Invitation/Wells Says/Ten More That Could Play

Good Thursday to Everybody...8 Days...(7 til the bus leaves the Oklahoma Panhandle!)...

INVITATION

Please consider yourself officially invited to a brief "meet and greet and discussion of film" as The River Club kindly presents my "Second Annual(?) Guide to the 'Ride; Flow of the SHOW".  Refreshments, re-acquaintances, new acquaintances all at 5:00 pm at The River Club at 550 Depot in Telluride.  Should be fun.



WELLS SAYS...

I make no secret that I'm an amateur when it comes to this whole film blog universe and am not in the same league as a good number of other folks who really do play the game in a serious fashion.  One of those is Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere.  Mr. Wells will be attending Telluride and usually does and clearly he has sources...so when he drops some T-ride info...best pay attention.  And he did yesterday as I was kindly alerted by Film Blather's Eugene Novikov, Mr. Wells seems to nail down some of the Telluride lineup.  He says, cryptically, that we'll see Ben Affleck's "Argo", Roger Michell's "Hyde Park on Hudson", Noah Baumbach's "Frances Ha", Ken Burns "Central Park Five" and Jacques Audiard's "Rust and Bone".  He implies we're also likely to see Terrence Malick's "To the Wonder".  And he mentions Robert Lorenz's "Trouble with the Curve" in such a way that I can't tell if he's debunking the thought that it will be there...or implying that it will obviously be there.  Mr. Novikov thinks it's likely the former...

Check the whole entry here:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/08/loose_talk_1.php

"Rust", "Hyde Park" and "Central Park Five" are on this week's "Ten Bets".  The rest have been or will be on this week's progressive "Thirty That Could Play" list that concludes with the final 10 today.  See below...

Frankly, the big surprise, to me anyway, would be the Malick...but it would be on my short list of films to catch at the festival if Wells is right.

Also, I have to admit that I had become pretty convinced that "Trouble with the Curve" was happening...but as I said, Wells sentence structure and emphasis make me uncertain as to what he's really saying...


TEN (OF THIRTY) THAT COULD PLAY

I've spent the week outlining 30 films in addition to this week's "Ten Bets" that could find their way onto screens in Telluride next week and assigning a percentage of chance to each one.  In all honesty, the Wells blurb yesterday has altered how I have written this final installment.  Here are 10 more that could play:

"The Impossible" trailer

"The Impossible" from Juan Antonio Bayona...the film focuses on the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia and the true story of one family.  Ewna MacGregor and Naomi Watts star and attention to it has risen very rapidly over the last 2-3 weeks.  Chances-50%

"To the Wonder" from Terrence Malick.  The master has turned around a film just months after "The Tree of Life" which for Malick is historically unprecedented.  It's reportedly a love story set in part in Europe and Oklahoma...and shot to some extent here in the Sooner State.  To be truthful, I have been low balling any chance that it would be in Telluride...until the Wells post yesterday (and credit where due, InContention/HitFix's Kris Tapley said he thought it was a "possible"..so...Chances-60%.

"Yellow" from Nick Cassavettes...also shot partly in Oklahoma, I've thought it might be Telluride material from the first moment I heard about it...still think it could be.  Chances-50%

"Frances Ha" from Noah Baumbach.  Baumbach has played Telluride before and though I recently put this film on my radar, still thought its chances were small...again, the Wells post makes me reconsider.  Chances-60%.

Trailer for "Quartet"

"Quartet" from first time director Dustin Hoffman...mostly on my radar as it's from The Weinstein Company...Hoffman directing an adaptation of a Roland Harwood play...Chances-25%

"At Any Price" from Ramin Bahrani and starring Dennis Quaid, Zac Efron and Heather Graham in an agricultural family drama.  Decent buzz and Tapley's inclusion as a "probable" makes it one to consider.  Chances-40%.

