Ten Bets #10 for TFF #48 / French Dispatch Mini-Teasers / The Starling Trailer / Hand of God Trailer / And Here's Some Weirdness

TEN BETS #10 FOR TFF #48

Well folks, we're almost there.  A week from now, if all goes well, and the spouse and I pass our Covid tests, we'll be in Telluride for TFF #48.  So this is the next to last Ten Bets for 2021.  I'll post a Final Ten Bets on Monday morning.  I hope it's not misleading.

I'm sure that many of you have noticed that I have written that this has been a challenging year in as far as predicting Telluride is concerned.  Now, in the last few days, there's new reason for uncertainty.  Mark Johnson of Good as Gold, pointed out that Kris Tapley, who knows a thing or two about fests and Telluride (formerly of In Contention, Variety and now currently a consultant), Tweeted this:

Now that's a bombshell.  The "honest premiere" status instigated a few years ago by the Toronto Fest and emulated by others has become an indispensable tool in nailing down probable Telluride selections.  It's become such an easy and reliable tool over these few years that a lot of people can and do read the T-ride tea leaves.  So if Tapley is correct, the whole enterprise of predicting goes back to real digging, intuition...guesswork.  Yeeks!

Nevertheless, here's what the Ten (+10) Bets looked like last week:

1) The Power of the Dog/Campion

2) The Electrical Life of Louis Wain/Sharpe

3) The Card Counter/Schrader

4) Spencer/Larrain

5) A Hero/Farhadi

6) C'mon, C'mon/Mills

7) The Rescue/Chin and Vasarhelyi

8) The Velvet Underground/Haynes

9) Julia/Cohen and West

10) Becoming Cousteau/Garbus

11) Cyrano/Wright

12) Petite Maman/Sciamma

13) Something from Mark Cousins***

14) Hallelujah-Leonard Cohen Doc/Geller and Goldfine

15) Encounter/Pearce

16) The Hand of God/Sorrentino

17) Vortex/Noe

18) The First 54 Years/Mograbi

19) The Lost Daughter/Gyllenhaal

20) Three Minutes-A Lengenthing/Stigter

Other Possibles: The French Dispatch, Muhammad Ali, Cow, Antlers, Red Rocket, Last Exit: Space, Flee, King Richard, Prayers for the Stolen, Unclenching the Fists, A Chiara. 

***Mark Cousins projects that could play:

The Story of Looking

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas

The Story of Film: The Next Generation

And this week's Ten Bets (+) are:

1) The Power of the Dog/Campion

2) The Electrical Life of Louis Wain/Sharpe

3) The Card Counter/Schrader

4) Spencer/Larrain

5) A Hero/Farhadi

6) C'mon, C'mon/Mills

7) The Hand of God/Sorrentino

8) The Rescue/Chin and Vasarhelyi

9) The Velvet Underground/Haynes

10) Julia/Cohen and West

11) Becoming Cousteau/Garbus

12) Cyrano/Wright

13) Petite Maman/Sciamma

14) Something from Mark Cousins***

15) Hallelujah-Leonard Cohen Doc/Geller and Goldfine

16) Encounter/Pearce

17) Muhammad Ali/Burns, Burns and McMahon

18) The First 54 Years/Mograbi

19) The Lost Daughter/Gyllenhaal

20) Three Minutes-A Lengthening/Stigter

21) Flee/Rasmussen

22) King Richard/Green

23) The Story of.../Cousins

24) The French Dispatch/Anderson

25) Vortex/Noe

Other Possibles: Prayers for the Stolen, Cow, Antlers, Red Rocket, Last Exit: Space, Unclenching the Fists, A Chiara, The Starling. The Same Storm, Dune.

For me...hot titles are French Dispatch, Power of the Dog, Card Counter, C'mon C'mon, Hand of God, Flee, King Richard and A Hero.  That could change.  If The Starling SHOWS...it'll probably go on my list.

FRENCH DISPATCH-MINI TEASERS

Searchlight has deployed a series of character specific teasers for Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch.  within the last couple of weeks there has been enough buzz that it could play Telluride that I have elevated it from a "possibility" to the #24 spot on this week's Ten Bets (+) list.  Here from YouTube are those teasers:

Revisions to a Manifesto:

The Concrete Masterpiece:

The Cycling Reporter:

THR STARLING TRAILER

Listen, I don't have anything resembling concrete intell, but, within the last week I have begun to think that Theodore Melfi's (Hidden Figures, St. Vincent) The Starling could end up making the TFF #48 lineup.  The Starling stars Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd and Timothy Olyphant.  The IMDb description for The Starling is as follows:

"After Lilly suffers a loss, a combative Starling takes nest beside her quiet home. The feisty bird taunts and attacks the grief-stricken Lilly. On her journey to expel the Starling, she rediscovers her will to live and capacity for love."

And here's the trailer for the film released a couple of days ago from YouTube:

HAND OF GOD TRAILER

I haven't been on board the "The Hand of God" will play Telluride train fully until the last couple of weeks but I am now 95% sure the Paolo Sorrentino semi-autobiographical film will, in fact, play at TFF #48.  I'll also be forthcoming that I hadn't worked up much enthusiasm for the notion until I sat down and watched the trailer.  Now I am in full anticipation mode.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

AND HERE'S SOME WEIRDNESS...

Jordan Ruimy 's World of Reel pointed out yesterday that IMDb has listed Taika Watiti's Next Goal Wins has a date with the London BFI Film Festival.  

I had all but given up any notion that Watiti's film would play any festival owing to the allegations surrounding Armie Hammer who appears in the film.  This, however, changes the pitch (if you will).

If the IMBd Pro entry is accurate, then maybe we have to reconsider.  The info from IMDb doesn't reveal the film's actual premiere status leaving the door open to the notion that it might play somewhere else prior to bowing at London/BFI.  

It's a Searchlight film...

T-ride in 2021???

Probably not, but deserving of a sliver of the convo...

From IMDb Pro:

Final Ten Bets coming Monday!!!

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