One More Film Falls from Consideration (Maybe Two) / Canadians Announce Canadians / MTFB Makes Appearance at Awards Circuit /

Good Thursday Telluride Film Fans...

ONE MORE FILM FALLS FROM CONSIDERATION (MAYBE TWO)

The New York Film Festival named Julian Schnabel's At Eternity's Gate as its Closing Night Film yesterday and labeled it as a North American Premiere.  That effectively signals us that the film will not be making a stop at Telluride.

Schnabel has had a significant relationship with T-ride including acting as its poster artist (where's this year's poster?) in 2002:

His magnificent The Dining Bell and the Butterfly played TFF in 2007 but he hasn't been back since.

Additionally, Anne Thompson at Indiewire tweeted yesterday that Joel Edgerton's Boy Erased is likely to play the first weekend of Toronto which almost certainly means that it won't play T-ride:

Thompson later tweeted that the film's presence at TIFF is not confirmed as yet but The Playlist's Gregory Ellwood hinted last weekend that a Focus Feature film would be playing Toronto's opening weekend...and Boy Erased was speculated by some to be that film.

However, late yesterday afternoon and five and a half hours after the above tweet,  Thompson seemed to open the door back up for the potential of a play at Telluride revealing that director Joel Edgerton had screened the film for festivals "late" and, quoting Anne, "we may see it at Telluride".

Here's the story Thompson filed at Indiewire late yesterday afternoon.

I can't think of a reason that Thompson would have even done the story following her earlier tweet if there wasn't some possibility that still existed for the film to make the TFF #45 lineup.

Here's coverage of the Schnabel/NYFF announcement from: Variety and Deadline.

CANADIANS ANNOUNCE CANADIANS

The Toronto International Film Festival announced Canadian films that have been added to various portions of their program yesterday.  While the announced films didn't add or really eliminate films that we've been thinking about as Telluride potentials, the absence of an announcement for Xavier Dolan's The Death and Life of John F. Donovan made me think that another fall fest season is going to pass without that film showing up anywhere.

Then , yesterday afternoon, in a separate announcement, TIFF revealed that Dolan's film will World Premiere there thus removing it from Telluride consideration

The original TIFF Canadian announcement is here from Indiewire and Variety.

The story of the addition of John F. Donovan is here from The Playlist.

MTFB MAKES APPEARANCE AT AWARDS CIRCUIT

Mark Johnson of Awards Circuit posted his TFF #45 speculation piece yesterday and was kind enough to mention MTFB and link to the blog in the body of the article.

So a big thanks to Mark and the entire Awards Circuit crew for the shout out.  Those of you tuning in for the first time from A.C. ...Howdy!

Mark goes on to name 10 films he's predicting which mirror my latest Ten Bets closely but not 100%.

For example, Mark does name Backseat (The Adam McKay biopic about Dick Cheney that stars Christian Bale as the former Veep) which may be titled something else before its release.  I hope he's right because I would love to see that.

Mark's complete story is here.

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Who's Coming to the Party? / The List Gets Smaller / Toronto's Final Word Today / Inadvertent Confirmation / A New Consideration

Howdy everybody...hope you survived your Monday.  Today is Tuesday, August 22, 2017...Nine days until The SHOW.


WHO'S COMING TO THE PARTY?

I think it's always fun to think about the stars that we could rub elbows with during each Labor Day weekend.  Ultimately, I always seem to kind of choke when I actually come face to face with the talented, beautiful and famous.  I'm talking awkward here.

Nevertheless, over the years I have been lucky enough to be meet and speak briefly with some people who have been kind enough to respond.

So, each year, I can't help but imagine who could be in Telluride based on the films that I think will make the journey.  So to that end I'll start by re-posting last Friday's 21 Bets...