"Passion" from Brian DePalma.  A lot of people think this is going to make the cut and play at Telluride next week so I have to take it seriously, but I have to say I've been dubious about its chances all summer.  Chances-40%

Trailer for "The Sessions"

"The Sessions" from Ben Lewin starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt.  This Sundance hit is one of two films that really hit a nerve from that festival (the other being "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "Beasts is in release).  I've been campaigning in my own tiny way for its inclusion at Telluride despite the fact that it preemed in Utah.  Its distributor, Fox Searchlight reportedly wanted it to play Telluride, so my hope is that sentiment (and a lean Fox Search cupboard) makes that a reality.  Chances-45%

"Great Expectations"  Mike Newell with the latest adaptation of the Dickens classic with Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter.  Tapley says its a "maybe".  I'm not that optimistic.  Chances-30%

"Ernest and Celestine"  It's French...it's animated...I'll bet it plays.  Chances-55%
 

And beyond these 40 films there are still others that could (and will) play...for example: "The Company You Keep", "A Late Quartet", "Arthur Newman", "Dangerous Liaisons", "Caesar Must Die" (look out for this one), "Everybody Has a Plan", "The Gatekeepers" (also this), "In the Fog", "Laurence Anyways", "Love is All You Need", "Much Ado About Nothing", "The Place Beyond the Pines", "Populaire", "Post Tenebras Lux", "Room 237", "Seven Psychopaths" and "The We and the I".

THE SESSIONS

Hollywood News makes noise about the Sundance hit and my wish list #2 film for Telluride as it preps to go to Toronto. 
http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2012/08/22/the-sessions-gets-an-official-poster-toronto-2012/


BEYOND THE HILLS

Christian Munigu's follow up to his Cannes Palme D'or winning "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days" is sitting at #10 on this week's "Ten Bets".  The writer/director recently talked to Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood about the Telluride possible film:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/cannes-interview-cristian-mungiu-talks-beyond-the-hills

More later...

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Tapley's Take/Master not Fantastic/Trouble Poster/Coming Attractions

Good Friday All from Las Vegas!


TAPLEY'S TAKE

Incontention/HitFix's Kris Tapley is already on record with some Telluride guessing but last night he tweeted two very specific lists in regard to the festival which is a mere three weeks away at this point.

Tweet #1:"Probables" for Telluride:

Probablies for Telluride: Argo, At Any Price, Hyde Park on Hudson, Passion, Rust and Bone, Silver Linings Playbook, Trouble with the Curve.

Tweet #2:  And "Maybes"

Maybes for Telluride: Amour, Great Expectations, Killing Them Softly, The Master, No, Smashed, To the Wonder



First to the "probablies"...Yes Please..."Hyde Park", "Rust and Bone",  have been solidly on the "Ten Bets" list all summer.  "Silver Linings" has flirted with making that list.  "Argo" has been more of a wish than a likelihood.  

As to "Trouble with the Curve", Tapley said a few weeks back he had a hunch about it and he clearly still feels strongly...Eastwood in town?  It would be cool.  

And DePalma's "Passion" wouldn't be a shocker..."Redacted" showed up as a 'sneak" back in 2006...so it's possible.

Then there are his "maybes":  I'm for any scintilla of a chance that "The Master" makes it to the San Juans.  I have also been bullish that "Amour" and "No" will make the trip to T-ride and continue to be.

I think the other "maybes"  are less likely, although I'd be primed for "Killing Them Softly" and Malick's "To the Wonder" and you could certainly make the case that Ben Affleck might show in support of both his "Argo" and the Malick film especially if Mrs. Affleck (Jennifer Garner) went home from last year's fest and raved about it...


MASTER NOT FANTASTIC

"The announcement came yesterday that Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" will NOT play as a part of Fantastic Fest but will play in Austin at the Alamo Drafthouse as a part of a 70mm series of films.  IndieWire has the story here:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/the-master-will-screen-in-70mm-as-part-of-alamo-drafthouse-series-70mm-at-the-ritz

I'm not sure that this really means anything in terms of telling us about its Telluride chances...but let's chose to believe that it makes it more likely.


TROUBLE POSTER


Robert Lorenz's "Trouble with Curve" starring Clint Eastwood (and now a hot Telluride possibility per Mr. Tapley) has a poster.   It looks like this:

Via Rope of Silicon

Here's the post from Rope of Silicon:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/new-posters-skyfall-character-posters-trouble-with-the-curve-and-red-dawn/ 

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Updating casting news for Jon Wells "August Osage County":

The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/margo-martindale-joins-cast-august-osage-county-50321

The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com/deal-central/column-post/chris-cooper-talks-join-meryl-streep-august-osage-county-47016

The Playlist: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/abigail-breslin-juliette-lewis-join-august-osage-county-with-julia-roberts-meryl-streep-20120720

The Playlist: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/andrea-riseborough-to-join-meryl-streep-julia-roberts-in-august-osage-county-20120706



More later....actually from Telluride...I'll be there tonight!

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Another Venice Title?/To the Wonder/Oscar Changes/Coming Attractions

Good Friday Everyone...


