Mark Cousins is the New Mr. Peabody (and Ken Burns Too)...Not a Casting Story/Mickey and Roger and Telluride/Cannes Announcement in One Week

Welcome to Thursday...


MARK COUSINS IS THE NEW MR. PEABODY (WELL, SO IS KEN BURNS)

Over the past couple of Telluride Film Fests, Mark Cousins has become a familiar face around town.  He presented "The Story of Children in Film" last year and previously had presented "The Story of Film".  The latter earned TCM and Mr. Cousins a Peabody Award this past week.

Congratulations to him and Turner Classic Movies and the Telluride programmers as well for providing we film goers the opportunity to see what has been hailed as a high quality production.

Ken Burns "The Central Park Five" (PBS?Florentine Films) was also named a Peabody recipient.  CP5 also appeared at TFF #39.

Other programs named Peabody winners this year included: "Breaking Bad", "The Bridge", "House of Cards", "Key and Peele", "Orange is the New Black" and "How to Survive a Plague". You can find the complete list of Peabody winners here:

http://www.peabodyawards.com/stories/story/2013-peabody-winners

MICKEY AND ROGER AND TELLURIDE

With the death of Mickey Rooney this week, Chaz Ebert tweeted a link to a piece that her husband roger had done about Mr. Rooney at the 2005 Telluride Fest.  Rooney was tributed that year and Ebert did the Q & A.  Here's the link to the piece Roger wrote made all the more moving because they're both gone now...

http://www.rogerebert.com/festivals-and-awards/telluride-3-mickey-in-the-limelight


CANNES ANNOUNCEMENT IS ONE WEEK AWAY

The 67th Cannes Film Fest announcement of the bulk of its lineup is a week from today.  As a public service, here's a link to IndieWire's 40 film Cannes wish list:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes-wish-list-40-films-we-hope-make-the-festivals-2014-lineup

Included on their wish/prediction lineup are:

"Birdman"
"Clouds of Sils Maria"
"Coming Home"
"Eden"
"Everything Will Be Fine"
"Far From the Madding Crowd"
"Foxcatcher"
"The Imitation Game"
"Inherent Vice"
"Maps to the Stars"
"A Most Violent Year"
"Mr. Turner"
"A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence"
"Rosewater"
"The Search"
"Squirrel to the Nuts"
"Suite Francaise"
"Two Days One Night"
"While We're Young"


 More on Monday...have a great weekend...

Mr. Rooney's FInal Bow/Variety's Critics Talk Cannes/More "Rudderless" Details

Good Monday to all...

MR. ROONEY'S FINAL BOW

News late last night that film legend Mickey Rooney has died at 93.  At the zenith of his career, he was the most popular male film star on the planet.  I was lucky enough to catch him as the title character in a national tour of "The Wizard of Oz" in Phoenix in 1999.  I'll also always remember his outstanding turn as "Bill" in the made for TV film of the same name for which he deservedly won an Emmy.  Rest in Peace Mr. R...


VARIETY'S CRITICS TALK CANNES

Variety posted a slightly different speculation piece about films for the Cannes film fest toward the end of the week.  They had each of their three film critics to take a stab at naming five Cannes possibilities.  The post gives a little more insight as to what films are bring perceived as the most likely Cannes players and by extension, some films that certainly have the best chance of catching the eye of Telluride programmers who will be in France next month.

The post begins by suggesting that Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher" and David Cronenberg's "Maps to the Stars" are already "shoo-ins".

By critic, here are the films the Variety fellows name;

Peter DeBruge: "Inherent Vice", "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence", "Serena", "Tourist" and "Two Days, One Night".  Of the DeBruge list, "Two Days" is your best Telluride bet and maybe the only one from DeBruge's list.

Justin Chang: "The Assassin", "Eden", "Leviafan", "Mr. Turner", "Winter Sleep".  The best bet for T-ride on Chang's list: "Mr. Turner".

Scott Foundas: "Birdman", "Phoenix", "Queen and Country", "The Rover", "Welcome to New York"  Telluride's most likely choice here is "Birdman"

The complete post is here:

http://variety.com/2014/film/international/cannes-wishlist-15-movies-our-critics-hope-to-see-at-this-years-festival-1201151330/


Cannes announces their official lineup on April 17.

MORE "RUDDERLESS" DETAILS

I happily reported in this space on Thursday that William H. Macy's "Rudderless" had closed a distribution deal with Paramount and Samuel Goldwyn Films.  The Hollywood Reporter added other distribution details to the stories I had linked from Variety and from Deadline.com in a story posted Thursday evening.  That post is here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/william-h-macys-rudderless-nabbed-693440


More on Thursday...