Werner's New Gig/A Separation Hero?/Shame Has a Date/Le Havre on the Web/Close Honored/Not Really Telluride Related

Hope that everyone is having a good week and Good Morning on a Thursday.

WERNER MOONLIGHTING?

Word that Telluride regular and Board of Advisor member and TFF #38 presenter (Into the Abyss) Werner Herzog has a new gig.  He'll be acting.  With Tom Cruise.  As a villain.  Color me shocked?

Can't say that it's all that surprising.  Herzog has reportedly been cast in Chris McQuarrie's "One Shot" an adaptation of a Lee Child novel.

Anne Thompson(Thompson on Hollywood/indieWire) has the scoop:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2011/10/04/inspired_casting_werner_herzog_will_play_villain_across_tom_cruise_in_mcqua/

A SEPARATION HERO?

I met Asghar Farhadi, the writer-director of "A Separation"briefly at this year's fest and what a quiet and unassuming man he seemed to be.  That sentiment is echoed by Steven Zeitchik at The Envelope from the L.A. Times in a nice piece about the Iranian director and the film, which has continued on from Telluride and has picked up some steam along the way.  It is Iran's entry for consideration for this year's Foreign Language Oscar.

Zeitchik's profile is here:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/10/ashgar-panahi-iran-jafar-panahi-arrested-sentence-separation.html

SHAME HAS A DATE

Despite continuing concerns about its commercial viability, Steve McQueen's "Shame" now has a release date in the U.S. according to Fox Searchlight, which is distributing the film.  I still maintain that it was the Best Film of TFF #38 and that Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan deserve Oscar noms for their performances.  Details of "Shame's" release can be found via The Playlist (indieWire) here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/2011/10/04/michael_fassbenders_penis_will_get_released_on_december_2nd_in_shame/

Further details are from Inside Pulse here:
http://insidepulse.com/2011/10/05/fox-searchlight-dates-steve-mcqueens-festival-hit-shame/

LE HAVRE ON THE WEB

Janus Films has announced that it has an official website up and running for Finnish Oscar hopeful "Le Havre".  That can be found here:
http://www.janusfilms.com/lehavre/


CLOSE HONORED

"Albert Nobbs" star and likely Oscar nominee for Best Actress Glenn Close will be honored for her lifetime of work by The Hollywood Film Festival.  The Hollywood Reporter has the details:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/glenn-close-receive-career-achievement-242976


NOT RELATED TO TELLURIDE BUT I FIND IT INTERESTING

Two trailers for films that didn't play at Telluride but figure to be strong players in the Oscar race.
First for Stephen Daldry's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close".  I read the novel and thought parts were beautiful, parts were "precious" and some parts were derivative.  That said, the trailer looks ...well...great...Details and a link to the trailer from Get the Big Picture here:
http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog/2011/9/30/extremely-loud-incredibly-close-trailer.html

And the new trailer for Steven Spielberg's "War Horse":
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/warhorse/

And finally, I am now breathlessly awaiting this...The Coen Brothers do T.V.  Oh my.  Looking forward to "HarveKarbo"  News and details from The Playlist (indieWire) here;
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/joel_ethan_coen_team_with_cedar_rapids_writer_phil_johnston_for_fox_tv_show/

And also from HitFix here:
http://www.hitfix.com/articles/coen-bros-will-quirk-up-tv-landscape-with-new-comedy-series


Check back on Monday!

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
@Gort2

Oscar Calculations/A Separation in New York/War Horse News

Good Thursday morning!

OSCAR CALCULATIONS

Although the prediction game is still in its early stages, some of the expected choices in the major categories seem to already be solidifying.  This week saw a new Gurus of Gold chart from Movie City News for Picture, Actor and Actress.  Gurus features, among others, the collective wisdom of Pete Hammond, Dave Karger, Kris Tapley, Anne Thompson and Sasha Stone plus 8 others.  Among the films and talent on their charts, in the Best Pic category: "The Descendants", "The Artist" at #1 and #3 respectively. Also getting a little heat "Shame" and "A Dangerous Method".

In the Best Actress category: Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) is at #3.Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) is at #8 and Keira Knightley (Dangerous Method) is at #10.

The Best Actor category has George Clooney (Descendants) at #1, Jean Dujardin (Artist) at #2 and Michael Fassbender (Shame) at #6.

