Werner's New Gig/A Separation Hero?/Shame Has a Date/Le Havre on the Web/Close Honored/Not Really Telluride Related

Hope that everyone is having a good week and Good Morning on a Thursday.

WERNER MOONLIGHTING?

Word that Telluride regular and Board of Advisor member and TFF #38 presenter (Into the Abyss) Werner Herzog has a new gig.  He'll be acting.  With Tom Cruise.  As a villain.  Color me shocked?

Can't say that it's all that surprising.  Herzog has reportedly been cast in Chris McQuarrie's "One Shot" an adaptation of a Lee Child novel.

Anne Thompson(Thompson on Hollywood/indieWire) has the scoop:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2011/10/04/inspired_casting_werner_herzog_will_play_villain_across_tom_cruise_in_mcqua/

A SEPARATION HERO?

I met Asghar Farhadi, the writer-director of "A Separation"briefly at this year's fest and what a quiet and unassuming man he seemed to be.  That sentiment is echoed by Steven Zeitchik at The Envelope from the L.A. Times in a nice piece about the Iranian director and the film, which has continued on from Telluride and has picked up some steam along the way.  It is Iran's entry for consideration for this year's Foreign Language Oscar.

Zeitchik's profile is here:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/10/ashgar-panahi-iran-jafar-panahi-arrested-sentence-separation.html

SHAME HAS A DATE

Despite continuing concerns about its commercial viability, Steve McQueen's "Shame" now has a release date in the U.S. according to Fox Searchlight, which is distributing the film.  I still maintain that it was the Best Film of TFF #38 and that Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan deserve Oscar noms for their performances.  Details of "Shame's" release can be found via The Playlist (indieWire) here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/2011/10/04/michael_fassbenders_penis_will_get_released_on_december_2nd_in_shame/

Further details are from Inside Pulse here:
http://insidepulse.com/2011/10/05/fox-searchlight-dates-steve-mcqueens-festival-hit-shame/

LE HAVRE ON THE WEB

Janus Films has announced that it has an official website up and running for Finnish Oscar hopeful "Le Havre".  That can be found here:
http://www.janusfilms.com/lehavre/


CLOSE HONORED

"Albert Nobbs" star and likely Oscar nominee for Best Actress Glenn Close will be honored for her lifetime of work by The Hollywood Film Festival.  The Hollywood Reporter has the details:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/glenn-close-receive-career-achievement-242976


NOT RELATED TO TELLURIDE BUT I FIND IT INTERESTING

Two trailers for films that didn't play at Telluride but figure to be strong players in the Oscar race.
First for Stephen Daldry's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close".  I read the novel and thought parts were beautiful, parts were "precious" and some parts were derivative.  That said, the trailer looks ...well...great...Details and a link to the trailer from Get the Big Picture here:
http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog/2011/9/30/extremely-loud-incredibly-close-trailer.html

And the new trailer for Steven Spielberg's "War Horse":
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/warhorse/

And finally, I am now breathlessly awaiting this...The Coen Brothers do T.V.  Oh my.  Looking forward to "HarveKarbo"  News and details from The Playlist (indieWire) here;
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/joel_ethan_coen_team_with_cedar_rapids_writer_phil_johnston_for_fox_tv_show/

And also from HitFix here:
http://www.hitfix.com/articles/coen-bros-will-quirk-up-tv-landscape-with-new-comedy-series


Check back on Monday!

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Pictures, Pictures, Pictures/50/50 Trailer/Gosling Speaks

Good Morning All,

What if they really did make me an offer I couldn't refuse?

PICTURES...

A good number of films that are on my Telluride watch list have released stills in the last day or two and so I thought I'd pass some along and link to some others today.

One film with its first official still out this week that has a good deal of Oscar buzz (but realistically much less Telluride buzz) is Stephen Daldry's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" based on the best selling novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.  It stars Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock and is scheduled for limited release on  Christmas Day.

