Late Breaking News/Ten(+) Bets/Kevin's Trailer/Darren Aron-NOAH-sky/My Friend Marlon

Good Morning America!

Back to a real job today for this guy.  Teaching Inservice today and tomorrow.  Classes start Wednesday.
Also...pseudo-waiting...

The 38th Telluride Film Festival starts in 18 days...

LATE BREAKING NEWS

Two items making Telluride connected news late last night.:

1) Ioncinema.com baldly claims what I have expected for some time and that is that Werner Herzog's documentary "Into the Abyss" will play T-ride.  No surprise there.



and 2) Film critic and Telluride regular (and past Silver Medallion recipient) Leonard Maltin had surgery for a detached retina yesterday in El Paso, TX.  Wishing you a speedy recovery, Mr. Maltin!


TEN (+) BETS

There's some chance that we see W.E.

Last week's Ten Bets were:

1) The Descendants
2) Gazing Into the Abyss
3) A Trip to the Moon
4) The Artist
5) We Have to Talk About Kevin
6) Le Havre
7) Prohibition
8) Drive
9) Shame
10) The Kid with a Bike/Dark Horse (tie)

This week's Ten Bets:

1) The Descendants
2) Into the Abyss
3) The Artist
4) A Trip to the Moon
5) We Have to Talk About Kevin
6) Le Havre
7) Prohibition
8) Shame
9) Drive
10) The Kid with a Bike

Here's the "+"
11) Dark Horse
12) The Birds Upstairs
13) The Skin I Live In
14) The Lady
15) W.E.
16) The Ides of March
17) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
18) Albert Nobbs
19) Coriolanus
20) A Dangerous Method

Note: Kris Tapley at Incontention.com in his July 28th Telluride spec piece listed three Sundance films as possibles, but because they already appeared in Park City, I'm doubtful that they will be in T-ride.  The three are: "Take Shelter," "Like Crazy" and "Martha Marcy May Marlene."

Now that we're down to less than three weeks, I may update the "Ten Bets" list with more frequency than once a week depending what oozes out that I can latch onto.


KEVIN'S ENGLISH TRAILER

A lot of buzz surrounding Lynne Ramsay's "We Need to Talk About Kevin" this last week including a post from the weekend from First Showing.net for the film's U.K. trailer.  Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly star.  The trailer looks appropriately chilling and kind of creepy.  "Kevin" remains at #5 on this week's "Ten Bets."

Here's the link:
http://www.firstshowing.net/2011/must-watch-we-need-to-talk-about-kevin-official-uk-trailer-lands/

Kevin's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1242460/

DARREN ARONOFSKY AND NOAH

Earlier this summer I passed on the news that Darren Aronofsky (director of last year's TFF#37 sensation and multi-Oscar nominated "Black Swan"--Natalie Portman winning Best Actress) was  tackling the Biblical story of Noah as his next project.  Because it's Aronofsky and because "Swan" had such a successful run last year, you have to include "Noah" as a future Telluride possibility at least for the time being.

Get the Big Picture.com posted a fairly substantial speculative piece about that "Noah" project this weekend.  You can take a look at that post here:
http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog/2011/8/13/we-can-only-speculate-what-noah-will-be-like-under-darren-ar.html?utm

Aronofsky's IMDb page is here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004716/


MY FRIEND MARLON

One of the most viewed posts that I put up this summer included my pictures of me and film legend Marlon Brando.  It was fun to relive that two day period when the double Oscar winner and arguably the finest screen actor of all time was in Weatherford, OK.

So, naturally, when I saw the post this week from Open Culture.com that included Brando's screen test for "Rebel Without a Cause" I had to put a link to it here on my blog.  Not only because it's really cool, but also because it gave me another excuse to put up the Brando and me photo...

Here's the link to Brando's screen test (which, of course, was unsuccessful. Some kid named James Dean got the role  The article also has a link to Dean's screen test):
http://www.openculture.com/2011/08/marlon_brando_screen_tests_for_irebel_without_a_causei.html

Brando's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000008/

Rebel's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048545/



FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER:
http://twitter.com/#!/@Gort2

Pictures of Carnage/Melancholia Happens/Companies/More Marlon

Hope everyone has started off the weekend well.  To my friends in LA...hope you are surviving "CARMAGEDDON!!!!"

