Showing posts with label Untitled Noah Baumbach Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Untitled Noah Baumbach Project. Show all posts

Monday, July 15, 2019

Little Women May Be Off the Table / Hollywood Elsewhere Clues? / Looking Back to Look Forward

Welcome back from the weekend...


LITTLE WOMEN MAY BE OFF THE TABLE



I was listening to Indiewire's Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson's ScreenTalk podcast this weekend (they posted it last Friday) as they had teased some discussion of fall films and they do, in fact, talk about the films that they're hearing will be involved in festivals.  The most interesting comment comes from Thompson who suggested that Greta Gerwig's Little Women isn't likely to play any of the festivals.  The pronouncement isn't necessarily definitive but Anne Thompson is going to know more about these things than I am.

If the film doesn't play then that disappoints as I am genuinely curious to see what Gerwig and her crew do with the classic tale.  I have had Little Women on all three of this summer's Ten Bets with it at the #4 spot last Friday but you can expect that will be different when this Friday's Ten Bets goes up.

Among the films listed by Thompson and Kohn that they say are expected to play at some of the fall fests are: Motherless Brooklyn, A Hidden Life, The Report (after its debut at Sundance), A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Lighthouse, Pain and Glory and Jojo Rabbit.

The complete ScreenTalk Podcast is linked here.



HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE CLUES?



Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere had a couple of posts Friday and Saturday that, if nothing else, are interesting from a TFF speculative standpoint.

The first post on Friday talked about the Indiewire podcast that I have referenced above.  Wells suggests that he hasn't heard the same notion about Little Women.

Additionally, at the end of that post he rattles a list of films he calls "fall hotties" which include: The Irishman, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Motherless Brooklyn, Fair and Balanced, Harriet, The Last Thing He Wanted, The Laundromat, Torrance, Blackbird, Judy and The Aeronauts.

That post is linked here.

The following day (Saturday) Wells posts a continuation on his meditation entitled "If Wanting These Films to Play Telluride Is Wrong...".   Wells had received a response from someone he refers to as a "friend" suggested that NONE of the films that Wells had listed as his "fall hotties" would play TFF.

If true, that would nuke some titles that I have been thinking could/would be TFF bound most notably Motherless Brooklyn, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Judy.

Wells takes exception to the blanket characterization but who knows?

Further, Wells' source suggests that Netflix will probably have a couple of films at Telluride that Wells doesn't include on his "fall hotties" list.  By process of elimination the likely films would be Fernando Meirelles The Pope and the still untitled Noah Baumbach project.

Wells' Saturday post is linked here.



LOOKING BACK TO LOOK FORWARD



I have been spooking around my "Future Telluride" file lately.  That's the folder where I save articles about films when they're announced that feel like something I should keep an eye on as potential Telluride players in their future.

For hoots, this morning I took a quick inventory of films that I have in their that seem to be actively possible for TFF #46.  The earliest entry I have in there of a film that might make this year's SHOW is Lucy in the Sky which I put in the folder in May of 2015.

Others in chronological order:

The Irishman
Ad Astra
The Goldfinch
The Glorias: A Life on the Road
Judy
Ema
Bergman Island
Just Mercy
Harriet
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Falling
Blackbird
The Good Liar
Molly
1917
Untitled Todd Haynes Project (Dark Water/Dry Run?)
John Prine: Hello In There
Nomadland
Varda by Agnes
Light of My Life


It'll be fun to see if any and/or how many of these titles actually get announced in a few eeeks for Telluride.


That's the story for this Monday.  I'll have more tomorrow.

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

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Monday, July 1, 2019

The Distributors 2019: Many a Firm Part Two / Deadline Looks at Venice / Telluride and Oscar Part One: Best Picture / Forman v. Forman Trailer

Welcome back from the weekend and to July 2019!


THE DISTRIBUTORS 2019: MANY A FIRM PART TWO:

Today looking at the chances for two films from two different distribution companies: A24 and Annapurna

-A24



After s strong build over five years from 2012-2016. 2017 seemed like a real breakout year for A24 with three films making he TFF lineup.  But the relatively new firm didn't place a film at the fest in 2018.  Here's the history:

2018: No SHOW
2017: Lean on Pete, First Reformed, Lady Bird
2016: Moonlight
2015: Room
2014:  No SHOW
2013: Under the Skin
2012: Ginger and Rosa

Now with the 46th edition of the Telluride Film Festival fast approaching, A24 finds itself in much the same situation as last year when Jonah Hill's Mid 90's seemed their only possible play.  This year A24 looks to have only Robert Eggers" The Lighthouse as a possible TFF contender.

As of right now though, I'm feeling fairly bullish on the film's chances especially in light of its very strong positive critical reaction from Cannes.  Reini Urban's collective Cannes critical response had it at #2 among the entire fest's films trailing only Bong Joon-ho's Palme d'Or winning Parasite.

Meanwhile...