 Here's the single official photo thanks to SlashFilm:

Here's the kink to the SlashFilm post:
http://www.slashfilm.com/tom-hanks-thomas-horn-extremely-loud-incredibly-close/

And Extremely Loud's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477302/

How about pix from 3 other Telluride possibilities?  The Playlist at IndieWire is up with posts focused on a number of T-ride possibilities.  For example Fernando Mierelles "360" starring the very busy Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, Ben Foster and Anthony Hopkins.  Speaking of Mr. Hopkins, a still of him from the film:

A number of other stills and the article about "360" can be found here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/new_looks_at_rachel_weisz_jude_law_anthony_hopkins_ben_foster_in_fernando_m/


Another Playlist article about photos from a film that I think has some shot at bowing at Telluride is the Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde, Hugh Jackman starrer "Butter."  I get a real "Juno" like vibe for this film.  Here's a teaser of the photos:

A good number of other stills are with The Playlist story here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/first_look_at_jennifer_garner_in_butter/

Butter's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1349451/

Finally, The Playlist has posted a number of stills for Michael Winterbottom's adaptation and re-imagining of Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Ubervilles."  It's entitled "Trishna" and starts Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire, Miral).  Again, I think there is at least some chance that it could be programmed at Telluride.

Here's a look:

 Again, access to the other stills and The Playlist story is here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/first_look_at_freida_pinto_in_michael_winterbottoms_trishna/

Trishna's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1836987/


50/50 TRAILER

I have been back and forth about mentioning "50/50" starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen as a Telluride possible. The distributor is Summit Entertainment which has had, at best, a limited relationship with Telluride in the recent past.  And I'm just not a Seth Rogen fan...

Despite these misgivings, I have to admit that it's a least a tenuous possibility and so I have included this week's link to its new trailer from a post from FirstShowing.net:
http://www.firstshowing.net/2011/must-watch-second-trailer-for-5050-with-joseph-gordon-levitt/

50/50's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1306980/


GOSLING SPEAKS

Actor Ryan Gosling is a busy dude.  "Crazy, Stupid Love" is in theaters now.  "Drive" and "The Ides of March" are due during the next few months as we head into awards season and both films might make an
appearance at Telluride's SHOW.

Despite his hectic schedule, Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood (IndieWire) has passed along his interview with Esquire magazine.  Thompson excerpts that and provides the link to the full interview here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2011/08/11/ryan_gosling_is_cooler_than_you_and_too_cool_to_answer_esquires_questions

Drive's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780504/

Ides' IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1124035/


More tomorrow, mi compadres!

The Wettest County???

Shia LaBeouf and extras on the set of "The Wettest County in the World"

A really interesting post from The Hollywood Reporter yesterday about the upcoming Oscar race.  That article necessarily includes a ton of films that I've put on the Telluride film watch list.  Including: "The Artist'" "Young Adult," "The Descendants," "The Ides of March," "The Iron Lady," "Moneyball," "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," "My Week with Marilyn," "Carnage," and new to the discussion in the article is John Hillcoat's ("The Road'" "The Proposition,") "The Wettest County in the World."

 "Wettest County" is listed by IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1212450/) as having a 2012 release date but author Greg Kilday apparently thinks there is at least some possibility that it might be in play for a 2011 Oscar qualifying run.  Hillcoat's presence at Telluride in 2009 and The Weinstein Company's participation make it a possibility if it's ready for a run at TFF #38.

You can see all of Kilday's article here:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-2012-why-meryl-streep-197024

Meanwhile, as obsessed as I am becoming with the new Paul Thomas Anderson project, I noticed this post from The Playlist yesterday which hints that the next Coen Brothers project may include a serious music component...a Coen Brothers Musical?  What would that be like?  Here's a link to that article as well:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/the_coen_brothers_say_they_are_working_on_a_new_music-based_film/

Another film to stalk incessantly for the next few months...YES!  And maybe I can compose the score  for some of the Coen's past films.  After all, if this new thing is a success, why not "Raising Arizona:The Musical"  featuring such hits as: "Boy, You Got a Panty on Your Head," "Not Unless Round is Funny,"  "The Huggies Shuffle," and the show stopping closer, "Maybe It Was Utah."

I can see it now...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBVesAXZPzA