So Many Trailers and Teasers: Judy / Frankie / Family Romance LLC / Diego Maradona / New Images from A Hidden Life

Welcome back from the weekend and Mother's Day...hope all the mothers had a swell day.

SO MANY TRAILERS AND TEASERS

With the 72nd Cannes Film Fest opening tomorrow a number of films that will be screening dropped video over the weekend some of which are potential Telluride entrants.  Also appearing was a trailer for the non-Cannes film Judy starring Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland.  So today's post is largely devoted to connecting TFF fans with some of those trailers all of which are linked here via YouTube.

JUDY

Judy is set to be released Sept 27th from Roadside Attractions which was last at Telluride in 2017 with the Oscar winning (Best Actor and Original Screenplay) Manchester by the Sea.

Along with the trailer, linked here's a story about its release from: Indiewire.

FRANKIE

Ira Sachs' family drama is set to play Cannes a week from today as a part of the Palme d'Or competitive slate.  The film stars Isabelle Huppert, Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinnear and Marisa Tomei.  Huppert was a TFF tribute recipient in 1986.

The film currently has no U.S. distributor or release date.

Here's the trailer:

And an accompanying story from The Playlist.

FAMILY ROMANCE LLC

Family Romance from Werner Herzog is also playing Cannes out of competition and is scheduled to screen Saturday night.  The film is set in Japan and IMDb says it is about " A man is hired to impersonate the father of a  young girl".

Here's the trailer:

And an story about the trailer and film from The Hollywood News.

DIEGO MARADONA

And finally a trailer for the documentary Diego Maradona about the life of the world renowned soccer player from director Asif Kapadia.  The film comes from HBO and is set for release in the U.S. on Sept. 24th putting it in a sweet spot to screen at either Telluride, Toronto or both.

Here is its trailer:

And a story about the trailer and the doc from our friend Alex Billington and FirstShowing.net.

Diego Maradona screens at Cannes on the 19th.

NEW IMAGES FROM A HIDDEN LIFE

While we don't have a trailer release for Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life, we do have a peek at new stills from the film that is scheduled to screen at Cannes in Palme competition on the 19th.

Here's a look a some of those images from The Film Stage:

See more of the pics from The Film Stage here.

A Hidden Life tells the true story of an Austrian World War II conscientious objector who refused to serve for the Nazis.  The film is seeking U.S. distribution and a subsequent domestic release date.

And for those that are interested...here's the link to the official schedule for Cannes.

There's your Monday MTFB.  I'll have more on Thursday and coming next Monday a first look at the critical reaction to the first week of Cannes' films.

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

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More on Ad Astra / Pierre Rissient: One Year Gone / Indiewire's 15 Anticipated Cannes Films

Hello all on this Thursday...

MORE ON AD ASTRA

In my Monday post I passed along the story that Disney/Fox looked like they were going to push James Gray's space drama, Ad Astra, into the fall schedule from its previously announced release date of May 24th.

Well, it didn't take long for that uncertainty to dissipate as multiple sources reported on Tuesday that Ad Astra's new release date will be Sept. 24th. That likely means some premiere at Venice, Toronto and/or Telluride.  New York is removed from consideration as it will run from Sept 28th to Oct. 14th.

Zack Sharf writing for Indiewire specifically suggests that the film's chances at playing one or more of the fests has increased saying: "The move most likely means that Disney will target a launch for the drama at the fall film festivals, be it Venice, Telluride or TIFF."

Ad Astra stars Brad Pitt as an astronaut who goes searching for his father (Tommy Lee Jones) who was also an astronaut but who has been missing for years.

The Sharf story from Indiewire is here.

PIERRE RISSIENT: ONE YEAR GONE

Telluride favorite Pierre Rissient died a year ago ( May 5, 2018) and earlier this week Scott Foundas, who is now an executive for Amazon Studios and who has had a significant past with TFF, wrote a tribute on the one year anniversary of Rissient's passing that appeared this week.

That tribute appeared at Cinema Scope (cinema-scope.com) and you can find that piece linked here.

Foundas is currently credited as the Executive in charge of Production for Amazon's Radioactive from director Marjane Satrapi (Perspolis) which could be a film in the conversation for a spot at TFF #46.

INDIEWIRE'S 15 ANTICIPATED CANNES' FILMS

This week the folks at Indiewire put together a  list of 15 films that are about to premiere over the next couple of weeks at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.

The article and complete list are linked here.

On their list are a number of films that I think have a chance of making the TFF #46 lineup including:

Family Romance, LLC (Herzog)

Frankie (Sachs)

A Hidden Life (Malick)

The Lighthouse (Eggers)

The Cannes Fest opens on Tuesday evening with Jim Jarmusch's The Dead Don't Die.

That's today's MTFB.  More on Monday.

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Ad Astra Flies Back Into Consideration / Frankie: SPC Has It and Some Images

The first weekend of May 2019 is in the books.  Hope you had a good one!

AD ASTRA FLIES BACK INTO CONSIDERATION

I've had James Gray's Ad Astra on the radar for quite some time.  The film combines high concept and prestige plus a notable cast (Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Ruth Negga) to have created quite a  stir.  Also creating a stir has been its shifting release dates.  At one point it was set for a Jan. 2019 release and its latest official release date has been May 24th.  That date will also reportedly go by the wayside according to a number of sources over the past few days and I mention that here because the scuttlebutt now is that Disney/Fox has settled on a fall release for the film which may well include the fall festivals.  

"Fall Festivals" usually refers to Venice, Toronto, New York and, of course, Telluride.  Gregory Ellwood writing at The Playlist reported that "it's likely that Fox will aim for a Venice debut" which would make a good deal of sense...and perhaps the film would follow what has become a not uncommon move of transferring directly from Venice to Telluride.  The Shape of Water, Gravity, Birdman and La La Land have all been recent travelers of that path.

The Ellwood article is linked here.

I, for one, am pleased that this film is back in the conversation and will be looking over the summer for other clues about its ultimate fate regarding where it play and if that could include TFF #46.

FRANKIE: SPC HAS IT AND SOME IMAGES

Ahead of its premiere at Cannes in the next week or two came news late last week that Ira Sachs' Frankie starring former TFF Tribute recipient Isabelle Huppert has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.  SPC's claim moves Frankie right into consideration for possible TFF #46 inclusion.  SPC has historically had a very solid relationship with TFF.  As a matter of fact, it has been the strongest distributor relationship with TFF over the near decade and a half I have been attending.

Last year was a bit of an aberration as SPC only had Ralph Fiennes' The White Crow in the TFF lineup.  In the 2017, more characteristically, SPC had five films on the TFF #45 program: Fantastic Woman, Loveless, The Rider, Foxtrot and Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool.  Over my time at TFF, SPC has averaged 4.4 films per year.

Penelope Cruz in Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory

I honestly expect SPC to be back at TFF with more than one film in 2019.  Perhaps Pedro Almodovar returns with a TFF film for the first time since 2006's Volver with his Cannes entry Pain and Glory?  Could we see the documentary about John  Prine (John Prine; Hello In There)?  Or the Clive Owen, Tim Roth starrer The Song of Names?

And who knows what SPC might acquire in the next couple of months as a result of Cannes?

Both The Film Stage and Deadline have stories about the SPC acquisition of Frankie as well as numerous images released prior to its Cannes' bow.  You can find The Film Stage story here and the Deadline story here.

Done for Monday.  More on Thursday.

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

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