On Salinger/Herzog's Latest/The Fifth Estate Needs a Lawyer?/The Book Thief Gets a Date

Good Tuesday Everybody...16 Days Until Nirvana...

ON SALINGER

Yesterday I posted the speculation form Ioncinema that the documentary "Salinger" might make the stop in Telluride.  I observed that I had some doubts mostly due to the fact that the film opens 4 days after the festival closes which seems to me to be insufficient time for the doc to benefit from the Festival appearance.

Word cam to me yesterday on background that the film is definitely NOT going to be on the T-ride program.  Let me tell you that I trust the source so don't plan on seeing it in the San Juans on Labor Day weekend.

HERZOG'S LATEST FILM

I don't think you'll be seeing Werner Herzog's latest project in Telluride in two weeks...which normally would be an insane statement as Herzog's latest is almost always on display in T-ride.  Not this, however.  Herzog has directed and anti-texting and driving short film for a collection of phone entities.  Take a look at the story via AdAge.com:
http://adage.com/article/creativity-pick-of-the-day/werner-herzog-s-anti-texting-driving-documentary/243583/?qwr=FullSite

Thew film is entitled "From One Second to the Next" and you can view it at the above address.

THE FIFTH ESTATE NEEDS A LAWYER

The Hollywood Reporter posted last week that Dreamworks was girding up for legal challenges arising from the Wikileaks/Julian Assange picture "The Fifth Estate".  The film was directed by Bill Condon and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Bruhl and Laura Linney.  I still am holding onto a thin read of hope that the film could still pop up at Telluride.

Here's the link to the THR story:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dreamworks-prepares-fight-wikileaks-fifth-595743

THE BOOK THIEF GETS A DATE

An intriguing film has landed square in the middle of awards season.  "The Book Thief" starring Geoffrey Rush has been set for release on Nov. 15.  Kris Tapley at InContention/HitFix reports that the film will fore go festivals altogether.  Seems a little odd to me as it probably could have benefited from some fest exposure as it has been flying way under the radar up until now.  Check Tapley's story here:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/fox-quietly-positions-the-book-thief-from-downton-abbey-director-brian-percival-in-the-middle-of-awards-season


MERYL IN SUPPORTING

Regarded as one of the biggest Oscar stalking horses for the upcoming season, "August: Osage County" was the focus of a lot of stories yesterday that Meryl Streep may be campaigned in the Supporting Actress category rather than lead.  If you know the stage play and you know that Streep is playing Violet Weston then you know that seems weird.  Violet and the role of Barbara (Julia Roberts) are clearly co-leads.  Still, I wouldn't be all that surprised.  Again, Tapley's take from InContention/HitFix:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/will-meryl-streep-be-campaigned-for-best-supporting-actress-in-august-osage-county

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More on Wednesday...

Salinger in Telluride?/How I Live Now Trailer/New Stuff from Saturday's Post

Good Monday Everyone...back from Colorado late last night and headed to my first In-Service for the new school year.  Bring it!


SALINGER IN T-RIDE?

Ioncinema tweeted yesterday that they believed the new documentary about J.D. Salinger from director Shane Solerno and The Weinstein Company would likely be a part of the Telluride lineup.
The tweet says, "Telluride slot?  J.D. Salinger doc from the Weinsteins will probably be in the lineup."

I've hedged my bets on this film simply because of the release date occurring so soon after Telluride concludes.  It's set to open Sept. 6th ( the Friday after T-ride ends.

That being said, the Ioncinema folks almost certainly have better info than I do.  Additionally, the film would definitely be on my list of films to see.  Although, ( if I have most if this stuff right)  I have to admit that my dance card is getting awfully full.

The "Salinger" trailer:

"Salinger's" IMDb page is here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596753/?ref_=sr_1

FROM THE OUTSIDE POSSIBILITY DEPT.

Kevin Mcdonald's new feature is an outside possibility for Telluride.  "How I Live Now" starring Saoirse Ronan premiered a trailer over the weekend.

 

I've also linked stories from The Playlist and FirstShowing:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-trailer-for-kevin-macdonalds-apocalyptic-how-i-live-now-starring-saoirse-ronan-tom-holland-20130809

http://www.firstshowing.net/2013/saoirse-ronan-in-first-trailer-for-kevin-macdonalds-how-i-live-now/

SATURDAY MATERIAL RE-POST...

New material I posted originally on Saturday...

THE UNIFIED CLOONEY THEORY; PART TWO

Earlier this week I proposed the "Unified Clooney Theory", a suggestion of the connective web between Clooney and many of his friends and a number of the films that have the potential to be a part of this year's Telluride program.  You can see that I've re-posted it above as a part of the "Best of the Week" segment.

