Cannes Gets Closer/McQueen-Flynn Collaboration

Good Monday World...

CANNES GETTING CLOSER

With the next big Telluride harbinger being the announcement of the Cannes Film Fest lineup now down to a mere two and a half weeks away, the speculation, and in some cases-informed"speculation,  about what titles will be named for the lineup is growing more intense.

This past week, two giant posts went up exploring the Cannes possibilities from Variety and Screen Daily.  Variety's seems to be a bit more discriminating about their considerations while the Screen Daily Post seems more like a grab bag of every possibility.

There are films that appear, as you might expect, in both places that I have thought seemed like they could also make the trip to Southwest Colorado for Labor Day weekend. Among them are:

Jacques Audiard's "Erran" (Dheepan?)
Matteo Garrone's "The Tale of Tales"
Jeff Nichols' "Midnight Special"
Todd Haynes' "Carol"
Denis Villaneuve's "Sicario"
Sean Penn's "The Last Face"
Stephen Frears' "Icon"
Gus Van Sant's "The Sea of Trees"
Barbet Schroeder's "Amnesia"


A couple of other notes:  Screen Daily's post suggests Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" and Abdellatif Kechiche's "Le Blessure" are possibilities while Variety does not.

Variety says Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette" will not be ready and Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells suggests that it may headed for Telluride/Toronto;

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2015/03/varietys-cannes-forecast/


We know that "Mad Max: Fury Road" and Woody Allen's "Irrational Man" as well as Pixar's "Inside Out" have been announced or are very likely to play as some part of the fest.  There's also a lot of buzz that Brad Bird's "Tomorrowland" will appear.

And finally, there's Cary Fukunaga's "Beasts of No Nation" which I might highlight as a Telluride possibility because of Fukunaga's "True Detective" success last year.  Both Variety and Screen Daily think it could appear in some section of the Cannes lineup but with Netflix distributing...and major theater chains boycotting the film because of the expectation that the film will be released for screens and VOD simultaneously...who knows what that means for any chance that it would have some play at fall film fests.  Stay tuned...

Here are the links to the complete Cannes posts from Variety and Screen Daily:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/cannes-film-festival-whats-in-and-whats-out-1201460030/

http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/cannes/and-the-cannes-line-up-is/5085749.article





MC QUEEN-FLYNN COLLABORATION

You know that if a film maker has made a total of three films and all three have played the Telluride Film Fest, that you'd better think that film #4 is a strong candidate to make an appearance.  Such is the case with British film maker Steve McQueen.

McQueen's "Hunger", "shame" and "12 Years a Slave" all played Telluride so I pay attention to announcements concerning his projects.  We know that he has been involved with an HBO project entitled "Codes of Conduct" and there had been some talk that his next feature film would be a biopic on Paul Robeson but news this week suggests otherwise.  Multiple sources reported that McQueen will next direct a heist themed picture penned by Gillian Flynn-you know-"Gone Girl".

The film will be based on a British television miniseries called "Widows".

That's an interesting combination of talents as well as an interesting switch in film styles for McQueen.  Reporting seems to indicate that the Robeson project has been moved back in favor of this...and it will be intriguing to see if the completed film becomes McQueen's fourth Telluride entrant.

For that matter, depending on HBO's plans for when "Codes of Conduct" will be rolled out, I suppose that IT could be McQueen's fourth Telluride appearance.

Linked here are reports on the collaboration from The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and Thompson on Hollywood:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gillian-flynn-joins-steve-mcqueen-784886

http://deadline.com/2015/03/gillian-flynn-steve-mcqueen-heist-thriller-widows-new-regency-film-4-1201399898/

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/gillian-flynn-and-steve-mcqueen-team-for-heist-thriller-20150327


More on Thursday...

Berlin Adds Titles/Looks at the Queen and Holmes/Yet More Lists to Contemplate/Wither Warner Brothers?/Rudderless Is Arriving

Welcome to Monday!


There WAS other news that had some Telluride Film Festival interest this last week in addition to the phenomenal 33 (35 counting TFF #40's "Ida") Oscar nominations for Telluride titles; 22 between "Birdman", "The Imitation Game" and "Foxcatcher".  So, I thought it'd be a good idea to peruse some of those developments/stories...

BERLIN ADDS TITLES

The Berlin International Film Festival added competition titles this week.  At least two of them immediately caught my eye.  Werner Herzog's "Queen of the Desert" with Nicole Kidman and Bill Condon's "Mr. Holmes" with Sir Ian McKellan and Laura Linney were announced in that group of titles.