YOU'RE INVITED

To the Second "Guide to the Ride, Flow of the Show" at 5PM on Friday, Aug. 31 at The River Club (550 Depot) in Telluride.  We'll talk about the festival and film and have a refreshment or two!


ANOTHER VENICE TITLE

For those who may have missed it in all the flurry of activity surrounding the announcement of the film lineup for the 69th Venice Film Festival yesterday there was a brief note later in the day that one further title would be added to the competition lineup in the next few days.

After the initial announcement, there was , understandably, widespread reporting that Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" was not to be found on the Venice list.  But it seems that assumption may have been premature.  Most of the speculation late yesterday is that "The Master" will be the late addition to the lineup.

Joaquin Phoenix in "The Master"

There still remains some thought that Telluride is in the mix to show the film as well.  New York and Fantastic Fest are also in the thick of the rumor mill....and Fantastic Fest seems all but certain at this point.


TO THE WONDER

I have posted very little about Terrence Malick's follow up to last year's "The Tree of Life" largely because I stalked "Tree" last year and it ultimately was a fool's errand.  Now we have seen the film named for both Toronto and Venice this week and there are some who think that it may well hit Telluride as well, though I remain mostly dubious.  Nevertheless, I am passing along a link to a Playlist story that looks at what is known about the film...and who knows...maybe it does make an appearance in the Rockies on Labor Day weekend.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/a-study-of-faith-love-what-the-title-means-emerges-in-new-plot-details-for-terrence-malicks-to-the-wonder-20120724


OSCAR RULES CHANGES

Some alterations from The Academy about Oscar campaigning are detailed both by Anne Thompson and by The Hollywood Reporter...

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/academy-tightens-some-oscar-campaign-rules-allows-more-direct-marketing-to-members

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-campaign-rules-academy-restrictions-email-354459


COMING ATTRACTIONS

Lee Daniels had a major success with "Precious" but if reports are to be believed may have a clunker on his hands with his Cannes film "The Paperboy"  News now of his third film and the casting of Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower in "Th Butler".  Perhaps it will be the antidote to the less than stellar reception "The Paperboy" has received thus far.

Reports from Deadline.Com, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/robin-williams-butler-angriest-man-in-brooklyn/

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/robin-williams-play-eisenhower-lee-daniels-butler-48361

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-movies-dwight-eisenhower-351330


More later...


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Venetian News/Best of the Week

Good Saturday to All!


VENETIAN NEWS

Venice Film Festival stories have burst onto the web the last 24 hours and they may tell us some things about our appointment with film in Telluride in 7 weeks.

First...the jury.  Venice's jury was announced yesterday and you can get the entire scope here from The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/venice-film-festival-jury-matteo-garrone-349032

The Telluride-centirc news here is that Matteo Garrone and Pablo Trapero are both jurors and I'm concluding that that means that their films are very likely off the table for Telluride.  For Garrone and his Cannes prize winning "Reality" that's a fairly big conclusion.  "Reality's" Telluride profile was substantial: Cannes, past T-ride connection ("Gomorrah").  I had also had Trapero's "Elefante Blanco" (White Elephant) as a T-ride possible...but both films now go off of consideration.

Second, The Playlist reports this morning that Italian newspaper La Republica is saying they have the lowdown on the Venice lineup...which, if true, might narrow the Telluride field somewhat.  Regular readers of this space know that there is usually a 2-4 film overlap between Venice and T-ride so an actual list of what's playing in Italy would give us some clues about what could be in and what could be out.

The Playlist report says that high profile pics "The Master", "To the Wonder", "The Place Beyond the Pines" and "All You Need is Love" are all going to be at Venice.  Also mentioned "Anna Karenina", "Something in the Air" and  "The Company you Keep".

Check the entire story here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/italian-press-report-malicks-to-the-wonder-pta-s-the-master-anna-karenina-more-in-venice-line-up-20120714

I might point out that The Playlist does admit some skepticism...and with good reason and flat out says that "The Master" may forgo festivals altogether.


Meanwhile, third, Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere posted his musings about Telluride, Venice, Toronto and New York.  Most electrifying in that post was this:

"I don't think anyone on my level is going to have anything figured out until early August, but let's do some guessing. Not about Toronto, which is Walmart, but Telluride and New York. I can never figure out Venice.

Argo, The Master, To The Wonder, No, Cloud Atlas, On The Road, The Silver Linings Playbook, Amour, Killing Them Softly, The Place Beyond The Pines, Only God Forgives, All You Need Is Love...probably all of these. 12 in all. Venice, NY, Telluride...all over."

