Hear the Jazz Go Down / Late Breaking: Variety Reports on Cannes / Poland Has Some Thoughts / New Doc from Morris

HEAR THE JAZZ GO DOWN

With apologies to Dire Straits for lifting the lyrics from Sultans of Swing to title this item...

The Telluride Jazz Festival announced that they will postpone until 2021.  The Jazz Fest had been scheduled for Aug. 13-15 but will forgo 2020 altogether and opt to "wait until next year" according to a post on the Jazz fest's website.

The closing sentence reveals that the plan is to have the fest back on the same weekend in August of 2021.

The cancellation or postponement as the fest seems to prefer is worrisome from the Film Fest's perspective as Jazz takes place just a couple of weeks prior to Film. Comparing the two fests is not exact.  The Jazz Fest is centered during each day at Town Park and Elks Park and then there are "After Dark" performances in a variety of venues around town.  Nevertheless, despite some differences in terms of structure, the cancellation of the 2020 edition of Jazz Fest makes one take pause.

The announcement from Jazz Fest organizers is here.


LATE BREAKING: VARIETY REPORTS ON CANNES

Variety's Elsa Keslassy posted a story early this morning with a number of interesting reveals about the Cannes Film Festival.

- Cannes will announce their list of 50 or so titles that would have played there on June 3.
- Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch will be on that list along with ThomasVinterberg's Another Round, Francois Ozon's Summer '85, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria, Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks, Gia Coppola's Mainstream and Naomi Kawase's Come Morning.
- The French Dispatch is "likely" to world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.  The article suggests that Coppola might also go to TIFF.
- It appears that the notion of some co-operation between Cannes and Venice has disappeared.
- Venice appears to have landed Nanni Moretti's Tre Piani and Maiwenn's DNA meaning they won't be on the Cannes list next Wednesday.

If the claims are true, it implies that The French Dispatch and On the Rocks may be off the list for TFF #47.

The complete article is here with other info including other films expected to be announced for Cannes next week and a list of films that are said to be holding off for Cannes 2021.


LATE BREAKING: NO NETFLIX FOR FALL FESTS (added at 11:00am EDT on Thurs.5/28)

It is rare that I deviate from the publishing schedule for MTFB but this news justifies and additional post today.  Anne Thompson at Indiewire has reported that Netflix has determined that they will be sending no films to any of the major fall fests Telluride included.

That report came late yesterday.

The news means that a number of high profile projects are no longer in play for TFF as well Venice, Toronto and New York.

Titles from Netflix that have been a part of the conversation:  Mank, Hillbilly Elegy, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and White Tiger.

The news could impact Telluride considerably as Netflix has been a major presence at the fest over the last few years:

2015: Beasts of No Nation, Winer on Fire
2016: The Ivory Game, Into the Inferno
2017: First They Killed My Father, Wormwood
2018: Roma, Dovlatov, Girl, Reversing Roe, The Other Side of the Wind, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
2019: Marriage Story, The Two Popes, Tell Me Who I Am, Inside Bill's Brain

Thompson's claim is pretty definitive as she writes:

"As awards groups adjust to the evolving post-pandemic reality, so will the studios. And the first up is everyone’s favorite Oscar insurgent, Netflix: While it will provide sponsorship for some major festivals in 2020, it’s not planning to send any of their films or talent to attend them."

Thompson's complete article is linked here.

POLAND HAS SOME THOUGHTS

Move City News' David Poland posted a very extensive article on Monday that takes a look and offers thoughts and prescriptions to Fall Fail Fests including Telluride.  It's interesting.

Poland talks about what he perceives as the conditions that would need to be met for both Telluride and Toronto to occur in something of a normal state.  He also addresses the notion of what virtual versions of both fests might or could look like.  He also talks about potential piracy problems and ultimately suggests that he thinks the window for both fests to make a definitive decision is about a month.

We'll see.

The complete Poland post is linked here.

NEW DOC FROM MORRIS

Errol Morris is working on a new documentary focused on 60's counter-culture figure Timothy Leary.  The film's working title "A Film by Errol Morris".  Indiewire reports that the film is inspired by the memoir of Laery companion Joanna Harcourt-Smith.

The film is being produced by and for Showtime.  No release date is included in the article but there is a teaser which says the film is "coming soon".  From YouTube:

In normal times I'd be eyeballing this as a possible/probable addition to the TFF lineup but the lack of a release date and the vagaries of Covid-19 changes that calculus.  I think it's still possible that it could play but that feeling isn't nearly as strong as I would customarily have for an Errol Morris project.

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Tinker Spec/Another Kevin/Into the Abyss/Poland's View

Good morning all.  Still kind of back to waiting...

The 38th annual Telluride Film Festival happens in 22 days!

Three weeks away and I keep getting reminders in various ways that people are coming to the blog in increasing numbers in hopes that it does what it's intended to do: give some insight about the likely films that will play at the uber-secret Telluride Film Festival.  As the days get fewer, the traffic gets bigger.  No pressure!

