THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Each summer around this time I take some time to check out what Telluride's "Usual Suspects" have in the pipeline that could end up on the list films named to the TFF lineup. The process is not always predictive but there have been many times when it has.
The striking thing this year is that there seem to be fewer "Usual Suspects" projects that could be in the pipeline. That said...
Werner Herzog-The Fire Within which world premiered at the Sheffield Doc Fest last month. The film focuses on Katia and Maurice Krafft who were featured in Herzog's 2016 Into the Inferno. The couple were also the subject of a documentary that premiered at Sundance earlier this year: Fire of Love.
Ken Burns- The U.S. and the Holocaust. The three part series is set to begin screening on PBS stations on Sept. 18th which suggests to me that a Telluride showing of some and perhaps all of the episodes are screened at TFF #49.
Paul Schrader-The Master Gardener. Schrader has been represented at Telluride many times over the years: The Card Counter, First Reformed, Adam Resurrected. I'd normally think that Master Gardener would be a Telluride lock BUT- Schrader has been announced as the recipient of this year's Venice Film Fest's Golden Lion award for Lifetime achievement. How Venice schedules that presentation and where in their schedule they program The Master Gardener likely will determine whether Schrader's film plays Telluride.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-Bardo. There was some back and forth occurring last week as to whether the film would be playing any fall fests. At the end of the week the notion seemed to land on "probably". My guess is a Venice early slot followed by a jump across the Atlantic to T-ride. Inarritu has presented Babel, Biutiful and Birdman at Telluride. He's also been in town for Cuaron's Roma and Del Toro's The Shape of Water. I am expecting, if Bardo is ready for it to be at TFF #49.
Jean Pierre and Luc Dardennes- Tori and Lokita- The film premiered at Cannes, which, if anything, bolsters the probability that it makes its way to The SHOW. The Dardennes have made a number of appearances at TFF: The Child, The Kid with a Bike and Two Days One Night-their last TFF film in 2014.
Sebastian Lelio-The Wonder. Lelio has made a splash at Telluride in recent years: Gloria in 2013 and A Fantastic Woman in 2017. The wonder is also a Netflix title, which doesn't hurt.
Bill Pohlad-Dreamin' Wild. Pohlad has been a supporter of Telluride as well as a producer of films that play there for a good long while: A Hidden Life, Wild, 12 Years a Slave, Into the Wild, Fur, Brokaback Mountain. Pohlad has a couple of directing credits including Love & Mercy which did not play Telluride but did screen at the Toronto Fest. The film is also in the Focus Features bin.
Producers that could be represented at TFF #49 that are "Usual" as well.
Martin Scorsese-The Eternal Daughter. Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon will not be ready for fall fests and likely wouldn't play them even if it was. However, Scorsese is often represented at Telluride in his capacity as a producer: The Card Counter, Uncut Gems, Bleed for This. Eternal Daughter is also being distributed by A24.
Barry Jenkins-Aftersun. Aftersun played well at Cannes winning the French Touch Prize of the Critics' Week Jury and was produced, in part, by Barry Jenkins PASTEL. It's also distributed by A24 which doesn't hurt either. I'm bullish on its chances to screen at TFF.
Alfonso Cuaron-Raymond and Ray. Cuaron producing a Rodrigo Garcia directed film here (Garcia was at Telluride in 2011 with the Glenn Close starrer Albert Nobbs. The film's distributor is AppleTV+ which was at Telluride last year with The Velvet Underground.
And a special note here. Sort of a "Usual Suspect" Daina Oniunas-Pusic who had shorts at TFF in 2015-The Beast and 2016-Rhonna and Donna and is now directing Tuesday starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. And it's from A24. (shout out to Jason Osiason who tipped me to this).
BABYLON STILL UP IN THE AIR
Jordan Ruimy's World of Reel is keeping tight tabs on the status of Damien Chazelle's Babylon. The latest word there is that its festival fate is still up in the air and it appears to be a tussle between Chazelle and Paramount. Ruimy writes in his July 8th post:
"At the time of this article, Paramount and Chazelle are still in disagreement over whether they should bring “Babylon” to the fall festivals."
Ruimy also reveals a ton of details about the film including its current runtime of nearly three hours and that there is buzz that the film could be rated NC-17. The link to Jordan's story is here BUT HERE IS YOUR SPOILER ALERT! The post is rather detailed.
ARMAGEDDON ARRIVES IN OCTOBER
The Playlist reports that Focus Features has dated James Gray's Armageddon Time for limited release on Oct. 18th. That dating allows for it to be a part of Telluride, Toronto and/or New York. The film premiered at the Cannes Fest back in May.
I have felt an upturn in its chances to be a Telluride selection in the last 2-3 weeks.
The film's IMDb description is as follows:
"A deeply personal coming-of-age story about the strength of family and the generational pursuit of the American Dream."
Armageddon Time stars Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong and Anthony Hopkins.
SHE SAID TRAILER COMING
Again, looking at World of Reel reporting that Maria Schrader's She Said will likely have a trailer drop in the next couple of weeks. The film features Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan starring as the true life reporters who were instrumental in revealing Harvey Weinstein's abuse.
She Said is set for a Nov. 18th release.
WOR suggests that "The Oscar campaign for Maria Schrader’s “She Said” will kickstart with the trailer being released either next week or the week after that. Then, possibly a Telluride world premiere."
The single fly in the ointment in the film's TFF-ishness is that it's from Universal which has a sketchy TFF track record having, by my count, screened only three films there over the past 15 years:
2008-Flash of Genius
2015-Steve Jobs
2018- First Man
Still I have had it in the Ten Bets or on the list of additional possibilities since the first Bets almost three weeks ago.
Stay tuned as I will share the trailer as soon as it becomes available.
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