Little Women May Be Off the Table / Hollywood Elsewhere Clues? / Looking Back to Look Forward

Welcome back from the weekend...


LITTLE WOMEN MAY BE OFF THE TABLE

I was listening to Indiewire's Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson's ScreenTalk podcast this weekend (they posted it last Friday) as they had teased some discussion of fall films and they do, in fact, talk about the films that they're hearing will be involved in festivals.  The most interesting comment comes from Thompson who suggested that Greta Gerwig's Little Women isn't likely to play any of the festivals.  The pronouncement isn't necessarily definitive but Anne Thompson is going to know more about these things than I am.

If the film doesn't play then that disappoints as I am genuinely curious to see what Gerwig and her crew do with the classic tale.  I have had Little Women on all three of this summer's Ten Bets with it at the #4 spot last Friday but you can expect that will be different when this Friday's Ten Bets goes up.

Among the films listed by Thompson and Kohn that they say are expected to play at some of the fall fests are: Motherless Brooklyn, A Hidden Life, The Report (after its debut at Sundance), A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Lighthouse, Pain and Glory and Jojo Rabbit.

The complete ScreenTalk Podcast is linked here.



HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE CLUES?

Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere had a couple of posts Friday and Saturday that, if nothing else, are interesting from a TFF speculative standpoint.

The first post on Friday talked about the Indiewire podcast that I have referenced above.  Wells suggests that he hasn't heard the same notion about Little Women.

Additionally, at the end of that post he rattles a list of films he calls "fall hotties" which include: The Irishman, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Motherless Brooklyn, Fair and Balanced, Harriet, The Last Thing He Wanted, The Laundromat, Torrance, Blackbird, Judy and The Aeronauts.

That post is linked here.

The following day (Saturday) Wells posts a continuation on his meditation entitled "If Wanting These Films to Play Telluride Is Wrong...".   Wells had received a response from someone he refers to as a "friend" suggested that NONE of the films that Wells had listed as his "fall hotties" would play TFF.

If true, that would nuke some titles that I have been thinking could/would be TFF bound most notably Motherless Brooklyn, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Judy.

Wells takes exception to the blanket characterization but who knows?

Further, Wells' source suggests that Netflix will probably have a couple of films at Telluride that Wells doesn't include on his "fall hotties" list.  By process of elimination the likely films would be Fernando Meirelles The Pope and the still untitled Noah Baumbach project.

Wells' Saturday post is linked here.



LOOKING BACK TO LOOK FORWARD

I have been spooking around my "Future Telluride" file lately.  That's the folder where I save articles about films when they're announced that feel like something I should keep an eye on as potential Telluride players in their future.

For hoots, this morning I took a quick inventory of films that I have in their that seem to be actively possible for TFF #46.  The earliest entry I have in there of a film that might make this year's SHOW is Lucy in the Sky which I put in the folder in May of 2015.

Others in chronological order:

The Irishman
Ad Astra
The Goldfinch
The Glorias: A Life on the Road
Judy
Ema
Bergman Island
Just Mercy
Harriet
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Falling
Blackbird
The Good Liar
Molly
1917
Untitled Todd Haynes Project (Dark Water/Dry Run?)
John Prine: Hello In There
Nomadland
Varda by Agnes
Light of My Life


It'll be fun to see if any and/or how many of these titles actually get announced in a few eeeks for Telluride.


That's the story for this Monday.  I'll have more tomorrow.

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We Have a Poster / Hollywood Elsewhere Makes Some Telluride Guesses / Spielberg at TFF #44? /

Good Thursday friendo...can you tell I was watching No Country for Old Men late last night?


WE HAVE A POSTER


After teasing you with glimpses of what we thought was the official poster hanging in the Nugget Theater in Telluride we have the confirmation now as the Telluride Film Festival officially announced this year's poster artist as well as releasing the poster to the public for viewing and for sale.  Here's the visual:

This year's poster artist is Lance Rutter who, according to the TFF press release is a graphic designer and also teaches design at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.  He is also a Vice President of Silicon Valley based start up Design for Quantifind.  He also is on the national board of the American Institute for Graphic Arts.

TFF #44 poster artist Lance Rutter (via quantifind.com)

Rutter is quoted in the release saying, "I don't think it's possible to overstate how thrilled I was to be asked to create a poster for the 44th edition of the Telluride Film Festival."  He went on to say, "I believe there is something uniquely magical that happens there every year."

Festival Executive Director Julie Huntsinger said, "Lance's design for this year's poster is simply stunning."

Rutter joins an impressive list of artists who have designed the fests posters in past years that includes: Julian Schnabel, Chuck Jones, Gary Larson, Laurie Anderson, William Wegman and Dave Eggers among others.

The new poster is on on sale online here.

HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE MAKES SOME TELLURIDE GUESSES

You can tell that TFF #44 is getting closer as well as the entire fall film fest gauntlet as the press covering the film industry increase their focus on what films will be featured at which festivals.

Tuesday saw Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere post his first serious take on what he thinks will and won't and could play at The SHOW.

Wells has some interesting thoughts about TFF.

He says that he thinks that Todd Haynes Wonderstruck, Sean Baker's The Florida Project and Sebastain Lelio's A Fantastic Woman are all "locks" for TFF #44.  All three films have been on my first two Ten Bets lists these past two weeks.

Other films that Wells says would be a "good fit" or "make sense" are:

Denis Villenueve's Blade Runner 2049 (more about that later on in this post).
Aaron Sorkin's Molly's Game
Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Ritesh Batra's Our Souls at Night
Geroge Clooney's Suburbicon
John Curran's Chappaquiddick

Couple of notes here:  I keep forgetting about both Batra's and Curran's films which I shouldn't as both film makers have had films at Telluride in the past.  Batra with The Lunchbox in 2013.  Our Souls at Night also has the distinction of re-paring of Jane Fonda and Robert Redford (Barefoot in the Park, The Electric Horseman). It would be a tremendous event to have those two in Telluride for a Jane Fonda tribute. As best as I can determine Fonda has never been to Telluride with a film. Redford, of course, was a tribute recipient in 2013 with All Is Lost.  Netflix is the distributor of the film.

John Curran was also at Telluride in 2013 with Tracks.

As to Blade Runner 2049...I keep hearing buzz that Warners is going to forgo any Fest play in an effort to keep the film's secrets and twists under wraps until its release on Oct. 6th.  That makes a bunch of sense to me and despite the fact that I think I've made a pretty good case for why it could be a Telluride pick...right now, it feels like it's still not likely.

Other Well's notes on some TFF possibilities on a film by film basis:

Downsizing...HE says "nope".
The Current War "probably not"
Wonder "maybe"
mother! Wells says "Bring it on" which I'm not sure if he means that he thinks it will be at T-ride or that he wants it to be or both.
Mary Magdalene "no clue"
Three Billboards "likely"
Stronger "maybe"
Suburbicon "maybe"
The Shape of Water "doesn't seem like a Telluride-type" (though I hear some buzz that Fox Searchlight might really want it to play at TFF)
Blade Runner 2049 "likely" (see above)
Molly's Game "maybe"

Again, the entire "Telluride Spitball" post is here.


SPIELBERG AT TFF #44?

No. No. No.  Not with The Papers which has almost zero chance to be ready by Labor Day.  I think that it'll be lucky to hit its limited release date of Dec. 22nd.

No, instead, I think we might have a chance to see the HBO doc about Spielberg that was all over the media the last couple of days.


HBO Docs has had a substantial presence at Telluride recently:

2012: Love, Marilyn
2014: The 50 Year Argument, Tales of the Grim Sleeper
2015: Heart of a Dog
2016: Bright Lights

So a spot for a doc about Steven Spielberg seems like a real possibility.  The film will air on HBO on Oct. 7th.

Coverage is here from SlashFilm and here from Indiewire.

A screening in Telluride would also coincide with the Sept. 1 re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind to celebrate its 40th anniversary.


There's your MTFB post for Thursday, July 13, 2017.  More to come tomorrow including the latest update TFF #44's Ten Bets.


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Wells Looks at His Crystal Ball/European Producers: The British/New Looks for "Suffragette"/Toronto Note

Good Wednesday All...

WELLS LOOKS AT HIS CRYSTAL BALL

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere posted his best guess at Telluride last night.  Wells is a long time Telluride attendee. That along with his status as an industry insider means that we should take a hard look at what he has to say in terms'

Wells lists six films as "All but Locks" for Telluride:

Todd Haynes "Carol", Paolo Sorrentino's "Youth", James Vanderbilt's "Truth", Laszlo Nemes' "Son of Saul", Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette",  and John Crowley's "Brooklyn".

Of these films I'd agree with "Carol" and "Son of Saul".  I feel that "Suffragette", "Truth" and "Youth" are probable/possible but not locks and "Brooklyn" is very, very unlikely as it played at Sundance.

Wells then suggests Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight" may forgo Telluride for Toronto.  You might remember that I suggested a few days back that it was one of about half dozen films about which there are rumors that it could be the Toronto opener. (BTW...see note about Toronto below)

His next list is called "Logical Spitballs" and includes five films:

Jay Roach's "Trumbo", Scott Cooper's "Black Mass", Brian Hegeland's "Legend", Luca Guadagnino's "A Bigger Splash" and Barry Levinson's "Rock the Kasbah"

I'd quibble with the last three and agree that both "Trumbo" and "Black Mass" are logical and two films that I would genuinely be excited to play at the festival.  You might recall that "Black Mass" is one of four Warners films that could make a Telluride play.  The other WB films mentioned by Wells are Jeff Nichol's "Midnight Special" and David Gordon Green's "Our Brand is Crisis".  Unmentioned by Wells from my WB list is Ron Howard's "In the Heart of the Sea"

Wells also includes one film that he calls a  "Bizarro" possibility, Baltasar Kormakur's "Everest" and a list of seven films he calls "Wishy-Wishies" that includes Alejandro Inarritu's "The Revenant" and Danny Boyle's "Steve Jobs".

Take a look at the entire post here:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2015/07/telluride-likelies-spitballs-wishies/



EUROPEAN PRODUCERS: THE BRITISH

The first (and as it turns out only) Brit Production house to look at for Telluride clues is Film4 which has this recent track record with Telluride:

2006: Deep Water
2007: When Did You Last See Your Father, Brick Lane
2008: Happy-Go-Lucky, Hunger, Slumdog Millionaire
2009: No film
2010: Another Year, Never Let Me Go
2011: Shame
2012: No film

2013: Under the Skin, 12 Years a Slave, Starred Up

2014: Mr. Turner

Film4 has been associated with 12 films in the past eight years at Telluride, an average of 1.5 films/year.

In 2015, the most likely Film4 associated films that could make Telluride include:

Todd Haynes' "Carol"

Paolo Sorrentino's "Youth"

Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette"

Yorgos Lanthimos' "The Lobster"

Andrea Arnold's "American Honey"

Ben Wheatley's "High Rise"

Lenny Abrahamson's "Room"

As regular readers know, I'm very high on the chances for "Carol" and "Youth" and moderately serious about expecting "Suffragette".  "The Lobster" is certainly a possibility.  

"American Honey" might be higher in my estimation if I knew that the film was ready but I have doubts as Entertainment Weekly was reporting that star Shia LeBeouf was injured on set on June 24th.  Normally, the fact that the director is Andrea Arnold ("Fish Tank" TFF 2009) would have made me think that, were it prepped, it might well be a serious Telluride contender.

I'd be somewhat surprised should "High Rise" or "Room" make a Telluride appearance.

Other British production houses just don't seem to have been involved in much that seems Telluride-likely.  See Saw Films is involved with Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" but BBC Films, the UK Film Council and The British Film Institute all seem mostly uninvolved in films that feel, to me at least, to be likely Telluride products.

Tomorrow, I'll begin looking at some French production houses that could have films in the mix for Telluride.

NEW LOOKS FOR "SUFFRAGETTE"

New posters dropped yesterday for Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette".  They're very impressive as you can see from the sample above.  I have linked the post from Rope of Silicon that includes all of the new posters that dropped yesterday for the film.


http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/new-suffragette-poster-art-featuring-mulligan-streep-and-carter/


TORONTO NOTE

I confirmed yesterday that Toronto doesn't begin announcing their lineup until July 28.  I had been working on the assumption (stupid me) that they would announce on July 21, one day earlier and in a Tuesday as they have for some time.  What I didn't count on was that Toronto, like Telluride, bumped back to a later calendar start date because of where Labor Day falls.  Consequently, their announcement calendar also follows the bump in dates.  So July 28th it is for TIFF.

That'll do for today...check back again tomorrow for more...

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Master Chances/Best of the Week

Good Saturday from Telluride, CO.  That's right.  I'm here today and will be back in less than 3 weeks for the best 4 days of the year.  Heading home tomorrow as I start school this week.


MASTER CHANCES

I apologize for my obsessing over Paul Thomas Anderson's new film.  I realize it's much like last year's obsessiveness about "The Tree of Life" and I suspect that I'll find another one to obsess about for next year (actually, "12 Years a Slave" is already a leading candidate).

It's just that I think that Anderson might be the best film director in America right now (I think "There Will Be Blood" is the best American film of this relatively new century) and nothing I've seen or heard about "The Master" seems todiminish the notion that it will likely be a fantastic film...so naturally I have been hopeful that it will appear on the Telluride slate.

Then last night a post from Jeffrey Wells on his Hollywood Elsewhere website that throws cold water on the idea.  Wells says that his sources are all saying no "Master" in T-ride.  Wells doesn't seem very happy about that either.

