Cannes Gets Closer/McQueen-Flynn Collaboration

Good Monday World...

CANNES GETTING CLOSER

With the next big Telluride harbinger being the announcement of the Cannes Film Fest lineup now down to a mere two and a half weeks away, the speculation, and in some cases-informed"speculation,  about what titles will be named for the lineup is growing more intense.

This past week, two giant posts went up exploring the Cannes possibilities from Variety and Screen Daily.  Variety's seems to be a bit more discriminating about their considerations while the Screen Daily Post seems more like a grab bag of every possibility.

There are films that appear, as you might expect, in both places that I have thought seemed like they could also make the trip to Southwest Colorado for Labor Day weekend. Among them are:

Jacques Audiard's "Erran" (Dheepan?)
Matteo Garrone's "The Tale of Tales"
Jeff Nichols' "Midnight Special"
Todd Haynes' "Carol"
Denis Villaneuve's "Sicario"
Sean Penn's "The Last Face"
Stephen Frears' "Icon"
Gus Van Sant's "The Sea of Trees"
Barbet Schroeder's "Amnesia"


A couple of other notes:  Screen Daily's post suggests Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" and Abdellatif Kechiche's "Le Blessure" are possibilities while Variety does not.

Variety says Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette" will not be ready and Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells suggests that it may headed for Telluride/Toronto;

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2015/03/varietys-cannes-forecast/


We know that "Mad Max: Fury Road" and Woody Allen's "Irrational Man" as well as Pixar's "Inside Out" have been announced or are very likely to play as some part of the fest.  There's also a lot of buzz that Brad Bird's "Tomorrowland" will appear.

And finally, there's Cary Fukunaga's "Beasts of No Nation" which I might highlight as a Telluride possibility because of Fukunaga's "True Detective" success last year.  Both Variety and Screen Daily think it could appear in some section of the Cannes lineup but with Netflix distributing...and major theater chains boycotting the film because of the expectation that the film will be released for screens and VOD simultaneously...who knows what that means for any chance that it would have some play at fall film fests.  Stay tuned...

Here are the links to the complete Cannes posts from Variety and Screen Daily:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/cannes-film-festival-whats-in-and-whats-out-1201460030/

http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/cannes/and-the-cannes-line-up-is/5085749.article





MC QUEEN-FLYNN COLLABORATION

You know that if a film maker has made a total of three films and all three have played the Telluride Film Fest, that you'd better think that film #4 is a strong candidate to make an appearance.  Such is the case with British film maker Steve McQueen.

McQueen's "Hunger", "shame" and "12 Years a Slave" all played Telluride so I pay attention to announcements concerning his projects.  We know that he has been involved with an HBO project entitled "Codes of Conduct" and there had been some talk that his next feature film would be a biopic on Paul Robeson but news this week suggests otherwise.  Multiple sources reported that McQueen will next direct a heist themed picture penned by Gillian Flynn-you know-"Gone Girl".

The film will be based on a British television miniseries called "Widows".

That's an interesting combination of talents as well as an interesting switch in film styles for McQueen.  Reporting seems to indicate that the Robeson project has been moved back in favor of this...and it will be intriguing to see if the completed film becomes McQueen's fourth Telluride entrant.

For that matter, depending on HBO's plans for when "Codes of Conduct" will be rolled out, I suppose that IT could be McQueen's fourth Telluride appearance.

Linked here are reports on the collaboration from The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and Thompson on Hollywood:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gillian-flynn-joins-steve-mcqueen-784886

http://deadline.com/2015/03/gillian-flynn-steve-mcqueen-heist-thriller-widows-new-regency-film-4-1201399898/

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/gillian-flynn-and-steve-mcqueen-team-for-heist-thriller-20150327


More on Thursday...

Continuing to Talk Cannes/The Playlist 50 Best of the 2010's (So Far)

Good Monday All.  Back from Spring Break and a slighter post than normal today as a result...


