The Writers Take the Spotlight / The Wrap Raps with Del Toro (who also has a new gig)

Welcome to Monday, my friends...

THE WRITERS TAKE THE SPOTLIGHT

Writing awards were the name of the game over the weekend as The Writers Guild of America named their best screenplays of the year.  Last Night the WGA named Get Out as Best Original Screenplay and James Ivory's Call Me By Your Name as Best Adapted Screenplay.  

The awards probably signal the Oscar winners in each category and also may portend which film takes home the Best Picture prize on Mar. 4th. as many Oscarologists believe that the win gives Get Out a boost with Oscar voting not set to get under way for another week.

Ivory also won the USC Scripter prize for adapted screenwriting for Call Me By Your Name.

With the WGA and Scripter awards announced that leaves only next week's BAFTA awards as the final precursor/harbinger for this Oscar season.  Oscar final voting will open Feb. 20th and closes a week later.

The Independent Spirit Awards will be announced on Saturday, Mar. 3rd with the Oscar ceremony to occur the following night.

Here's Indiewire's coverage of the USC Scripter Award announcement.

And their coverage of the WGA.

THE WRAP RAPS WITH DEL TORO

Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water is right in the thick of the Oscar Best Picture race with the most nominations of any film (13).  It is considered by serious Oscar watchers as a very real threat to take home the big prize.  As such, Del Toro has been very accessible to media these past few months since Telluride and that has included a recent sit down with The Wrap.

The video is just shy of 30 minutes as Del Toro echoes many of the themes and ideas that audiences hear in T-ride just over five months ago.

You can access the story and video here.

  

One other quick note about Del Toro.  We know that he will not be in Telluride for TFF #45 as we discovered overnight that he has been named to preside over the Venice Film Fest jury.  I could have seen him back over Labor Day in support of Alfonso Cuaron's Roma much like Alejandro Inarritu was in T-ride last year for Del Toro's film.  

Roma is rumored to be a Cannes selection and it wouldn't be a shock to me to see it appear on the TFF #45 lineup.

That's your truncated MTFB for this Monday.  More on Thursday.

Goodbye George and Martin / Downsizing Will Open Venice and ??? / Twitter Revelations

Welcome back from the weekend...it was a rough ending...

GOODBYE GEORGE AND MARTIN

George Romero

Martin Landau

It was bad enough that I was going to need to write a bit about the passing of George Romero when I got that news yesterday but then later last night, to add insult to injury, I got the news that Oscar winning actor Martin Landau had died as well.

Damn.

Romero...though it is often said after someone dies that they changed the game, there are a lot of times when that's hyperbole.  Not here.  George Romero changed the game.  For all practical purposes he created a film genre and did it for next to nothing and in a ridiculously small amount of time.  Night of the Living Dead was a revelation and a revolution.  It's difficult to overstate its impact on films that would follow.

Landau...I can remember seeing him in Mission Impossible on T.V. when I was a kid (I was maybe 8 or 9)  and even then recognizing how good he was.  I also remember being awed by hos Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood and how pleased I was that he won his Oscar for that performance.

Sad to hear that they are both gone.


DOWNSIZING WILL OPEN VENICE AND ???

Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig from Downsizing

We found out on Friday that Alexander Payne's Downsizing will open the Venice Film Festival on Aug. 30th.  That news put to rest concerns that the film wouldn't be ready in time for a Telluride play.
And though it doesn't guarantee a TFF #44 berth, a lot of people smarter than I am think that it's high;y likely now.

That scenario makes a ton of sense to me as I have been thinking that Payne would bring the film to Telluride if at all possible.

It seems likely that Downsizing will probably follow the same trail that La La Land, 12 Years a Slave and Gravity established with a Venice play followed by a TFF set of screenings.

Take a look at the coverage from:

Variety

Deadline

The Playlist

Indiewire

Hollywood Elsewhere



TWITTER REVELATIONS

Julianne Moore from Wonderstruck

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere posted a piece yesterday in which he writes that there will be no Sundance/Telluride crossover for Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name.

Wells has been a big fan of the film since its debut in Park City and expressed his unhappiness that it won't be included on the TFF #44 bill of fare.

So, we can take it off the table.

But also...if you read the piece, you will also have noticed that Wells confirms that Todd Haynes Wonderstruck will be playing and that cinematographer Ed Lachman will be getting a tribute as a part of that.

I tumbled to that as a result of a tweet from friend Jason Osiason.

That also led to a Twitter exchange that included Variety's Kristopher Tapley in which he says that Ruben Ostlund's The Square is off the table for The SHOW.

I'll have more from Mr. Osiason tomorrow.

Sooo...learned quite bit over the weekend...Wonderstruck and Downsizing...probably a yes.  The Square and Call Me By Your Name...nope.


That'll do for a Monday.  More to come...


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