Late Breaking: Don Quixote Will Ride at Cannes / TFF Time Tunnel: The Eighth Telluride Film Festival / Filmworker Trailer / First Man Details

Good Thursday yo you...


LATE BREAKING: DON QUIXOTE WILL RIDE AT CANNES

Overnight the Cannes Film Festival announced the addition of several films to their lineup including that Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote will close the fest on May 19.

The Gilliam film had not been previously named due to legal complications but these appear to have been solved or waived so that the film can play next month in France.

Quixote was among a number of films announced as additions overnight included adds to the Palme d'Or competition section and Un Certain Regard.

Notably "Persona Non Grata" Lars Von Trier has been invited back to Cannes out of competition with The House That Jack Built.  That ends  his banishment that had been in effect since 2011.

Screen Daily has details of the newly announced films here.

Here's a thought...a Terry Gilliam tribute in Telluride.


TFF TIME TUNNEL: THE EIGHTH TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL

The ongoing history of the Telluride Film Festival project continues here today with a review of the Eighth TFF which transpired from Sept. 4-7, 1981.

Tributes:

The Character Actor: Margaret Hamilton, Elisha Cook, John Carradine, Woody Strode
Carlos Diegues
Dusan Makavejev

Special Medallions : Stan Brakhage and Kevin Brownlow


SHOWS:

Age of the Earth
The Big City
Catherine
Charm of Dynamite
The Circus
Daddy Long Legs
Dark Water
Eight Minutes to Midnight
False Witness
Fear Not Jacob
Fruits of Passion
Ganga Zumba
Hollywood
Love Affair or The Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator
Montenegro
My Dinner With Andre
Mysteries of the Organism
The Paper Chase
Paradise Not Yet Lost
Pearl Row
Pickup on South STreet
Prisoner of Shark Island
Sergeant Rutledge
Sherlock Holmes
Silver Dollar
Soldier Girls
Stages: John Houseman Directs Lear
The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach
Three Brothers
Ticket to Heaven
Trapped
The Trouble with Harry
The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes
Vernon Florida
A Very Curious Girl
The Wizard of Oz
Xica Da Silva

Guests:

Susan Anspach
Keith Carradine
Robert Carradine
Shelley Duvall
Sam Fuller
Andre Gregory
John Houseman
Leonard Maltin
Errol Morris
Volker Schlondorff
Wallace Shawn



FILMWORKER TRAILER

One of the documentaries that made something of a splash at last year's fest was Tony Zierra's Filmworker which centered on the story of one time actor Leon Vitali who became Stanley Kubrick's right hand man.

Filmworker now has this trailer (vie YouTube):

The Playlist has details about the film and the trailer's release here.

Filmworker is set to open early next month in Los Angeles and New York.


FIRST MAN DETAILS

First Man set pics via The Daily Mail

One of the domestic non-Cannes films I'm watching for a possible slot at TFF #45 is Damien Chazelle's First Man.  It's Chazelle's much anticipated followup to La La Land.

First Man will follow the true story of American hero Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon.  The film is scheduled for commercial release on Oct. 12th.

I have it on my radar because of its high profile and because of Chazelle.  The distribution is with Universal Pictures which has a thin Telluride profile over the past decade or so playing Steve Jobs at T-ride in 2015 and Flash of Genius back in 2008.

It's also worth noting that the film is scripted by Josh Singer who co-wrote and won an Oscar for Spotlight in 2015.  Singer also penned The Post last year which was a Golden Globe nominee for Best Screenplay.

Indiewire's Michael Nordine reported on some emerging details about the film (which has been described in an earlier Indiewire story as "Whiplash in space". (The 25 Actor-Director Pairings to Get Excited About in 2018).


That's your MTFB for this Thursday.  Tune in again Monday for more.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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Acquisition News / Awards Daily Talks to MTFB / Vanity Fair's View / The People's Telluride- Rate Those Films-Deadline Looming

I can't believe its Friday.  Just a week ago we were embarking on TFF #44.  Now I have begun the countdown to TFF #45 and The Oscars...

ACQUISITION NEWS

Earlier this week Kino Lorber locked down two acquisitions of TFF #44 titles.  The independent specialty house will handle Film Worker and Hitler's Hollywood.  Incidentally, my brother saw both of these last weekend and really enjoyed them.

Meanwhile, Scott Cooper's Hostiles hasn't closed a distribution deal to my knowledge.  Variety's Kristopher Tapley reported during the fest that the film was getting some serious looks but it seems that no deal has been reached.  It's possible that both the producers and distributors are awaiting the films Toronto screenings and responses before moving to finalize an agreement.

The Tapley piece is linked here.

Meanwhile, coverage of the Kino Lorber deal is here from Screen International and here from Vimooz.



AWARDS DAILY TALKS TO MTFB

It certainly doesn't happen everyday but it did last weekend.  Sasha Stone of Awards Daily interviewed me and my wife Kristy for her podcast.  That podcast went up on her Awards Daily website yesterday.

It's a little surreal but then a lot of the Telluride experience is still surreal to me.

Here's the link to the podcast.

And speaking of podcasts, Clayton Davis, Mark Johnson and the crew at Awards Circuit have published their Circuit Breaker Podcast which features a Telluride breakdown as well.  You can find that here.