The complete Gurus of Gold chart can be seen here:
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/09/gurus-o-gold-post-tiff-2011/

Meanwhile, Greg Ellwood at HitFix (who also appears as a "Guru") put together a piece this week on where he sees those same three races.  In the BP category he puts Descendants at #3 and "The Artist" at #7. 
For Actress, he has Close at #6 and in the Actor category he has Clooney at #1, Dujardin at #3 and Fassbender at #4.  His complete article is here:
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/awards-campaign/posts/contender-countdown-the-wait-for-war-horse

Finally, a very interesting conversation about any number of facets of this year's Oscar race can be found at the Oscar Roundtable at Awards Daily that is up this week.  Look for it here:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/2011/09/oscar-roundtable-2011-take-one/

A SEPARATION IN NEW YORK

Jeff Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere caught a screening of the Iranian entry for Best Foreign Language Picture, "A Separation" in NYC again this week.  Regular readers know that I have been very high on this film since seeing it in Telluride earlier this month.  Check out Wells' story here:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2011/09/continuing_sepa.php


WAR HORSE

OK, it's not a Telluride film, but I am very curious about Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" which I would have listed at #1 if I were a Guru of Gold on the Best Picture chart.  Yesterday we heard a couple of pieces of news about the film.  First, that it's release date had been changed to Christmas Day and second, that it has an actual poster.  Here it is (thanks to Rope of Silicon):

                                                                                                                                                                              The ROS story is here:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/war-horse-poster-debuts

Tintin Trailer/Fassbender's Jump/Dreaming/Tree of Life

Good Morning Everyone from New Mexico!

We took down Kris' one woman exhibition yesterday in Taos, NM at the fantastic Trading Post Cafe and Gallery.  Eat there.  It's terrific and tell Kimberly hello.  Sounds like Kris will have the opportunity to return with another show in the future so she was very happy after to be invited back after having the series of food still lifes hanging there for 6 weeks.  Good day.

TINTIN TRAILER

This morning The Playlist posted a link to the teaser/trailer to the "other" Steven Spielberg film coming out later this year.  The unwieldy title is :"The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" which sounds kind of goofy.  The film uses motion capture animation and Peter (Lord of the Rings) Jackson is a producer.  The trailer looks very cool, however.  The link to the story and trailer is here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/watch_new_tintin_trailer_looks_like_the_indiana_jones_sequel_we_should_have/

The Tintin IMDb page is here:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2977741056/tt0983193

Now, I don't really think that there's any chance that this will play in Telluride's 38th edition of the SHOW...but it has dominated a lot of discussion about whether it meets the AMPAS standards for being an "animated" film. 

And it looked cooler than I though it would...

FASSBENDER IS FAST

I passed along the information last week that Michael Fassbender (who has a couple of films on the list that could play T-ride this year: "A Dangerous Method" and "Shame) had exited Danny Boyle's 2013 film project "Trance" and that Boyle was looking to snag last year's Telluride tributee and Best Actor Oscar winner Colin Firth for that role.  Now comes word, also via The Playlist, that Fassbender has moved into another commitment.  He's now expected to be in Brandon Gleeson's directorial debut entitled "At Swim-Two-Birds."  You gotta love the title.

The Playlist story is linked here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/michael_fassbender_joins_brendon_gleesons_at-swim-two-birds/

DREAM SLATE

So what films that DO have a chance at playing Telluride this year would make my "dream" slate of films?  What am I just really hoping will be there?

Three films that have excellent prospects to be a part of the fest that I am definitely looking forward to and that would be on that "dream list" are Alexander Payne's "The Descendants," Jason Reitman's "Young Adult" and Michael Hazanavicius' "The Artist".

Films whose prospects are sketchy that I would love to see on the SHOW list are: Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut of Shakespeare's rarely performed "Coriolanus," George Clooney's sophomore directing gig "The Ides of March"  and David Cronnenberg's "A Dangerous Method."

Then there are four big Oscar baity type films that have almost 0% chance to be in Telluride, but it would be cool if any of them made a bow there:

Leo DiCaprio on the set of "J. Edgar"

Eastwood's "J. Edgar"

Spielberg's "War Horse"
Scorsese's "Hugo"
and Stephen Daldry's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"

What about you?  What films are YOU looking forward to as we rush headlong into awards season?

TREE OF LIFE

Finally saw Terrence Malick's  Palme D'Or winner last night.  Still processing it.  My initial impression is that the Cannes jury was probably right.

Have a great Monday everyone!

War Horse Trailer/Film4/Not Forgotten

"War Horse" first look below

THE WAR HORSE TEASER TRAILER

I mentioned in this space earlier this week that, if pressed, I could make a case for Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" as a possibility for Telluride.  Admittedly, I think it's a weak case, that's why it isn't remotely close to the top ten most likely films that I posted earlier this week as well. 

