Friday, July 12, 2019

Ten Bets 2019 #3 / A Couple to Keep an Eye On / Country Music Preview in San Fran

Welcome to Friday...hope you have a great weekend...


TEN BETS 2019 #3



Here's your weekly update concerning where I think the best bets are right now for making the lineup for the 46th Telluride Film Festival.

Last week's Ten Bets (plus some bonus speculation):

10) Jojo Rabbit
9) The Good Liar
8) Nomadland
7) Untitled Noah Baumbach Project
6) The Climb
5) Little Women
4) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
3) Family Romance LLC
2) Varda by Agnes
1) Parasite

Other films in serious play: The Goldfinch, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Untitled Todd Haynes Project, Atlantics, The Laundromat, Radioactive, Country Music, The Lighthouse, Harriet, The Truth, Synonyms, Motherless Brooklyn, Ad Astra, Molly, Lucy in the Sky.


This week's Ten Bets...

10) Nomadland
9) Judy
8) Motherless Brooklyn
7) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
6) Untitled Noah Baumbach Project
5) The Climb
4) Little Women
3) Family Romance LLC
2) Agnes by Varda
1) Parasite

The Good Liar and Jojo Rabbit drop into the "Other films in serious play" category which also includes: The Goldfinch, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Untitled Todd Haynes Project, Atlantics, The Laundromat, Radioactive, Country Music/Ryman Concert, The Lighthouse, Harriet, The Truth, Synonyms, Ad Astra, Molly, Lucy in the Sky.


A COUPLE TO KEEP AN EYE ON


Sophia Loren via Variety


Normally when I run across items about a new film that is getting off the ground and it sounds like a project that I should keep in mind as a possible Telluride choice down the line, I slap that into a folder on my laptop called "Future Telluride".

The oldest item I currently have in there is a notice that Steve McQueen was going to direct a biopic about Paul Robeson.  That's from 2014.   The oldest one that I have that is currently relevant is a notice from Variety about Reese Witherspoon would be in Pale Blue Dot from Fox Searchlight.  That's become Natalie Portman in Lucy in the Sky.  Reese Witherspoon is now a producer on the film.  It's still at Fox Searchlight and is scheduled for release sometime this fall.

All of that is to tell you that a project announcement has to really grab my eye for me to slap it on this page before or instead of putting it into the "Future Telluride" folder.  A couple of those happened within the last 48 hours.

First, a report from Variety that 84 year old screen legend Sophia Loren is working a new film.  The film entitled The Life Ahead is a re-imagining of  a Romain Gary novel that was previously adapted into 1978's Foreign Film Oscar winner Madame Rosa starring Simone Signoret.

Loren hasn't appeared in a feature film since Rob Marshall's Nine in 2009.

TFF #47 anyone?

That Variety story is linked here.

And if that wasn't enough, news that director David Fincher (Se7en, , Zodiac, The Social Network) is set to direct a biopic about Oscar winning screen writer Herman Mankiewicz (winning for Citizen Kane).  The film is Fincher's first feature since 2014's Gone Girl. 

The film is tentatively titled Mank and is said to feature recent Oscar winner Gary Oldman in the role.  Fincher is planning to shoot the film in black and white and the production is set up at Netflix.

Again, TFF #47???

I have linked stories on the Fincher project here from:

The Hollywood Reporter

Variety

SlashFilm 



COUNTRY MUSIC PREVIEW IN SAN FRAN



Ken Burns and PBS are going to preview his new documentary in San Francisco on July 24th.  The SFStation.com reported that earlier this week.

The preview is scheduled to go from 7:30 to 10:00 that evening and will be followed by a Q+A.  That timing leads me to believe that it is probably a screening of the Ryman Auditorium concert I wrote about last week.

Normally I'd think this kind of screening would disqualify the film from a TFF bow but I still think there's a good chance that it makes  an appearance at TFF.

Linked here is the SFStation interview with Burns.


That does it for this week.  I'll have more on Monday.  Enjoy the weekend!

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