Look at that list and begin to salivate my friends.  I hope he's somewhere close to correct AND that Telluride lands a majority of these.

Here's the full post from Wells:

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/07/telluride_venic_1.php

If you read the comments, you'll see "Gort2" included there as well as good back and forth about whether "To the Wonder" will or won't be in Venice.

BEST OF THE WEEK

Here's a collection of some of the best parts of my posts from this week...

THIS WEEK'S TEN BETS:

1) Amour

2) Rust and Bone

3) Beyond the Hills

4) Hyde Park on Hudson

5) Something in the Air

6) No

7) Song for Marion

8) On the Road

9) The Central Park Five

10) Serge Bromberg's Charlie Chaplin Project

DAVE EGGERS IS YOUR POSTER ARTIST

Per this release from the Telluride Film Festival Press Office:

TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL SELECTS DAVE EGGERS

AS ITS 2012 FESTIVAL POSTER ARTIST

July 9, 2012

BERKELEY, CA – Telluride Film Festival (August 31 – September 3, 2012), presented by National Film Preserve LTD., proudly announces it has selected American writer, editor, publisher and philanthropist Dave Eggers as its 39th Telluride Film Festival poster artist.

Eggers will attend the 39^th Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend to present his poster design to the public and hold a poster signing for festival guests. A special reception will also be held to honor Eggers, sponsored by the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television.

Dave Eggers began working as a freelance graphic designer out of college and then moved in to writing and editing at Salon.com. He founded Mightmagazine while also writing a comic strip for SF Weekly. He is the best-selling author of numerous books including his first work, a lightly fictionalized memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000), a national bestseller and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. You Shall Know Our Velocity (2002) was Eggers’ first published novel; an expanded and revised version was released as Sacrament in 2003. What is the What was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award and won France’s Prix Medici. In 2009, the Council on American-Islamic Relations presented Eggers with the “Courage In Media” Award for his book Zeitoun. Film director Jonathan Demme has optioned the book, which has also won the American Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Eggers co-wrote two screenplays in 2009: Away We Go and Where The Wild Things Are. His latest novel, A Hologram for the King, was released in 2012 to critical acclaim.

Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco built to help emerging and underappreciated writers find their voice. The publishing house produces a daily humor website and publishes Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, the Believer, Lucky Peach, Wholphin, Grantland Quarterly, and a growing selection of books under various imprints.

In 2002 Eggers co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for youth in the Mission District of San Francisco. The program offers free tutoring, English as a Second Language classes, writing workshops, summer camps, publications projects and other services to kids ages six to 18. Local communities have since opened sister 826 centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Ann Arbor, Seattle, Boston and Washington, DC.

A native of Chicago, Eggers now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children.

"Dave is well-known for his terrific literary works, but most people don’t know he was trained as a painter, and when he was starting out as a writer, he worked as an illustrator and graphic designer. The fact that he is a gifted visual artist is a bit of a secret we want to share with the world,” comments Julie Huntsinger, Telluride Film Festival co-director. “Dave is talented, big-hearted, smart and remarkably well-rounded. We’re overjoyed to have him join the Telluride Film Festival community as our poster artist this year. Our audiences will be delighted with the fresh take he has created for the artwork of TFF 39.

“I was thrilled to be asked to do the poster for this year’s Telluride Film Festival,” said Dave Eggers. “I decided to make the poster look a bit like the national parks posters from back in the day, and to go with a light, almost washed-out palette. That’s how I think of Colorado in the summer: sun-drenched and with incredible color combinations. From there, it just seemed appropriate to have a bear filming an elk.”

Dave Eggers joins a prestigious list of artists who have shared their talents with the Telluride Film Festival. Past poster artists include Ed Ruscha, John Mansfield, Julian Schnabel, Dottie Attie, Doug and Mike Starn, David Lance Goines, Chuck Jones, David Salle, Alexis Smith, Jim Dine, Seymour Chwast, Frederic Amat, Francesco Clemente, Dave McKean, Gary Larson, Chip Kidd, John Canemaker, Mark Stock, Laurie Anderson, William Wegman, Ralph Eggleston and Maira Kalman.

For more information and a complete list of Eggers work and accomplishments, visit: www.mcsweeneys.net

To download the 39th Telluride Film Festival poster art, visit: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9291181/TFF%2039%202012%20poster.pdf.zip

39th Telluride Film Festival posters will be available for purchase throughout the four-day Festival or by visiting the TFF website atwww.telluridefilmfestival.org.