TINKER SPECULATION

Last year's TFF Tributee, Colin Firth, in TTSS

                                                            

Tomas Alfredson's film adaptation of the John LeCarre novel, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" has been on my Telluride radar for quite some time now.  If you range through past posts of this blog you can find poster, stills and trailer links.  I thought it was only about a 25% possibility to be at TFF #38 for a long time. 

Lately, I've been thinking that its chances are increasing especially since it wasn't tagged for Toronto and wasn't chosen to open New York ("Carnage" was) or stand as its middle of festival special presentation (My Week with Marilyn" was).  Last week I suggested that it might be a part of a Gary Oldman tribute...and I'm not saying definitively that one of Telluride's three tributes will be devoted to Oldman...just that that is a scenario that makes some sense to me.

Nevertheless, bigger show biz brains than mine are thinking in a similar direction.  Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood elsewhere posted just yesterday that he's thinking along the same lines. Wells' view for TTSS: Telluride, close the NYFF (Wells says that the closer will be announced by NYFF next week) or no U.S. festival presentation at all.

Consequently, I have bumped the chances of seeing TTSS in Telluride up to 40%...and it would definitely be on my must-see list.

The link to the Wells post is here:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2011/08/tinker_cant_hid.php

Tinker's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340800/

PS...the comments section of the Wells story indicates that Wells is now leaning toward the belief that TTSS won't play anywhere domestically prior to its London debut.


ANOTHER KEVIN

"We Need to Talk About Kevin" has been on our Telluride radar in a serious way since it made waves in May at the Cannes film festival.  Starring John C. Reilly and Tilda Swinton (in what has been touted since Cannes as an Oscar caliber performance), the film got a boost, in my estimation, of its chances of being in
T-ride during the Toronto fest announcements as the result of a cryptic tweet from Ioncinema.  Currently I have it sitting at #5 on my "Ten Bets" list.

Well, as fall fests draw closer, we're seeing more info from film distributors and studios including a new (and what most are saying is an improved) poster for the film.

The Playlist (at IndieWire) posted the new version of the poster in a story yesterday.  The post also contains the new poster for Steven Spielberg's animate "Adventures of Tintin."  Here's the new "Kevin" version via their website:

Yup..works better.  You can find The Playlist story at:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/new_posters_for_the_adventures_of_tintin_we_need_to_talk_about_kevin/

Kevin's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1242460/


INTO THE ABYSS

Werner Herzog is a Telluride mainstay.  He's on the festival's advisory board.  I think he's been there all five of the years I have.  He almost always has something in the can to show.  This year doesn't appear to be any different.

I fully expect his Texas death row documentary "Into the Abyss" (at least I think that's what he's calling it now) to be on Telluride's program when it is unveiled on Sept. 2.  We already know that it will be playing in Toronto, so we know that Herzog has it ready for public display.  So my feeling is "bank on it."  It's sitting at #2 on this week's "Ten Bets" for a reason.

All that is to get to this: Movie City News has a post up with three clips from the doc that you can look at.  Here's the link:
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/08/tiff11-three-clips-from-herzog-on-death-row-into-the-abyss/


The Abyss IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972663/


POLAND'S VIEW

Could we see "Chicken with Plums" in Telluride?

Speaking of Movie City News, their David Poland had a really great three part awards-type preview last week up on their site.  The links for all three parts are provided below.  Some notes that may have Telluride implications:

From Part One: Includes discussion of Telluride possibles "Chicken with Plums," "Dark Horse," and "The Oranges."   He also talks "Friends with Kids" and "Trishna" both of which could show at The SHOW.  I actually was teetering on calling "Trishna" a T-ride "possible" as well.

Part Two: Is chocked full or Telluride "maybes" including: "360," "The Deep Blue Sea," "Eye of the Storm," "Killer Joe," "The Lady," "Peace, Love and Understanding," "Rampart," "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen," "Shame," and "Take this Waltz."

Part Three: Starts out looking at "big" films that probably won't be in play for Telluride (with the exception of the above noted "Tinker, Tailor..." and maybe "The Rum Diary").  After that, Poland switches back to some films that definitely are possibles for Telluride: "Albert Nobbs," "The Artist," "Coriolanus," "A Dangerous Method," and, of course, the George Clooney double bill of "The Descendants" and "The Ides of March."  Additionally, Poland concludes with comments about "Moneyball," "Take Shelter" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin."

The three parter is fun and informative.  Take a look at it.

Part One link:
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/08/6-weeks-to-tiff-a-20-weeks-to-oscar-prequel-part-1-of-3/

Part Two link:
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/08/6-weeks-to-tiff-a-20-weeks-to-oscar-prequel-part-2-of-3/

Part Three link:
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/08/6-weeks-to-tiff-a-20-weeks-to-oscar-prequel-part-3-of-3/


More on the morrow...