CONTINUING TO TALK CANNES

Hollywood News' Joey Magidson names ten films he thinks are very likely to play the Cannes fest and though the list is small, a number of the titles have real Telluride possibilities.  From Magidson's list:

Todd Haynes' "Carol"
Jacques Audiard's "Erran"/"Dheepan"
Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth"
Gus Van Sant's "The Sea of Trees" and
Matteo Garrone's "The Tale of Tales"

Check out the complete list here:


http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2015/03/19/which-films-could-play-this-year-at-the-cannes-film-festival/


THE PLAYLIST'S 50 BEST OF THE 2010'S (SO FAR)

This week The Playlist published a list of 50 films that they name as the best of the decade so far.  I was curious about how many films made the list that played at Telluride so here that list within a list is:

#46 "Birdman"
#44 "Gravity"
#35 "Black Swan"
#33 "12 Years a slave"
#31 "No"
#27 "Amour"
#24 "Two Days, One Night"
#22 "The Hunt"
#21 "Foxcatcher"
#19 "Frances Ha"
#14 "Leviathan"
#13 "Stories We Tell"
#10 "Inside Llewyn Davis"
#9 "A Prophet"
#6 "Blue is the Warmest Color"
#4 "The Act of Killing"
#3 "Under the Skin"
#1 "A Separation"

Fully 19 of the "top 50" World or North American premieres happened at Telluride.  What an incredible track record.

Take a look at The Playlist's complete list here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-50-best-films-of-the-decade-so-far-20150225



More on Thursday...

More from the Cannes Speculation Front/"Suffragette" Gets Focus/"Trumbo" Set for November Release

Good Thursday Everyone...

It's Spring Break at the Patterson house which means that as soon as this is posted this morning, I am out the door with the Boss and we are headed to a quick run through Santa Fe and Colorado.  I'm looking forward to it.

MORE FROM THE CANNES SPECULATION FRONT

Cate Blanchett in "Carol"

The staff of The Playlist posted their Cannes wish/guess list this week and it has, not surprisingly, a number of titles that could make the Cannes/Telluride double play.  Among them:

Todd Haynes' "Carol"
Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth"
Jacques Audiard's "Erran" or "Dheepan"
Matteo Garrone's "The Tale of Tales"
Gus Van Sant's "The Sea of Trees"


http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/20-films-we-hope-to-see-at-the-2015-cannes-film-festival-20150316




"SUFFRAGETTE" GETS FOCUS

The cast of "Suffragette"

Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette" has been on my Telluride possibility radar for a long, long time and continues to be.  I had it on the watch list last year for TFF #41 and have returned to it again this year.  Now comes word that the film has a U.S. distributor and it is Focus Features.  That actually may diminish its T-ride profile.  Focus has had a limited presence at Telluride over the last decade plus as you can see here:

2003: Lost in Translation
2004: The Motorcycle Diaries
2005: Brokeback Mountain
2006: Catch a Fire
2012: Hyde Park on Hudson

Last year. Focus focused its Oscar hopes on "The Theory of Everything" which very specifically went to Toronto.  Focus also has the next Eddie Redmayne project as their other Oscar pony for 2015, "The Danish Girl".

Working in the film's T-ride favor is that fact that Sarah Gavron has a Telluride history with the presentation of her 2007 film "Brick Lane" as a part of the 34th Festival.

Additionally, both Jeff Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere and Greg Ellwood/HitFix suggest Telluride as a real possibility for the film.  Check the links below for full coverage of the acquisition announcement:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2015/03/street-fighting-women/

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/meryl-streep-and-carey-mulligan-will-fight-on-in-suffragette-this-awards-season

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/03/focus-features-acquires-suffragette/

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/focus-features-adds-suffragette-to-2015-potential-awards-slate-20150317

http://www.indiewire.com/article/focus-features-acquires-suffragette-with-carey-mulligan-meryl-streep-20150317


"TRUMBO" SET FOR NOVEMBER RELEASE

Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo

Jay Roach's "Trumbo" starring Bryan Cranston has a release date smack in the middle of awards season according to the mid-week announcement from Bleeker Street, its distributor.  I have this film on my T-ride watch list mostly because I want it to be at Telluride.  I'm fascinated by Dalton Trumbo's story and I think Bryan Cranston is a genius.  So the news that it's set for release in the U.S. on Nov. 6th positions it for some kind of fall film play.

Check the announcement form Variety here:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/bryan-cranstons-trumbo-set-for-nov-6-release-1201454480/



That's all for now.  More on Sunday...at the end of Spring Break!