the film isn't a perfect fit for the Showbiz411 tease as it seems like it would be really pushing it hard to have a complete version ready for Telluride/Toronto.  A couple of friends/colleagues that I shared this with this weekend are also dubious that "Wind" is really what is being referenced.  That said, none of us could come up with another film that fit the brief description in the tease, so...

Clearly, a premiere of the last unseen full length feature from the a legend of Welles' stature would be astounding and Telluride would be the perfect venue for such an animal.  I can envision the Telluride return of Peter Bogdanovich, who used to attend T-ride regularly, as a presenter of the film along with producer Frank Marshall.  Both men still have ties to TFF.  Bogdo and Marshall are listed on TFF's  list of "Esteemed Advisors" as of last year's program.

Marshall is producing the film and Bogdo acts in it and was a Welles confidant and protege.

Finally, I just would like this to be true.  Imagine the electricity of that screening...a brand new, never-before-seen full length feature from Orson Welles.  It would be magical.

This disclaimer, however...when I contacted Showbiz411 and asked if there was any further information that could be shared I found that-whatever the project is- it isn't a sure thing at this point for either Telluride or Toronto.  All of this frothing over the original tweet may well be for naught.

If you have any insight or maybe you have another candidate for a film that fits the limited info from the Showbiz411 tease, provide a comment, email or message.

IMDb for "The Other Side of the Wind";

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069049/?ref_=ttco_co_tt


Here's a piece Vanity Fair ran about the film, its history and the effort to finish it that ran originally in May 2015:

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/04/orson-welles-the-other-side-of-the-wind-making-of



"STEVE JOBS" T.V. SPOT

A new television spot for Danny Boyle's "Steve Jobs" appeared last Thursday.  It's somewhat different from the previous couple of teaser/trailers that have appeared.

I have "Steve Jobs" listed as the #10 film on the latest "Ten Bets" list.




via YouTube


Here's coverage of the T.V. spot release:






"THE REVENANT" FINALLY FINISHED SHOOTING?

The Film Stage tweeted Sunday morning that Alejandro Inarritu has finished additional photography for "The Revenant".



The film had to head to South America to get snowy, cold weather to finish the last bit of shooting after having had a difficult time with the primary shoot in Canada.  The film has zero chance of being ready for a play at Telluride, there's just still too much to get done.

Until its limited release on Dec. 25th we'll all have to continue to survive on the trailer:



TORONTO NEWS TOMORROW?



After having been off by a day last week concerning the announcement of Canadian films for the Toronto Film Festival, I'm a little hesitant to write this but I believe we will be hearing from TIFF with more revelations of their lineup tomorrow.

If that is the case, it will, in all probability provide us with a few more clues about what could take place in the San Juans on Labor Day weekend.  That's my hope anyway.


MTFB IN OTHER PLACES



I had a kind of interesting weekend as MTFB ended up in some different places.  Screencraft.org's John Rhodes asked me to write up a pre-Telluride piece for their, which I did and was up Friday and then Sasha Stone of Awards Daily also published a story that referenced the blog considerably.  My thanks to both of them for their generosity in allowing me to expose MTFB to a wider audience.

Links to both posts are here:

https://screencraft.org/2015/08/07/prediction-telluride-film-festivals-2015-lineup/

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/08/on-the-hunt-for-best-picture-telluride-predictions/



That's your Monday...more coming tomorrow...


Please feel free to leave a comment or question here at the blog.

Email me at michael_speech@hotmail.com or mpgort@gmail.com

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1 comment:

Chris said...

It appears to be a Sydney Pollack film of Aretha Franklin. http://www.showbiz411.com/2015/08/11/exclusive-rare-aretha-franklin-performance-film-directed-by-sydney-pollack-may-screen-in-toronto