1) Downsizing
2) Wonderstruck
3) The Shape of Water
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Darkest Hour
6) Loving Vincent
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) A Fantastic Woman
10) The Rider
11) Visages/Villages
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) The Other Side of Hope
15) Wormwood
16) Before We Vanish

17) Lean on Pete

18) First Reformed

19) Loveless

20) Foxtrot

21) The Insult

Here are some of the biggest names from some of these 21 films that might be seen on Colorado Ave. over Labor Day weekend:

Downsizing: Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Christoph Waltz, Jason Sudekis, Neil Patrick Harris

Wonderstruck: Julianne Moore

The Shape of Water: Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Michael Shannon, Michael Sthulbarg, Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins

Battle of the Sexes: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Elisabeth Shue, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming, Andrea Riseborough

Darkest Hour: Gary Oldman, Kristen Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn

Hostiles: Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Ben Foster, Timothee Chalamet, Bill Camp

Lady Bird: Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Laurie Metcalf

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool:  Normally you'd think star Annette Bening...but Jury Duty in Venice (maybe a satellite linkup?), Jamie Bell, Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Waters

Lean on Pete: Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Steve Zahn, Chloe Sevigny, Travis Fimmel

First Reformed: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried

Wormwood: Peter Sarsgaard

If I were guessing, and it seems I am, I'd say the following at least feel like the best bets for a celeb sighting: Laura Dern, Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Steve Carell, Emma Stone, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Wes Studi, Saoirse Ronan, Jamie Bell, Ethan Hawke, Peter Sarsgaard.

Directors that I'm excited to maybe run into: Alexander Payne, Guillermo Del Toro, Joe Wright, Greta Gerwig, Scott Cooper, Todd Haynes, and somebody named Angelina Jolie.



THE LIST GETS SMALLER

We reported yesterday that The Death of John F. Donovan was moving to 2018 and then yesterday afternoon came the word that The Weinstein Company has moved Garth Davis' Mary Magdalene starring Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix will be moving to March 2018.  In part, the reports claim, because it will not be ready for its previously scheduled release date.

TWC's The Current War will apparently be moved up from December to November.  Two ramifications here:  First, Mary Magdalene moves off my "still possible for Telluride" list and second, that means it's very probable that The Weinsteins won't have any Telluride player for the second year in a row and that is very unusual.

Here's coverage of the TWC announcement From:

Indiewire

Screen International

The Playlist


After removing Mary Magdalene from our still in play list, here's what we have:

Final Portrait
L'amant Double
Marshall
Our Souls at Night
The Snowman
Wonder
You Were never Really Here


TORONTO'S FINAL WORD TODAY

The Toronto International Film Fest announced the final films for its 2017 lineup later today.  Over the past few years it has been my experience that this final announcement usually rules a couple of things out and only rarely allows us to add another film to our list.

Nevertheless, it will probably still be instructive to some extent especially since we are getting so close to the SHOW dates.

Come back here later today for an update that reflects whatever we learn.

UPDATE:  As best as I can discern this morning's TIFF announcement of their Discovery section contains no films that will also play at Telluride.  Consequently nothing was eliminated or added.


INADVERTENT CONFIRMATION

Friend of the blog Tomris Laffly, who freelances for a number of film outlets and will serve as one of the Telluride Pros that will rate films at this year's fest, tweeted yesterday afternoon the curious IMDb entry for The Shape of Water which appears to confirm its inclusion for T-ride:

I'll be lining up for this as it might be most anticipated for the fest this year.

A NEW CONSIDERATION

Variety reported yesterday that Amazon had picked up the distribution for Cold War (Zimma Wojna) from director Pawel Palikowski.  Palikowski was in Telluride back in 2013 with Ida which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film that year.


The timing of that news makes me think that we might see that title pop up in today's TIFF announcement and also for Telluride.

I'll be looking for that later today.


That's a wrap for this Tuesday...until we get news from Toronto...so look for an update later today.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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Another One Bites the Dust / Crazy Ideas Re-visited / A Trailer for Human Flow

Welcome back from your weekend.  It's Monday, August 21, 2017...ten days to TFF #44...

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

I started seeing some social media mention on Friday that Xavier Dolan's The Death and Life of John F. Donovan was probably not going to be ready for exhibition.  Indiewrie confirmed that in a post on Friday afternoon.

The film's french distributor is sourced in the article specifically saying that the film won't be ready for Toronto which necessarily also means that it wouldn't be ready for the earlier occurring TFF #44. John F. Donovan has been on my dwindling list of films that could still pop up at Telluride but that changes now.

One other note about Toronto; they do have one more round of films to be announced Tuesday.  Last week one of the major film outlet had suggested that TIFF was finished naming films but a friendly reader messaged me with the news that TIFF wasn't quite done which made more sense to me as I had gotten used to TIFF making their announcements in five installments.  So, look for a final wave of films and parsing coming tomorrow.