-ANNAPURNA



Annapurna's connection to Telluride in its short tenure has been as a producer of films as opposed to a distributor, which is a fairly recent development for the firm.  TFF films as a production/distribution company include: Destroyer (2018) and Foxcatcher (2014).  As with A24, it feels like Annapurna has a single film that could possibly make TFF #46.

Up until this weekend it was references as the Untitled Miranda July project but as of this past weekend is now called Kijillionaire.  Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins star in a crime drama. Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner's Plan B  (12 Years a Slave, Moonlight) is also producing which doesn't hurt the film's TFF profile.

The chances for each of these films...

The Lighthouse-55%
Kijillionaire-40%



DEADLINE LOOKS AT  VENICE (and a little at Telluride)



Deadline writers Nancy Tartaglione and Andreas Wiseman posted a piece last week speculating about what films...especially awards season films...might find their way to the Venice Film Fest.  We probably need to pay heed.

The Venice-Telluride connection has become very solid in recent years.  Last year the two fests shared a total of nine films: First Man, Graves Without a Name, Non-Fiction, Peterloo, Roma, The Favourite, The Great Buster, The Other Side of the Wind and They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.

Though the changing interactions of film fests and streamers like Netflix and Amazon may alter that symbiosis, I expect we’ll see another substantial connection between the two fests’ lineups again this year.  Consequently, the programming and scheduling for Venice is valuable for TFF clues.

So back to the Deadline story...

Among the films that they suggest have a shot at the Lido are:

Joker
Untitled Noah Baumbach Project- which gets a specific Telluride mention in the article
Against All Enemies
The Aeronauts
Ad Astra
Ford v. Ferrari
The Pope
The King
The Last Thing He Wanted
The Laundromat
Bad Education (which also gets a specific Telluride mention)
Judy
Jojo Rabbit
Ema

Also mentioned are Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman both of which are unlikely for Telluride for very different reasons.

The complete Deadline article is linked here.

Venice is set to announce its lineup on July 25th.


TELLURIDE AND OSCAR PART ONE: BEST PICTURE



I spent nearly a year working on my Telluride Film Festival history project in 2017-18.  You can see the links for that at the top of this page.

Now, I’ve decided to dive into the relationship between TFF and the Oscars.

Regular readers know that when the fest concludes each year that I devote the blog to following the awards season with emphasis on the films that played at the festival.  Then, once Oscar is done, I return to the primary reason that I started writing this thing back in 2008 which is the attempt to divine the films that will make up the program for The SHOW.

In the course of the “Oscar” portion of the year I have written a lot about how T-ride has been a huge factor in the Best Picture race.  You can’t escape the fest’s track record over the past decade plus.  Green Book’s win last year notwithstanding, I suspect Telluride’s presence in the Best Picture category will continue for the foreseeable future.

Recently, I decided to take a look back at Telluride’s place in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race.  I knew on a surface level that the connection had been substantial but I wanted to quantify it.  So I did the homework and put that story up back on June 10th.

After I finished the work on that post, I got to thinking that a bigger look at the Telluride-Oscar connection might be interesting...fun...worth the time.

So, I decided to expand the field and look at how Telluride films have fared in the other seven major Oscar categories: Direction, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay.

I’ll be rolling these out over the next couple of weeks and by way of introducing the collection, here’s a reminder of all the films that have been nominated for Best Picture that played Telluride since 2005 (with winners denoted with ***):

2005: Brokeback Mountain, Capote
2006: Babel
2007: Juno, There Will Be Blood (I always count this and Benjamin Button even though we only saw a portion of each film in tributes to Daniel Day Lewis and David Fincher)
2008: Slumdog Millionaire***, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2009: (first year of expanded field of nominees): An Education, Up in the Air
2010: The King’s Speech***, 127 Hours, Black Swan
2011: The Artist***, The Descendants
2012: Argo***, Amour
2013: 12 Years a Slave***, Gravity,  Nebraska
2014: Birdman***, The Imitation Game
2015: Spotlight***, Room
2016: Moonlight***, Arrival, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea
2017: The Shape of Water***, Darkest Hour, Lady Bird
2018: The Favourite, Roma

In the 14 years included here 32 TFF films were nominated for Best Picture with nine of them winning Oscar’s highest honor including the incredible eight straight year run from 2010-2017.

The first TFF film to earn a nomination for Best Picture was Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation in 1974, the very first Telluride Film Festival.  The second wouldn't happen until 1989 with Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot.

Tomorrow, a look at Best Director candidates from TFFs past.



FORMAN VS. FORMAN TRAILER



The Karlovy Vary Fest is ongoing as I write and one of the docs screening there that has caught my eye as a potential TFF selection is Jakub Henja and Helena Trestikova’s Forman vs. Forman focusing on the life and career of the late, great Milos Forman.

With its screening at the Czech fest, the producers have released a trailer which I have included here from YouTube:



That's your first July MTFB.  More to come tomorrow...


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

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