Nonetheless, yesterday the first teaser trailer for the intriguing film leaked online and in an effort to be a full service blog (and also because it's gorgeous) and seriously going to be all in for Oscar time), here's the link to a YouTube version of that trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRf3SfeMRD4

Here is the "War Horse" IMDB page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568911/

ANOTHER FILM COMPANY TO EVALUATE

I've been spending some time this week looking at some of the film production/distribution companies that seem to always have a presence at the Telluride Film Festival as a prism for trying to lay odds about what films could unspool (what an archaic term in a world of digital projection!) in the San Juans.  today let's take a gander at British film company Film4.

Here are the films over the past few years that Film4 has had a hand in that have played at Telluride:
2007: "When Did You Last See your Father?" "Brick Lane" and "Happy-Go-Lucky"
2008: "Hunger" and "Slumdog Millionaire"
2009: No Film4 at TFF
2010: "127 Hours," "Another Year" and "Never Let Me Go"

Film4 has 4 films that I feel might have some designs on a Telluride appearance: "The Iron Lady," "On the Road," "Wuthering Heights" and "Shame."  Of these four, I'd say that the greatest chances are "Shame" and "Wuthering Heights" as both films have directors that have appeared previously and recently with films at Telluride; Steve McQueen (Shame) with "Hunger" in 2008 and Andrea Arnold (Wuthering Heights) in 2009 with "Fish Tank"  I think there's a slight chance that we might see "The Iron Lady" (Streep is a past Telluride tributee, so it's not impossible that she might return) and I have the highest odds against "On the Road" which hasn't much Telluride pedigree.

Which leads me to today's final segment...

NOT FORGOTTEN

"On the Road" is an example of a film that sounds like it should have a profile for Telluride, bit on closer inspection, doesn't have many connections or clues that suggest it would actually be a part of the program or a sneak.  As a matter of fact, it's Film4 connection gives it more of a leg up than these other films that we expect to see released before the end of the year and which seem like Film Fest bait, but have very little Telluride "tells":
"The Rum Diary" Johnny Depp as a Hunter S. Thompson-like character base on the book by Hunter S. Thompson.
"The Help" Big cast dealing with race and class issues set decades ago.
The aforementioned "On the Road."
and I've added "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" to this "unlikely" list.  I had listed it earlier as a possible TFF film but it's generally the kind of BIG movie that doesn't play Telluride.

So, could any of these be at Telluride?  Sure.  But I don't think it's likely.

Ten Bets/Diablo's Dream Deferred/War Horse???/12,000 Views

Any chance we'll see this at Telluride?

TEN BETS

The Telluride Film Festival's 38th edition starts in just a hair over 2 months (Sept. 2 to be exact) and I thought I'd take a whack today at a list of the ten films that I think have the most likelihood of playing as a part of the festival.  Then, over the next 8 weeks I'll try to update it each week and see how close we can actually get to the films that show at The SHOW.  In order of greatest likelihood (at least according to me):

1) The Descendants
2) The Artist
3) The Kid with a Bike
4) Young Adult
5) Le Havre
6) A Trip to the Moon
7) Gazing Into the Abyss
8) Dark Horse
9) We Have to Talk About Kevin
10) Shame

Check back next Monday and see if there are any changes.

DIABLO'S DREAM DEFERRED

Last week (June 20) I passed on the information that Oscar winning writer Diablo Cody dreamed of penning a screenplay based on the life of Beach Boy Brian Wilson.  Now, it seems she's been beaten to the punch.  News this week that River Road in the person of Bill Pohlad in addition to John Wells were going forward with the same idea with Oren Moverman  (The Messenger) to do the script.  You can find that story from The Wrap here:
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/river-road-make-brian-wilson-biopic-28538

Telluride chances for #39 or #40 would be pretty good as Pohlad has been a prime supporter of the Festival over the years. 

WAR HORSE AT TELLURIDE???

Made you look.  Seriously, I don't really think it's a likely candidate to show during Labor Day Weekend, but if I had to I could make a case for considering the possibility and here it is:
1) Wants to be Oscar Bait
2) But has no "names"  in the cast to speak of (biggest "name" is probably Emily Watson)...
3) Based on a play...with big horse puppets...no puppets in the movie, so it's dicey...
4) The Kennedy/Marshal Company is involved (no surprise, they often are involved in Spielberg's projects)
5) Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall are big supporters of the Telluride Film Festival
6) No other Festival buzz that I've tripped to...So...

Still, I'd be stunned if it's playing at The Chuck...


"MISSING PIECES"

Watched Kenton Bartlett's very personal film last night and am still mulling it over.  Review to come shortly...

12,000 VIEWS

Over the weekend this blog passed it's 12,000th view.  You can tell that TFF #38 is getting closer because my traffic is picking up...

Among items in tomorrow's blog...a focus on two companies and what they may have for The SHOW this year.