Consequently, my list of films which might still make The SHOW is now:

Final Portrait
L'amant Double
Marshall
Mary Magdalene
Our Souls at Night
The Snowman
Wonder
You Were never Really Here

CRAZY IDEAS RE-VISITED

Four things that are really far-fetched but...you never know...

Alejandro Inarritu's VR installation Carne y Arena.  It's played at Cannes and the L.A. County Museum.  

Denis Villenueve surprises by showing up with, at a minimum, scenes from Blade Runner 2049. Maybe the whole film.

William Friedkin is feted and shows The Devil and Father Amorth plus the recently restored Sorcerer and perhaps even The Exorcist.

David Lynch drops the final two episodes of Twin Peaks:The Return in Telluride prior to them airing on Sunday night, Sept. 3rd on Showtime.

Final word: make all these crazy ideas happen...

A TRAILER FOR AI WEI WEI'S HUMAN FLOW

One of the documentaries we expect to see in Telluride in a few days is Ai Wei Wei's Human Flow. The film is known to bow in Venice and we then think it'll make the trip to southwest Colorado.  Wei Wei focuses on the global refugee crisis after having filmed in nearly two dozen countries according to Indiewire which reported over the weekend that the doc has a trailer.

And here it is from YouTube:

That's Monday.  More tomorrow...

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Ten (Plus) Bets #6 (AKA as 15 Bets) / Toronto's Platform Has No TFF #44 Crossover / The Cases for Mary Magdalene and John F. Donovan

Good Friday people!  The 44th Telluride Film Festival opens four weeks from today.


TEN (PLUS) BETS #6 (AKA 15 BETS)

Yes.  It's time to expand the list from 10 films we think will play TFF #44 to 15 as we get closer to The SHOW date and have learned more, it makes sense to expand the list.

Here's last week's Ten Bets and added possibilities:

1) Wonderstruck
2) Downsizing
3) Battle of the Sexes
4) A Fantastic Woman
5) The Shape of Water
6) The Rider
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) First They Killed My Father
10) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool

Additionally other detective work seems to be indicating Darkest Hour, Loving Vincent, Human Flow (see below) and Wormwood are likely for  Telluride.

Other films that could still play Telluride: Visages/Villages, The Other Side of Hope, Lean on Pete, Mektoub My Love Canto Uno, First Reformed, The Leisure Seeker, Ex Libris, Our Souls at Night, First Reformed, Sweet Country and La Camera Insabbiata, You Were Never Really Here, The Florida Project, Happy End, Loveless, Ken Burns' Vietnam and Mary Magdalene.

Here's is this week's 15 Bets:

1) Wonderstruck
2) Downsizing
3) Battle of the Sexes
4) The Shape of Water
5) Darkest Hour
6) A Fantastic Woman
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) The Rider
10) Loving Vincent
11) Human Flow
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) Wormwood
15) The Florida Project and Visages/Villages (tie)

Other possibilities: Loveless, You Were Never Really Here, Lean on Pete, Mary Magdalene, The Other Side of Hope, Mektoub My Love, First Reformed, Happy End, Our Souls at Night, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, Molly's Game.


TORONTO PLATFORM TITLES: NONE WILL BE IN T-RIDE

Yesterday the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled 12 titles for its Platform Section.  Last year, that section included one film that played Telluride and that was Barry Jenkins' eventual Best Picture Oscar winner Moonlight.

However, that situation will not be replicated in 2017 as none of the Platform choices appear to be playing Telluride first.  All 12 titles were listed either as World or North American Premieres meaning no T-ride.

Three films that were included had been on my radar for Telluride at some point but are now off:

The Death of Stalin
Brad's Status
Sweet Country

I was particularly bummed by The Death of Stalin from Veep creator Armando Ianucci.  I was really hoping that it would make the trip to Colorado but, alas, it seems that won't happen.

We expect more Toronto announcements next week.

Platform coverage is here from Indiewire.

And also here from Variety.


THE CASES FOR MARY MAGDALENE AND JOHN F. DONOVAN

Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara from Mary Magdalene via The Daily Mail

These are a couple of films that I haven't had high up on my Telluride expectations list but because of recent circumstances in both cases, they have been rising in the last week or so.

