The Distributors 2019: 20th Century Fox / Lucy in the Sky and This Fall / Nuggets from Venice Speculation

Welcome...


THE DISTRIBUTORS 2019: 20TH CENTURY FOX

Or...you know...Disney.

I'm taking a look at films that were at 20th Century Fox that are now, due to Disney's acquisition...part of Disney.  It has meaning as Disney and Telluride really have no history (at least in the time I've been attending TFF).  20th Century Fox has only a small footprint in as far as Telluride is concerned.

But 20th Century Fox has three solid films that are probably going to be a part of the end of the year awards conversation and they may try to include Telluride in their plans for those films.  They are:

James Gray's Ad Astra (more about it below) dated for release on Sept. 20th
Joe Wright's The Woman in the Window dated Oct. 4th
James Mangold's Ford v. Ferrari dated Nov. 15th

Two of the three directors have played Telluride in the past with Joe Wright their most recently with Darkest Hour.  Mangold their many years back with Walk the Line and even James Gray was in Telluride in 2012 for the tribute to Marion Cotillard.

So, the factors I look at to make a determination about whether a film is a likely T-ride choice are a mixed bag.

Ultimately, call Ad Astra the most likely prospect (again, see below) at 40%.
The others...
The Woman in the Window 30%
Ford v. Ferrari 30%


LUCY IN THE SKY AND THIS FALL

Natalie Portman in Lucy in the Sky (via IMDb)

I've had my eye on this (back when it was Untitled Noah Hawley Project and then when it became Pale Blue Dot) and just in the last day or so noticed a little more heat on Lucy's Telluride chances.  Ben Travers writing for Indiewire reported on Sunday that "Fox Searchlight is targeting the fall festival circuit for the film's debut".

In my Fox Searchlight assessment back on June 13th, I had Lucy in the Sky listed as having a 40% chance of making the Telluride lineup.  I might have to bump that to 45% in light of the Indiewire story and Fox Searchlight's history with Telluride.

The Travers piece in Indiewire is linked here.

Here's the trailer for the film that is as yet undated for release.

NUGGETS FROM VENICE SPECULATION

As we edge closer to announcements of films for both Venice and Toronto the speculation about what films will go where is starting to grow.  Case in point was World of Reel's Jordan Ruimy spec piece about all the fall film fests that he originally posted on June 21st and has continued to update.  That's linked here.

Last week Roger Friedman reported at ShowBiz 411 that Venice was looking strongly looking at programming Roman Polanski's An Officer and a Spy not that I think that suggests a Telluride play for that film. 

What was interesting was the mention of a couple of other films in the article.  Friedman reports that we can all give up on The Irishman for Venice (and by extension Telluride) as Scrosese does not look like he'll be done with the visual effects in time.The other note is that the notion that James Gray's Ad Astra will play Venice is gaining traction.  Should that happen, that may signal an increased likelihood that the space epic starring Brad Pitt might land in the Rockies on Labor Day weekend.

Something to ponder.


Tuesday's MTFB is in the books back on Thursday.


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The Distributors 2018: Big Dogs / Don Quixote Legal Woes Won't Stop It / Moore's New Doc at TFF? / For Your Consideration

Thursday...July 5, 2018


Welcome back to MTFB...

THE DISTRIBUTORS 2018: BIG DOGS

There are, each year, a number of films that feel like they could have some Telluride potential that are distributed by one of the big studios that often have a limited profile in as far as T-ride is concerned.  This year is no different.

For example, Steve McQueen's Widows is set up at 20th Century Fox and Damien Chazelle's First Man is set to come from Universal.

Because of the two directors, and their pasts with TFF, I have to consider them as possibles for TFF #45 despite the fact that 20th Century Fox and Universal have very limited histories at the fest.

Also included in the calculation are Robert Zemeckis' Welcome to Marwen and Bryan Singer's Bohemian Rhapsody.

I might also mention that Columbia has Jason Reitman's take on Gary Hart's 1988 presidential run in The Front Runner and the Matthew McConaughey starrer White Boy Rick directed by Yann Dannage (who, like Chazelle and McQueen has been to Telluride before).  It also falls into this category of films.

Of the six films listed here, my feel is that the most likely to make Telluride is Reitman's The FrontRunner.  Reitman used to be a regular at Telluride and this could be his ticket back to The SHOW.  Give it a 40% chance.

Widows is next in line simply because the Steve McQueen connection has been tight.  He screened Hunger, Shame and 12 Years a Slave at T-ride.  Give it a 35% chance to play.

Chazelle's First Man is next at 30%.

I give Welcome to Marwen a 25% shot, White Boy Rick a 20% chance and Bohemian Rhapsody seems the least likely at 10%.

Tomorrow I'll look at films that feel like they have a decent shot at Telluride from occasional specialty houses that make TFF appearances.

DON QUIXOTE'S LEGAL WOES WON'T STOP IT

After so much back and forth legally regarding Terry Gilliam's long awaited passion project, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, it now appears that the film is going to be around quite a lot in the next few months.

The Hollywood Reporter's Nick Holdsworth writes that the film (having just screened at the Karlovy Vary Film Fest) will screen in competition at the Munich Film Fest and Gilliam says it will open wide in Holland and Belgium soon.

This series of events seems to indicate that the film is fully possible to screen in the U.S. at any and all of the fall fests.

It should be noted that the film was, at one point, set to be distributed by Amazon Studios but that they dropped out when legal issues endangered its planned screening at Cannes.