Now, Wells doesn't flat out say it won't happen and actually also reports that there may have been some prep here in Telluride to present in 70mm...which would tilt toward the belief that "The Master" would happen here.  Additionally, in the comments section "Buckzollo" suggests his belief that "The Master" will appear as a TBA here.  That's exactly the form I have thought was most likely.  Purportedly the film will make its Venice debut on Saturday Sept.1 which has led me to think that we could see it here as a "sneak" on Sunday and/or Monday.

So, I'm going to do a little sniffing around while I'm in town today and see if I can get any kind of sense of what's going on.  Ultimately, I'm still not completely abandoning my hopes for the film being in TFF #39...but I put the chances now at 5%.

One other note from the Wells post is that he confirms that Roger Michell's "Hyde Park on Hudson" will play.  "Hyde Park" has been parked on my "Ten Bets" list all summer.

Here's the link to the Wells' post:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/08/no_master_in_te_1.php


BEST OF THE WEEK

Here's the best of posts from MTFB/FAC for this past week:



This week's "Ten Bets"

1) Amour
2) Rust and Bone
3) Midnight's Children
4) The Central Park Five
5) Bromberg's Chaplin
6) Hyde Park on Hudson
7) No
8) On the Road
9) The Reluctant Fundamentalist
10) Beyond the Hills

Check the new "Ten Bets" list on Monday...hint..."Hyde Park" will be moving higher on the list.


CLOUD ATLAS VIEWS

 http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/cloud-atlas-visual-timeline-reveals-more-photos-of-the-ever-changing-faces-of-its-cast-20120805


CENTRAL PARK FIVE

Ken Burns and crew have a trailer cut for the Toronto International Film Festival.  As I am calling the documentary the #4 bet this week among the "Ten Bets" I have included that trailer:

MASTER POSTER #2

A second poster for Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" has emerged as it seems that there is some nugget everyday about the highly anticipated film.

Here's the new poster:

Also included is the post from The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/kaleidoscopic-new-poster-for-paul-thomas-andersons-the-master-will-leave-you-feeling-blue-20120806

CLINT'S TRAILER

Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake star in Robert Lorenz's "Trouble with the Curve"  The first trailer is out and linked below from YouTube:

Check the story at The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-its-gran-torino-meets-moneyball-in-trailer-for-trouble-with-the-curve-20120807



TROUBLE POSTER


Robert Lorenz's "Trouble with Curve" starring Clint Eastwood (and now a hot Telluride possibility per Mr. Tapley) has a poster.   It looks like this:

Via Rope of Silicon

Here's the post from Rope of Silicon:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/new-posters-skyfall-character-posters-trouble-with-the-curve-and-red-dawn/ 

MORE ON THE ROAD

Walter Salles "On the Road" still is a real Telluride possibility and has released a second trailer.  Linked here form YouTube:

Find more information here from Awards Daily:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2012/08/06/kristen-stewart-garrett-hedlund-on-the-road-trailer-2/




TAPLEY'S TAKE

Incontention/HitFix's Kris Tapley is already on record with some Telluride guessing but last night he tweeted two very specific lists in regard to the festival which is a mere three weeks away at this point.

Tweet #1:"Probables" for Telluride:

Probablies for Telluride: Argo, At Any Price, Hyde Park on Hudson, Passion, Rust and Bone, Silver Linings Playbook, Trouble with the Curve.

Tweet #2:  And "Maybes"

Maybes for Telluride: Amour, Great Expectations, Killing Them Softly, The Master, No, Smashed, To the Wonder



First to the "probablies"...Yes Please..."Hyde Park", "Rust and Bone",  have been solidly on the "Ten Bets" list all summer.  "Silver Linings" has flirted with making that list.  "Argo" has been more of a wish than a likelihood.  

As to "Trouble with the Curve", Tapley said a few weeks back he had a hunch about it and he clearly still feels strongly...Eastwood in town?  It would be cool.  

And DePalma's "Passion" wouldn't be a shocker..."Redacted" showed up as a 'sneak" back in 2006...so it's possible.

Then there are his "maybes":  I'm for any scintilla of a chance that "The Master" makes it to the San Juans.  I have also been bullish that "Amour" and "No" will make the trip to T-ride and continue to be.

I think the other "maybes"  are less likely, although I'd be primed for "Killing Them Softly" and Malick's "To the Wonder" and you could certainly make the case that Ben Affleck might show in support of both his "Argo" and the Malick film especially if Mrs. Affleck (Jennifer Garner) went home from last year's fest and raved about it...




More later...Have a good weekend!


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