Wells Seconds the La La Land Notion / United Kingdom to Open BFI Fest / Moving Dates

Good Tuesday.  Summer officially started yesterday.  It felt like it here in the Oklahoma Panhandle and we were not remotely the hottest place in the country.  Air conditioning..thank you.


WELLS SECONDS THE LA LA LAND NOTION

I wrote yesterday that the over-the-weekend announcement that Damien Chazelle's musical-La La Land as the opening film for the Venice Film Festival actually may boost its profile in as far as a play at Telluride is concerned.

I noted that 3 of the last six Venice openers have also made the trek to T-ride (Birdman, Gravity and Black Swan).

That notion got some support yesterday in a late afternoon post from Jeff Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere.  Wells, writing about what he perceives, at least at this point, a somewhat lackluster Oscar slate of films,  mentioned the Chazelle film and connected it to both Venice and Telluride.  It's the only mention of Telluride in the article.

Take a look at Wells' complete post here:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2016/06/concerns-about-weak-tea/



UNITED KINGDOM WILL OPEN BFI  FEST

Still via The Hollywood Reporter

It was announced in Great Britain earlier today-Amma Asante's A United Kingdom will open the British Film Institute's Film Fest.  This is notable for a couple of reasons. 1) The opener the last two years has made its first showing at Telluride: Suffragette last year and The Imitation Game in 2014.  Additionally, the story from The Hollywood Reporter characterizes the screening as the film's European Premiere which probably signals a play at either Telluride. Toronto or both.

The film stars David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike.  Oyelowo plays the King of Bechauanaland whose marriage to a white woman in 1947 resulted in fierce opposition from Britain and  South Africa.

Here's the link to the THR story:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/london-festival-open-united-kingdom-904889



MOVING DATES

photo via Screen Rant

News yesterday that some films that have been floating in and around my Telluride consciousness have been announced with shifts in release dates.  Most notably Warners' move up of to Ben Affleck's Live by Night to Jan. 13, 2017.  There is a good deal of speculation that it will likely get a limited run at the end of 2016 to qualify for Oscar consideration.  What had been a film that I thought might be a 2017 T-ride consideration now appears to be off the radar for 2016 as well.  Seems to me to be a very late debut for a film that would have to be ready to screen at T-ride almost four months before.  It's not impossible, but it's probably not making it to the San Juans.

Also, we learned that The Zookeeper's Wife from director Niki Caro has now been dated for Mar. 31, 2017 which truly takes it out of consideration for Telluride both this year and next.

I have linked a number of posts about the shift in dates:

http://theplaylist.net/jessica-chastain-vehicle-zookeepers-wife-will-skip-awards-season-lego-movie-sequel-delayed-20160620/

http://collider.com/ben-affleck-live-by-night-release-date-change/

http://deadline.com/2016/06/lego-movie-live-by-night-bastards-geostorm-warner-bros-release-dates-shifted-1201774989/

http://screenrant.com/live-by-night-ben-affleck-release-date-2017/

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