Well...there's more.  Julia Roberts is another part of the UCT.  She's appeared with Clooney, Pitt and Damon in the Ocean films and will be getting a lot of notice in the Clooney produced "August: Osage County".  Many Oscar observers believe that she'll be a player in the awards conversation at the end of the year.

Tilda Swinton is another actress that is a part of the UCT and has a lively Telluride possibility or two.  Swinton appeared with Clooney in Michael Clayton and they were both tributed at Telluride the same year.  Swinton also has appeared with fellow UCT members Brad Pitt in "Benjamin Button" and both Clooney and Pitt in the Coen Brothers "Burn After Reading"  (Coens...more UCT!)

Swinton is set to appear in Terry Gilliam's "The Zero Theorem" (with UCT member Matt Damon) and Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive".  Both of those have some level of Telluride potential.

And we can't forget Cate Blanchett in this feminine examination of the Unified Clooney Theory.  Blanchett who is currently basking in breathless reviews for her performance in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine" has had her moments in Clooney-land.  Blanchett is, of course, the female lead in Pitt's "Benjamin Button" and also plays the lead in the Steven Soderberg directed and Clooney  starrer "The Good German".  Blanchett has Clooney's "The Monuments Men" in the can (or nearly so) as well as co-starring as Pitt's wife in "Babel".  Blanchett also appeared in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" with Matt Damon.

Again, as with the male version of the UCT, the chances of all of these films playing and all of these women being in Telluride is very unlikely...actually, my guess is that Swinton and "only Lovers" is your best chance.  But, again, they're all possible at least to varying degrees.

COME AND PLAY

We're still ironing out details but you can be sure that you have a personal invitation to the Third Guide to the Ride, Flow of the Show.  Tentative plans look like we'll be moving the soiree to Thursday (the opening day if the fest).  I expect to host again at The River Club (550 Depot St. in Telluride).  Time and duration are still being ironed out.  Keep an eye on the blog for more details as we get closer to Festival time.

RANKING THE FILMS

For the second year Michael's Telluride Film Blog is putting together an array of Film Critics, blogger and Experts who have agreed to offer their ratings of the films that they see during the festival.  i'll be collating that information and passing it on to you.  

Among the fine film folk that have agreed to particiapate are :

Alex Billington/FirstShowing

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Scott Foundas/Variety

Eric Kohn/IndieWire

Eugene Novikov/Film Blather

Kristopher Tapley/InContention-HitFix

Sasha Stone/Awards Daily

I have other invitations out and hopes that we'll have more players in this endeavor.

ALSO...

As I did last year, I want YOUR ratings too.  As we move through the festival in a few weeks, I'm inviting you to rank the films you see from 0 to 5 and email those ratings to me at either:

michael_speech@hotmail.com or

mpgort@gmail.com

It should be fun!

PHILOMENA TRAILER

Judi Dench and Steve Coogan star in Stephen Frears "Philomena".  dench is reportedly fantastic in this film about a woman looking for the son she surrendered fro adoption when she was young.  "Philomena" dropped a trailer yesterday.

Here it is:

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More on Tuesday...

Weinstein's at Telluride/More "Counseling"

Good Thursday to All.


WEINSTEIN'S AT TELLURIDE

Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob have had a fairly common presence at the Telluride Film Festival over the years.  Their current incarnation is as The Weinstein Company.  Previously they were Miramax.  Tracking both companies as distributors at Telluride for the past decade shows us that they've been a part of The SHOW for a good long while.  Here's their Telluride slate as Miramax or The Weinstein Company since 2005:

2003: The Barbarian Invasions, Best of Youth, I'm Not Scared
2004:
2005:
2006: Venus
2007: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, My Enemy's Enemy, I'm Not There
2008: Happy-Go-Lucky
2009: The Road
2010: The King's Speech
2011: The Artist, Butter
2012: The Sapphires  (also was represented during the Marion Cotillard tribute by James Gray and 5 min. of The Immigrant)

So over 10 years...13 films.  1.3 per year and TWC has been repped at TFF consistently each year since 2006.  So expect one or two TWC films on the TFF #40 slate.  What's possible?

According to IMDb this is what TWC has in its wheelhouse for the fall (that, as usual, hasn't already appeared in the U.S. or won't open here until after The SHOW):

You can probably discount "Leo the Lion" "The Trick or Treaters" and "Man of Tai Chi".

