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THE DISTRIBUTORS 2018: BIG DOGS
There are, each year, a number of films that feel like they could have some Telluride potential that are distributed by one of the big studios that often have a limited profile in as far as T-ride is concerned. This year is no different.
For example, Steve McQueen's Widows is set up at 20th Century Fox and Damien Chazelle's First Man is set to come from Universal.
Because of the two directors, and their pasts with TFF, I have to consider them as possibles for TFF #45 despite the fact that 20th Century Fox and Universal have very limited histories at the fest.
Also included in the calculation are Robert Zemeckis' Welcome to Marwen and Bryan Singer's Bohemian Rhapsody.
I might also mention that Columbia has Jason Reitman's take on Gary Hart's 1988 presidential run in The Front Runner and the Matthew McConaughey starrer White Boy Rick directed by Yann Dannage (who, like Chazelle and McQueen has been to Telluride before). It also falls into this category of films.
Of the six films listed here, my feel is that the most likely to make Telluride is Reitman's The FrontRunner. Reitman used to be a regular at Telluride and this could be his ticket back to The SHOW. Give it a 40% chance.
Widows is next in line simply because the Steve McQueen connection has been tight. He screened Hunger, Shame and 12 Years a Slave at T-ride. Give it a 35% chance to play.
Chazelle's First Man is next at 30%.
I give Welcome to Marwen a 25% shot, White Boy Rick a 20% chance and Bohemian Rhapsody seems the least likely at 10%.
Tomorrow I'll look at films that feel like they have a decent shot at Telluride from occasional specialty houses that make TFF appearances.
DON QUIXOTE'S LEGAL WOES WON'T STOP IT
After so much back and forth legally regarding Terry Gilliam's long awaited passion project, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, it now appears that the film is going to be around quite a lot in the next few months.
The Hollywood Reporter's Nick Holdsworth writes that the film (having just screened at the Karlovy Vary Film Fest) will screen in competition at the Munich Film Fest and Gilliam says it will open wide in Holland and Belgium soon.
This series of events seems to indicate that the film is fully possible to screen in the U.S. at any and all of the fall fests.
It should be noted that the film was, at one point, set to be distributed by Amazon Studios but that they dropped out when legal issues endangered its planned screening at Cannes.
The complete THR story is here.
MOORE'S NEW DOC AT TFF?
Michael Moore has made it clear that he's going to pushing his new Donald Trump documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 hard for the next few months insisting that he wants it seen by as many people as possible prior to November's midterm elections.
One has to suspect that will include some presence on the fall festival circuit and that could include seeing it pop up at Telluride.
Moore has been at Telluride by my count four times-1989, 1992, 2002 and as a guest in 2013 for the fest's 40th anniversary. So, especially with how much Telluride's profile has increased over the last decade, you have to consider it a possibility.
Here's the Indiewire article from Michael Nordine reporting on Moore's recent appearance on Bill Maher.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Recent articles at both The Playlist and World of Reel highlight what seem to be a larger than normal pool of films that might have legitimate aspirations for Oscar glory and that seems to be opening a wide door for those films and where they could land for their premieres.
Both article authors (Jordan Ruimy-World of Reel and Greg Ellwood-The Playlist) mention Telluride in this context.
Interesting tidbits from the Ruimy piece:
Alfonso Cuaron's Roma has hot buzz.
Mike Leigh's Peterloo was submitted for Cannes but was not chosen
Test screening response for Damien Chazelle's First Man has been okay but not through the roof
He describes Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk as "artsy".
Meanwhile, Ellwood's article poses a number of questions about Oscar quirks for 2018.
Check the articles out.
World of Reel
The Playlist
That's today's MTFB. Come back tomorrow for the week's NEW TEN BETS...
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