As I have pointed out, we usually see a title or two that premieres at Berlin at Telluride.  To my thinking, and unless the film's respective distributors have some other plan for general release, these two films would be serious contenders to make the Berlin/Telluride play. "Queen of the Desert" has no distributor as yet and "Mr. Holmes" is with Roadside Attractions which ran "'71" through Berlin then Telluride last year.  Roadside also had Tommy Lee Jones "The Homesman" at Telluride as well.  Roadside also had "All is Lost" and "Gloria" in TFF #40.

Considering Herzog's strong ties to Telluride and Condon's occasional presence there (Condon's "Kinsey" with Linney played in 2004) as well as Laura Linney's frequent connection to the fest, means that both films would seem to be very real T-ride possibilities.

This all assumes that both films meet the exacting standards of the Telluride programmers.

Here's the post from IndieWire about the new Berlin titles:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/berlin-adds-competition-titles-from-werner-herzog-jafar-panahi-and-bill-condon-20150114


LOOKS AT THE "QUEEN" AND "HOLMES"

"Mr. Holmes" via Sir Ian McKellan's Twitter account

With the announcement of the addition of "Queen of the Desert" and "Mr. Holmes" we saw some posts this week with images for the two films:

Nicole Kidman as the "Queen of the Desert" from The Playlist

Check more of the shots from "Queen" from either The Playlist or Thompson on Hollywood here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/first-look-nicole-kidman-and-james-franco-in-werner-herzogs-queen-of-the-desert-20150114

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/berlinale-first-look-nicole-kidman-and-james-franco-star-in-werner-herzogs-queen-of-the-desert-20150114

YET MORE LISTS TO CONTEMPLATE

I continue to collect and analyze various "Most Anticipated" lists for 2015 in an effort to identify what films are coming down the pike that could make an appearance over Labor Day weekend.  I've got three more to eyeball in today's post:

First, IndieWire's 40 Indie Films they're "Most Excited" to see in 2015:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/the-40-indie-films-indiewire-is-most-excited-to-see-in-2015-20150112

  

Possible Telluride titles from this list:

"A Hologram for the King"

"Carol"

"Macbeth"

"Queen of the Desert"

"Southpaw"

"Suffragette"

"The Hateful Eight"

"The Revenant"

"The Tale of Tales"

Then, Ioncinema's 25 Most Anticipated Studio Films of 2015:

http://www.ioncinema.com/news/annual-top-films-lists/top-25-most-anticipated-studio-films-of-2015-jeff-nichols-midnight-special

Among the films they list, those that would seem to have some Telluride potential are:

#3 "The Light Between the Oceans"

#4 "The Hateful Eight"

#5 "The Revenant"

#6 "Our Brand is Crisis"

#8 "Sicario"

#9 "Macbeth"

#20 "Truth"

#25 "Mr. Holmes"

And from The Playlist: The 20 Most Anticipated Foreign Films:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-20-most-anticipated-foreign-films-of-2015-20150114

And from that list, here's what stands out as early Telluride potentials:

#7 "Erran"'
#5 "Every Thing Will Be Fine"
#3 "La blessure"
#1 "Flashmob"


WITHER WARNER BROTHERS?

Warners announced this past week that the Ron Howard film "In the Heart of the Sea" was being moved from a spring date to December.  Along with the announcement came a good deal of speculation as to why Warners had made the decision with positioning for an awards season run being a common theory.  Of course, from my perspective, it made the film go from "can't play Telluride if it's released in March" to "December makes it a possibility".

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/warner-bros-moves-ron-howards-in-the-heart-of-the-sea-to-christmas-1201405354/

I've already mentioned that I believe that Warners may press to return to Telluride after a noticeable presence in 2012 ("Argo")  and again in 2013 ("Gravity" and "Prisoners").  Warners wasn't in T-ride this year and that may be that their two biggest possible players: "American Sniper"  and "Inherent Vice" couldn't be ready in time or just preferred not to be a part of Telluride...or that Telluride didn't prefer those films.  Nevertheless, I wouldn't be surprised for Warners to be back at Telluride this year and they have a number of prospects that could make the lineup including the newly moved Ron Howard film "In the Heart of the Sea".  Other possibilities (meaning that they are films that have an announced released date post-Labor Day):

Jeff Nichols "Midnight Special" (Release: Nov. 25)
Scott Cooper's "Black Mass" (Release: Sept. 18)
and now
Ron Howard's "In the Heart of the Sea" (Release: Dec. 11)

At this point, I don't have a sense that any one of these films is more likely than the others.  I'd probably lean to starring "Black Mass" if it weren't for the release date opening less than two weeks after the close of the festival.  So let's leave it at..."Warners might be back with one or more of these films".


RUDDERLESS IS ARRIVING

William H. Macy's Oklahoma shot and written directing debut "Rudderless" arrives on DVD and BluRay tomorrow.   Seek it!

http://newsok.com/william-h.-macy-renews-his-love-for-movies-with-rudderless/article/5384981


More on Thursday...