39^th Telluride Film Festival passes are now available at www.telluridefilmfestival.org.

40^th Anniversary of the Telluride Film Festival

Next year Telluride Film Festival will be celebrating its 40^th Anniversary, scheduled for August 29 – September 2, 2013.  To commemorate this special occasion an additional day has been added to the usual four-day Festival, making room for a five-day bounty of special programming and festivities. Passes will be available for purchase beginning in March 2013.  

EGGERS AND TELLURIDE

The news release hit my email yesterday at 11:44 AM CDT.  I had a post up at 12:02 PM CDT.  The news from the Telluride Film Festival Press Office was that author Dave Eggers had been selected as the poster artist for TFF#39...and the poster was up and running...

I think I had the story up first anywhere on the web...by a ways...

The frustration, such as it was, when it came to re-tweeting/re-posting...nada...zip...zilch.  As the story rolled through the afternoon all of the movie blog type outlets you'd expect got it posted and it looks like Anne Thompson's "Thompson on Hollywood" got the majority of re-production.  Good for her.

I had hoped that the rapidity of getting their first would have reaped some more online love...not so much.

Nevertheless, there's an interesting side note to the Dave Eggers selection.  Eggers will obviously be in Telluride to schmooze and sign the poster and the press release says he will be honored by the UCLA film school in the course of the weekend's activities...but here's the intriguing thing...Dave Eggers also has film bona fides.  He was the screenwriter for 2009's "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Away We Go" (starring Jon Krasinski and Maya Rudolph.  His novel "Zeithoun" has reportedly been optioned by director Jonathan Demme and if you check his IMDb page you'll find that he has provided the "story" for "Promised Land".

"Promised Land"???  Wait.  Isn't that the Gus Van Sant directed (TFF in 1995-"Elephant" and 2003-"To Die For"), Matt Damon and Jon Krasinski co-written and co-starring film being distributed by frequent Telluride participant Focus Features that The Playlist has reported could well be ready for a fall film fest debut?  Here's The Playlist post:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/gus-van-sants-the-promised-land-could-hit-theaters-by-the-end-of-the-year-not-an-anti-fracking-movie-says-john-krasinski-20120618 

Yes to all...

So does that mean "Promised Land" is suddenly a lock for TFF #39?  No...but it does make me suspect it has a much better shot at being there than it seemed to have yesterday.

"Promised Land's" IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2091473/

AND...maybe there is a continuing connection with/to Maya Rudolph who shares three children with Paul Thomas Anderson who also happens to be directing a film with some buzz about it.  You know..."The Master".

Last year my grand conspiracy theory was that George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon might all three show up in Telluride and have an "Oceans" movie reunion while their respective films ("Descendants", "Ides of March, "Moneyball", and "We Bought a Zoo") all played...

O'TOOLE BIDS FAREWELL

News yesterday via an announcement that I believe originally appeared at Playbill.com that legendary actor Peter O'Toole has chosen to retire from the profession.  O'Toole was a 2002 Tributee at Telluride and the last of his 8 Oscar nominations was for "Venus" which appeared in 2006 at TFF #33.  O'Toole's 8 nominations without a win is reportedly the longest streak of acting noms without a win in the history f the Academy.

O'Toole was also nominated for:

1983: My Favorite Year

1981: The Stunt Man

1973: The Ruling Class

1970: Goodbye Mr. Chips

1969: The Lion in Winter

1965: Becket

1963: Lawrence of Arabia

O'Toole was interviewed by Roger Ebert in Telluride in 2002 as a part of the Tribute ceremony and Ebert tweeted the link to that story yesterday.  Here it is:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020915/FILMFESTIVALS03/99010308

O'Toole's IMDb page is here:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000564/

Personally, I am partial to his performances in "My Favorite Year" and "The Lion in Winter".

I'M BACK

Confirmation came yesterday afternoon that I/The Blog have been accredited as an honest to God "journalist" for the 39th Telluride Film Festival.  This is my second year to get the yellow lanyard that comes with accreditation.

This year I was able to get confirmation a full month earlier than last year.  It will be interesting to see if that makes some difference.  I felt like last year that I might have missed out on some material from the fest and from distributors because of the late accreditation.

Also,last year,  there were no party invites...so maybe that changes this year.  Fingers crossed!

Have a good weekend, Everyone!

More later...


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