ADD WERNER TO THE SHOW
Composer Nicholas Singer (nominated for an Emmy in 2014 for his work on the music for Night Must Fall) tweeted yesterday that the documentary he has been working on will premiere at Telluride. What makes the claim credible is that he says the film was made with Werner Herzog. The film is titled Meeting Gorbachev.
Though IMDb does not list the film in Singer's or Herzog's credits, it exists as Singer also tweeted a link to this RealScreen.com story that confirms its existence and that it will European premiere at the Leipzig Fest. The film is reported to be the opening night film on Oct. 29th.
As the tweet also says that the film will play Toronto, we can expect to see that in their announcements today or next week.
The film is described in the RealScreen story as a "portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev".
AWARDS WATCH LOOKS AT OSCAR AND FESTS
Erik Anderson of Awards Watch posted a longish piece over the weekend in which he takes a look at what he believes are the biggest Oscar contenders and where we know or where he thinks films are going to play as we move into the next few weeks.
The piece is interesting and notable because he adds some spicy choices to the list of films that he thinks are likely for Telluride. Films that either haven't been announced anywhere as yet or, in the case of A Star Is Born, have been announced but for which Anderson expresses a contrarian view.
What I mean is, I have certainly bagged the chances of seeing A Star Is Born at T-ride as Toronto announced it as a North American premiere. That designation has been rock solid as an indicator that a film will NOT play at Telluride since Toronto began the policy of requiring that films that they program reveal whether they're going to Telluride or not. To my knowledge there has been only one exception and that came in the first year of TIFF's "honest premiere status" policy and that was Escobar: Paradise Lost.
I'd like to be wrong, though.
In as far as other morsels of interest...
Anderson has a bunch of what have become the consensus Telluride players based on previous announcements from other fests: Cold War, Dogman, Roma, The Favourite, First Man, The Other Side of the Wind, Peterloo, The Old Man and the Gun, White Boy Rick.
Of more interest are films that have not been announced that he thinks probably/possibly be at Telluride: Boy Erased, Green Book, Mary Queen of Scots and Mid 90s make that list.
The entire post is linked here.
REDFORD RESTATES: IT'S MY LAST
Entertainment Weekly posted an interview with Robert Redford yesterday in which the Oscar winning director of Ordinary People re-confirmed that The Old Man and the Gun will be his last acting gig.
Redford had said the same thing previously but seems to really put an exclamation mark to the notion with this story.
Redford's last film acting is expected to screen (for the first time for a public audience...call it a world premiere if you want to) in Telluride in three-ish weeks.
Here's the Entertainment Weekly interview.
MY NOMINATION FOR AN EPISODIC SELECTION
I've been interested in Maniac sense I learned that it was going to exist. The combination of Cary Joji Fukunaga (directing all 10 episodes) and Emma Stone was more than enough to get my attention.
Now, with the decision to turn the Coen Brothers Ballad of Buster Scruggs from a six part limited series into a feature film, I humbly submit that TFF should program Maniac as an episodic presentation (like Wormwood from last year).
The Netflix release date is Sept. 21 so it would fit nicely...
The notion also crossed my mind yesterday as a new trailer was released...and it's goooood...
From YouTube:
FOUR OF EIGHT
Variety's Kristopher Tapley cryptically tweeted a list of nine films last week. One assumes it is his first take on nine films that will ultimately end up being nominated for Best Picture.
Here's the list:
The reason for my excitement...half of Tapley's list is probable for T-ride-The Favourite, First Man, The Front Runner and Roma. BlacKkKlansman and Black Panther have or will have already been released before Telluride and A Star Is Born will not be playing there as revealed by its North American Premiere status for Toronto. The only film left on the list is tha Adam McKay film about Dick Cheney which could conceivably still make the Telluride lineup but I have seen/heard some scuttlebutt that McKay prefers to wait for its release later indicating that, perhaps an AFI berth is possible or no Fest play at all.
Still, I'm excited that so much appears on Tapley's list that we're probably going to see in the San Juans in three and a half weeks.
THE POSTER REMAINS A MYSTERY
It's August 6th and we still have seen no release of the 45th TFF official poster. Last year was also a late reveal. Even then, though, it was released on July 13th and that was the latest poster release in the last seven years.
Now we're behind that by three weeks.
Depending on the news we get today from other fests, I may post an update a little later today and as always...More to come on Thursday.
TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)