PICTURES FROM CARNAGE (NOT CARMAGEDDON)

Still via The Playlist

The Playlist put up some stills from Roman Polanski's "Carnage" this week and I thought I'd pass them along.  "Carnage" is based on Yasmina Reza's stage play "God of Carnage" and features Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly.

I think that the chances of "Carnage" being at Telluride are about 1 in 3.  And the reason the odds are even that good are because it's on Sony Pictures Classic's slate of fall films.  So I have to at least consider it.

As I have said here before, you know Polanski won't accompany the film here because of his on-going legal problems.  I could see Jodie Foster there to represent the film as she was a tributee in 1991.  That would be cool.

The "Carnage" pix and accompanying story at The Playlist are here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/meet_the_leads_of_roman_polanskis_carnage/

"Carnage" IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1692486/companycredits

LARS' MELANCHOLY

I have been really pouring cold water on the notion that we'd see Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" at The SHOW this year since his infamous press blunder at Cannes and his subsequent banishment as persona non grata from that festival in May.  but I'd be less than honest if I didn't admit that there is still a small chance that the film could play in Telluride.

Clearly there wasn't a massive backlash against Von Trier or the film as Kirsten Dunst won Best Actress at Cannes.  Additionally, as I have reported before, Von Trier has often had films in Telluride's lineup. So let's not dismiss it out of hand.

Well, now the film has a release date.  The Playlist at Indiewire reporting that it will open on Nov. 11.

I have a reader who confidently tells me that Von Trier doesn't fly...so, much like "Carnage" you have to wonder who'd accompany the film.  My guess would be Charlotte Gainsbourg.

The Playlist story is here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/lars_von_triers_melancholia_will_end_the_world_with_sadness_on_november/

The "Melancholia" IMDb page is here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527186/

COMPANIES ON PARADE

Icon Film Distribution has had  a couple of films that have played as part of the Telluride Film Festival in recent years. 
"Hunger" in 2008 and "The Road" in 2009.

They have a hand this year in the Jack Kerouac inspired "On the Road"...so maybe it gets a little bump in the "it's possible" department.

Could we see Angelina Jolie at the Labor Day Picnic?

GK Films hasn"t really been a player at Telluride but has connections to 2-3 properties that might see their bow at in the San Juans on Labor Day weekend. 
From most likely to least likely they are:
Angelina Jolie's directing and writing debut "In the Land of Blood and Honey," (IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1714209/ )
Bruce Robinson's "The Rum Diary" featuring Johnny Depp in the Hunter Thompson-esque role (IMDb  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376136/ )
and Martin Scorsese's "Hugo." (IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970179/ )

MORE MARLON

Last week I posted my picture with screen legend Marlon Brando and recounted the story of how I met him in 1978 in my last year of college.  I mentioned that I had a couple of other pictures of the two time Oscar winner.  Well, I found them and since there seemed to be a good deal of curiosity, here they are.  Now, I'm not in these.  These were a couple of pics that are sort of hard to believe on their own.  They show Brando exiting the rear of the camper that he and the couple he had with him were travelling in.  You read it right...camper...ON THE BACK OF A PICKUP...look for yourself:

Marlon Brando Goes Camping?

Have a great rest of your weekend everyone!

Restless Trailer/Women of Oscar at TFF#38?/Play Dates/Marlon and Me

Good Morning Ladies and Germs,

RESTLESS TRAILER

Gus Van Sant has been to Telluride more than once with films that he's directed.  In 2008 we thought he could be there with "Milk."  Of course, that didn't happen.  Now the auteur has a new film described, probably pretty accurately, as "quirky".  "Restless" could be a part of Telluride's lineup this year.  It features red hot actress Mia Wasikowska (one of the busiest actresses during this year's coming awards season), Henry Hopper (Dennis Hopper's son), Jane Adams and Ryo Kase.  It involves a dying girl, a Japanese ghost and a young man who likes to attend funerals.  Sounds "Van Santy."
The film also appeared at Cannes as the opener to the Un Certain Regard segment.  It is also in the Sony Pictures Classics stable.  All of which are good indicators that "Restless" could be programmed at TFF #38.  But...
The critical reception at Cannes wasn't raving...so maybe not.
All of that to say this:  a couple of outlets posted the trailer for it yesterday.  You can access it at firstshowing.net here:
http://www.firstshowing.net/2011/newest-theatrical-trailer-for-gus-van-sants-quaint-indie-restless/
or via The Playlist here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/watch_new_trailer_for_gus_van_sants_relentless_quirk_fest_restless/