The complete THR story is here.


MOORE'S NEW DOC AT TFF?

Michael Moore has made it clear that he's going to pushing his new Donald Trump documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 hard for the next few months insisting that he wants it seen by as many people as possible prior to November's midterm elections.

One has to suspect that will include some presence on the fall festival circuit and that could include seeing it pop up at Telluride.

Moore has been at Telluride by my count four times-1989, 1992, 2002 and as a guest in 2013 for the fest's 40th anniversary.  So, especially with how much Telluride's profile has increased over the last decade, you have to consider it a possibility.

Here's the Indiewire article from Michael Nordine reporting on Moore's recent appearance on Bill Maher.



FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Recent articles at both The Playlist and World of Reel highlight what seem to be a larger than normal pool of films that might have legitimate aspirations for Oscar glory and that seems to be opening a wide door for those films and where they could land for their premieres.

Both article authors (Jordan Ruimy-World of Reel and Greg Ellwood-The Playlist) mention Telluride in this context.


Interesting tidbits from the Ruimy piece:

Alfonso Cuaron's Roma has hot buzz.
Mike Leigh's Peterloo was submitted for Cannes but was not chosen
Test screening response for Damien Chazelle's First Man has been okay but not through the roof
He describes Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk as "artsy".

Meanwhile, Ellwood's article poses a number of questions about Oscar quirks for 2018.

Check the articles out.

World of Reel

The Playlist

That's today's MTFB.  Come back tomorrow for the week's NEW TEN BETS...


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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Venice Spec/20th Century Fox (and Won't Back Down)/Master's Facebook/

Good Wednesday to All!

VENICE SPECULATION

We're probably about 5 weeks away from the official lineup announcement for the Venice Film Festival.
We already know that it's under new direction from a past director.
We know it will be smaller (near Telluride-size in terms of the total number of films screened).
We know that the new director has claimed that he's likely to have "The Master", "To the Wonder" and Brian DePalma's new film, "Passion", though I think these might all be wishful thinking rather than hard and fast commitments.
We know that the overlap between Telluride and Venice films is usually very small...last year: 3 films (to the best of my ability to dig  this up): "Shame", "A Dangerous Method" and "Diana Vreeland".  And 3 is about normal.
Overlap in 2010: "Black Swan" and "Letter to Elia"
Overlap in 2009: "The Road", "Life During Wartime" and "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans"
So Venice is usually a lineup that winnows Telluride possibilities...

All that to get to this: The Playlist has a big Venice speculation piece posted yesterday.

Highlights include two specific Telluride references in their analysis of Derek Cianfrance's "The Place Beyond the Pines" and David O. Russell's "The Silver Linings Playbook".  "Pines" is Cianfrance's follow up to the very well received "Blue Valentine".  "Silver Linings" is the latest project from the director of "The Fighter" and "Three Kings" and will be distributed by The Weinstein Company.

Some other intriguing notes from The Playlist post:
They appear to believe the claims about "The Master", "To the Wonder" and "Passion" as they have them listed as "strong possibilities" for Venice along with "Anna Karenina", "Argo", "Gangster Squad" and "Something in the Air" among others.

Among "possibilities" they list: "Life of Pi", "The Place Beyond the Pines" and "Love is All You Need".

Among the "long shots" are: "Seven Psychopaths", "The Silver Linings Playbook", "Django Unchained","Low Life", "Cloud Atlas", "Inside Llewyn Davis" and "Zero Dark Thirty".

The complete post is here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/terrence-malick-the-master-anna-karenina-more-what-could-be-in-this-years-venice-film-festival-line-up-20120619


20TH CENTURY FOX

Continuing to look at "Major" studios who might have been the studio reference by reports from the L.A. Film Festival that a so-called "major" was dangling bait in front of Telluride programmers we review the late year offerings from 20th Century Fox.

It looks like four possibilities emerge:

Ang Lee's "Life of Pi"...which I'm watching anyway because Lee's been represented at Telluride before with "Brokeback Mountain" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" perhaps most notable.

Curtis Hanson's "Of Men and Mavericks"...mostly because I met Hanson at Telluride a few years ago.

And Daniel Barnz's "Won't Back Down" starring Viola Davis in what purports to be this year's vehicle for Ms. Davis to challenge for the Best Actress Oscar that Meryl Streep won over her last year.

Won't Back Down" is featured in a post this week from The Playlist with links to 4 clips from the film.

Here's one of them:

Check others here at The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-viola-davis-maggie-gyllenhaal-wont-back-down-in-4-clips-from-the-education-drama-20120618

And of course, the big dog Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" which Fox is co-producing with Dreamworks and Amblin and a bunch of others.  I'll have more to say about it on Friday. ("Lincoln's IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443272/)

20th Century Fox has been represented at Telluride in the past with: "The Descendants" (2011), "127 Hours", "Never Let Me Go" and "Black Swan (2010) and "The Savages" (2007) and others.

My take:  "Life of Pi" chances are at 30%, "Of Men and Mavericks" 15% and "Won't Back Down" at 25%.

Tomorrow a look at what Warner Brothers might have tried to play with if they're the studio in question.

THE MASTER: "LIKE"???

Paul Thomas Anderson fansite Cigarettes and RedVines posted the link to the official "The Master" Facebook page yesterday.  It's...um...still under construction...visit it here:

http://www.facebook.com/themaster.twc

More later...

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