"The Road" to Telluride

Down to less than a week before the 36th Telluride Film Festival and this post seeks to sum up everything we have been able to track down, stumble across or just guess at.

Latest news: Podcast by Anne Thompson of IndieWire and Kristopher Tapley at Incontention.com at least implies that "An Educaton" may be at Telluride. This is the second film in a week that would NOT fall under the Telluride rules that I thought were in place in terms of whether films had played other places before Telluride..."Precious" being the other. But both Thompson and Tapley let slip early in the podcast that "An Education" is/could be on the play list. You can find their podcast at: http://incontention.com/?p=12596.

But the biggest news from the podcast is Anne Thompson's near certain assertion that John Hillcoat's "The Road" will be there. Viggo Mortensen stars in the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel. This is a film that we originally thought would be released last year, but was moved to 2009.

Now on to the summary: Here are the films that someone somewhere has claimed will be at Telluride: "Bright Star, " Life During Wartime," "My Son My Son What Have Ye Done?," "Lebanon"and "The Road."

Films that someone has implied might be there: "Precious" and "An Education"...see caveat above and "Up in the Air (Tapley says he thinks it will follow the "Juno" path)."

Films I am flat just guessing will be there...but it's a good bet..."Amelia, " "Broken Promises," "Coco Before Chanel," and Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut "Sympathy for Delicious".

Films I am less confident of, but wouldn't be surprised if they were in Telluride: "Leaves of Grass," "Ondine," "Wild Grass," "The Damned United, " The White Ribbon, " "Get Low," "Brothers," "Un Prophete," and "Gentlemen Broncos".

And finally...Films I would love to show up in Telluride, but I don't think that there is much of a chance: "The Men Who Stare at Goats, " "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," "Nine," "The Informant," "A Serious Man," and "The Tree of Life."

Last note...Scorsese's "Shutter Island" and Julie Taymor's "The Tempest" have reportedly been bumped to release in 2010...

I will post again as information warrants over the next few days leading up to travelling time. I leave Thursday afternoon and plan to start the Telluride experience at the Patron Brunch on Friday morning. Hope to meet some of you there!

First Inkling

Anne Thompson writing in her blog has let slip that Jane Campion's "Bright Star" will be in Telluride this year. She makes the comment in a story that talks about the announcement of a new distributing company called "Apparition". You can find Thompson"s blog at http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/.

"Bright Star" can be found at imdb at www.imdb.com/title/tt0810784. The film is the story of poet John Keats and his romance with Fanny Brawne in the 19th century and features Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish in those roles.

This blog included "Bright Star" as a possible Telluride pic in our last post.

Appartion also has the distribution for Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn...Thompson does not say but implies that Malick's film will not be ready for Telluride presentation...but you never know.

Four More Possibles

Here are four more to think about as possibles for this year's 36th edition of the Telluride Film Festival: Tim Blake Nelson's Oklahoma-set "Leaves of Grass"...not Walt Whitman's biopic! Edward Norton stars as twin brothers...Also Neil Jordan's new film "Ondine", Jane Campion's "Bright Star" and Robert Duvall and Bill Murray in "Get Low"...meanwhile, their appearance earlier this year at Sundance means we won't see: Push, An Education or The Informers...