WOMEN OF OSCAR

Movieline.com had an interesting piece on the perceived looming Best Actress battle between Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) and Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) both of which could be on the Telluride slate in September.
You can see that story here:
http://www.movieline.com/2011/07/who-gets-your-unqualified-vote-in-the-2011-oscar-race-thus-far-meryl-or-glenn.php#.ThYu9Xx1gFE.email

Add to that the chance that we could also have "My Week with Marilyn" starring Michele Williams and "We Need to Talk About Kevin" starring Tilda Swinton and (I suppose) the still outside shot that Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" with Kirsten Dunst all at the Opening Night Feed on Colorado Avenue and this could be the year that the Best Actress battle starts and ends in Telluride.
Wouldn't that be cool?
And that would also defy recent Telluride convention.  Best Actor Oscar winners have been coming out of Telluride with a lot of frequency in recent years, 4 of the last 6...

2010: Colin Firth-"The King's Speech"
2007: Daniel Day-Lewis-"There Will Be Blood"
2006: Forest Whitaker-"The Last King of Scotland"
2005: Philip Seymour Hoffman-"Capote"

And, yes, I know that Natalie Portman won for "Black Swan" last year, but you have to go back to 2005 and Reese Witherspoon in "Walk the Line" to find the next previous Best Actress Oscar winner from Telluride.  The women could be dominant this year...no jokes please...

PLAY DATES

A nice article yesterday from Brad Brevet at ropeofsilicon.com about release dates for Oscar bait-type films including these which I think have at least some potential to play at this year's Telluride Film Festival:

Carnage
The Artist
Coriolanus
W.E.
My Week with Marilyn
The Iron Lady
That post is here:
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/oscar-update-start-engines-release-dates-set-flag-waved

MARLON AND ME

I sometimes forget that this happened when I was in college but I met Marlon Brando.  Yeah, I know.  It happened on Labor Day (there's your tenuous connection to Telluride) 1978.  I was in school at Southwestern Oklahoma State University ("Standing firmly on the hilltop..." Go Bulldogs!) in Weatherford, Oklahoma.  I was in my senior year as a Speech/Theater Ed major and working almost full time at a local motel as Asst. Manager and general flunky.  Thanks to my wife (who was working at the Weatherford Police Dept. at the time) I found out that Brando was in Weatherford and staying secretly at the motel where I was employed and though I hadn't planned to go in on that Labor Day...I changed plans in a heartbeat.  As a result, I got a chance to meet and talk to a man who is arguably America's finest actor...ever.

Brando was purportedly in the area scouting locations for a project he wanted to do and to attend a large Pow Wow that was going on just down the road from Weatherford.  At the time he had just finished shooting as Joe-El for the original "Superman" and was about to film his stunning turn as American Nazi George Norman Rockwell in "Roots II."  He won an Emmy for that.

Needless to say, as a theater major, I was on the verge of exploding.  And I'm fairly certain that Brando thought I was mentally challenged as I don't think I strung together a single coherent sentence.  But what a thrill for a 20 year old college kid in nowheresville south central Oklahoma to stand next to one of the all time greats.

The picture above is my college copy of "A Streetcar Named Desire".  Below is me and the 2 time Oscar winner (On the Waterfront and The Godfather):

Who is that young kid standing to Brando's left...HE PUT HIS ARM AROUND ME!

Here's the inside cover of my copy of "Streetcar":

Yes, that's right, an autographed copy of "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Other than the pictures (and there are one or two others), the only objective proof I have that any of this actually happened was this blurb that ran the next day in the local Weatherford newspaper:

Brando had already achieved his reputation for prickliness when this happened, but I will tell you that he was nothing less than pleasant, kind and charming to a grinning kid who was clearly overwhelmed to have the opportunity to be in the same room with him.

It's all in a small shrine in my living room bookshelves.