Thinking About the Guests / More to Come from Toronto / Some Questions About "Amazing Grace" / Have You Thought About This? / Don't Forget

Welcome back from the weekend.  Hope you had a good one and now on to Monday  and another day closer to TFF #42!


THINKING ABOUT THE GUESTS

I get to this point each year now, thinking that I've got a pretty good bead on a majority of what's likely to play at the festival and start to wonder about Tributes and Guests.  I'm still enough of a goon that I get excited about the possibilities of who my wife and I might get to meet, rub elbows with and inadvertently annoy in the four days of the festival.  Call me shallow...but it was a thrill to shake hands and have even a brief conversations with a number of the fests guests over the years.

So...who could make the trip to Telluride and pass you on the street or be eating next to you at 221 Oak or on the next bar stool at The New Sheridan Bar?

Looking at last week's "Telluride Ten Bets (Plus Five) here are the possible suspects...

Director-wise: Laurie Anderson, Davis Guggenheim, Todd Haynes, Danny Boyle (maybe he hauls screenwriter Aaron Sorkin with him), Charlie Kaufman (but I think co-director Duke Johnson is more likely) and Cary Fukunaga are the names that leap out to me.

Actor wise: from "Black Mass": Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton (Cumberbatch is busy doing Hamlet on England.

"Beasts of No Nation": Idris Elba.  Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see the youngster that plays the lead: Abraham Attah.

"Suffragette": Carey Mulligan is preggers and so is an unlikely guest but maybe Helena Bonham Carter (she's been to the fest before in 2005 with "Conversations with Other Women") and if they really want to "wow" us, Meryl Streep (Who was at the fest in 1998 receiving a tribute and with "Dancing at Lughnasa").  Though, to be fair, her role is very small in the film...still, a guy can dream.

"Room": Brie Larson.  Maybe co-stars William H. Macy (at TFF in 2005 with "Edmond") and/or Joan Allen (who was at T-ride in 2004 with "Yes")

"Steve Jobs": Michael Fassbender could return to Telluride after being there two years ago with the crew from "12 Years a Slave".  Maybe any number of other cast members: Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels.

"He Named Me Malala":  I'm begging you TFF, bring Malala Yousafzai to Telluride.  It'd be like meeting Gandhi, Pope Francis, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu or the Dali Lama...once in a lifetime-level!

"Carol"  Cate Blanchett is doing a play in Australia.  I'm told that her show there is dark on Sunday...but it's Australia.  Maybe her co-star, Rooney Mara?

"45 Years": I wouldn't be completely shocked if both Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay made the trek.

"Spotlight": Lots of people that could make the trip: Michael Keaton (come on Mike...wanted you there last year with "Birdman"), Mark Ruffalo (who was in T-ride in 2003 with "My Life Without Me"), Stanley Tucci, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Liev Schreiber (who was in Telluride in 2005 with "Everything is Illuminated"), Billy Crudup (pf "Rudderless" fame(and who was at TFF in 1999 with "Jesus' Son")


In order of my level of begging to have their presence:

1) Malala
2) Streep
3) Fassbender
4) Keaton
5) Macy
6) Winslet
7) Boyle
8) Depp
9) Ruffalo
10) Mara


I've got a pretty good feeling for about 50% of this list.


As to Tributes...got some ideas...but let's see your speculation for a bit:  @BoomBoomChris suggests via Twitter that it might be Fassbender, maybe Tarantino with some "Hateful Eight" footage and Hitchcock.

The rest of you need to chime in...Who do you think might receive a tribute in Telluride in 2015?


MORE TO COME FOR TORONTO

I am reliably told by a reader who commented on my post from Wed., Aug. 19th that we will see the last announcement of films for the Toronto International Film Festival tomorrow.  Those last additions could still give us information to chew on regarding Telluride.  Maybe we'll see the addition to the TIFF slate of some of those films still unclaimed by Venice or New York.

The commenter says that TIFF still has films to add to its Discovery Section, "In Conversation With..." and may still add some titles to its Masters section.  Stay tuned for those developments.


SOME QUESTION ABOUT "AMAZING GRACE"

Had an interesting query to the blog late Friday via the comment section (check Friday's 8/21 post) in which "Anonymous/filmbuff 83" asked me about reports that the Sidney Pollack documentary about Aretha Franklin filmed in 1972, "Amazing Grace" is "premiering" at Toronto.

I did my due diligence and responded as follows:

I'm very comfortable predicting "Amazing Grace" to play Telluride. The producer who finished the film at Sidney Pollack's request has been quoted as saying it is and the L.A. Times, which originally reported that it would premiere at Toronto has since gone back in a later story to say Telluride was likely. Further, Toronto lists it as an "International Premiere" meaning it will have played outside of Canada prior to its screening there. T-ride is really the only option for that to be true. Finally, Jeff Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere reported the Telluride play last night:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2015/08/pollacks-long-submerged-aretha-franklin-doc-playing-telluride-first/

The appearance of the Wells piece came Friday night right in the of my due diligence.  It came in really handy.

Of course, Wells does mention, as I have, that the project has been in legal limbo for years due to Franklin's hesitance and that could still come into play between now and Labor Day...


HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THIS?

I've been seeing mentions here and there for about the last week or so that its the 35th anniversary of Ken Burns' seminal documentary of the Civil War.  It occurs to me that we could see some sort of celebration of that 1990 T-ride presentation.

As evidence...Burns is already scheduled to do a public presentation hosted by the Telluride Historical Museum at The Palm on Aug. 30.

http://telluridepalm.com/


So it seems to me that they'll be ready to run some of the over 11 hour doc if the fest has a mind to do that.


DON'T FORGET

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