"The Immigrant"
"August: Osage County"
"Snowpiercer"
"Salinger"
"The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet"
"One Chance"
"Philomena"
"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"
"Grace of Monaco"

So there are probably these 9 that are legit possibles.  If you've read the blog, you already know that I'm high on "The Immigrant" being at T-ride in its full form.  If that's true and TWC's past performance (particularly the last 7 years) we might see one other film from the TWC shingle, two at most.

So...which?

I think your best shots are: "Salinger", "One Chance" and "Philomena" with "Spivet" as an outside shot.

"August", "Mandela" and "Grace" are probably off the table.  I'd not be surprised that "August" doesn't do ANY festival in the fall.  Maybe New York.

My guess is that "Grace" and "Mandela" will do some combination of Toronto and NY and that "Snowpiercer" is Toronto all he way.

Chances:

"Immigrant" 80%
"Salinger" 45%
"Philomena" 40%
"One Chance" 35%
"Spivet" 25%
"Mandela" 20%
"Grace" 10%
"August" 10%
"Snowpiercer" 5%


MORE "COUNSELING"

Yesterday was the trailer for Ridley Scott's "The Counselor".  Today, from The Playlist, a look at some stills from the film.  The post also includes a segment of the screenplay by Cormac McCarthy.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/first-offical-images-from-the-counselor-plus-read-an-excerpt-of-cormac-mccarthys-unique-script-20130626



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More tomorrow...

700/Sundance Selects and Telluride/The Playlist Guesses Venice

Good Tuesday Everyone...

700

That was the number of Saturday's post...the 700th.  Hard for me to believe.  Doing some quick math, that means that each post has been looked at, on average, 112.4 times.  Thanks to everyone who reads from time to time.

SUNDANCE SELECTS AND TELLURIDE

Only a player in distribution for just a few years, Sundance Selects has been present at the Telluride Film Festival for the last three fests at various levels of involvement.

2010: The Princess of Montpensier, Tabloid
2011: The Forgiveness of Blood, The Kid with a Bike, Goodbye First Love and Into the Abyss
2012: The Central Park Five

At this point, the possible Sundance Selects offerings amount to 5 films that played at Cannes:

Palme d'Or winner "Blue is the Warmest Color", Jury Prize winner "Like Father, Like Son", Francois Ozon's "Young and Beautiful", Clio Bernard's "The Selfish Giant" and Roman Polanski's "Venus in Fur".

My feeling is that "Like Father..." and "The Selfish Giant" might be the more likely T-ride choices...though "Blue" and "Young and Beautiful" seem very possible as well.

Polanski's film seems like the least likely of the five from Cannes.

Sundance Selects also has a documentary entitled "The Summit" which has played in 2 film fests in England and Ireland...that could be a possibility.

Chances:

"Like Father, Like Son" 70%
"The Selfish Giant" 70%

"Blue is the Warmest Color" 60%
"Young and Beautiful" 50%
"Venus in Fur" 20%
""The Summit" 20%

THE PLAYLIST GUESSES VENICE (and T-ride indirectly)

The Playlist Oliver Lyttleton offers his take on potential Venice selections and, in passing mentions 5 films as Telluride possibles:

"Devil's Knot"
"The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby"
"Salinger"
"Out of the Furnace"
and "Foxcatcher"

All of which could join the San Juan SHOW...and none.

I haven't had "Devil's Knot" on my radar at all. I have mentioned the other four.  Each of which has some things working in its favor and other things that indicate that they're not so likely.

To look at Lyttleton's complete list click below:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/predicting-the-2013-venice-film-festival-line-up-20130624

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More tomorrow...

Best of the Week

Good Saturday.  Back home in the Oklahoma Panhandle after a 16 hour marathon drive from Birmingham yesterday.

BEST OF THE WEEK

Here's the best material that I posted this past week on MTFB:

ANNECY ENDS

Probably the world's most important animated film festival has come to a conclusion in France.  The Annecy Animation festival was a contributor to last year's Telluride fest.  "Rio 2096" won the top prize, the Crystal Award.  Other award winners and a complete wrap-up of the festival, check out this from Variety:

http://variety.com/2013/film/news/rio-2096-takes-top-honor-at-annecy-fest-1200497503/


SALINGER TRAILER

I had been thinking that the upcoming documentary on J.D. Salinger had a shot to be a Telluride film...but I have discovered that the release date is now set for Sept. 6...the weekend after TFF concludes.  That doesn't make it impossible and I can actually see a scenario wherein The Weinstein Company might think the immediate opening after a Telluride weekend might make a lot of sense.  So, don't rule it out completely.

All that to get to this...it has a trailer...