VANITY FAIR'S VIEW

Vanity Fair was all over Telluride last week and posted a gorgeous layout of photos that focused on the players and community of Telluride.  For example:

Angelina Jolie:

Billie Jean King and Emma Stone:

Barry Jenkins:

  

Check out the complete Vanity Fair shoot here.

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE-RATE THOSE FILMS-DEADLINE LOOMING

Don't forget to rate the films you saw last weekend.  Use a 0-5 scale and send them to me using any of the contact methods listed below.  The cutoff for voting is Tuesday, Sept. 12th.



EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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New York Tells / First Look at Hostiles / Marshall Oddity / Beating the Drum: Rate Those Films!

It's Thursday, August 24, 2017...Seven days until The SHOW!!!

NEW YORK TELLS

I was more than a little surprised a couple of weeks back when Toronto announced the bulk of its documentary films and I couldn't find a single doc that was going to share the two festivals.  Unheard of and weird, to be honest.  However...

The New York Film Fest named its documentary selections late yesterday and if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, that's the fest that will crossover with T-ride this year with some choice titles.

Judging by NYFF's premiere status designations with a focus on docs that were announced with no status and cross checking with IMDb, it would seem that the following films could be playing in Colorado next week:

Arthur Miller: Writer directed by the famed playwright's daughter Rebecca Miller (does this portend accompaniment by her husband-Daniel Day Lewis?  Probably not as he is-we believe-still filming Paul Thomas Anderson's untitled/maybe titled Phantom Thread-film).

Filmworker directed by Tony Zierra.  The film focuses on Leon Vitali who became an acolyte of Stanley Kubrick.  This played Cannes and reports about it totally caught my attention when it did.  I mentioned it as a Telluride possibility in my May 8th post.  Very intriguing.

And perhaps the one that gets me the most excited is Vanessa Redgrave's directorial debut Sea Sorrow which played Cannes as well and features Ralph Fiennes and Emma Thompson in an exploration of the refugee crisis with an historical perspective.  I have been hoping for a Vanessa Redgrave appearance at The SHOW for years and maybe that happens in 2017.  Sea Sorrow was briefly mentioned in this space as a film of interest back on April 13th.

A Vanessa Redgrave tribute?

And finally Barbet Schroeder's The Venerable W looks like it could be headed to Telluride.  The doc explores the evil behind ethnic cleansing in Burma.  Schroeder, who has an extensive history with Telluride may be making a return. The Venerable W was first mentioned here at MTFB as a T-ride possibility on Mar. 20th.

Now, a quick disclaimer...the provenance of documentaries is often a bit more difficult to accurately pin down as compared to feature films.  That said...these four films all seem like a good fit for TFF #44.

I have linked coverage of the NYFF documentary announcement here from Indiewire and here from Deadline.



FIRST LOOK AT HOSTILES

If you follow me on Twitter (@Gort2) then you may have caught my Tweet Tuesday that includes the first still photo from the Scott Cooper film Hostiles which, of course, I'm sure is going to be in The SHOW lineup when  it's announced a week from today.

I believe I had the honor to be one of the first outlets in the country to publish the pic as I was included in the P.R. email that provided access to the photo.

If you missed it Tuesday here it is:

You have your Christian Bale looking pensive.

The film is said to center on the story of an American Army Captain in the late 1800's who accompanies a dying Native American Chief through dangerous territory.

It is definitely on my list to see next week.

MARSHALL ODDITY

Again, if you're reading this space closely now as we get down to mere days before film Nirvana presents itself in southwest Colorado, you know that I have a list of films that I still think might play the fest that we don't have good intell about.  There are seven films still on that list and of them, five are still moderately seriously in play.  Two are incredibly long shots at this point: Wonder and The Snowman.  Five, I think, still have a fighting chance: You Were Never Really Here, L'Amant Double, Final Portrait, Our Souls at Night and Reginald Hudlin's Marshall.

Well...yesterday, the Urbanworld Film Festival (based in NYC) became the first fest (to my knowledge) to announce a screening of Marshall.  UFF runs Sept. 20-24th.  So, as you might expect, I opened the story expecting to see that the film would be World Premiering there.

To my surprise...NOPE.  UFF lists Marshall as a "U.S. Premiere".  I don't know how to interpret this.

That designation would make sense if the film had been announced for Toronto or Venice but it has not.  As best as I can find, Marshall will not have played anywhere when UFF screens it (I believe it may be their closing film on Sept. 24).

But here's the thing, if it were to play T-ride then its UFF appearance would not be a U.S. premiere.

To add confusion, UFF does list other films as World, East Coast or even New York Premieres.

So...does this take Marshall off the TFF #44 table or is the U.S. Premiere designation meant to convey that its World/North American premiere will have happened...meaning Telluride and an odd designation from UFF?

I don't know the answer here but I do know that I would not be surprised if it were to be included at T-ride despite to scheduled play in Toronto, Venice or NYFF.

Check the story from Variety.

BEATING THE DRUM

Don't forget, my friends, I want your ratings of the films you see next weekend.  Use a 0-5 scale with 0 being "putrid" and 5 being "best film since..."

Submit your ratings for The People's Telluride via any of the contact methods listed below.

That's Thursday.  A NEW TEN (20+) BETS will be here tomorrow.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

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