Mary Magdalene...why it could play:  First it's from The Weinstein Company.  I am on record saying that I thought that TWC would return this year to TFF.  I had been working on the assumption that The Current War was the most likely vehicle for that to occur but we found out last week that Current War will debut at Toronto leaving Mary Magdalene as TWC's only real prospect for fests

Second, the timing is right...the film is set for a Nov. 24th release date.  Carol opened Nov. 20th in 2015, The Imitation Game Nov. 28th in 2014, The Artist on Nov. 25, 2011  There's a track record that suggests the path starts at Telluride.

Third, reportedly star Rooney Mara has enjoyed her Telluride experiences these past two years with Carol in 2015 and Una in 2016 (BTW, Una has finally been dated for release this past week.  The film will open on Oct. 6th) and it can't hurt if your star does like the fest.

As for The Death and Life of John  F. Donovan, I haven't paid much attention because it has been ambiguously dated for 2018.  I have been assuming that it would probably debut at Berlin or Cannes. That got a jolt this last week as a Vanity Fair story about writer/director Xavier Dolan claims that he's working on the final edit to have it ready for fall film fests:

Additionally, the film has seen recent releases of character posters:

When you start seeing posters, teasers, trailers at this time of year you begin to think that involvement in a fest is a real possibility.

Also, Dolan has been a Telluride guest before in 2014 with Mommy.

So, chalk John F. Donovan in as an increased possibility for Telluride.  The complete Vanity Fair article is here.

There's your Friday...more can be had on Monday.  Have a fantastic weekend.

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Some Business /The Distributors: Open Road Films / Images Tease

Good Tuesday Film Fans.


SOME BUSINESS

Just a quick piece of business here.  Recently I posted a story that upset members of the Telluride Film Festival management.  I was informed of this privately via email and responded accordingly.  In hindsight, the choice to have published the story was unwise.

As a part of my response I privately apologized to members of the Telluride staff.  Now, after allowing some time to pass, I also wanted to apologize publicly and in this space to underscore the sincerity of my remorse.

Now, on to today's regularly scheduled post.


THE DISTRIBUTORS: OPEN ROAD FILMS

Open Road Films has had a short but notable presence in Telluride in just the last few years.  The company first began business in 2011.  In 2014 they brought their first film to Telluride by landing Jon Stewart's directing debut Rosewater.  They followed that in 2015 with Tom McCarthy's Spotlight which won the Best Picture Oscar along with another for original screenplay for McCarthy and Josh Singer.  The film also had four other nominations.

In 2016 Open Road was represented at Telluride by Ben Younger's Bleed for This.

So, three straight years with a film each year at TFF makes you think there is a very good chance that an Open Road film will make the TFF #44 lineup.

Reviewing their catalogue, it seems that four films could fit into a Labor Day schedule:

Marshall, Home Again, LAbyrinth and Finding Steve McQueen.

Of these, Marshall seems to be the most likely choice.  I had the film's first trailer posted here last week.  It's scheduled for release on  Oct. 13th, right in the thick of prime release territory if you have an eye on awards season.  It's focus on a case from the early career of eventual Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall seems like material that could be a contender.  Give it a 50% chance to play T-ride.

The other three possibilities have a variety of issues that argue against their inclusion in The SHOW.

Home Again stars Reese Witherspoon (directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyre) but its Sept. 8th releases date, though a few days after Telluride's completion, suggests it's unlikely.  It is worth noting, however, that Sully actually followed that exact path last year opening on Sept. 9, 2016.  Chances: 20%.

LAbyrinth directed by Brad Furman and starring Johnny Depp and Forest Whitaker in a long gestating project about the investigation into the deaths of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.  The film is listed by IMDb as being in post-production since February but it doesn't have a release date beyond the generic 2017.  Chances: 15%.

Finding Steve McQueen:  Directed by Mark Stephen Johnson is listed as being in post-production since last October and feels like a light weight genre piece.  Chances: 15%.



IMAGES TEASE

 I ran across a couple of images over the past few days from two projects that may pique the interest of Telluride watchers.

I commented not long ago that Amazon Studios decision to date Woody Allen's latest film, Wonder Wheel, for Dec.1st might mean that we need to take it seriously as a possible Telluride choice.

Last week, our first image of Kate Winslet in that film emerged via Twitter.  Here she is:

In the same vein, we got a glimpse this week of Jessica Chastain on a poster for Xavier Dolan's The Death and Life of John F. Donovan:

Donovan is expected in 2018.

That's your post for Tuesday.

There's your MTFB for Monday, June 26, 2017.  More tomorrow...

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