Here are a couple of posts that accompanied the release of the trailer this week:

From Movie City News:
http://moviecitynews.com/2013/06/trailering-salinger-231/

And from The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-captivating-trailer-for-documentary-on-famed-literary-recluse-jd-salinger-20130613

MANDELA'S POSTER

A film with a somewhat rosier prospect of Telluride play is Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom starring Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela and directed by Justin Chadwick.  That film released its first poster yesterday as per this post from The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/idris-elba-channels-nelson-mandela-569953

A LOOK AT 12 YEARS A SLAVE

First official images from Steve McQueen's third feature which has a better than even chance at making the TFF #40 lineup:

From The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/first-look-michael-fassbender-benedict-cumberbatch-chiwetel-ejiofor-in-12-years-a-slave-20130618


Also from Rope of Silicon:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/twelve-years-a-slave-pictures/

THE VENICE SPEC STARTS

Variety's Justin Chang and Nick Vivarelli have posted the first serious speculation about what might make the grade for the Venice Film Festival.

As I have pointed out a number of times, Telluride and Venice normally share only about 2-3 films each year.

So what might we learn from the Variety speculation?

The first two films mentioned are "Gravity" and "Twelve Years a Slave".  I'm of a mind that "Gravity" in an unlikely TFF entrant but that Steve McQueen might very well follow the same path that he has with his first two films...both "Hunger" and "Shame" played the Venice/Telluride double header.

The next paragraph of the article suggests a number of Venice possibilities...the most Telluride-interesting title might be Terry Gilliam's "The Zero Theorem".

The final paragraph teases films that aren't likely to be at Venice (so they say) because they'll be other places...perhaps T-ride.  The most intriguing to me are Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher" and Spike Jones "Her".

For the whole article look here:

http://variety.com/2013/film/news/venice-film-festival-gears-up-for-a-starry-70th-anniversary-1200497948/

INDIE WIRE HAS A LIST

Major film blog warehouse, IndieWire has posted the 50 films they'd love to see at one of the 3 fall fests...Telluride, Toronto and Venice.

Of the 50 they list, they mention Telluride specifically in four cases: "The Double", "A Most Wanted Man", "The Young and Prodigious Mr. T.S. Spivet" and "The Monuments Men".  Frankly, I dubious about all but "Most Wanted" and I'm lukewarm about it at best.

Looking at their entire list of 50,the films they list that I think have the best T-ride chances are:

"The Fifth Estate"

"Foxcatcher"

"Labor Day"
"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"
"Philomena"
and

"Twelve Years a Slave"

Here's the link to the complete post:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/fall-festival-wishlist-the-50-films-we-hope-to-see-in-venice-toronto-and-or-telluride


FEST FLIGHTS

The TFF folks have announced additional flights/charters for this year's 40th Festival.  Check here for the news:

http://telluridefilmfestival.org/news/2013-06

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More on Monday...have a good weekend.

Pics from Inherent Vice/Annecy Ends/Salinger Trailer

Good Monday everyone.

PICS FROM INHERENT VICE

Paul Thomas Anderson's "Inherent Vice" starring Joaquin Phoenix continues to film in and around Los Angeles.  PTA fan site Cigarettes and Redvines posted a slew of on-set photos in the last couple of days featuring Phoenix and Martin Short.

You can see all of them at this link:

http://cigsandredvines.blogspot.com/2013/06/first-look-at-martin-short-in-inherent.html


ANNECY ENDS

Probably the world's most important animated film festival has come to a conclusion in France.  The Annecy Animation festival was a contributor to last year's Telluride fest.  "Rio 2096" won the top prize, the Crystal Award.  Other award winners and a complete wrap-up of the festival, check out this from Variety:

http://variety.com/2013/film/news/rio-2096-takes-top-honor-at-annecy-fest-1200497503/


SALINGER TRAILER

I had been thinking that the upcoming documentary on J.D. Salinger had a shot to be a Telluride film...but I have discovered that the release date is now set for Sept. 6...the weekend after TFF concludes.  That doesn't make it impossible and I can actually see a scenario wherein The Weinstein Company might think the immediate opening after a Telluride weekend might make a lot of sense.  So, don't rule it out completely.

All that to get to this...it has a trailer...

Here are a couple of posts that accompanied the release of the trailer this week:

From Movie City News:
http://moviecitynews.com/2013/06/trailering-salinger-231/

And from The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-captivating-trailer-for-documentary-on-famed-literary-recluse-jd-salinger-20130613

Follow/Like Michael's Telluride Film Blog on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse/107846269309712

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2

More tomorrow...